Technology+AQ+Portfolio+Documents

1) I chose the cyber bullying lesson because I can really see this being used effectively in the classroom. I sent this lesson plan to my grade 5 colleagues and they used a portion of it with their classes. The feedback was very positive from both the students and the teacher. The video really captured their attention, and some of the questions which resulted from the first activity were really high level. It is a great way to introduce Point of View and Target Audience in media literacy to junior and probably intermediate students. Lastly, I think that it really opens up the discussion on bullying while incorporating strategies to deal with this really scary issue. Students get a safe environment, work on some curriculum ralted subjects and stay interested and engaged not only in school, but in learning and interacting with their peers.

2) I chose this lesson as it really introduces a rather complex issue to a very young mind. I believe we need to teach our children about copyrighting, but how we as teachers do this with primary aged kids sounds challenging. In this lesson, I feel that I have not only effectively simplified the concept for this age group, I am able to get the message accross. Through brainstorming as a class about what "fair" means, the teacher is able to work on some character education as well as what it means to "steal" another students work. I also really like the concept I added about having __them__ figure out how to make using another persons words or pictures, "fair". It's usually better to have the students figure out answers or strategies on their own, in that way they are engaged and thinking, not just trying to listen... I find that when I DO, I learn, but when I LISTEN ONLY, I will sometimes tune out. If this is a challenge I face as an adult, imagine how the children do with this.

3) This piece is part of my portfolio because I am really proud of it. I don't usually set up things like this in my class as I thought it was really too time consuming. But, working with a colleague we were able to put this together really quickly, and it was kind of fun. I think one way to make it even better would be to have it attached to a web page for the class to access. In our school, each class has it's own page, and as a grade 3 teacher, I would attach this PPT file to that page, and that would be somewhat what I was looking for. Working in the library I don't currently have a grade 3 class - but as I said, I really enjoyed creating this, and as a librarian, I am going to make sure that the whole grade 3 team has access to this webquest.

4) This template I created in word is something I would normally create in Microsoft Publisher, but I like that I was challenged to try it in Word. Having said that, as comfortable as I am using Microsft Word for documentation and writing letters or memos, moving forward I would still use Microsoft Publisher for this type of activity. I chose this to add to my portfolio because, once again, I was able to use it in my grade 5 ELA class as a differentiation assignment. I had some students who were having a hard time creating a persuasive essay about their literature circle book, and by giving them this oultine it helped to make them successful. It was something I offered to the students as a tool, and allowed them to choose whether or not they felt they needed it. In the end it was, yet again, something I created in this course that helped to make my students more successful.

5) Though I was already using rubrics quite extensively in my class, I was creating them all from scratch. This is a good and bad thing. When creating a rubric I would normally co-create the criteria with my students, then using their words set up the rubric for them and then discuss with them what a level 4 would look like. In this way, the students can easily use the rubric themselves to self-assess their work. This course introduced me to a rubric making site. The great thing about the site is that it can save the teacher a lot of time, and the rubric I have attached was created for my class using that site. On the downside, it is not in the kids language (which, admittedly can be changed), nor is it co-created by them. I really like this rubric I created for this course, even if it is a bit too detailed, and when I introduced it to my students, they also were fine with it. I include it here as a good example of what can be created by the site, but note, that when discussing it with the class it was changed, and there was a section for notes added to the bottom.