Reflective Post

EME2040

I enjoyed taking EME2040; it helped me learn about technology and its uses. 

My favorite assignment during this course was the Teacher Webpage ePortfolio. It required a lot of time and patience. The first time I submitted the assignment, my grade was horrible. I did not quite understand everything my professor wanted. She was very nice and allowed me the opportunity to increase my score and gave me pointers as to what she was looking for in this assignment. I realized that this was more than just a simple assignment, she wanted to know what I had learned throughout the course. The assignment was by far the most educational one as well. It allowed me to go back to previous assignments and refreshed my memory of what it takes to become a successful teacher. An e Portfolio is a wonderful thing to create, so parents are familiar with who you are, the way you teach, what you know and what you expect from their children. It allows parents to access sites that you are using in school, so they can use them at home with their children to help them in the subjects they struggle in.
My ePortfolio

The lesson plan project was a group project I enjoyed being a part of. It was exciting because creating a lesson plan gave me an idea of what I will be required to do as a future educator. Lesson plans are useful for both students and parents. It allows them the opportunity to see what they will be learning weekly, and it allows them to know what they need to know at the end of the lesson. Standards are concepts that must be met within a given time. Standards are broken down so that students can understand what it is they need to learn. Lesson plans vary based on the needs of each child. For example, if a child is labeled ESE, there would be an area to show accommodations he or she needs to complete the assignment. 

LESSON TITLE: Green Eggs and Ham Grade Level(s): Kindergarten            Subject(s): ELA         Lesson Length: 1 hour 45 minutes Prepared by: Alexandria Osorio and Sofia Zaragoza  

Overview: Students will begin working on a book called Green eggs and Ham they will be able to describe pictures in a story. As they go through the stations, they will also practice with rhyming words, recognizing sight words and putting them together to form sentences, and create their own picture based on the story.

Standards: LAFS.K.RF.2.2 Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial ,and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.) LAFS.K.RF.3.3 Read common high frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, and does. LAFS.K.RL.1.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. LAFS.K.W.1.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to compose an opinion piece in which they tell about the topic or name of book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference.

Learning Objective: Students will demonstrate their ability to listen to a story and remember the main ideas. They will also show their ability to read a book and draw a picture that they describe in their own words.

Materials/ Resources Needed: Internet access, Smartboard or similar projector, book Green Eggs and Ham, blank paper and crayons, green plastic eggs, green eggs and ham images, printer

Introduction: Play Youtube Green Eggs and Ham Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B32u4qrIVZQ to introduce the book and give students an animated visual of what is being read. Ask engaging questions about character appearance, conflict, and main ideas that help students assimilate what they have just seen and heard.

Lesson Activities: (5 minutes): Play Green Eggs and Ham Read-Aloud (5 minutes): Have a discussion on the main points of the video. I will use a discussion ball that will be passed to whomever wants to answer my questions to engage the students. (25 minutes): We will read the book as a class. Each student will read one page aloud.  (5 minutes): I will ask students to tell me specific details about the story, like places where the main character did not want to eat green eggs and ham and some of the animals mentioned. (60 minutes): Divide the students into three groups and assign each of them to a station in the room. Each station should last approximately twenty minutes.           Station 1: At a round table with me. This station will focus on words that rhyme in the story. I will take this opportunity to go over the main phonograms (i.e ai and oa) that are used in the book and to review the different sounds that vowels can make. I will have for them plastic green eggs that split in half with a word on both parts. The students will put together the eggs based on which words rhyme. This group will be split in two so every student has the chance to practice.           Station 2: Students will be using the Smartboard to create a menu as a team. I will prepare different text boxes on a Word document (see attached)  that contain a picture of a food item as well as its name, and they must choose eight item boxes to drag into the menu, two of which will be green eggs and ham. Some choices will be apples, bananas, water, beans, milk, etc. I will provide them with clay to create each food item they choose in their menu and put them on a plate or in a cup.           Station 3: Students will put together sentences using words that are written on printouts of green eggs and ham. Once they have put together two sentences they like, they will draw a picture that describes something in the story and write the two sentences they chose beneath the image as a caption. These pictures should be colored nicely. (5 minutes): To conclude, I will ask students to share their favorite activity and what they learned from the book.

Strategies- ESE/ESOL: Accommodations: Teacher may read questions to student, student may work one on one with the assistant. This lesson is great for ELL students because it focuses on listening, reading, writing, and speaking. The stations are also very interactive, which improves their communication skills as they work together with other students.

Strategies- Integrating Technologies: Smart Board will be used to present the story, so the children can see the pictures and listen to what is being read. They will also use the Smartboard in the Station #2.

Evaluation/ Critique of Educational Software/ Web-based Resource: Starting out the lesson with this animated read aloud sparks the students’ interest in the book. The interesting thing out this video is that it combines the cartoon illustrations from the book with real-life settings that match the places mentioned in the book. Listening to the read aloud also helps children once they have to read the book by themselves because they are familiar with what it says and they can associate sounds with written words. The Smartboard activity in Station #2 is also a way to make the learning experience enjoyable and to personalize the story.

Summary: Students will have listened to and read Green Eggs and Ham, and they will have engaged in three different activities that honed in on their ability to read and comprehend a story. They will have also practiced rhyming and some fine motor skills like writing, drawing, and making objects out of clay. A lesson to learn from Green Eggs and Ham is that we should not judge something before we try it.

Assessment- Type: Students will be able to illustrate a photo and write two sentences explaining what they learned from the story based on the observations they made. Although they will engage in other activities, I will collect their drawings and see how well they understood the story based on the details they extracted. I will also be able to assess if the interactive activities helped them in their writing.

Educational Theorist: Cognitive--the student will need to use both their short-term and long-term memory to complete the various tasks throughout the lesson. However, rehearsal and emphasis are needed to keep these essential skills in the long-term memory. Also, since children at this age are not yet able to think abstractly, they need to feel the information they are learning and engage in sensory activities whenever possible.

Overall this course was very useful and informative. I enjoyed reading the book and writing discussion posts. The posts allowed me to see how my peers felt about the topics we were given. I honestly learned valuable information based on these post. I enjoyed all the assignments that our professor gave us. 

Resources:

Galindo, Maria. (2016, April 5). EME2040. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMnviIbeeyA

Digital Blog Post #F

Online Learning and Virtual Schools

I feel as though online schools are becoming very popular as the time goes by. I like taking courses online because I never have to drive to school. Online learning is beneficial to me because I can work at my pace. I am a mother and a full-time worker, so being able to do school work when I can is convenient for me. I learn better working online, than learning on campus. Classes at school seem to be more distracting to me. I have friends who also take online courses, and they too enjoy them more than going on campus. Virtual schools are not for everybody, but I do feel that online learning helps those people who are very busy to attend school. I hope that when I become a teacher, we can do online lessons that children can view when they are absent or just need a little bit more practice on a particular concept.

Technology- Integrated Classrooms

I enjoy how children today can learn using technology. I work at a school, and our students enjoy using technology every day. Instead of reading and writing on books and papers, they can read and type on the computers. Children can use tablets when they have free time. On the tablets, they play matching games and math games as well. On the computer, they can go to Compass Learning. On this site, they can learn how to read and much more. Students especially enjoy when their teachers teach them on the smart board. Children become so engaged because they can see everything the teacher is doing. They especially like the smart board because teachers usually write side notes so that students can learn. In the future, I hope to incorporate the use of technology in my room so that students become eager to learn. I feel as though it is important for children to find out how to use a cell phone and computers because our society is becoming more and more dependent on the use of technology.

Integrating Technology to Address the Participation Gap

In the future, I hope to have my students using technology. Although my students may not be able to afford laptops and tablets, I would ask those who have laptops and tablets to bring them in and share with their classmates. It would allow my students to be responsible for others belongings. Sharing their technologies would show them how to be kind and considerate with one another. I would make sure to write letters to companies asking for donations of technologies so all my students would eventually be able to use a laptop or tablet. I would also encourage my students to work in small groups and have some on the computers to better enhance their computer skills. I feel that learning how to use technology will be critical for all students in the future.

Resources

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Osorio, Alexandria (2016, April 19) Digital Blog Post #F. retrieved from https://prezi.com/d3az4-3wl06n/digital-blog-post-f/