Last class 510

When I began this masters program I was a little worried about a few things, the time commitment, amount of work, and if it would be applicable to my Third Grade classroom. Well, it turns out that the time commitment isn't too bad, the work load is manageable and everything that I have learned about so far could be used in my classroom. What I find most interesting is being able to go back to school and share the information that I have learned with my class as well as the teachers in my school. I may not be able to use Google Docs, Spreadsheet, or Presentation with my class, but I can use it as a tool to organize my information, write letters to parents, and make a presentation for a lesson for my class. I also found all of the web sites shared were very helpful. If anything they give you ideas that you can adapt and use in your class.
The group work that was also completed was very helpful. Even though I am in a group with all high school teachers, our diverse backgrounds make our conversations rich and informative. It is amazing to me how much we have learned from each other and helped each other with things that we may not understand. We have even gotten to the point that we can complete each other's sentences and thoughts. I can only imagine where the rest of the classes are going to take us because I already feel like I have gone so far!

On-Line class and Software Eval

This week we tried to have our class online. At first, I was excited to try it out and then it came to the actual class time. As I was getting ready, I missed the interaction with the other people in the class. The good ol' how was your day, etc. After the first part of class, I was actually beginning to like the online class again because all was going well and I realized I was in my pajamas in my big leather chair, how much better could it be? Then the conference call came. I had was not connected on the conference call and was very frustrated. I could see Louis talking thinking that I was supposed to be hearing him but know that everyone else could hear him. It was like being a caged animal. I was very uncomfortable because I was not sure what was going on. Luckily, Louis called me and another classmate separate and re-explained, but I still felt like I was missing out. I also feel a little lost on some of the assignments because there was no one there for me to double check with, so I decided to get in the car and meet with my group.

I also worked on a software evaluation. Since our district got all new software this year this was a great thing to do. Before we bought the software, I was asked to preview and give feedback informally. I found that doing the actual software evaluation helped me to understand the software even more. I even learned things about the program that I didn't know it could do. It is a detailed process but and important one so that a district can be sure that what the are investing in is worth the time, money and resources.

M&M Graphing Lesson Grand Rapids, MI

After looking through the Intime website, I found a lesson on third graders graphing individual packets of M&M's. They began by doing their own, then combining with a partner and then eventually with a small group. I can see how I can use this in my class. First of all, my kids love food and second we have a program called the Graph Club that would be perfect to use with this lesson. I find that the children are really struggling with graphing and this would be great practice as well as being fun. I was thinking that they could even eventually come up with their own graph, collect the data, graph it, and share it with the class. Maybe this M&M lesson would be a good way to start out and see where the kids would take it. It would be really interesting to do a BIG bag as a class. I also have an M&M man in my class that when the kids are good they get to shake his hand. The number of M&M's vary on the shake so it would be great to keep track of how many they get in each shake and graph that information. After all, that is the one thing they want to know after someone shakes his hand-"how many did you get?"