Virtual Tour

Just in case you didn't see the link under "my links" this is my virtual tour.

http://sites.google.com/site/teachertoolssite/my-files

PLE submission for week 7

What is the content you’ll be using in your lesson?
The content I will be using in my lesson is describing the differences between man made and natural occurrences. I turned this lesson into an opportunity to see how man-made structures interact with the natural world, and how this may affect the organisms originally dwelling in the environment before human populations were developed.

What is the pedagogy you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content?
The pedagogy I will be using is helping students to recognize the effects of people's choices in the environment. The specific techniques used will be through the technology medium in order to allow students to explore the information available and a few particular places where such an interaction is evident. This is a good fit because it involves a democratic notion which helps students take ownership of the activity and learn more for themselves.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?
The technology I'll be using is that of Google Earth. This particular program allows students to see the world in a three-dimensional way and provides a concrete view of places to which they may never have explored before. Furthermore, the program allows students to navigate to other websites in order to broaden not only their content knowledge, but also to provide additional resources for exploration and learning.

Google Earth Planning Table

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1.Tuscon, Arizona	Students will watch a video about desert animals and list the various attributes that helps these animals survive in the desert.	A youtube video will be available to watch.
2.Orlando, Florida	Students will view pictures of a crocodile and an alligator and read about the differences between them and be able to recognize which one lives in the United States.	A Wikipedia link will be available for both the crocodile and the alligator.
3.Orlando, Florida	Students will read about the development and placement of the NASA center in Orlando, Flordia and will explain how this impacts the Alligator's habitat.	A link will be made available to the NASA website describing the placement of the facility and its various dealings and business.
4.Phoenix, Arizona	Students will speculate how the growing population in the Phoenix area will affect the populations of the desert animal species.	A link to Wikipedia will be available concerning the encroachment of humans upon animal territory and the effects of such.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	Images will be provided to represent the intentions of each site, such as a cactus representing the desert.

Digital Story

Last semester I had the opprotunity to create a children's story book for my music class. The book itself contains approximately ten pages with text and descriptive pictures. This week in my technology class we were required to create a storyboard for our digital storybook and due to mine already being completed, its nature as an original project, the storyboard had been completed long ago. The digital story version of the project will be complied through a reading of the story as well as a slide show of the project with an addition of music where necessary or applicable.

The story line details a young boy searching for a costume to Trick-or-Treat on Halloween. He goes through various options with his mother including: an astronaut, cowboy, superhero, ghost, ninja, prince, and a pirate. After finding flaws in each costume, he eventually ends up going as a Jelly Bean Box due to his mother's nickname for him, "Jelly Bean." The pictures are drawn with colored pencil and there are eleven images in all.

TPCK
The content I will be using is introduction to various vocabulary (especially that of sight words), points of plot, as well as predictable storylines.

The pedagogy aspect of this assignment offers students the ability to eventually create their own digital storybook, demonstrating the usage of plot, characters, and language itself. It places the learning in the hands of the students in order to solidify the concepts being taught.

The technology is a good fit for both the content and the pedagogy in that it provides students the oprotunity to post their work for others to see, lets them experiment with new technological techniques, and helps enforce their reading abilities. Overall, the technology truly places the project in the hands of the students in a form that they may enjoy and be proud of.

TPCK questions

What is the content you are focusing on in your science lesson?
The content of the science lesson specifically focuses on the movement of the Earth, it's rotation and revolution, as well as the heavenly view of such. Students will understand why the sky changes from day to night, and why various constellations may be seen at different times of the year.

What is the pedagogy you are using and why is it a good fit with the content?
The pedagogy I am using deals with the a simple explanation of how the Earth rotates on an axis as well as around the sun. Following this discussion, students are allowed to explore Stellarium in order to be able to visually see how these concepts are applied.

What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?
The technology works well because it gives students the freedom to explore through their own intrinsic motivation, as well as to experience the concepts being taught that would not easily be applicable without the Stellarium program.

The Tech Savvy Teacher Explores the Night Sky

We all go to school during the day, when the sun is out. How, then, can our students have a real-life experience observing the night sky at school? Our class found the answer using a brand-new technology tool called Stellarium. This program is another great reason to be a Tech Savvy Teacher!

As part of our unit on space and the solar system, our class has been learning about the rotation and revolution of the earth and moon. Because of the tilt of the earths’ axis, we have not only seasons, but seasonal constellations in the night sky as well. This phenomenon is difficult to observe at school—unless you have the help of a handy tool like Stellarium. Using Stellarium, our class first observed the rotation of the earth around the sun in both normal time and fast motion. Next, we saw how our position on Earth affected our view of the night sky.

The best part of our classroom space exploration, however, was watching the apparent movement of the constellations across the night sky throughout the year. From our paper star charts, we noted that certain constellations are visible during the night only at certain times of the year. We got to see the constellations in action as we fast-forwarded through time in Stellarium. With the click of a mouse, we visited the constellations of the summer sky, such as Lyra and Ophiuchus. Next, the constellations visible on a winter evening appeared for our viewing pleasure, and we watched Canis Major follow Orion across the sky. Stellarium even showed us the different constellation images superimposed on the stars, so we got to see how the abstract groups of stars represented pictures of people, animals, and objects.

The program Stellarium brought the night sky into our classroom in broad daylight. Our class traveled through time and even turned off the light of the sun using this handy-dandy technology. Try using Stellarium for your own space unit. It will take you on a grand tour of the sky!

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/images/imageshtml/earth-tilt.gif

This wonderful diagram shows why we have different seasons, and how the Earth rotates around the sun.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/ast110_06/ea/01p7a.jpg

This particular image shows how the Earth's position according to the time of year influences what constellations can be seen in the night sky.

This image shows the opening of the program Stellarium. It also details the tool box in which students may alter the time, date, or location of the sky they are viewing.

This image shows the summer night sky on Stellarium. Can you find the constellations Lyria and Coronas Borialis?

This is an image of the winter night sky in Stellarium. Can you find Orion and Canis Major?