My Curriculum Web

My curriculum web is called The Rolling Earth. It is designed for middle school students studying earth science, but it can be easily adapted for upper elementary and high school students. The left margin of the table contains the table of contents for the webpage. Teachers will find the Curriculum Guide section to be useful. This section explains the content and the benchmarks that are covered in this curriculum web.

There are three activities that are included in this web. All of the activities are listed in the activities page. I included a “Before you get started” section in each activity to motivate the students or provide students with some background knowledge to complete each activity. In Activity 1, students will map out locations of volcanoes and earthquakes on a world map. They will use critical thinking to conclude that earthquakes and volcanoes occur in the same area, such as plate boundaries. I like this activity, because the students make the important conclusion themselves without me telling them, and it’s interdisciplinary. In Activity 2, students will view a PowerPoint that will give them the knowledge they need to complete the activity. Then, they will build a fault model and follow the directions to understand the three different types of faults. In Activity 3, students will watch two movie clips from United Streaming to get the needed information to complete this activity. Then, students will determine the epicenter of a Michigan earthquake by using the Mercalli scale. This is a wonderful activity, because it hits several standards. The rubrics for all three of these activities are found in the Assessment page.

There are a few more tools in the curriculum web that students can use to help their understanding of the content presented in this web. They can go to the Online Assessment section to test their understanding of the content. They can go to the Vocabulary section to get the meanings of words pertaining to earthquakes. They can extend their knowledge by visiting the Resources section.

Thanks for viewing my curriculum web. If you have any comments or suggestions, then please visit my Feedback section.

Being Culturally Aware

My curriculum web is designed for middle school science students. My population is diverse in every which way, economically, academically, and culturally. The activities on my curriculum web vary and touch upon several multiple intelligences. Some of the intelligences that will be used include mathematical/logical, verbal linguistic, spatial, and bodily kinesthetic. Also, students will use cooperative learning in some of my activities. That will help students who are low and need support from others. Whenever I design an activity, I always try to think of ways to include all kinds of learners.

Constructivist Learning

I believe in the philosophy of constructivist learning and try to incorporate in my classroom whenever I can. However, I'm not used to learning through the constructivist method because I was never taught this way through my years of schooling. Since I barely have any experience learning this way, I'm very apprehensive and nervous about this lesson. I really feel lost and confused at times, not sure if I'm doing it right. I would like to have some guidance along the way. The only advantage of this lesson is that I developed my own pacing which is great because I have such a busy schedule. I feel Dreamweaver is very complicated and too time consuming. I don't understand the purpose of using Dreamweaver when there are so many templates out there to create websites and they are so much easier. Hopefully, Dreamweaver will grow on me and become easier.

Teacher Websites

The website that I chose to critique is: http://www.mzmarcotte.com/TableofContents.htm

The teacher's name is Ms. Marcotte. She is a middle school science teacher. I came across this website when I was researching online for middle school science ideas. I was thrown into middle school a couple days before school started so I needed some good, quick ideas that I can use in my classroom. I came across this website and found lots of useful information. Her website is very informative for her students, parents, and other teachers. This website is updated regularly with a date provided. Students can obtain information about the daily agenda in science, including homework. Long-term assignments along with rubrics and expectations are also included, which is great for parents as well as students. Students are provided with a list of extra credit activities that they can complete for science. Procedures are explained in detail for their homework, projects, and binder. Word documents are hyperlinked so students or other teachers can print handouts if needed. It also contains interesting science things for kids, like science games, interesting science facts, news articles, and jokes and quotes. There's also an online survey that’s posted so students can evaluate the class periodically throughout the year. It's an interactive website. The website also contains a link to a blog that her students participate in. I got a lot of my ideas for my classroom from this website.

The only problem that I found with this website was that as you navigate through the website you will find the fonts to be of varying sizes and colors. I thought that was a little distracting. Also, the layout was not proportional as we learned it should be in our last class. Other than that, I love this website and I visit it frequently to get ideas.

Video Games in the Classroom

How do I feel about video games? Well, I have mixed feelings about this topic. I grew up playing video games, and definitely enjoyed it when I was little. However, my parents always moderated my playing time so I wasn't playing all day long like most of my students. Also, the games have changed dramatically over the years from appropriate games to more violent games. Currently, I feel that popular video games played at home would be okay as long as parents are moderating the playing time and content of the video. I feel that's not being done, which is contributing to kids who are out of shape and have less attention span in schools.

I will defintely never use video games in the classroom if there is no curriculum link, because that would just be a waste of their educational time. I have used games in my classroom that I mentioned in my previous blog, but never a video game. I would use a video game if the game has a strong curriculum tie to the topic in hand in science or math and if there is no violence. It would be a fun way for students to practice math or science skills through a video game instead of a worksheet. I haven't used a video game, because I don't know of any and I don't have the resources available to purchase it for my students. Does anyone know of good video games for middle school science and math?

Currently, I don't forsee video games in my classroom because the budget is really tight in my school district for me to purchase games. Also, I am not aware of good, solid video games that relate to my teaching subject.

Games in My Classroom

I use games (technological and others) in my classroom frequently to review concepts that have been taught in the classroom. I have used Jeopardy and Millionaire, and have received a positive response from all of my students. I have created several games that are not technological to reinforce scientific and mathematical concepts. The kids are truly motivated when we play the games.

I have not had any experience with designing a technological game from scratch. Consequently, I haven't exposed my students to game designing. I think a game is a great way for students to learn concepts and I would love to design homemade PowerPoint games for my students to play. I also think it would be great if students designed their own games as it helps them construct their own learning and it allows them to play an active role in their learning process. However, I do not have time to teach my students how to create a PowerPoint game. There is so much of the curriculum that I have to get through the school year in math and science that I don't have time to teach them computer skills. There is so much pressure with the MEAPs and the school grade that I cannot afford to lose days not teaching math and science. Again, I love this idea, but I don't think it's practical for me because of lack of time. I would love it if our school's computer/technology teacher could present game design to the students and show them how to create a PowerPoint. I could then have them create a game based on math or science concepts because they would know the basics of how to create a game using PowerPoint. That's the only way that I think I can save time to have the students create games in science and math.

Today's Students

I must say that I really enjoyed the reading for this unit. During the readings, I was comparing my students to the characteristics of the generation presented by the three articles. I was also trying to figure out what generation I belonged to because I felt I had characteristics from both of the generations. From the Reeves and Oh article, I realized that I was a cusper since I feel I belong both to Generation X and Millennial generation. As for my students go, I felt Prensky’s article described my students the best. I thought the article did a good job of describing the two generations as Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Again, I feel that I have characteristics of both, Digital Native and Immigrant. When I used to teach writing, I used to have my students create a rough draft on paper and then a final copy. I would get frustrated as a teacher because they hated this procedure and struggled with it. I noticed that my sister, a Digital Native, wrote papers directly from the computer, since it was quicker and easier for her. I tried that on my students and found that typing on the computer came more natural to them than writing on paper, which in turn produced better writing samples. I also agree from Prensky’s article, that today’s students have changed and are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. The students do think differently, which means that we should not rely on the traditional lecture method. I do feel that my students are used to getting information fast and prefer graphics before their text. Also, they work better when I play music in the background.

The Reeves and Oh article did a nice job of analyzing the research and articles out there for the Millennial generation. I felt the Howe and Strauss article presented a very optimistic view on today’s students. I disagreed with most of what Howe and Strauss mentioned in their article because I couldn’t relate my students to the characteristics that were presented. I feel GenMe is the most appropriate name for this generation because I feel my students are very self absorbed. I compared my students and cousins that belong to this generation with the characteristics presented by Howes and Strauss and found that the characteristics did not match. They put themselves first before their parents. I feel they put less effort into anything they are doing when it comes to work and school. They always want the easy way out. They do not respect their elders, especially the authority. I feel they use their parents to bail them out of trouble. I see this happen all the time in our school. Parents are fighting with the administration because they don’t believe in the punishment given to their child. I don’t think the kids are optimistic, positive, and confident. I have several students who cut themselves because they are unhappy and want to punish themselves with pain. However, I do agree with Howe and Strauss that this generation has everything they need when it comes to things. I feel these kids have much more than the kids in my generation had. I do not agree with Howe and Strauss that the kids in this generation are the most watched. We have Challenge Day in our school and it’s a day when the kids open up and talk about their feelings. From Challenge Day, I noticed that a lot of parents for my students are working long hours with kids being home alone for a large part of the day.

Overall, I found the reading to be very interesting. I felt Prensky did a nice job of describing my students, whereas I could not relate my students to the characteristics presented by Howe and Strauss. I agree with Reeves and Oh that better research needs to be conducted on generations.

First Impressions of Web 2.0

Hello, my name is Sohnia Malik. I am a seventh grade science and math teacher at Grissom Middle School. Grissom Middle School is located in Sterling Heights, Michigan and is a school of Warren Consolidated Schools. I am starting my 3rd year of teaching and am fortunate to be teaching the same subjects in the same school, since there was a lot of movement in the district. I teach 4 sections of science and 1 section of math. Grissom is a pretty big school with more than 600 students. The student population is diverse in terms of socio-economic and race. Grissom is a Title I school, which means that we have several students of low socio-economic status. We get title I funds from the federal government to fund some of our activities such as after school tutoring. We have a big Middle Eastern population in our schools. As you may have heard on the news, WCS will receive hundreds of Iraqi refugees, which will definitely boost our enrollment. The biggest challenge that Grissom faces is lack of parental involvement, because of the culture differences and parents who do not speak english. I only had 29 parents show up for open house this past week! We are looking at ways to improve communication between parents and the school. I love working in a middle school, because I feel like I can relate to the kids.

I love using technology in my classroom, because I believe it is a great motivator. I just got a LCD projector which my students and I are loving it! I have not used blogs in my classroom. I believe blogs would benefit my classroom, especially in my science classroom. However, the only reason I don't use blogs is because several of my students do not have a computer or internet access at home. I cannot require computers or Internet access, because several of students cannot afford it. It is difficult to do it at school because we only have 2 computer labs and 1 set of laptops, which are always busy. I would love to use blogs, but I feel lack of availability prevents me to try it in my classroom.