Taylor+M.

__**APRIL 13, 2011**__ TEACHING TREMENDOUSLY Last Tuesday, April 5, we had "Teaching Tremendously." This was an activity where we taught our science lesson plan to our colleagues. The difficult part about teaching this was that we had created lessons for a specific grade level but then had to sort of adapt them for our college peers who were "acting" like students in our grade level. Doing the lesson and working through it out loud did help me to find flaws in my lessons, however I do not necessarily feel more prepared to teach this lesson in the field. I was certainly able to benefit from the advice of my colleagues in a way that would not have occurred had I simply described to them what I was doing. It was challenging because my 21 year old peers were not able to embody the behaviors and attitudes of the students in the classroom I am observing, despite having a typed prompt describing their character. I know the prompts I provided were not super detailed, but that is because I really haven't had a lot of hands-on, one-on-one time with the students in the field. During my observations I typically sit in the back of the room and observe! Even though there were some flaws in the overall implementation of Teaching Tremendously, I definitely think it was a beneficial use of our time.

Last Thursday, April 7, I did not completed Teaching Tremendously because I was in Daytona Beach, Florida with the WFU Cheerleading team competing in the National Cheerleaders Association collegiate cheer championship.

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__**MARCH 28, 2011 **__ FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT  What did you learn from reading the Stiggins article (on Sakai - under assessment)? Assessments result in one of two outcomes for students: they either feel successful and like they have achieved their goal or their feel like they have failed. The actual grade or score on an assessment is irrelevant - what matters is the student affect. [|ASCD] describes student affect as the attitudes, interests, and values that students gain and display at school. If a student receives a B but they wanted an A, they will feel like they have failed even though they received a grade that was "above average." This goes both ways; a student who gets a C but thought they were going to get a D will feel like they have succeeded. Whether or not students feel successful is a large determinate of their future motivation. Students who feel successful are intrinsically motivated to continue to strive for success, whereas students who repeatedly fail will give up, stop trying, and develop learned helplessness. Those students who frequently fail make up their mind that they never have succeeded and never can, so why should they try.

 Identify 3 ways that you might create a formative assessment for your unit (either this lesson, or the lesson you created for Science, or even another lesson you plan to do). Identify several sources for formative assessment ideas - including your texts from your current methods courses. 1. This [|website] provides a brief outline of formative and summative assessment and provides a table of some common assessments used in the classroom. "Anecdotal records" are a common one and one that I will use. The IMAPS are an example of an anecdotal record in a video format. I would like to use video or audio recordings as a way to organize the assessments as well as integrate techonolgy with it. Dr. Cunninghma mentioned in our class on Tuesday that having videos of student progress are priceless for parents, teachers, and the student themselves. 2. Going along with that, students can self-assess by reviewing and reflecting on their videos. They could also do this with written pieces or tests. Dr. C said in class today that when students see the progress they are making they are astonished and motivated. 3.Another strategy that I will use for a quick glimpse and student's current understanding is thumbs up/thumbs down.

 How will you document the information you receive from collecting information on your students' understanding? What will you do with that information? How can it inform your future instructional decisions? Can you identify ways to use a SmartPhone to collect data? I will have a drawers for each student and put their work for their portfolios in their drawer. If I have digital evidences, then I will put this all in a folder on my desktop and my external hard drive. This information will be organized and I could graph it. I will share this with parents and administrators to illustrate the progress my students have made. If I realized a number of students missed the same question on a test, that would tell me I did not teach the matieral well and I would go back and reteach it in a different manner to ensure my students grasp the concepts. This [|app] puts Excel on your iPhone. You could download this app and use it to create an Excel file with each students name and their score on a test.

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__**MARCH 24th, 2011 **__ There is a new solar farm in Taylorsville, NC (see: []). How would you plan a field trip to this this solar farm? Explain how you could connect the field trip to the content areas. Can you think of ways in which math would naturally fit into this field trip?

I tried to use Google to find more information on the solar farm, but the only results were similar to the hyperlinked article above. I could not find a name of the solar farm or any contact information. Therefore, to plan the field trip, I would contact the Taylorsville chamber of commerce to see if they could give me any information. Even if they couldn’t, I’m sure they could direct me to someone else with more information. Places like this, typically have an educational director or someone in a similar position and they have probably had other field trips. The director’s at the place usually have a preset educational tour so the only planning I would really need to do would be to get in touch with them and set up a time, as well as getting the field trip approved by the administration. I would also need to get permission slips from parents. The field trip would clearly connect to science because of the sustainability aspect. Also, we could connect it to social studies and how people have to change the way they get energy and how societal views have shifted to more “green” energy. Before and after the field trip, students could write questions and thank you letters, and this would connect to literacy. The class could also make a book about what they learned on the field trip as well as read other books about sustainability. Math naturally fits in this field trip by looking at the numbers of how much energy costs and where the bulk of our energy comes from. In your response: 1. Outline your student outcomes for the field trip. a. TSWBAT define renewable energy in their own words. b. TSWBAT explain the importance of renewable energy. c. TSWBAT compare and contrast forms of energy we use today. 2. Connect the field trip to relevant NCSCOS objectives (you may choose a grade level). a. NCSCOS First Grade Science Competency Goal 1 states that the learner will build an understanding of the needs of living things. It’s a stretch, but we could talk about how humans in industrialized societies have a need for electricity and energy. b. NCSCOS First Grade Social Studies Competency Goal 3 states that the leaner will understand the concept of change. We could talk about the how we are currently shifting towards more green energy sources and how we used to have gas lanterns but now use electric light bulbs. c. NCSCOS First Grade Social Studies Competency Goal 6 states that the learner will apply basic economic concepts. We could talk about the costs of energy and other utilities. 3. Outline the day (briefly) a. We would leave the school at 9:30am and arrive at the solar farm around 10:45am. When we arrived, we would go to a conference room and watch a video about solar energy and listen to what this solar farm is all about for about 15 minutes. Then we would go on a 30 minute tour of the facility. At 11:30, we would eat lunch at the solar farm. At noon, we would leave to get back to school and be back at school by 1:30pm. 4. Create at least one task/activity that obviously and purposefully addresses math. a. You could is this [|energy calculator] to find out how much energy each appliance in your home uses. Instead of having the calculator add it up, you could have students add it up themselves.

b. [|This lesson] is for upper grades, but it would be a good lesson. c. [|This website] has mobile apps.

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__**FEBRUARY 24th, 2011 **__  "Connecting Music and Math"  How can music help you teach math?

 CONTENT:  Making content relatable and authentic to students is a critical component of garnering student engagement and also keeping students active, focused, and excited about the lesson. One way to involve students and present mathematics teaching in a real-life setting is by integrating music into the lesson. This may seem like a daunting task, but a number of resources are available to use when planning to teach math with music. Music involves tempos and time signatures (usually displayed as fractions) and patterns, represented by the rhythm of the song. This [|lesson plan] details ways to use music to have students follow patterns. Additionally, music can also be used in science when learning about wavelengths and frequencies since each musical note creates a different tone and thus has a different frequency. This [|lesson plan] is very creative and illustrates how to teach children about waves.

 PEDAGOGY:  Learning a song about a concept, especially a familiar tune, truly activates parts of the brain that rote memorization or direct instruction does not. Having something that triggers a memory cue expedites memory retrieval and also makes the content more meaningful. For instance, I still remember the DNA song that I learned in 9th grade biology set to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” This [|website] provides a number of songs that relate to math and other content areas, and this [|website] has math raps. A fun song that involves math and exercise is [|Let's Get Fit].

 TECHNOLOGY:  Obviously, using iPods and CD players are a necessity when trying to play music for students. Bringing the actual instruments into the classroom is a great way to expose children to the sounds different instruments make. This [|lesson plan] while it seems little abstract, is a possibility of representing math through musical instruments. SmartBoards can be used to make graphs or show demonstration videos and just enhance the learning experience all together.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> SUSTAINABILITY: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> I’m not totally sure how to tie in sustainability to math and music. Students could find facts (quantitative) about recycling or any other sustainability related concern and compose a song or PSA describing their issue.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Identify (One each): Assessment, Mobile Apps, Other Media <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> To assess students understanding, you could ask students to perform the songs they have been rehearsing in class. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Here is an [|app] that simulates learning playing the piano to learn the multiplication table. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> I don’t quite understand this video, but it seems interesting: [|Understanding Math Music and Building Proportions]. Perhaps it is talking about how different architectural constructs results in various acoustic sounds. I would not show this to elementary students but it is interesting nonetheless.

__**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">JANUARY 27th, 2011 **__
"Counting on Estimating..." Establish a question first...What is?...How do?and then answer it in your connections below:

CONTENT: Last class, my group (the great continent of Asia, haha) was asked “How far is it form A11 (in Tribble Hall) to the quad?” Because this question was directly related to us on campus, it was more tangible. That is why I decided to ask another inquiry question that is explicitly connected to students at Wake: How long do students at Wake Forest spend driving around looking for a parking spot on campus? I thought of this question when driving back from my observations this morning and couldn’t find a parking spot. I also know from my conversations with other students that this is and has been an issue on campus. For math, this question is certainly an estimation problem but also one that can be investigated concretely as well. To study this for math, elementary students can practice telling time and estimating the time it takes to complete a task. This website has a fun FlashPlayer game designed to help students realize similarities and differences between analog clocks and digital clocks. In terms of social studies, students could examine space and population growth. Coincidentally, this ties in with last week’s lesson on scarcity and abundance! Awesome! In literacy, students can examine Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug. To add onto the literacy subject area, and to incorporate music into this lesson, go to this website which has a few songs and poems related to telling time.

PEDAGOGY: Estimation is a key objective for elementary mathematics. The ability to estimate lays a foundation for developing future number sense. To develop relatively accurate estimation skills there are number of activities that can be implemented. I’m sure we all remember estimation jars in elementary school. These are pretty easy to put together and I recall a lot of excitement revolving around this task. Also, teachers could ask students to use time as an estimate: estimate how long it takes to get ready for school, how long it takes to do chores, and relating it back to cars, how long it takes to drive to school. With science, it would be easy to investigate the impact of driving, using gasoline, and carbon emissions. While this website does not pertain to driving, it does estimate the carbon emissions from a house. The emissions calculator might be better for upper elementary grades. For science, teachers and students could discuss the needs of humans and living things (competency goal 1 for 1st grade). I’m thinking in particular how we get our food and how it has to be shipped to grocery stores creating a carbon footprint. More specifically to integrate this with social studies, discussions could revolve around dense populations and the resources those overpopulated, industrialized societies use. In order to connect literacy with all the above content areas, the Grouchy Ladybug is a great book that can be related to the needs of living things, telling time, and it’s a stretch but estimating the aphids on the leaves and talking about if they have enough space on one leaf to all live together.

TECHNOLOGY: Students could use watches, clocks, timers, stopwatches, or any other time keeping device to actually time themselves in various activities after they have made their estimations. Teachers could use a SmartBoard or document viewer and place objects on the screen for a brief moment then turn off the screen and ask students how many objects they saw.

SUSTAINABILITY: There is an obvious connection between the carbon emissions detailed in the science lesson and the use/waste of fossil fuels and natural resources. This could lead to a host of other inquiry questions ("How can we reduce carbon emissions?" "What can we do to help the environment?") which is what the ultimate goal would be…to keep students thinking and have one problem or solution lead to another!

Identify (One each): Assessment, Mobile Apps, Other Media For a formative assessment, teachers could have students keep math journals of their estimations and of actual amounts. Teachers, for instance, could have students and the end of the day make an estimation of how long it will take them to get home or to do their homework. Then when they actually are doing the activity they could time themselves and write down the actual time. Graphs could also be made as a whole class activity to assess diagnostically or formatively students' understanding. I also came across this Carbon Footprint Calculator which is a web app from apple.com but if you visit the app store you can find similar apps for iPhone and iPad by typing carbon footprint in the search bar. Because I am interested in learning more about sustainability carbon emissions, I found this kid-friendly website this kid-friendly websiteabout these topics. Students could do a web-walk with this website and explore how to be more sustainable.



__**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">JANUARY 20th, 2011 **__ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> What do we have too much of on our campus? What do we have too little of on our campus?



<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> CONTENT (Math, Science, Literacy, Social Studies): <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> One thing my group noticed during this activity was that there was too much emphasis on <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> money and prestige on this campus. Money is a topic that can be integrated with all the <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> content areas listed above. With math, students can learn about currency, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> making change, and paying for items. In science, students could experiment with <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> different solvents to see which best clean pennies. Students could read the book The <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Penny Pot during literacy: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> [] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Finally, students could explore the currencies used in <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> different countries to gain an appreciation for the United States monetary system and <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> compare and contrast different ways of life: []

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> PEDAGOGY: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> For math, students could use the costs of items to figure out greater than (>), less than <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> (<), and equal to (=). They could also do problems where they are given a budget and <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> then must determine what they can and cannot purchase at a restaurant or shopping mall. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> It would be useful here to recognize the interests of students and make the word problems <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> relevant to their interests. In science, experiments could be conducted using various <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> solvents (orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, water, etc.) to determine which solvents <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> cleaned pennies the most or the least: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Then students could create a graph to organize <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> their data. With literacy, students could explore the storyline and practice making the <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> amounts that are discussed throughout the book. Then they could create their own <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> personal money book. With different currencies from around the world, students in <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> upper grades may be able to convert another countries currency into USD with some <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> scaffolding.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> TECHNOLOGY: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Teach children how to add the monetary values using pencil and paper and also <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> demonstrate how calculators can be used. Using manipulatives, like plastic <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> representations of real US currency would be a great tool for covering this topic. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Students can use computers to research different cultures. Once they have gathered <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> enough data, they could create a “newscast” or documentary reporting the information <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> they have gathered.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> SUSTAINABILITY: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> To integrate sustainability, students could determine how much paper the school wastes <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> by figuring out how much the paper costs and then how much is used and how much is <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> left over. This type of activity can be done with almost any other resource. Another <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> example would be to count the number of trees around school then determine the cost of <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> one tree and, given a budget, figure out how many more trees the school can plant. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Keeping resources as a tangible object (like paper or how many bottles are recycled) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> helps to concretize the lesson.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Identify (One each): Assessment, Mobile Apps, Other Media <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> For assessment, teachers could assign children into groups and give them a story <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> problem, a bag of monetary manipulatives, a calculator, and a pencil and paper. Each <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> student could have a job in the group, for example, one student could be the recorder. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The recorder would not only write down answers, but also the thought processes during <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> the task. The teacher could monitor the students while they did the activity as well as <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> read the journals after completion. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> I went to the App Store on my iPhone 4 and searched for “currency”. The first app was a <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> free currency converter by Jeffrey Grossman. This could be utilized for the social studies <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> investigation into other country’s monetary units. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> A video I found is by Schoolhouse Rock called “$7.50 Once a Week”: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> [] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> This video talks about how a boy has an allowance and it details how he spends his <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> money throughout the week. There could be ample discussion and reflection on this <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> video after watching it with a class. Students can probably relate to having an allowance, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> or at least imaging how they would spend their allowance if they had one. This could <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> also relate to literacy because the teacher could verify students understood certain words <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> like allowance, sale, and budget.