Speadsheets in the Classroom

Since high school, I have had the opportunity to play with Excel. I usually used to make graphs and small charts. I only used the basic functions because I did not know any more about it. Excel is a complicated program that allows for one to many things. When I was practicing with the wedding planner spreadsheet, I learned that excel has simple functions that can make your life much easier.

I always thought of the program as mainly a business program,but this week, I looked at it from a teacher's point of view. How can I use this in my classroom? How can I integrate this program into my lessons? The first thing that came to mind was tying it to my unit plan about seasons. I decided I would use excel to make a seasons survey. I listed every student in my classroom and asked them to rank the seasons, 1 is the least favorite and 4 is the most favorite. The Excel program took the numbers and totaled each column. Because the program quickly found the sum, I was able to see which season was the most popular.

Though my program was created by the teacher, Excel is a program that can be used by students to create their own projects. This type of project could be used in an inquiry based project. For example, the teacher could show students the basic functions of of Excel, and then create guidelines for a project. Students then must solve a problem by adding functions. Students can conduct their own surveys and have the program calculate the totals. They could also create a budget list for toys, clothing, etc. There are a few questions a teacher should consider asking students while they are working on these projects.

• How can Excel help you and/or your parents in your everyday lives?
• Why is Excel sometimes more helpful than Word?
• What Excel functions did you find helpful during your project? Why?
  

My Movie Making Experience

This week presented many challenges for me. I spent several hours creating my first movie! Before this week, I never realized that most computers have a movie making device as one of its default programs. At first, I felt completely unfamiliar with the tools, but after I experimented with it, I figured out how to make my movie. After creating my movie, I related that tools that I learned to how I could use it in my classroom.

One of the best ways to engage your students is to involve them heavily in a project like this. For example, you can give each student a line to read or film the class participating in an activity. When you are finished filming the movie, teach them how to edit movies. If they are too young to edit on their own, have them help you with the order of the movie clips. Your students will be so proud of their work once it is finished, and I guarantee that they mastered the material that the film covered.

I enjoyed making this movie, because like I said, it my first time experiencing something like this. It is great to see the final product for which I worked so hard. I plan on showing this clip to my students as a focus for my season’s lesson in science. Once I have showed them this clip, I am hoping it will excite them to want to create their own!

Digital Storytelling: Creating a Story Board

This week, I have been researching a new and exciting tool that is excellent for the classroom: digital storytelling! I feel so fortunate to be alive during a time where technology is growing at an exponential rate. Though I have been introduced to many technological elements in my life, this was the first time I was introduced to a way to create movies. In the classroom, digital storytelling can be an exciting teaching tool that can really engage your students.

I have been studying the essential question: "why do we have seasons." During this semester, I have found many videos, images and great information about the topic. I know that this would be a great topic to create a movie that will excite my third grade students. In order to make a great movie, I had to decide how I would include the seven elements of digital storytelling.

1. Point of View – This will be from a teacher's point of view, in a conversation with a student.
2. A Dramatic Question – "Why does the earth have seasons?"
3. Emotional Content – creates curiosity and gives viewers answers.
4. The Gift of your Voice – presents information as a conversation rather than just a presentation.
   
5. The Power of the Soundtrack – background music used while the teacher presents a picture and answers the dramatic question.
6. Economy – conversation is short, to the point, and question is answered with a picture and a simple explanation.
7. Pacing – the story progresses rather quickly. It sets up the dramatic question and answers the question in a direct manner.
   

Once I began creating my story board, I was decide how I would lay out my video. My approach to the video was taping a conversation between a student and teacher because I felt like it presented the information in a more personal way. I look forward to creating my video, and sharing it not only with you all, but with my third grade students!

Digital Storytelling

As I have discussed in my previous posts, the internet has opened the doors for teachers to have more interactive and effective lessons. Thanks to Microsoft Office, teachers have had access to Powerpoint for many years. There are many exciting things that one can do with a powerpoint; animation, sound, pictures, etc. But it wasn't until this knowledge explosion through the internet where Powerpoints can be taken to the next level: digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is presentations through the internet that can be accessed and shared by anyone whom seeks them.

An internet site that I have used for my class for which I student teach is slideshare. This is a free site that people can use to look up and create presentations. They even allow you to add music to your presentation. Because of the great reaction I got from my students, I also used this site for my unit plan. I included my presentation about why we have seasons. The presentation is timed with music so that the teacher can discuss each slide without having to be near a mouse. The music as well as the pictures enhances my lecture. By adding music and pictures to a lesson, the teacher is appealing to more multiple intellenges: allowing more students to learn. In addition, with more exciting features, students are more likely to stay engaged. To show you an example of my Slideshare presentation I have included it below.

The Seasons

View more presentations from Jessica S. (tags: earth months)

Though learning about the Earth and Sun is usually only considered science, this is a great unit that can be used across the curriculum. When looking through the third grade TEKS, I found many Texas state objectives in other subject areas. Students can write about what they have learned through a classroom post. In math, students are able to measure the temperature outside and keep record of how it changes through out the year. By using engaging unit plans in your class, you can keep a consitant theme while keeping students excited about what they are learning.