I am currently building a sister site to Jamael's Shorts called Jamael's Shortcuts :-) It is a technology toolbox, a hodgepodge of tools for tech integration. It is still in its infancy, but please check it out- there are some things up that you may find useful. Hope to see you there!
0 Comments
Oh, Google. You really do have it all, don't you? While looking for good blogs to find lesson plans for math and science, what do I come across? Google for Education! A little-known Google app for integrating technology in the classroom. This is LITERALLY what I have been spending the last 3 years of my life learning how to do, and here it is, right in Google. The lesson plan part searches just like any other Google search, but the site is really a resource guide for teachers, parents, students, and administrators for integrating technology in education, *AHEM* excuse me, integrating GOOGLE: hangouts, drive, YouTube, scholar, translate, etc. All the Google lovelies, but forming a perfect union for the sake of education. Shall I quote my former employer again? "If I could, I would totally marry Google." Before being exposed to wikis in class, all I knew about them was what I knew about Wikipedia. Essentially, I understood that a wiki was a page that anyone with access could edit, but I didn't really understand how it could be useful beyond Wikipedia. We used a website called Wikispaces to create our own wikis. It is free forever for educators! I created a lesson plan on my wiki for an imaginary class of mine (believe me, it was weird referring to nobody). But I'm pretty proud of my lesson plan, so I hope to use it at some point! My lesson plan is on the different types of careers in the sciences. Many people seem to imagine scientists as creepy dudes in lab coats responsible for crazy mutant rats, but I really wanted to expose students to the real world of science research and the vast possibilities of a career in science. This picture is from KSU Field Camp 2009 of a few of my classmates in the field. We spent 5 weeks in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho mapping out the Black Hills. These are real geologists doing real research; not in a lab, not in an office, but outside! That might not sound fun for everybody, but that's why I created the quiz in the first step of my lesson plan to help someone determine what science they might like or be good at based on preferences and personality. You can take the quiz here if you want to know What Kind of Scientist are You? This quiz is by no means based on any research, but just my experience in the sciences and what I have observed as key elements to each science and the people that study them.
After my "students" take the quiz and find out the result of what science they tend to gravitate towards, I ask them to do some research via the Internet on that particular field. When a runner-up science is very close to the winning science, I ask my students to combine those two sciences and research that field (i.e. geochemistry; chemical physics, bioengineering, etc.). I provided a Google Docs form for the students to fill out that includes a few questions to guide them through research. Finally, I ask the students to post something cool that they learned on the Discussion Board for the rest of the class to see and encourage collaboration there. So far only me, my family, and a few of my Facebook friends have taken this quiz, but hopefully I will have the opportunity to use this in the future. I never would have thought that I could implement so many cool technologies into a single lesson plan! I had so much fun making this - I had so many ideas flying through my head at once, I could hardly get them down fast enough! I am absolutely amazed at what can be done these days, and how much kids can learn from it! To view my lesson plan, click on Wiki Sci Jam! Jamael |