I have always wanted to teach history or social studies and one of the lessons I have always wanted to teach is WWII. With the technology given to us today I feel that not only can we as teachers teach stronger lessons I feel that the students will have more interest. For my lesson I will be covering World War II and all important factors that led to the outcome we know of today. The grade level I will be teaching will most likely be 10th graders or sophomores in high school. The goal of this lesson is for the students to be able to recognize and understand all the main events that took place in World War II and be able to understand why and what outcome came from the main events. My lesson will include a power point presentation, use of the World Wide Web, and some kind of tablet. The lesson will most likely take 3 days depending on how my class works and if they follow the directions properly.
To start my lesson I will start out by asking all the students what kind of background they have with World War II. It is essential to stimulate their minds before the lesson so that they may show some kind of interest in what they are about to learn. After that I will then play some old radio broadcasts from that era, most likely some sort of advertisement or something that they can relate to. After having a general discussion on the radio segments I will then show a power point presentation covering all the basic essentials a class needs to know about World War II. The power point will include sound bites and videos from that time period. It will cover all the main turning points and people that affected the war in different ways. I will then show an interactive map of all the fronts during the war and what there movements were as time went on during the war. By doing this it gives each student an idea of just how big WWII really was. After the power point and the map presentation I will get to the main assignment of the actual lesson which will involve the use of the internet and a tablet of some kind. This will most likely be on another day due to the fact that each class has limited amount of time. This is where we come to the scenario in my lesson.
I feel that the cooperative learning theory is easily the most effective when used properly. In the beginning of the year I divided my class up into groups of four and I had the group’s name themselves. These groups were to be used throughout the rest of the year. To start I will first divide all of my students into their groups. I will pull out a hat which has a bunch of folded up pieces of paper in it which has events from World War II written on them. The students will then pick one team leader to come up and draw from the hat. After the groups have found out what their main topic are they then will then use the internet and begin researching on whatever event they pulled out from the hat. I will give them some guidelines to researching there topic. They will need to find out when it happened, where it happened, which people played an important key role in this event, important vocabulary from this event and a brief outline of what it is or what happened. This is where the students will log on to their delicious account and load the stack that I have made for them containing all kinds of sites for WWII. After this the students will begin using their blog’s.
In the beginning of the year when I had all the students put into groups and name themselves I then had the groups create their own group blog on blogspot.com. For this assignment after the students are finished researching there topic they will then go record all of their findings on their blog. Students enjoy blogging because the blog is something they have created and anybody can view them. Once all students have finished recording all of their findings into their blog’s I will then create a class wiki using wikispaces and this is where all the groups will then mold and form our class wiki into a legitimate World War II wiki page. This is where I will go look at the blog pages and class wiki and give out a grade on accuracy and actual amount of work done. This is how student learning will be assessed. I may also give a test using questions I have created using the class wiki.
I am able to do large scale lessons like this because the school I am teaching at has supplied a tablet for every student in my class. By doing this it opens the doors to a million different ways to teach a lesson. That is the glory of using technology in the classroom not only does it help boost the interest of students in your class but it also makes the job of teaching a little easier. Instead of taking home millions of worksheets and papers you now just have to log onto your computer and with a few clicks of the mouse the grading is finished. Technology is a force that weather we like it or not we can’t stop.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Blogging in classrooms....
Podcasts are something that I was not very familiar with until this past lesson in class. I feel that they can be a useful tool if in the right situation but there are times when I feel that they may become a hassle. I feel that podcasts can be useful in a classroom environment for reminders for students on the weekends or before a test. They can be used to remind the class to bring their books or if a paper is due. I feel that in my class I would use the podcast as more a study guide kind of thing. I would basically give a whole lecture on the test and try to fill the class in on some main points to remember. My grade level would be any grade in high school. It would also be useful to use podcasts due to the fact that all of my class will being using blogs and a class wiki. By using the blogs I can embed my podcasts onto the site where the students can use them whenever they wish. I feel that podcasts are interesting in the fact that they basically are just like using a tape recorder except for the fact that you can put these on the internet. If anything I feel that using the podcasts with video would be the most helpful because by doing this you can implement pictures or videos. This would most likely gain the student’s interest a lot more than just plain dialog. Podcasts have always been interesting to me and they I have talked to people that like using them but I still am not sold on using them inside my classroom. Maybe one day I will find a way but as for right now I still feel that blogs and class wiki’s are the way to go.
Cheers
Eh
Cheers
Eh
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Podcast overview!!!
Podcasts have always been a real mystery to me. I never quite understood what the point of them was until reading this and learning how to create them in class. Podcasts are a great way to get information across to students in a quick way. Students today love new and different things and I believe that by using podcasts this could definitely cause them to gain more interest in whatever the lesson is dealing with. Another great use for podcasts is to throw out reminders for students over the weekend in case they need to bring a certain object to the classroom or if they need to be reminded about an assignment. I feel that by using podcasts you are given more time to plan out what you are going to say and I feel that by personally creating a podcast for a class it gives the class more of a personal relationship with the teacher. I’m still a little skeptical on podcasts but maybe one day I will see what everybody else sees about them.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
My Blog
http://jjblandin.podomatic.com/entry/2011-10-29T12_25_13-07_00
I tried to embed my podcast but for some reason it just is not working, so here is the link to my podcast. Thanks and enjoy!!
I tried to embed my podcast but for some reason it just is not working, so here is the link to my podcast. Thanks and enjoy!!
My Blog
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
The Classroom of the Future!! (Technology lesson plan)
For my lesson I will be covering World War II and all important factors that led to the outcome we know of today. The grade level I will be teaching will most likely be 10th graders or sophomores in high school. The goal of this lesson is for the students to be able to recognize and understand all the main events that took place in World War II and be able to understand why and what outcome came from the main events. My lesson will include a power point presentation, use of the World Wide Web, and some kind of tablet.
To start my lesson I will start out by asking all the students what kind of background they have with World War II. After that I will then play some old radio broadcasts from that era. After having a general discussion on the radio segments I will then show a power point presentation covering all the basic essentials a class needs to know about World War II. The power point will include sound bites and videos from that time period. After the power point I will get to the main assignment of the actual lesson which will involve the use of the internet and a tablet of some kind. This is where we come to the scenario in my lesson.
In the beginning of the year I divided my class up into groups of four and I had the group’s name themselves. These groups were to be used throughout the rest of the year. To start I will first divide all of my students into their groups. I will pull out a hat which has a bunch of folded up pieces of paper in it which has events from World War II written on them. The students will then pick one team leader to come up and draw from the hat. After the groups have found out what their main topic are they then will then use the internet and begin researching on whatever event they pulled out from the hat. I will give them some guidelines to researching there topic. They will need to find out when it happened, where it happened, which people played an important key role in this event, important vocabulary from this event and a brief outline of what it is or what happened. After this the students will begin using their blog’s.
In the beginning of the year when I had all the students put into groups and name themselves I then had the groups create their own group blog. For this assignment after the students are finished researching there topic they will then go record all of their findings on their blog. Students enjoy blogging because the blog is something they have created and anybody can view them. Once all students have finished recording all of their findings into their blog’s I will then create a class wiki and this is where all the groups will then mold and form our class wiki into a legitimate World War II wiki page. This is where I will go look at the blog pages and class wiki and give out a grade on accuracy and actual amount of work done. This is how student learning will be assessed.
I am able to do large scale lessons like this because the school I am teaching at has supplied a tablet for every student in my class. By doing this it opens the doors to a million different ways to teach a lesson. That is the glory of using technology in the classroom not only does it help boost the interest of students in your class but it also makes the job of teaching a little easier. Instead of taking home millions of worksheets and papers you now just have to log onto your computer and with a few clicks of the mouse the grading is finished.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Tpac
Alright let’s be honest here for us up and coming teachers who are still young we know all there is to know about technology we understand why students today don’t work as hard as they used to this is where technology comes into play. Technology is basically the heart and soul to young minds, it’s the battery that keeps education running and sooner or later without it you will be left behind. How many people nowadays would rather go read a book on Sir Patrick Henry instead of just going online and watching a whole entire documentary on him on the history channel? I understand that it is probably hard to just quickly integrate technology into today’s schools and it is also probably extremely expensive but I truly believe if you gave each student his or her own laptop or Ipad you would see a huge difference in class participation. Could you imagine trying to talk about a certain city and then just telling your students to go to the Ipad and open Google Earth to see the actual city that is being talked about. Today it comes down to visual learning, text books are slowly becoming a thing of the past. It’s all about seeing it now and not just reading and hearing about it. Not only will technology be good for students but it will also make our jobs a hell of a lot easier and if you ask me I would much rather have easy than hard.
Cheers.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Survey! Take It!!! NOW!!
Getting to know you?
This is just a simple survey to let me know you better.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Wikis Wikis Wikis!!
Hello fellow educators it seems that today we are talking about wikis and all the wonderful things they have to offer in the classroom. Well to start seeing as I will be teaching high school history the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of wikis is the idea that everybody can have the freedom to input their ideas or thoughts on whatever the central subject is. Let’s say I am teaching my lesson on the roaring 20’s and talking about prohibition and how it affected this country. I think it would be great for students to log on to their blogs and throw around there thoughts and feelings about the time period and then as a class they would create a class wiki completely explaining prohibition and other important factors of the roaring 20’s. I think that by creating a class wiki for every core lesson throughout the year is a great idea not only because the students would be able to go back and take a look at what they did throughout the whole year but also if on the slim chance there is a final consisting of all the lessons they have the ultimate study guide right on their computer. I kind of have a love hate relationship with Wiki’s, when used correctly wiki’s can be a great tool and can bring a whole class together to get involved for the lesson. On the other hand wiki’s can be a nightmare due to the fact that they can be edited and if one student decides to edit another students work this could create some conflict between the students which would lead to complete chaos. I am definitely willing to give wiki’s a shot when I start teaching but it will most likely be something small. If everything goes to plan then possibly I may go to bigger and better things. Wiki’s are pretty much a love/hate relationship with me. Thanks for reading.
Cheers.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Blogging Through Time!!!
Now I am still new to this blogging thing but I have already thought up a crazy amount of ideas to use blogging in my class room. First off let’s just say I’m teaching high school history, I feel that by having all of my students create their own blog it could cause then to feel more attached to their own work. Knowing that there work is on the World Wide Web and anyone can see it would make them want to keep posting for sure. Plus being able to personalize their own page would probably boost there interest a little to. I feel that all students should be kept up to speed with current events that why I think it would be a great idea to have the students create a new blog every other week on what their thoughts are on current events. I also love the idea that all the assignments the students do is kept in a data base so no matter what we always have the option to go back and look at certain postings. I also like what we are doing as a class right now and would very much use the idea of voting for the best blog every week, this gives students to fight for and more motivation. Let’s say my class is going over WWII, now we all know that there is allot going on during this time and I think that blogging is the great answer to a smooth and fun WWII lesson plan. By giving each student a different event or time period in WWII this divides everything into shorter and simpler facts. Each student would go home and write up an informative blog on whatever their event or time period was and then the next day in class they would share along with all the other students. I feel that this blogging thing will soon take off in all classrooms and i know that i will most definitely be one of those classrooms that uses it.
Cheers
Friday, September 2, 2011
All in one.
Google reader has become a tool that I enjoying using on a day to day basis now. Not only can i keep up with the class and all the blogging but i can also be kept up to speed on all the various sites i visit regularly. Enough about that lets talk about the I-generation, i have come to realize that today it is now pretty much expected to have a smart phone these things are seriously becoming a part of the human body. I myself cannot leave home without my Droid. I do find it funny though how the young people dont look at smartphones as the coolest and fastest growing technology today, they see it as just a plain everyday item like how you our me would look at a pencil or a book. Pretty soon i see the name smartphone being changed to "life phone" seeing as soon enough you going to be able to run your life on these things. Well thats all for now for me but i hope you all have a great labor day weekend.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Web 2.0
I look to my left there's a girl checking her facebook I look to my right there is a guy skyping his girlfriend who is seriously less than 10 yards away. Web 2.0 has its ups and its downs, I believe that there is something really good here but at the same time it is taking away some of the fun in life. But we are not here to talk about that lets talk about how it will help the future of the classroom. A "web 2.0" classroom is something simply amazing. To start every desk would have there own personal computer where each student would have there own login. I believe that for lessons interactive videos and pictures will be able to be shown on the computer screen. Skype could be used internationally with some other school in some other country to video chat. Instead of having handouts they would be sent over the computer by doing this it would cause not only the classroom but also the teacher to be much more organized. Another object that would help would be to give each student a laptop or tablet of some kind for take home work. To have a classroom like this would greatly advance the students learning skills due to the fact that they would be more engaged with something that they can relate to. On the other hand your school would have to have a very large sum of funds for this to happen. More and more classrooms are turning to technology as terrible as it sounds it seems that sooner or later the book will become obsolete. Everything is done now across the world wide web and soon enough students will be taking there finals and doing there science projects on and across the web. It seems that the more i get older the more the younger minds loose there attention span, by using technology as a classroom and teaching technique it will greatly advance the younger generation and the minds of the future.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Blogging??
I never thought i would see the day that i would be sitting in front of a computer actually typing a blog. Well seeing as it is a class requirement i might as well make the most out of this thing. For those of you that will most likely read this you are all probably in class with me so hopefully we can all get to know each other more. Ill be the guy most likely wearing a baseball hat. I am looking forward to a fun semester and who knows maybe ill actually get into this blogging thing.
Cheers
Jeremy
Cheers
Jeremy
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