URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXbfLf-Pjsc

For the grade seven science lesson, I am showing a video clip from you tube that explains and demonstrates the effects of erosion and the formation of current landforms such as caves . Once the students view the beginning of the video, I will get the students to hypothesize what will happen, carry out hte experiment in the video and then watch the remaining of the video.

Planning and Prep
For this video clip I will make sure that I have the materials needed for the students to do the same experiment that video clip goes through. I will not show the result of the video clip as I will get the students to hypothesize and carry out their investigation. Once their assignment is completed I will finish the video clip. I will make sure that I have the correct URL address written down in an email or other text to hyperlink to the video clip. I will also make sure that the video clip works before presenting it to my students.
Outcomes
tudents will:
1. Describe and demonstrate methods used in the scientific study of Earth and in observing and
interpreting its component materials
• investigate and interpret evidence that Earth’s surface undergoes both gradual and sudden change
(e.g., recognize earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides as examples of sudden change; recognize
glacial erosion and river erosion as examples of gradual/incremental change)
• interpret models that show a layered structure for Earth’s interior; and describe, in



Students will:
Work collaboratively on problems; and use appropriate language and formats to communicate ideas,
procedures and results
• receive, understand and act on the ideas of others (e.g., adopt and use an agreed procedure for
preparing diagrams and charts)
• communicate questions, ideas, intentions, plans and results, using lists, notes in point form,
sentences, data tables, graphs, drawings, oral language and other means
• work cooperatively with team members to develop and carry out a plan (e.g., prepare a class
presentation on the digestive system, including a model constructed by the group)
• evaluate individual and group processes used in planning, problem solving, decision making and
completing a task (e.g., evaluate processes used in completing a cooperative group project)

ICT outcomes

C5 Students will use technology to aid collaboration during inquiry.
C6 Students will use technology to investigate and/or solve
problems.
C7 Students will use electronic research techniques to construct
personal knowledge and meaning.
C3 3.1 evaluate the authority and reliability of electronic sources

Internet Safety

To ensure that my students are safe when using the internet for searches, I would do a mini crash course on how to be safe on the internet. First off I would look into what the schools firewall and protection policy is. Once I have done so, I would also contact the parents before doing web searches to give them information about Internet safety practices I will be going over with the students. I would also include some tips and safety tools for parents to keep in mind while their children are on the Internet at home. I would then ask the students what are some potential dangers of the Internet. E.g. Pedophiles, misleading information, advertisements etc. I would then go into some of the tips and strategies to look for while searching for web sites that may not be good ones. This will also include why it is important to safeguard student identity as well. I would also include a procedure for what to do if they stumble on a bad site, such as close the browser and learn not to click on that link again. Students will probably have some sort of background with the Internet but it is still good to review and put some procedures in line for students to follow so they remain safe. I really like the web quest idea when placing students in front of computers and the Internet for searches. The fact that teachers can select which websites students will access can keep students safe from the pitfalls of the Internet. The main idea in teaching students how to search for information on the Internet is to have students learn what are good websites, what are some signs that students are on the wrong path in the Internet, and how to look at the information appropriately and critically.

To discuss or not to discuss?

The positive aspects of bringing discussion boards into the classroom.
Discussion boards are a great tool that can be implemented into the classroom. The pros of bringing this into your classroom is that it allows students to interact with each other outside of school. This creates a community out side of school and strengthens the communication between students. This also is a great tool for kids to express their ideas in another fashion then public speaking. Discussion boards are great for students who are shy and need more time to think about what they say before saying it because they can answer when they want and there isn't that pressure to present the information in front of everyone. The information is always there for every ones disposal and references. This is also a great way for teachers to monitor how much each student is contributing to the discussion. This can also be a great tool to implement because of the aspect on having a monitor for the discussion boards. Giving each student a chance to be the expert on the subject and make sure everyone is contributing can be used as a reward system. Another benefit of having discussion boards is that this encourages collaboration and cooperation among students. Group work and discussions done on discussion boards will allow students time to think about what they are going to say and reflect on other students opinions. This may also create opportunities for students to tutor or help one another if something is unclear. The whole class is available to clarify misunderstandings instead of maybe one or two people.

The cons of using discussion boards.
Technology integration inside the school is very expensive and not only can some schools not afford it, but students may not be able to afford the technology needed to do discussion boards. This may create the opposite affect of creating a community environment. Students may feel left out if unable to do the discussion boards at home to keep up with everyone else. This may also make the students feel punished for not being able to have the things they can't afford. Another problem with discussion boards in the classroom is that the discussion may take turns that are unexpected by the teacher and students. It is important to have the the students who are monitors or the teacher monitor be able to keep the discussions on track. It is also again a risk to post anything on the net so privacy issues are a concern.

Five ways to enhance classroom interactions using discussion boards
1) Discussion boards create another avenue for students to communicate. Students can ask questions and tutor each other online.
2) Discussion boards allow students to post information and respond to comments which may help students who are nervous public speakers. This allows students to feel more relaxed and open to writing down ideas if to nervous to speak or reply to information instantaneously (teachers who may not give much time for the students to respond to questions. This can also lead to better responses). This may really help ELS students to get to learn about their fellow classmates and take all the time they need to read and post their comments etc.
3) This allows for students and teachers to provide more information that may have been missed because of time constraints. This also allows for teachers and students to extend what they have learned in class and apply that knowledge in more applicable ways online.
4) Discussion boards is an easy avenue for group members to communicate to arrange schedules, provide information and organize their work.
5) Another way that discussion boards enhance classroom interaction is that these boards are accessible anywhere anytime. This will greatly help students who can't always be at school because of extra curricular activities and other circumstances.

Ancient Greece and Concept Mapping

For my concept map, I chose to show the relationships of Ancient Greece's religion (Greek gods) and how the worshipping of these gods affected the ancient civilization in regards to meeting their physical, social and psychological needs. By answering these questions the students will see that the connections here are very intertwined and are deeply rooted in the ancient civilizations culture. I think that this would be an effective way to get the students to write an essay and start the process of learning about these gods. The nice thing about Inspiration technology is it allows hyperlinks to other websites etc so the students may also link the answers to the questions for more in depth answers that they can use when studying. This technology is a great way to organize notes and information.

SLO objectives learned:

· some important values, religious beliefs and
customs and how they affected everyday life;
e.g., government, holy days/festivals,
art/literature

summarize information from a variety of sources

3.5 analyze and synthesize information to create a product

1.3 use technology to support and present conclusions

2.3 use graphic organizers, such as mind mapping/webbing,
flow charting and outlining, to present connections
between ideas and information in a problem-solving
environment

Sim City and Gr 6 Social Studies

Sim City and Local Government
Grade Six social studies
ReferencesGovernment of Alberta. (2007) Social Studies Grade Six. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://ednet.edc.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/social/elemsoc.pdf

Government of Alberta. (2007) General Outcome C6. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from
http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/ict/outcomes/

Sim City. (2007) Sim City instructions. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://simcity.ea.com/play/classic_instructions.php

Brief description of activity.
Students will do a search on what is Sim City. They will take that information and simulate a sim city where the students make decisions in a group of three or four, as to how the community will be run on the Sim city program I will provide. The students will have a week to run their simulations and record their findings. After the week, the students will prepare a power point presentation answering the following questions.
a) What is the Sims or Sim City?
b) How there city developed (overall stable growth)?
c) What were the major setbacks and how did you react to these situations?
d) What were the major roles of the citizens in the community in how well it functioned?
e) What level of government was used in the first two days of the week? four days? final seven?
f) How did u feel controlling the city and how does that relate to local government agencies and the decisions they make on a daily basis?
g) What did u learn the most from this activity, comments etc?
General learner Objectives
· Students gain appreciation and tolerance for government decisions
· Students understand the role, rights, and responsibilities of a citizen
in a global community
· Participate constructively in the democratic process by making rational decisions
· Respect the dignity and worth of self and others.
· Students will have a positive attitudes about democracy, including an appreciation of the rights, privileges and responsibilities of citizenship
Specific Learner Objectives
· analyze how government action can affect the people, both positively and negatively; e.g., saves public money, reduces service to some people
· Analyze examples of how well local government is meeting needs
· draw conclusions about rights and responsibilities of citizens
· take notes on an oral presentation; e.g., interview, speech, film
· summarize information from a variety of sources
· use prepared notes in presenting an oral report;
ICT learner objectives
C1 1.1 - access and retrieve appropriate information from electronic sources for specific inquiry
3.5 analyze and synthesize information to create a product
3.6 communicate in a persuasive and engaging manner, through appropriate forms, such as speeches, letters, reports and multimedia presentations, applying information technologies for content, audience and purpose.

This assignment is very much dependent on technology. I think that Sim City is a great way for students to learn how to react in situations and see how their actions cause reactions and the way the game is set up allows students to react to technology and problem solve. Sim City is a program that will unbiasly challenge the students to deal with natural disasters that a teacher may not be able to do. The program has a lot of variables as well (economics, health, natural disasters) that are also made easier by the program simulations. The power point allows students to organize their information on slides in an organized manner. This allows students to communicate in a fashion that will allow for the important information to be shown as well as incorporate images of their sim city on their slides that otherwise may not be shown.

Is technology as an enabler or a hinderance?

Technological advances is happening whether we want them to or not. When technology is used effectively it can be a great learning tool and resource of information. The great things about technology and the Internet is that it can connect people from around the world. People can collect data of our ever changing world and make it readily available for the rest to see. This makes our world seem smaller and smaller. When technology is used effectively in our education system, it can better prepare students for the real world outside of school. To not incorporate it in the classroom so that students can get their one hour or hundred hours to ten thousand hours etc, of practice working with technology to learn its problems and how to solve them, would be detrimental to the students ability to cope with technology when it is needed. Effective integration of technology that was described in the classroom where the teacher got their students to solve the problem as to why the tulips were not blooming when they should. Using of the vast array of information stored by the Internet and user friendly weather forecasts and past records, students were able to understand the weather was cooler than before, thus the students thought to document their findings and continue to monitor their findings in the future to find patterns of change. This went above and beyond what the teacher expected of his students because in the past the information and resources were not available in the past and technology can help propel students into higher levels of application, synthesis, evaluation and creativity of curriculum.
Though there are many advantages to technology, it may have its disadvantages in the classroom if it is not enabling. Technology may not be enabling in the fact that teachers have to learn the proper way to implement it before presenting it to their students. In an every changing technological world, it may seem very daunting to constantly play catch up and take courses to familiarize themselves with technology. This can also lead to other problems such as who can afford to constantly bring in new technology and/or update it? Having students use PowerPoint's in their presentations may turn into them standing there reading off of the slides verbatim, like they read information off a piece of paper will not be improving students use of technology. Another problem that may arise from technological integration is that there are Internet predators out there. This may be very detrimental to students learning and not accessing factual information for their studies. Teachers, students and the community need to be properly educated in this to prevent anyone from harm. In the article where they discuss how technology will advance human abilities by 2045, this is a very strong likelihood and what then will this do to jobs in education and people being able to do things on their own. Will humans become too dependent on technology? Overall I think that the way the world is changing, we have no choice but to incorporate technology into the classroom. There may be times in the present future where technology is not always enabling, but with constant change and upgrades, there might come a day where technology maximizes students abilities to learn.

Advantages and disadvantages of blogging

What are the advantages and disadvantages of blogging?
The advantages of blogging is that it creates another method for students and teachers to communicate with one another. For students who do not typically like learning in classrooms can access their information needed from blogs set up by their teachers and post their work online for teachers to evaluate ones progress. If a student has questions, classmates and teachers can respond and this may be a more efficient way of getting answers out to everyone because the answers are saved in chronoligical order and teachers are not answering the same question over and over. This also creates the opportunity for students to explain answers, thus showing how well they understand the concept because they are able to break the information down in a language that students understand if something is not always clear. This also keeps track of students participation in collaborative work. When students post their views on their blogs, teachers and fellow classmates can see how much work each group member contributes. Also, when students are doing their responses, they know that others will be able to view their work, thus they will want their writing and responses to be as accurate and fluent as possible as the blog is open to suggestions/criticisms. Thus it also forces students to be creative so that everyone doesn’t always have the same responces. This also allowes parents to monitor what and how well their children are doing. This also allowes parents to have opportunities to get in touch with teachers if any concerns or questions arise.

The disadvantages of blogging is that if students are getting info from blogs they need to realize that opinions expressed and info on blogs may not be right. There isn’t a review board out there on everything that everyone blogs so students need to develop strategies for identifying which information is accurate. Blogging is also something that is used for diaries or journals so once again, information may be an opinion, not fact.This also creates concerns of protecting students from predators on the internet. Students need to be aware of this and know how to make sure that they are not giving out private information that someone can use to hurt or find them. Students may read blogs that are liable etc and they need to be aware of how to screen their opinions that they will blog so that it does not offend others and could cause liable action or possible jobs in their futures.

Overall, I think that blogging in the classroom, when used properly and students and teachers are aware of the pitfalls of blogging, it can be a very effective method used for teaching, learning, collaboration, and communication in education.

Assignment 1

Here's to my first blog!
My name is Lindsay Walker and I am currently in my fourth year at post secondary studying French/Ed. I have been at the U of L for three and a half years and I did a stint in Quebec at their University Laval's ecole de langues programme. I enjoyed every minute of it and suggest that everyone challenge themselves to a wonderful experience learning another culture and language. I come from a small town called Foremost that is about an hour south east of Lethbridge. I am very close to my parents and older brother. I enjoy outdoor sports such as swimming, volleyball, basketball and frisbee (ultimate). During the summer I work as a lifeguard and really enjoy teaching swimming lessons and interacting with kids. I also enjoy reading and watching movies and hanging out with my friends. I am very excited to be in the education program and hope that I become more technologically advanced, as I only use computers for email and facebook, I am shamed to say.