| This
week is full of fun and exciting info on how to use handhelds
in the classroom as we are giving our ideas to the world with
our lesson plans.
We even get
to grade ourselves with Tony. Does that mean an easy A? Doubt
it.
Strangers
are replying to some of our blogs.
Tony has been noticed for a while now. This particular rural handheld
user has also visited some of the class, not me.
On a similar
note, a teacher named Lynn sent Tony an e-mail that spoke very
positively about our blogs and wanted to know if she would have
access to our lesson plans.
A thunderstorm
is booming overhead, threatening Melissa’s dinner, cooked
by her Dad, on the grill.
Pocket PC’s
will be shown as they increase in popularity and what they can
do that may not be possible on Palms. Tony is convinced we won’t
be putting our Palm handhelds on eBay anytime soon in favor of
a Pocket PC.
My presentation
was lackluster as I am jet-lagged from a four-day trip to Miami
where I presented to fellow Magnet School teachers at the Magnet
Schools of America Conference. I know everyone will feel sorry
for me, ha ha.
Becky’s
lesson focused on getting students to use and create rhythm
and harmony. She used inspiration as a guide for the students
learning note names on the staff. (half, whole, quarter). She
is even going to make us try by beaming us an activity. She also
made us our own piano, out of paper, but matches the image in
the application, BugDemo. I am glad I didn’t go after Becky.
She put me to shame.
Rick’s
goal was to have students identify and classify instruments. He
created an eBook about instrument families, created a concept
map using PicoMap (that they must sort out), and a Quizzler quiz.
All of these were nicely demoed for us using both PowerPoint and
the programs themselves. Yet another lesson
that was well done.
Tony interrupted
our presentations to intro Pocket PC—none have a dedicated
Graffiti area, they tend to be more expensive and the OS is by
Microsoft. Even Tony, a dedicated Palm guy, now tries to create
presentations that are cross-platform. I’ts OS is very large
requiring a larger memory and faster processor. It looks much
like Windows does on a desktop computer. All programs must be
closed to prevent them running and using battery. Their syncing
is done via ActiveSync. It is unknown whether you can use it as
a verb.
Guest
Reporter: Amy. Scott is on a photography assignment. (This
was her only line in the story.)
Bridget’s
presentation began with a bright yellow handout and focused
on the Food Guide Pyramid. She was distressed to learn that just
two days ago, the food guide pyramid was changed. Will it be the
same shape? What will change? We shall find out at the end of
the presentation. What a teaser! The class would be expected to
create a concept map…we took a brief break for a false alarm
regarding a tornado…(Mr. Haller decided to go ahead and
grill just out of reach of the rain. I think Melissa owes her
dad quite a bit.) Bridget even created a sample menu for Tony,
using his favorite foods and would later analyze it for how well
it fit the guide. www.mypyramid.gov
houses the new food guide. Still a pyramid, now color-coded, like
the alertness rating for terrorism. Food Pyramid is a free program
that she used in this comprehensive lesson.
Tony goes
back to Pocket PC’s. He points out that they are rarely
used in elementary classrooms, but are gaining in popularity in
education. They still lag behind Palms in the number of educational
programs. Pocket Excel was a cool program that had more freedom
than the spreadsheet stuff I have seen on Palms. It can pick up
handwriting styles and graffiti in various forms and versions.
Pocket Word has some interesting features that give you some powerful
drawing programs. All these Word stuff comes standard on Pocket
PC’s.
Dinner was
grilled hot dogs, pasta salad, and wonderful dessert made of mostly
butter, with a hint of chocolate. Recipe to follow on the butter
based dessert.
Pocket PC’s can also play videos using Windows Media Player.
Palm is rumored to be coming out with a handheld with a 4 gig
hard drive, which would enable it to play videos, music, etc.
The video that he showed was that of the first landing of people
on the Moon.
United Streaming is a site that has many (thousands?) of educational
clips. It is also possible to convert a DVD to an SD card and
watch it on your handheld.
Ann’s
lesson dealt with multiculturalism in literature using, ‘Twas
the Night Before Christmas. Students will be asked to read the
eBook version of the original story by Clement Moore from 1822.
They were then to read multiple versions of the story, compare
and contrast, using Inspirtation, adding characteristics found
in the story. They would eventually be asked to create their own
version of the story. The lesson consisted of WG, SG and individual
work. They would have a lot of room for expression and would compile
their stories into an eBook.
Suzanne
created a lesson focusing on using reference resources—called
Being a Good Detective. This goes along with the work they are
currently doing to help prepare students for the tests they will
be asked to take through the years. She has the student using
keywords, guidewords, etc using the various sources. The intro
would be done using an eBook. They will complete group work in
between to practice what they have learned. Finally, the students
will demonstrate their proficiency using a Quizzler quiz. Omaha
Public Library has over 250 eBooks to download using just a pin
number. They even have an online card catalog, which sometimes
stumps the students on tests (discussed above), since the paper
version no longer exists.
Erika
demonstrated her interest in art by creating lesson in Color
Theory and an Intro to using layers. She used Palm’s version
of PowerPoint, Slideshow-to-Go. She also found and integrated
a program called TealPaint. This is very similar to Photoshop.
She had tutorials, ideas, and a very well thought out lesson.
TealPaint had quite a bit of drawing capability. It is a pay program,
($29?) but we were all beamed a trial version. She dazzled us
again with her artistic ability using a Palm. The program also
does animation. It is more difficult than Sketchy, but it can
be done.
Lynn’s
turn was announced as dinosaur time. This is a science-based
lesson that is built around inquiry, the story of the dinosaurs,
etc. This lesson used a large amount of software. In the unit,
the students rotate around different stations that will together
create the knowledge they will need for OPS CRT’s. They
are also given the freedom to go further than the bare minimum.
Students self assess as they work through each station.
She also introduced What If Builder, a program that allows for
interactive work on the part of the student. She also used a program
called SpellIt that is vocabulary and Spelling combined.
Melissa H.,
being an art teacher, focused her
lesson plan on portraits. She threw in the Madeline Hunter
buzzword ‘anticipatory set’ using a program called
MatchWho. It looked a lot like what you might see on a detective
show with a sketch artist. The students will be given a worksheet
that provides a guideline for drawing a self-portrait (head).
The
final product will be created on Sketcher first, using the grid
lines to help transfer this picture to a larger scale later.
Melissa T.'s
focus was on
nouns. She color-coded her visuals to coincide with the Silly
Sentences program given to us by Tony earlier in the year. She
read a book to us called, The Important Thing is… It was
cute. The students were asked to identify the nouns they heard
while listening. They then created an outline for prewriting.
The concluding piece will be a story modeled after the book listed
above. The story is constructed in a very repetitive manner, which
may or may not make the recreation easy for the students. She
had better luck with 3rd graders than with the 5th. Her kids created
some wonderful eBooks.
Amy’s
lesson is titled, Angles in Art Lesson; quite alliterative
when combined with her first name. Student under her tutelage
will use the program Angles to explore different sizes of mathematical
angles. They will then use angles to create an artwork to create
an original piece based on mathematical angles. They will also
spend time looking at images created by famous artists and explore
how they are used in their art. Her lesson begins with an interactive
PowerPoint that allowed for flexibility in the amount of time
spent on finding angles in masterworks. The students have to record
the angles they guessed and correct answers to be used in the
artwork as listed above. The product would consist of the 20 angles
used in the Angles program to create a non-objective image. Her
student did what all students do, surprise her with a different
interpretation of the project. She also shared a elementary favorite,
When Pigasso met Mootise.
These lessons
were superlative! Tony was impressed. This is his last time with
us, as he has to leave to receive his award for teaching excellence.
He has a sub for our last class when we will be interviewing and
meeting students. Treats were suggested as gesture of thanks to
the 5th graders for hangin’ out with a bunch of teachers
rather than watching Fear Factor. Have fun in D.C.
Tony! Thanks for a very good class!
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