Lesson Plan

Teacher: Jennifer Guthrie

Cooperating Teacher: Mrs. Kelly

Grade: Kindergarten

Unit/Subject: Art/Writing/Computer

Lesson Title/Focus: Exploring Paint Program – Making Thankful Cards

Date Taught: May

School District: Lake Washington

Academic Standards:

RF.K1a – Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

RF.K1b – Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

RF.K1c – Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

L.K.2a – Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I.

Learning Target: The learning target is to have kids get familiar with how to use the “Paint” program in Windows. The students are going to learning to draw/paint a picture using the tools from the “Paint” program. The students will also be learning how to make a text box and type sentences inside.

Vocabulary Words: Text Box

Management of Students: We will be doing this project when we have parent helper and TA available to help ensure that children get the extra supervision/help needed.

Anticipatory Set/Activating prior knowledge: I will be briefly be discussing other painting projects and typing projects we have done and how we get to have fun combining both into one Thankful Project we are going to send home. I will be discussing the other projects to help alleviate any nervousness about using a new technology program and show them they already know many of the basics we will be using on the program.

Closure: When time is up for the lesson the students will save their work to continue finishing on the next lesson day. I will briefly discuss the goals we are learning to use the paint program and the fun opportunity we have to use are minds to create “I am Thankful” cards for our family/special friend.

Steps of Lesson:

• ·      Children will listen as I explain the opportunity we have to bless our family/special friend and show them we are thankful by making them a card using a fun new program called “Paint.”
• ·      I will already have the “Paint” program open with an example of what the students will be doing and will explain the overall concepts of the “Paint” program, demonstrating in a new window the tools and how to use them.
• ·      The children’s tablets will have paint downloaded and I will ask them to open the program.
• ·      I will guide the children through the steps and we will together open a text box and type in thankful.
• ·      I will ask for computers to be turned around to show me that each child has typed in the word “thankful”, discussing the use of proper grammar and capitalization, along with word order.
• ·      I will have TA/Parent going around room to help insure that children are in the right area and have completed the task.
• ·      I will give children time to explore the tools and begin creating their “I am thankful” cards.
• ·      I will rotate around class answering questions and helping children try and trouble shoot their own problems.
• ·      I will wrap up the lesson by observing that children saved their new material and closed out of the Paint program.
• ·      I will discuss learning a new program and the tools we used.

Student Learning Behavior: I expect to see children excited about learning a new program and ready to apply technology they already are familiar with together in a whole new way, while enjoying and being proud of their creativity and newly acquired skills.

Instructional materials, Resources, and Technology: "Paint" will be displayed and instructions given through use of SmartBoard,  students will use program "Paint" through Windows on their personal tablets.

Kindergarten Technology Project Idea *Podcast*

Record audio or upload mp3 >>

Are Video Games in Schools Good or Bad?

Educational Video Gaming in School

          Should there be video gaming style learning curriculum in schools? If so how much time should be allowed to be used “playing” the games and how much time should be divided for regular teaching practices with teacher/student interaction?  My personal opinion is still being made up on this exact formula for classroom usage, however I do see a great value in this age in having high tech educational games, which would be interesting to children and of the same caliber as games found on the market today.

            Cons to having this type of educational gaming system in the classroom is children may want to only “play” the games and not concentrate on other school subjects. This also may keep children in a hyper or worked up state if they are continually in “game mode” and overloading on dopamine, potentially making it harder to keep control over children in times they are supposed to be doing other activities. I also believe that as great as new technology is, it is making it harder for children to behave in social environments where there is no technological entertainment available to them. Children can sit for hours and play games, but send them outside these days and they are bored with nothing to do. Imagination seems to be able to be enjoyed by children as crazier and crazier things appear for entertainment, but actual child imagination output is, in my opinion, going down.  I do believe technology such as gaming programs need to be limited in the classroom. I don’t favor children being hooked into technology 24/7. I think it is healthy to have many different aspects of technology and learning, so children can learn to cope without constant need to be connected to electronic devices.

            The upside to educational gaming is that most children enjoy gaming and it would be another way to inspire children to want to learn. My children play video games and even though I played as a child, I can’t play 3D versions of games where you can roam in any direction. I can only play games that go to the right or left, as 3D games weren’t around when I was younger. These new inventions in systems are great for children to learn as they are growing up and if they could be brought into the classroom on a level that was close to the quality of games today, I think that would be a great advantage to learning. Children love to receive rewards. Humans as a whole do things only for the mere reward. We work to get a paycheck. I don’t think people would work just for the feeling of accomplishing something if there wasn’t a monetary reward every two weeks. Children are built the same, they enjoy rewards over the “look you got a grade” for the class. If there was an enjoyment level to the game where they completed missions and were allowed to do more fun levels by learning and imputing facts, I think that would be the best of both worlds.

            I liked this passage found in the article we read on gaming, the author mentions that, “These programs also provide timely corrective and progress-acknowledging feedback that allows the students to correct mistakes, build understanding progressively, and recognize their incremental progress. “ I think that is a very big key. The program would need to give advice on why the answer was wrong and what can be done to correct the program, so children aren’t just blindly going through the motions, but learning how to correct their mistakes so they can benefit the next time they are asked to solve a similar problem. I love the idea of using technology such as games to excite children about learning. In my opinion these new styles of teaching are great, but need to be used in moderation and have research done on what the effects of overloading children on continual use of “screen time” are. Everything in moderation seems to be the key to most of life’s dilemmas. 

Article: Willis, Judy. "A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool." Edutopia (2011): n. pag. 14 Apr. 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

To Allow, or Not to Allow The Cell Phone?...That is the Question.

Should cell phones be allowed in schools? Should they be allowed, but made to stay in lockers? How much cell phone usage is too much? I will start with the negative first. What are my personal cons  for cellphones in the classroom? Obviously cell phones can be used to cheat in a classroom during testing. It is also hard to regulate what is happening when students are on their cell phones. It has been shown in many studies that multi- tasking is disruptive to the learning process. How are teachers supposed to know what is going on and be responsible for the content being viewed, while also trying to teach their students to use their time wisely. With student's grades being so important to parent's and colleges these days, cheating has taken almost become an art form. With today's technology, a student can get a "smart phone" and now the phone which is supposed "to be for emergencies" in now a student's personal pocket sized computer for whatever content viewing they would like to view, with only the need for a wireless connection.
I don't believe cell phones should be allowed in classroom desks during testing time, however I do believe if the school has no policy against it, that cell phones should be allowed in the classroom if they were to stay in the desks turned off or silenced, with a rule for now cell phone use at all during class, unless of school emergency.  There are way too many examples of schools where someone either having no connection with the school or a student in the school have opened fire or somehow hurt/ killed students and teachers. I believe strongly in every child's right to have whatever protection that is appropriate, to protect themselves. A cell phone is a small, but powerful tool in an emergency. When one of the planes was being overtaken on 911 that was headed to take more innocent lives, it was a cell phone call that let those on board know of the devastation that had just taken place at the Twin Towers in New York. Cell phones have repeatedly saved lives.  In an emergency situation you can't depend on the teacher alone to be the only one that has access to a phone, the teacher may not be by their phone or be able at the moment to make the call due to the situation at hand.
Last year I was at school dropping my children off when a lockdown occurred. I had my phone on me and though I didn't need to contact the police, due to authorities being already contacted, it was a very scary situation and I texted my mom to pray while we were forced to stay locked in the building. In today's school settings, though I understand the very hard issues it brings with teachers having to maintain the chaos of children trying to use technology to cheat or not to pay attention in class, I feel as long as rules are established, children should be allowed to keep them turned off in their desk, when no tests or quizzes are being taken. Rules should be in place to have the phone returned to child's backpack on silent if there is any question of rules being obeyed. That is the call I would make on cell phones in the classroom.

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