Author: laurenusa
Blog #16; Final Reflection
My final reflection of EDM 310!
Project 14
Project 14 was a collaborative project between myself (Lauren Navaroli), Ashley Mogler, & Jacqueline Moore. We were required to create a lesson plan for 1 week including an overview, a project calendar, and rubrics. This project is an extension of Project 13.
Individual Performance Project Rubric
This project covers ALEX social studies standard #14 for 9th grade “World History: 1500 to the Present”, which asks us to describe the causes and consequences of World War II. In our assignments for week #2, we dive deeper into these topics and require students to use critical thinking skills and collaboration to express what they have learned.
Project 13
Project 13 was a collaborative project between myself (Lauren Navaroli), Ashley Mogler, & Jacqueline Moore. We were required to create a lesson plan for 1 week including an overview, a project calendar, and rubrics.
Individual Performance Project Rubric
This project covers ALEX social studies standard #14 for 9th grade “World History: 1500 to the Present”, which asks us to describe the causes and consequences of World War II. In our assignments for week #1, we begin to touch upon these topics.
Project 12B: Smartboard Presentation
Teacher Interview: Discussing “Five Critical Education Issues That Need More Consideration”
Blog Post 12: Assistive Learning Devices for the Classroom
This assignment is a collaborative project including Jacqueline Moore, Ashley Mogler, & Lauren Navaroli.
Students with disabilities are in need of extra assistance in the classroom. Providing the proper amount of help for special needs students has become easier and more advance with today’s technology. A few products to aid hearing impaired or blind students include the FM amplifiers, talking calculators, and the iPad. each of these devices are unique, sufficient, and vital to our students with disabilities.
The Fm amplifier is an interesting device that eliminates background noise and transmits sounds directly to the students hearing aid. Handsandvoices.org provides this enlightening description:
“Consider the difficulties experienced by the student wearing hearing aids in a typical noisy school classroom. The FM system is a great answer to combating poor classroom acoustics and a teacher who might not project his/her voice loudly enough or who moves around the room, and who turns his/her back to the class to write on the blackboard. The teacher wears a small transmitter package and clips a miniature wireless microphone within six inches from his/her mouth. The student needs an FM receiver within the hearing aid(s) to pick up the teacher’s voice. The FM system minimizes the background noise because the microphone is so near the teacher’s mouth and, at the same time, amplifies the teacher’s voice above the background noise by several decibels (this is defined as an increased signal-to-noise ratio and the loudness of the signal over the noise level is expressed in dB).”
With the FM amplifier hearing the impaired students will not only be given the means to gain a better understanding of class curriculum, but they will gain a newfound self-confidence. This device will open our students eyes to what they are truly capable of.
Research on FM Amplifier by: Jacqueline Moore
An Assistive technology for teachers who teach the blind are talking calculators. These calculators don’t lose any of the normal functions. They have talking technologies added on to talk to the blind students. Things that are included on this calculator are: It has a memory for addition and subtraction. It has percentages and square roots and includes all the digits. The only addition to this calculator is the volume control for the students. This is great because then the student feels they can do it on their own like a regular student. Except they are being talk to instead of being seeing it. I love this technology because then the student isn’t being singled out. Blind Students can get the following talking calculators depending on usage: Big Button, Graphing, Braille on it.
Research on Talking Calculator by: Ashley Mogler
The iPad can be used in a variety of ways to assist the blind. One of the most helpful programs for the visually impaired on the iPad is called “Voice Over”. When a user touches the different parts of the iPad, the device will read off what is shown. This can be extremely helpful to those who may not have someone to help them everyday, or who want to stay connected technologically. It can also give people an additional source of entertainment, as Voice Over can read books and articles among other things. Additionally, the iPad adapts to simpler settings for ease of use. Users can select items with a series of clicks or different types of swipes. Many students today receive school owned iPads to use, and downloading this program for a visually impaired student would be a great tool for including all students in learning within the classroom.
Research on Ipad usage by: Lauren Navaroli
Project #12 (Part A): SMARTboard Presentation
Filmed by Nicole Moore and Ashley Mogler.
Blog Post 13 (Part 2): Complete the Assignment!
In the first video, “World History Exploration PBL“, I learned a lot from the student who spoke about the project based learning she was currently a part of. She honestly sounded like she was very knowledgeable about the topic her project was focusing on, and I think this speaks volumes for PBL. It seems to be in great support of real learning, and not pretending to learn to pass a test.
In the next video, “Oil Spill Newscast Lesson, 4th Grade, Social Studies“, I learned about how outside involvement can help make a great PBL assignment! Seeing videos before engaging in a new topic seems to really help students get excited about learning something new. I would love to try this when I am a history teacher. Before we begin discussion on a new segment, I could present my class with a short film about it. This could give them a great overview about what we will be diving into. I also love how the projects at this particular school had great administrative support. I hope that I will be able to have that backing in the future to help my students feel that drive to do well! Additionally, I think accessing where each kid is on a subject before diving in could be very beneficial!
The following video I watched was “The Civil War Project Based Learning“. One thing that I thought was great about the implementation of PBL in this classroom was the display of the students work! I personally would think that students would try to do a better job when they know that many people will be looking at their work. Giving them the freedom to choose their own topic within a subject is also awesome! This is something I would definitely consider doing! In this classroom, students also created collaborative blogs to share information with the other students in the class. This is important because it allows them to not only give each other feedback, but also to learn from each others projects.
Next, I watched “PBL for History at Lady Bird Johnson Middle School“. The creator of this video gives a break down of how to successfully use project based learning in the classroom. I really like the suggestion of the creation of driving questions. This can give the student a chance to really think about the subject and brainstorm. Ideally, this thought process would spark their curiosity. Again, I think that getting feedback from other students in essential. Often times, children are much more willing to listen to each other than to authoritative figures.
Finally, I read an article called “Constructing History in Our High School Project-Based Classroom” by Margaret Haviland. This is a hotbed of information, as well as tips and tools for history teachers and I highly recommend it to those going into this field! I love how she allows students to get insightful by having them pretend to take roles in historical events. Allowing them to use critical thinking by having them guess the ‘could haves’ and ‘would haves’ is very clever. I also believe that allowing students to find their own meaning instead of handing them all of the answers can truly prepare them for the real world. I plan to take much of her advice when I receive my own classroom.
Blog Post 13 (Part 1): Creating an assignment!
What can we learn from these videos and writings about ways to implement Project Based Learning within a social studies/history classroom? Which of these ideas do you see yourself using in your own classroom?
Watch World History Exploration PBL (1:50)
Watch Oil Spill Newscast Lesson, 4th Grade, Social Studies (5:29)
Watch The Civil War Project Based Learning (6:14)
Watch PBL for History at Lady Bird Johnson Middle School (4:49)
Read Constructing History in Our High School Project-Based Classroom
Answer the question in a post that adheres to the standards found in the ACCRS and in Writing A Quality Blog Post.
laurenusa 