End of Semester Thoughts
This project gave me the perfect opportunity to change how I've been doing things and put a plan into action. I had been teaching the same way that the middle school technology teachers teach, allowing for an alignment of continuity within our tech program. I decided to change it up to a hybrid model, which worked to a point. I had students typing, with me on the rug, and recapping/continuing their work in a small group. The downside to this was that because I only see kids twice a month, at times it became difficult to get back to where we were at. I believe that this method will work more effectively if I ever see kids every week again, which is still being discussed for next year. I haven't given up on this idea, but have pretty much put it back on the shelf for future reference.
Background
The elementary technology team uses a standardized lesson plan format for all three teachers in all five buildings. This was the lesson plan we revised from last year's project. I decided to take it a step further and work with my librarian to develop a project that would think win-win-win. The 3rd grade teacher briefly covers biographies. The librarian works with the teacher to teach students how to research someone famous. I take it a step further by developing a project that the students can use to tell the story of someone they've researched. While there may be better programs other than PowerPoint to tell this story (i.e., ThingLink, Chatterpix, etc.), at this point in their education, due to circumstances beyond our control, our students need to dive into PowerPoint to learn everything they can; it's our last big project using this program. If they were ever given the opportunity to use Google Slides or a Prezi, the basic groundwork of adding and formatting shapes and text are built in PowerPoint, and we hope that these skills will eventually transfer over. The timeline for this project is very vague, so please pay no attention to that; we see students twice a month, so while these skills could be covered weekly in these three months, we'll end up taking this project out to the remainder of the year.
An Experimental Hybrid Model
While other teachers in my buildings have begun to teach using a hybrid model, I hadn't considered using one in my technology class until returning from a recent conference. Like a left hook from Clubber Lang, it hit me that I could run a hybrid model; it is worth trying, at least. The revised plans offer a glimpse into a still infant idea in which I separate a class into three teams.
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Original Unit Plan
3rd-powerpoint_story.pdf | |
File Size: | 314 kb |
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Revised Unit Plan
3rd-powerpoint_story_revised.pdf | |
File Size: | 325 kb |
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