Week 13- Comment and Progress

I have looked  through some of the other ePortfolio entries and have gotten several GREAT ideas and resources. The tutorial for signing up for an Edmodo account is great!  I think this will be a great beginning of the year video to show both students and parents. I'm already thinking about an open house use for this video. I also looked up several other "How-To" videos for Edmodo that I would like to post on my Edline for Parents to have as resources.

My progress is going well!! Though my actual full unit has not been utilized yet, the skills I have learned from this class have already changed how I teach.
Students have used a public document as a collaboration tool already and it was very successful! They were amazed to see that everyone could work on one idea at a time.

I look forward to designing my Spring units in a blended fashion. I am also very much looking forward to the presentations for some final collaborative ideas.

Week 12- Effective Presentations

Teaching presentation skills in the classroom should be part of every content. Presentation skills are a way to incorporate a real world application of your contact.  Science is a communicative field where ideas are established and accepted through presentation.

The 21st century skills that must be addressed in the classroom justify the teaching of presentation skills and incorporating them into the content. Here are two examples:

21C.O.5-8.1.LS.2- Student interprets abstract visuals and creates products (e.g. digital storytelling) that reflect a growing understanding of visual language and require the effective use of tools (e.g. cropped photos, original charts and graphs, well-chosen images from databases, video clips).

21C.O.5-8.1.LS.3-Student presents thoughts, ideas, and conceptual understanding efficiently, accurately and in a compelling manner and enhances the oral or written presentation through the use of technology.

Some resources that you can use as an educator for prepared presentations are the Microsoft Suit, Google Presentation,  Prezi, Keynote, Animoto, any video prep software.

In the beginning of my blended unit, my students must understand the historic progression of the atom. They must know the scientists and famous experiments that lead to the discovery of the subatomic particles and the uses we have for a model today.

A positive of using a prezi presentation to teach this content material is that the student engagement is much higher in comparison to a general lecture based style to present facts.

This is a work in progress and will be edited before I use this unit.

History of an Atom on Prezi

Another presentation used for discussion and interaction about rates of reaction in our class

Rate of Reaction- Book Investigation on Prezi

In addition to presentation software as educator tools for lessons, students can use any of the above mentioned programs to create a presentation about a group designed experiment and the results. (Not used in this specific unit but I am having my students use this later in the year.)