CC Montessori Tour

My tour through CC Montessori school was very enlightening. I had some preconceived ideas of what and/or how Montessori works. After speaking with the director, and observing the classrooms, I realize that my perceptions of Montessori were uneducated. I was very impressed with the classrooms. I could not believe how quiet they were. I even had to ask the director where the ADHD students were. She assured me there were quite a few.

Another thing that impressed me is the extra education these students receive, besides the three R's. Students are responsible for maintaining a salt water fish tank, taking care of doves, planting a garden, and even a pet rabbit. They are actively engaged in recycling. This school is raising well-educated and well-rounded students. My hats off to Montessori!

Service Project Finalized

Wow, what an experience! I started making a movie in MovieMaker, then found out that since I was using internet pictures, I needed to create a voicethread. I had less than 24 hours to create the voicethread, but I did it. I had the pictures all done, and my part of the recording finished.

I met with my student and her mother yesterday after school. The only thing we had to do was record her voice, then finish her blog. We embedded the voicethread into her blog. As we were packing up, I thanked her mother for allowing her daughter to participate in this project. I also promised to send an email with the links to all three children's blogs, so she can forward on to interested family and friends. I have embedded her voicethread below.

Overall, this has been a positive, although stressful experience. Something I would change is the timeline. It would have been nice to have a little longer to work on the project. It would also have been nice if I weren't working, so I could perhaps work with the child a little bit during school hours, if the teacher permitted.

Now that I know how easy it is to record voice, I will definitely plan to use voicethreads and MovieMaker in my classroom. It's not as scary as it sounds. All it takes is a little practice, then the realization that, "I can do this!"

Service Project Experience Week 2 (cont)

During this week, my student and her mother did some research on Mount Vesuvius. They found some really great pictures, and some interesting facts about the volcano. They did a great job of finding some answers to the questions that we posed last week. While they've been researching, I worked on getting the blog set up.

This weekend, I took the research and created the storyboard. I also put together the Works Cited page. I have started the MovieMaker movie, but it's still a work in progress. I will meet with my student again this week, and our goal is to get some audio files recorded. Then I will add them into the movie. At this point, I believe I am about halfway finished with this project. At first I didn't think it would happen, but it has been moving along nicely this last week.

Service Project Experience Week 2

This week, I will be meeting with my student to begin working on our project. We will be meeting at the Montessori school, and our first goal is to accomlish the KWL chart. Next, we will begin our blog. I'll post more after our first meeting.

I met with my student for 15 mintues this week. Her project is open-ended, so her mother and I made up a few questions, and asked her to research the answers. These questions should give us a good start for a voicethread, and possibly a movie. She took the KWL chart home with her. So this week she will try to complete the KWL chart, answer the questions, and look up some pictures.

Service Project Experience Week 1

I have been assigned to work with a first grader, and we'll be working on volcanoes. Our first week was not very productive, as both the parent and I have very busy schedules. The child was not clear about her assignment, so the parent is going to meet with the teacher for some details. We are looking forward to getting started as we move into the second week.

Spreadsheets in the Classroom?

Is there a place for spreadsheets in the classroom? Absolutely! If we are trying to educate a technologically savvy generation, then we must include spreadsheets! Some people automatically associate numbers with math, and assume spreadsheets can only be used for math. Josette Longoria's spreadsheet shows us a great example of using a spreadsheet in science. In fact, we can use spreadsheets in just about any subject area.

When using spreadsheets in the classroom, I will begin by showing several examples of how they are used. I will ask questions of the students, such as asking them to explain to me what they see, and how they can read the spreadsheet. Some guiding questions might include:

(1) How can spreadsheets give us information in very little space?
(2) Would graphs be a good idea to expand and/or condense the information?
(3) In what subjects can we use spreadsheets?

These questions would encourage students to investigate spreadsheets, and to open their minds to more ideas that are outside the box. For example, a spreadsheet can be used to compare information about several subjects, such as in Josette's spreadsheet. I can see that being very useful in Social Studies units.

I think spreadsheets would be too much for young students, but I can definitely see older elementary students using them. Here is my example of the Wedding Budget from this week's assignments.

The Magic of Movies

Creating a movie is one of the most creative ways to express an idea. It is easy to put a movie together when following the 7 elements of digital storytelling we learned earlier. The fun is in the filming, and the mechanics is in the editing.

When I was a child, it seemed each year we had to be in a play. Now that we have video editing software, it would be great to film the play, then mix in some sound effects and/or music. The students would have a ball learning how to do this. Or in the case of younger students, the teacher could do it, then post the video online for the students and their parents to enjoy. The best part would be having the video available for family and friends around the country (or the world) to enjoy. Grandparents may never miss out on their grandchild’s achievements ever again!

These tools would also be useful to me as a teacher. I’m sure there will be science experiments that would be perfect, except they may be too time consuming and/or too dangerous for younger students. I could conduct the experiments at home and video them. That would give me an opportunity to present the experiment to the class, without all the hands-on mess that sometimes occurs. Here is my first video, designed as part of a lesson on natural forces.