ETC Awesome Final Epic Video Unicorn Chapter

Credits: Photos are from Google Images.

Post Teaching Reflection (Lesson Plan 2)

Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9):

Discuss the implementation process and describe what went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?

The implementation of my lesson was a lot better. The problems I had in my first lesson didn’t shake my confidence going into this lesson. Ultimately, I was more confident and more assertive. My execution of the lesson was a lot better. I spoke up and I had a voice. I was able to actually be a teacher and be in charge of the classroom. I felt that all of my artifacts were really solid and the activities that I had planned for my students involved more classroom community. It was cool to see my students working together and saying good things about each other.

How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?

It was maintained fairly well. The objectives were met by my students and the standards were definitely maintained within my lesson. I kept my lesson on track and strived to make all of my content relevant to student learning.

Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson?

The lesson fit into the time-frame perfectly. I was really impressed by all the student work. No modifications were necessary with this lesson.  

Mechanics:

What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?

For the teaching aspect of my lesson I used google slides and google drawings to help implement my lesson. I was also able to use the student’s phones to record their voices. The students used were able to create a poster using google drawings. These posters were very creative and inspiring. I felt like it brought the class closer together.  

How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?

The technologies were utilized in various ways. I used google draw to have students create posters for each other. These posters were specifically designed to complement each student and tell the good things about their life. I used student phones to record their voices saying what they were thankful for in their lives and what they took for granted in their lives.  

My lesson was within the correct time frame. It was perfectly aligned with the time. Nothing was left out. And the students had a lot of fun learning.

It was short because…

It was too long because…

The lesson was within the correct time frame because... I managed my times correctly. I was able to keep my students on track and was able to help them finish their assignments in the correct time frame.

Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning

Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson

Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment

My student success in achieving the standards and objectives set by myself was pretty good. I believe that they were able to create an artifact that accurately displayed their knowledge of the content area. I believe that the information that was conveyed in this lesson met the objectives set by myself.

Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson

I would say I had a lot of success in the way I executed the lesson. However, I do believe that my students did learn more about themselves and that’s always a good thing.  My students work was displayed through the use of technology and artifacts.  

How do your individual reflections support this?

I saw the survey that my students took and it was overwhelmingly positive. I knew about the content and the way that I taught my lesson was a good reminder of how well I can execute a lesson.

How do the comments from your classmates support this?

As you can read above, the comments from my students were very so positive. They really let me know where I did well. This will hopefully boost my self-confidence and make me a better teacher in the future.

What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities?

I learned that pushing forward is key. Bouncing back and executing better in the future. There is always room for improvement and I will continue to get better as I learn more.  

Lesson Plan 2 (What I'm Thankful For)

What Are You Thankful For?

This activity is designed to engage students in making connections with what they are grateful for in their life. This activity will challenge student’s critical thinking skills and force them to look at things outside of the box.

Grade level: 6th grade

Standards:

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts (Grades 5 – 8)

NA-VA.5-8.3 Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas

NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

Language Arts English (Grades K – 12)

NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills

NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies

NL-ENG.K-12.6 Applying Knowledge

Objectives:

SWBAT: Use communication skills and communication strategies

SWBAT: Apply knowledge and evaluate a range of Subject Matter, Symbols and Ideas.

Criteria

Identify 6-8 atypical things they're grateful for.

Record the things their grateful for on a digital device (computer, phone, etc.)

Explore

Begin the lesson by asking each student to name the top three things he or she is thankful for. Responses probably will include: family, friends, home, school, and so on. Make a list of the most common answers. Next, explain to students that their task is to think beyond those common answers and look for things in their lives they're grateful for that they don't give much thought to on most days. For example, a student might look forward to running with his dog every afternoon, fishing with her grandfather on every weekend, or taking a weekly piano lesson.

Help students think about the mundane, taken-for-granted areas of their lives. Give each student time to think of 8-10 such things and write them down in google docs. Next, have students access their phones and record what they are grateful for on their phones. As the teacher, be looking for clarity of voice, speaking well, communication skills, etc.  

When done, have students save their recordings and send them to you. Use each individual recording to assess the students with a rubric.

After this students will use google drawings to create a document telling their classmates what they are thankful for about them. You could use this in different ways (with words, pictures, animations, etc.)  

Class Discussion

Once the recording and presentation are completed, the class will meet together to share and discuss their thoughts and come to some conclusions about what they are thankful for. During the class discussion, each student will be encouraged to share anything that they take for granted in their lives. 

Summative Assessment

The Individual Report: Once everyone has had a chance to share their ideas about what they are thankful for, students will have the opportunity to write a final report about the things they are thankful for in their life. This can be the atypical things but it can also be the things that they do take for granted. This report can be done in one of the following ways: Students can write a book using iAuthor, students can create a google slide presentation or students can use iMovie to generate a powerful movie. 

Students will create their own individual report that includes the following elements:

·       The report must be generated using IMovie technology

·       The students will communicate clearly and effectively the things they are thankful for. The recording must include 10 things you are thankful for. 

The report must answer the following questions:

What are you thankful for and why?

What are some of the things you take for granted?

By being thankful for what you have, how can you give back to the community?

Sources

(Some ideas were taken from this source)

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techlp/techlp045.shtml  

Jackson, Lorrie. "An Attitude of Gratitude." Education World, 3 Mar. 2009, www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techlp/techlp045.shtml. Accessed 3 Apr. 2017.

Speaking Rubric

Category	Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Needs Improvement
Posture and Eye contact	Good body posture. Looks calm, cool and relaxed. Establishes eye contact with the device the whole time.	Good body posture and establishes eye contact with device.	Sometimes maintains good body posture and establishes eye contact.	Horrible body posture. No eye contact.
Content	Shows a full understanding of the topic	Shows a good understanding of the topic.	Shows a good understanding in different parts of the topic	Does not seem to understand the topic very well.
Speaks Clearly	Speaks clearly and distinctly all the time and does not mispronounce words	Speaks clearly and distinctly but mispronounces some words.	Speaks clearly but voice is muffled. Mispronounces several words.	Often mumbles and cannot be understood.
Stays On Topic	Stays on the topic all of the time	Stays on topic most of the time.	Stays on topic some of the time	Doesn’t stay on the topic.

Writing Rubric

Category	Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Needs Improvement
Spelling/Grammar	Words are spelled correctly. Student uses subject/verb agreement and writes in complete sentences.	Most of the words are spelled correctly. Accurately uses subject/verb agreement and writes in complete sentences	A lot of misspelled words. Subject/verb agreement is confusing. Some complete sentences.	Most of the words are misspelled. Subject/verb agreement is puzzling. Sentences are jumbled.
Capitalization/ Punctuation	Students uses capitalization and accurate punctuation.	Students uses capitalization. Some punctuation is present.	Student doesn’t capitalize some letters. Punctuation is messy.	No punctuation. Students doesn’t capitalize anything.
Content/Ideas	Student writes on the topic and adds vivid details.	Student writes on the topic. Some details.	Student writes on the topic. No accurate details.	Student does not write on the topic. No details.

Pre-Teaching Reflection (Lesson Plan 2)

Assessing Prior Knowledge

So for the Lesson Preparation Reflection Blog post, I am writing about how students will gain more knowledge and what prior knowledge they have regarding this subject. Students need to know how to speak clearly and communicate with pride. Students will be able to practice this by going to the computer lab and practicing in front of the computers camera. Students will also hold a conversation with their peers speaking loudly, clearly and fluently. This communication practice will be used to help students with the lesson that we will be doing. The students will have more knowledge about speaking with clarity. The content of this lesson will be taught at this grade level because students are learning how to interact with their peers and teachers. Students will have to know how to deliver a speech in high school. This lesson is preparing them for the high school speaking standards. This lesson can be taught at any given season. But I would most likely teach it in the spring so, when students transition into the summer they can have more confidence speaking and listening to other people.

Designing Instruction

Students have diverse minds. They think creatively and pick up information very quickly. Students are smart, they are diverse, they understand things on a deeper level. I am using speaking and listening standards to help shape a student’s confidence and speaking abilities. These methods really open up a student’s eyes to the realm of listening intently to a conversation and responding accordingly. I believe the more students practice speaking clearly and fluently they will gain the ability to be more confident and enthusiastic about conversations.  

ITS NETS Standards

My lesson is diverse it is creative and it inspire students to be aware that communicating in the right way is an essential life skill. My lesson plan is creative because it utilizes multiple forms of technology. It incorporates communication and makes students more aware of how they talk to one another. Students will have the opportunity to create a Google drawing, use their phones to record themselves and they will have the opportunity to write about what they are thankful for. For their report students will use IMovie to create a recording of what they are thankful for and what they take for granted in their lives. Students will be modeling digital age work by designing a Google drawing and recording themselves on their phones. Students will be modeling digital responsibility by going onto teacher approved sites and resources. Students will accurately cite their sources and they will respect copyright laws. All students will be given access to technology and resources. In my classroom I will make sure and address each and every need my students have including diverse and unique situations. When creating their projects, I will be monitoring students to make sure they are not engaging in inappropriate social interactions online. I will be scanning the room for inappropriate uses of technology and remove the student from our project if the student is not engaging in “safe” Internet behavior.

Post Teaching Reflection

Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9):

Discuss the implementation process and describe what went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?

The implementation of my lesson was a little bit rocky. The problems I had with my lesson didn’t lie within the lesson itself. Ultimately, I was very nervous and I’m always a bit shaky when doing a lesson. My execution of the lesson was way off. I was reading from the slides and I showed a lot more media from YouTube than I had anticipated. This made the lesson go really slowly and caused the students to zone out. What went well with my lesson was my ability to come back and finish my lesson strong. I felt that my artifacts were really solid and that the activities that I had planned for my students went a lot better than my actual lesson part. It was cool to see my students doing their own research and finding out about the Civil Rights Movement.     

How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?

It was maintained fairly well. The objectives were met by my students and the standards were definitely maintained within my lesson. I kept my lesson on track and strived to make all of my content relevant to student learning.

Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson?

Because of times issues I had to cut one of my activities off from the lesson. I was ok with that although, it would have been cool to be able to get both of my activities in the lesson.

Mechanics:

What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?

For the teaching aspect of my lesson I used a smartboard and I used google slides to help implement my lesson. I was also able to use YouTube to introduce videos on the Civil Rights Movement. The students used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast similarities and differences between the Black Lives Matter movement and the Civil Rights movement.

How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?

The technologies were utilized in various ways. I used YouTube to help students learn about the Civil Rights Movement and I used The Venn Diagram to help students compare and contrast differences and similarities between Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement. I also had various websites available for students to explore. These websites contained information on the Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.

My lesson was within the correct time frame

It was short because… My lesson was about 4 minutes short. It was short because I didn’t use my time well. I definitely was nervous and therefore I rushed my lesson plan and didn’t give students an authentic learning experience.  

It was too long because…

The lesson was within the correct time frame because...

Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning

Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson

Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment

My student success in achieving the standards and objectives set by myself was pretty good. I believe that they were able to create an artifact that accurately displayed their knowledge of the content area. I believe that the information that was conveyed in this lesson met the objectives set by myself.

Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson

I wouldn’t say I had a lot of success in the way I executed the lesson. However, I do believe that my students did learn more about these movements through the use of technology and media. What I failed to achieve was displayed through my use of technology and artifacts.   

How do your individual reflections support this?

I saw the survey that my students took and it came as no surprise to me that my body language and the way I executed the lesson was way off. Most of the comments said that I was “reading from the slides” and that I “didn’t know the content I was teaching” this was fairly accurate. I knew about the content that I was teaching but, the way that I taught it was not a good reflection of how well I knew my content.     

How do the comments from your classmates support this?

As you can read above, the comments from my students were very hard truths. They really let me know where I needed to improve upon. This will hopefully make me a better teacher in the future.

What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities?

I learned that there is no such thing as a perfect lesson. I learned that everyone makes mistakes, everyone has off days. Designing and teaching a lesson is hard work and requires a lot of patience and durability.

Technology Lesson

History in perspective: Exploring Martin Luther King Jr.

Grade level: 5^th grade

This activity is designed to engage 5^th grade students in a research project that integrates a variety of technology and tools

Time Allotment: This lesson was originally based on a unit plan however, I have taken the lesson on Dr. King and have applied it to this assignment. This lesson would probably take a 40 minutes to an hour depending on how fast students work.  

AZCCRS: 5^th grade social studies

Performance Objectives:

The student will be able to:

1. Use the following to interpret and create historical data:

a. timelines – B.C.E. and B.C.; C.E. and A.D.

b. graphs, tables, charts, and maps

c. Create and understand how to use a Venn diagram for historical events (e.g. The Civil Rights Movement). Venn Diagram will be used to compare and contrast events about The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter Movement.

2. Construct timelines of the historical era being studied (e.g., presidents, civil rights movement, key events and people).

Lesson Implementation

Mini lecture

“Martin Luther King was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother was a highly respected schoolteacher. His parents originally named him Michael, after his father. But later his father changed both of their names to Martin Luther, after the German religious reformer (Lambert 1993). As a child, Martin enjoyed singing, riding his bicycle, playing football and baseball, and reading. He spent many hours at his fathers’ church, listening to him preach, and singing in the choir. He was a very good student and he skipped grades in elementary school and in high school” (Adler 1986).

“Martin learned about discrimination first hand at a very young age. When he was five years old he often played baseball with the white sons of a nearby grocer. One day, when he went to ask the boys to play, their mother told him that her sons could not play with him ever again because he was black. Martin was deeply hurt (Adler 1986). When Martin was fourteen and in the eleventh grade, he entered a speaking contest in Dublin, Georgia, sponsored by the Negro Elks Society. His speech won first place. However, on the bus ride home, Martin was forced to give up his black section seat to a white person. He stood up for the ninety mile trip home” (Lambert 1993).

“Martin wanted to keep up the family tradition, so he decided to become a minister. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and then went to Crozer Seminary to become a minister. It was at Crozer that Martin learned about Gandhi. Gandhi was an important leader in India. To get the British rulers of India to leave his country, Gandhi had the people protest non-violently. Martin was very impressed with Gandhi and he would later follow Gandhi's example of non-violent protests” (Sorensen 1994).

Show students a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. explain that Dr. King worked for civil rights, the basic rights and freedoms of citizens.

Online Journal and Media

History in perspective: Students will watch the first section of the “I Have a Dream” speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. After they watch this, they will log onto their computers and make a video journal discussing their initial thoughts and reactions to the speech. Students will also watch live footage of police brutality in Birmingham, Alabama. After the video students will discuss their thoughts and feelings in a video journal. In the journal students will answer the following questions “If you were asked to give a public speech in Washington, DC about what is needed today for a better America, what would you say? What is your “dream”? Compare the civil rights movement with the “black lives matter movement” today. Is there any similarities is there any differences?  How would you convince others to follow your dream?” Share as a class if time allows.

Tasks

After this students will start building a time-line. Students will reference important dates during the civil rights movement. Examples include: Martin Luther King Jr. Speech, Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus, Birmingham Alabama march, etc.

Students will start building a Venn Diagram comparing some similarities and differences between the civil rights movement (1954-1968) and what is happening in our world today e.g. “black lives matter” movement

 

Class Discussion

Once the timeline and presentation are completed, the class will meet together to share and discuss their thoughts and come to some conclusions about the civil rights movement. During the class discussion, each student will be encouraged to share any change in their personal ideas about the civil rights movement because of the findings presented.

Formative Assessment

Students will split up into groups of 3 and make a quick online Google slide presentation. They will use ideas and research from the internet to compare and contrast the civil rights movement to current events happening with “black lives matter” they will highlight key features of current events today and from the civil rights movement. Students will then use this information to make informed decisions on whether or not these movements are positive or negative. Or how they are effecting our world today.

Summative Assessment

The Individual Report: Once everyone has had a chance to share their ideas about the Martin Luther King Jr. And the Civil Rights movement, students will have the opportunity to write a final report about Civil Rights. This report can be done in one of the following ways: Students can write a book using iAuthor, students can create a google slide presentation or students can use iMovie to generate a powerful movie. 

Students will create their own individual report that includes the following elements:

·       The report must be generated using some technology publishing tool (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Prezi, iMovie, iAuthor, other as ok’d by the teacher)

·       The report must include a Venn diagram that accurately compares the civil rights movement (1954-1968) to some of the issues of racism we see in America today.  

·       The report must answer the following questions:

Who is Martin Luther King Jr. and why is he important?

 Why do you think the civil rights movement was an important piece of history? 

What do you think the civil rights movement was trying to accomplish?

What did you learn about civil rights and civil liberties?

Do you think there is a connection between the issues of race today and the issues of race during the civil rights movement? Why do you believe this? What evidence do you have to support this?

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Students will need several tools to research, gather, organize, and publish your findings. 

·       Research tools, such as a web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer) and an Internet Search Engine (i.e. Google) to gather information, images, sounds, video and perhaps other media to help you answer the research questions.

·       Writing and multimedia presenting tools, to share your team’s findings (i.e. tools for the PC like; MS-Word, Google slides and Movie Maker.

·       Organizing tools, (i.e. MS-Excel, Open Office Calc, or iWorks Numbers) to list and organize your information in a way that it is easy to find.

·       Multimedia tools, such as image, audio, and or video editing to help create new media or edit some of the media you’ve collected during your research.  You may even want to produce a movie of your Ancient Structure. (i.e. Adobe Photoshop, LView Pro, or Audacity).

·       Timeline Tool: http://timeline.knightlab.com/

·       Venn Diagram tool: http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/venn_diagram_templates.shtml

·       Timeline resources: http://projects.seattletimes.com/mlk/?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=vanityURL&utm_campaign=redirect

·       http://projects.seattletimes.com/mlk/bio.html#timeline

·       Venn Diagram resources: http://projects.seattletimes.com/mlk/?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=vanityURL&utm_campaign=redirect

·         http://blacklivesmatter.com/guiding-principles/

·       http://www.factmonster.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

Media

                              

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I47Y6VHc3Ms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFcCQDkVOjM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPeCQzHu5w

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/56/files/2015/08/Unite-Here-BLM.jpg

https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1531751/black-lives-matter-protest-london.jpg?w=400

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMedqlxbFfM

Bibliography

Lambert, K.K. (1993). Martin Luther King, Jr. :Civil Rights Leader. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.

Adler, D. (1986). Martin Luther King, Jr. :Free at Last. New York: Holiday House.

Sorensen, L. (1994). Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Vero Beach, FL: The Rourke Press, Inc.

                                          

                                          

                               

Criteria	Approaches	Meets	Exceeds
Read and construct simple timelines	The report included a timeline that was mostly accurate and included some of the important facts about the Civil Rights movement	The report included a timeline that was well constructed and included most of the facts about the Civil Rights movement.	The report included a timeline that was well constructed and included all of the facts about the Civil Rights movement.
Use knowledge, facts and concepts drawn from history to create a Venn Diagram about the civil rights movement	The students provided a good Venn diagram that identified similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.	The students provided a compelling Venn Diagram that accurately identified similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.	The students provided a detailed and accurate Venn Diagram that identified similarities and differences between The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Compare and contrast different events happening in different eras of history.	The report provided some evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.	The report provided plenty of evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.	The report provided all of the evidence on why the Civil Rights movement was important in influencing the “Black Lives Matter” movement of today.