EDLD+5364+Planning

I am a big picture kind of person, so I need someone to give me a big picture about what our final project is suppose to look like. Are we suppose to pick one of our UDL lessons and fully create activities for all learners or are we suppose to create activities for all 5 lessons? - Meritte Meritte, I believe we are to create a unit with activities that our teacher can use. I believe the activities should be something she could incorporate with any lesson pretty much. I emailed the coach but did not get clarification. I responded in hopes that she will clarify a little further. I have provided and are on our Google docs site to brainstorm which activities we plan to include in our final plan. If I hear back from the coach in time, I will forward it. I did find some neat ways to use technology in a classroom. Maybe we can use these in our activities. One teacher had the students investigate a city. The group then had to create a website that would entice people to go there. When they finished the website, they had to contact the Chamber of Commerce for that city and asked them to critique it. The other was to create a group blog to discuss what they did in class that day. There was room for a reflection area so they could put their concerns etc. about the day's experiment(s). The class had the opportunity to check each other's blogs and offer help if needed or ideas. At the end of the assignment, they were to post any videos, podcasts, audio, etc., on their blog. They also used the wiki for one section of the experiment. ​ Everyone, I am just checking in with you. I heard from Elizabeth and Meritte about the Tokbox meeting. They can meet Friday night. We will plan the meeting for 8:30pm if that's ok with everyone. -Diana 12/3/09 -Good for me, Karen I have a little review game I play with my students and it seems to help them remember certain things we covered that day. I call it "Hot Potato". It is a digital toy shaped like a potato and makes all kinds of funny noises. It needs to be passed around the room and each person must say a word from the day's lesson without repeating. When the potato beeps, the person stuck holding the potato must try to recite as many words as he/she can remember in the pass. I don't know if we could use it in any of our lessons, but it is an effective tool. Another review or anticipatory set could be Wordle. Have the students go to the Wordle site and copy and paste their findings. This tool will review with them the highpoints of the lesson or you can use it as a bellringer by creating a Wordle using the day's lesson plans and display it on your starboard. Have the students look at it work together in groups to discuss what they think the days lesson will be over, then discuss your learning goals and objectives with them by having them share what they think the lesson is over. Just some other small ways of including technology in the picture. -Diana

Roger, you can also check the recent updates to the Google docs site by going to "File" then "See Revision History". This helps to see when revisions were made and by whom. I like the idea of using the webpage Team Page so we can see our ideas in one area, then use our individual pages for our lessons. -Diana Roger, there is a "The team" page on the website. Each person could put what lesson of force and motion they are doing or if everyone posts information to their page as Karen has already started, we could look at each page. - Meritte I would actually like to tackle the math part of this lesson like C) calculate average speed using distance and time measurements; and/or (D) measure and graph changes in motion; - Meritte Meritte, Could you help me with calculations for my lesson? Finding the correct equation is not one of my strong suits! -Diana  Sure. just let me know what you need.- Meritte

WOW, you guys are off to a great start. I like Elizabeth's ideas below.

I am a very linear person and I am wondering if there is a better way to organize the flurry of information on this wiki and our google doc. I find that I can't keep all the different bits straight at times. I will get ready to reply to something only to find it had already been answered or addressed halfway down the page of a different document.

Can we maybe make a page on the website, or this wiki where we list out what each person is doing for this week's assignment and any questions or comments?

-Roger

This message is primarily for Roger:

We all need to produce a lesson this week using the CAST lesson builder. I think we should coordinate these lessons so they will all work in the group project. That way, we'll kill two birds at once.

Roger, since you are the science teacher, you could give us some direction on what force and motion topics to cover. Maybe you could toss out some ideas we could select from, along with some resources you think would help us make sure we're being scientific enough. I really don't know what I'm doing, so I wouldn't mind at all if you just assigned me a topic. I think Diana is making a lesson based on some sort of penny experiment she found.

About the UDL Book Builder assignment: We are supposed to make an electronic book using the tools at the CAST site. I think we should all make a short book (3-5 pages) related to our unit topic (or science in general) and use these as part of our group project.

**Here are some ideas: 1.Newton's three laws of motion

__2.__Maybe a short book about some of the formulas students will need for calculations (Meritte is a math teacher, so maybe she would do well with this one).

3.A collection of biographical information about 3 or 4 scientists who contributed to studies of force and motion (Roger could add someone besides Newton to the list).

4.An explanation of the scientific method and all the vocabulary associated with it.

5.A glossary for studying force and motion (I might do this one if Roger will send me a vocabulary list).**

I really want to start on the book as soon as possible. Hopefully, we can contact one another this evening about assigning topics for the lesson and digital book.

I'm looking forward to learning some science!

Elizabeth Pressler

For my UDL lesson, I chose the "Balloon Jet" experiment from the site that Diana suggested and got her "Penny in a Glass" experiment from. Her's explores Newton's First Law; mine covers the third law. I also wrote in a way to refer back to the two videos that she has listed below like our lessons are part of a larger unit. I also posted this information on my page on the excellent website that Meritte set up for us. -Karen @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWE_aGqfUDs This one is really cute! The kids can relate to it very easily. It is introducing Newton's Laws of Motion. I love it! -Karen [] This video could be used as a tool to enhance our students' learning! -D That's a GREAT video! Let's include it! We could use even use it as a springboard for a higher-order-thinking-skill assignment: using technology for kids to pose "what if" questions.-Karen I like this video. Also, I made everyone their own page on the website. - Meritte 11/28- I think familiarizing ourselves with the science TEKS for sixth graders will help us to break our unit down into individual lessons:[] ( I see that Karen and Roger posted this earlier) -Diana Above is the TEKS and it states: (C) Force, motion, and energy. Energy occurs in two types, potential and kinetic, and can take several forms. Thermal energy can be transferred by conduction, convection, or radiation. It can also be changed from one form to another. //Students will investigate the relationship between force and motion using a variety of means, including calculations and measurements.// (8) Force, motion, and energy. The student knows force and motion are related to potential and kinetic energy. The student is expected to: (A) compare and contrast potential and kinetic energy; (B) identify and describe the changes in position, direction, and speed of an object when acted upon by unbalanced forces; (C) calculate average speed using distance and time measurements; (D) measure and graph changes in motion; and (E) investigate how inclined planes and pulleys can be used to change the amount of force to move an object. (9) Force, motion, and energy. The student knows that the Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it just changes form. The student is expected to: (A) investigate methods of thermal energy transfer, including conduction, convection, and radiation; (B) verify through investigations that thermal energy moves in a predictable pattern from warmer to cooler until all the substances attain the same temperature such as an ice cube melting; and (C) demonstrate energy transformations such as energy in a flashlight battery changes from chemical energy to electrical energy to light energy.

While creating your lessons, keep these questions in mind (Universal Design for Learning): · What will students learn? · Which strategies will provide evidence of student learning? · Which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning? · Which strategies will help students practice, review, and apply learning?

Meritte, I created a graphic for our site and will send via e-mail to you. Karen I created the website. It is http://dregersscience.wordpress.com - I am going to work on creating a new header to replace the tree (Karen, you are the artist - if you would rather make a science looking header - you can or I can - if you want to, let me know - it has to be 720X180 pixels in jpeg format) I will invite all of you to be editors, unless you guys just want me to post all the work and projects to the site. If you are wondering about why I chose the name, well, every variation of teaching with technology I could think of was taken, so since Roger is the science teacher, I named it for his science class. Roger, if you want the blog/website at the end of class, you can have it or I can delete it. - Meritte

Here are ISTE NETS for students (2007): [|NETS for Students] Elizabeth Pressler 11/24/2009 Here is a link to the NETS implementation wiki: [|ISTE NETS WIKI] EP 11/24 You are all awesome! Roger, have a wonderful time!!! The only thing I see we still need to take care of for the week's assignment is the webpage. Meritte, I am not sure what to name it, but go with Wordpress if you think this is the way to go- trust you completely! I am working on research as well Elizabeth. Lots of reading!!! I will post some of the activities as soon as I have the opportunity to do so. So it's a go for the Force and Motion unit! Sounds fantastic. -Diana I just added a document to our Google docs page that has a ton of Force and Motion activities! I am so excited about this unit! There is so much out there. We can easily modify many of these activities for our special needs students.

Here is a link for technology and students that are hearing impaired: []

Here are a few sites that cover technology and visually impaired students: [|http://www.99main.com/~charlief/vi/adaptive.html] [] [] [] [] 11/26- Diana

[] [] [] [] [] this lesson can be modified to track the cars and their speed under differing circumstances [] [] [] I added some more 11/28

Hello, group! I'm so proud that we have so much done already! So as not to lose my momentum __… I want to go ahead and pick my Force and Motion lesson. Can I do a lesson that addresses “students are expected to compare and contrast potential and kinetic energy?” I see some artwork, digital photography, video and ACTING in my lesson plans!!! Roger - Here is a link to the TEA website and the 6th grade Science TEKS scheduled to begin with the 2010-2011 school year: [] Be safe in the mountains! Meritte – I trust you absolutely – use whatever you think is best for our website. The instructions include being creative, so go for it! I am thinking about a name for us… Karen

Roger, what I can tell from my CScope curriculum for Force and Motion, the TEKS to focus on are:   I think the Science TEKS are under review and will be updated next year which is why they look like a draft. But, yes they do follow the national standards. - Meritte - PS Have fun in the mountains.

I told Diana I would make the webpage, but I would prefer to use Wordpress.com instead of Google. If you guys would prefer Google, I will go that direction, but I think it is easier to add video and other elements to wrodpress. Any input into what we should name it? - Meritte 

Okay per the coach's email, planning a unit seems to be a good way to go. I was thinking that would be a good way to tie the different activities together, rather than a random list. It is also the most "teacher friendly" format which is what we want.

I am looking over the[| TEKS for 6th grade science]. Now what I don't know is what TEKS we should be using. I just realized my link above is to a draft or something. Should I just be using the ones from 1998? There is also a link on the page to a comparison of the two.

But either way science is pretty much the same everywhere so it shouldn't be an isssue. __

==//I will be out of town in the mountains and not online from Thursday to Sunday evening. I was looking over Assignment 2 this week and I think we have already done that. To quote Karen, "We are seriously ahead of the game." :-)// ==

Please let me know ASAP what you need me to do this week__. I will be looking over the TEKS and getting ideas for websites etc. I don't want to leave any of you hanging because I can't get online. -Roger

Present: Elizabeth Pressler, Meritte Threadgill, Diana Sullivan
====We discussed the age group and Meritte was going to check to see which group had the most concentration of Force and Motion (we suspect 6th grade). Diana was to email the coach to ask the following questions: ====

3. Clarify what she means by "Date of completion".
====Elizabeth will do research to find articles, journals, etc. Diana will do the same. Meritte has placed some great resources in our shared file in Google Docs- check it out. ====

We did not dicuss the leadership role, so I will take it if no one else wants it.
====Roger, we will need your help with the science- I want to be sure everyone is somewhat comfortable with the grade level. We need at least one person with a good degree of experience in the grade level we choose. I have already emailed the coach and cc'd you. Please add your comments as I am sure I have forgotten details! -Diana ====

====I like that idea Roger. Did we decide on the grade level? How about holding a clinic where everyone gets to demonstrate their findings? At my school the science teachers did something similar to this for erosion. They decided that the students always seem to have difficulty with this concept so they took them outside, created a scenario using dirt, sand, wood, and water. The kids seemed to understand the concept so much better. They then decided to take it one step further. Each group had been given a scenario. They each had to recreate it and demonstrate their findings. On the average the kids improved their scores by 20 points!! -Diana ====

Somebody mentioned force and motion. That would be great!
====I was also thinking about how to use the technology and lessons to enhance community in the class. What if we had some kind of a presentation or open house where the students could learn about and see what the others have done? -Roger ====

Thanks Karen. I too have a small family and not much happens except Thursday lunch so I can also do some research. Roger, since it seems like Science is the subject - do have a suggestion for a specific topic? meritte .

Hey, group - and to Meritte, glad you are OK! The instructions for updating our personal wikis are in assignment 2. There is a rubric outlining the criteria and a sheet to fill out and turn in. We do it individually on our personal wikis. Thanks for sending out the tokbox video. I had never heard of tokbox and am amazed at the quality of the video/audio in something e-mail-able. During my whole week off work next week I will have loads of time to brainstorm and research ideas for our project. Some of you may be traveling, tending to large family gatherings and such. My family is small and very low key, so if you have an idea, but not enough time to research, send it to me and let me get on it! Karen

Roger and Elizabeth, I was unable to attend the class conference call last night. I was hoping to, but was in a small accident and spent the evening at the emer I thought my left wrist was broken - it is not broken, but there is a possiblility of ligament damage, and I had a slight cuncusion. Typing has been a little challenging today, but after adapting a new style at work, I am starting to get a little faster.

Hopefully, I will be able to try the Saturday conference call.

Question for you guys - Are we suppose to reflect on each week on our own wiki, or as a group on our group site? Do we need to include anything specific, or is it just our own reflections of the week's work?

Thanks, Meritte Threadgill

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Hi Team!

Couple of things:

I think we are good to go on our weekly assignment, but we need an official leader. We could always "pick on" Diane since she got the ball rolling! :-)

Did anyone attend the web conference today? I am trying to decide if I should try and make it on Saturday.

I can do a conference call after 6:30 your time. (I'm 2 hours behind you, but don't wait around for me!!)

Finally, I like the ideas on the google doc, very thoughtful.

-Roger

​ I'd like to join your team if that is okay. I am ready to start on any topic for the assignment if someone will let me know what is still needed for the group project. I like the science topic, but don't know whatgrade level you are trying to teach. I am going to include a link to some lesson plans that my district uses for our curriculum. These include activites that can be done in class, some are more than one 45 minute plan.

-Amanda