The students arrived to have a their ten minutes of typing practice on virtual piano. Afterwards they listened and asked questions about the phases of the moon and what causes them. A pre-assessment was informal given that allowed the students to explain what they know about the phases of the moon and what causes them. Their inability to explain why there is a full moon on the side of the earth that is opposite the sun caused a short informative session involving a flashlight and a "moon" on a pencil. Then the students were given a computer and shown a lunar phase program that allowed them to see how the moon orbits the earth and provide a deeper look into the phases of the moon. This took thirty minutes.
The lecture did not work, I asked two of the students after tech club was done for the day what they learned and they couldn't remember a thing we taught. It really made me feel like a failure as a teacher. Here I was trying to teach...and they didn't learn, despite one of my best efforts. Again the computer program was nice, but the only exercises that tested knowledge were done orally by a few members of the group. Some members of the group were off task a number of times leaving the assistance of students to only two members of the group. The computer program honestly didn't enhance knowledge like it was planned because it wasn't explained, nor was their a purpose behind using the program. I saw more than one kid bored, spinning the moon around the Earth because it looked neat. A few students (3 or 4 out of the 12 we had) actually asked questions and were able to demonstrate their knowledge on the program but a 25-33% success ratio is a poor one indeed.
As seems the unfortunate common theme with technology and the tech club if their is not a purpose to the technology, if they don't have to be on task aside from us telling them to, the students do not see the point and begin to play. The lunar phase program we used had a section called "student exercises" and I don't understand why we didn't use them. Next time I will use that section of the program. Added instruction is also imperative in something as complex as Astronomy. During the pre-assessment some kids thought that the sun rotated around the Earth, so maybe this was too complex for them, or too complex for an after-school program.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Tech Club Visit Number 3
At the beginning of the class the group gathered six students (one for each computer) and had them type in virtual piano (www.virtualpiano.com) for ten minutes. Afterwards I gave a very brief (less than five minutes) introduction to Google earth and demonstrated the cool things you can find in Google earth by showing a sunken ship and their school. The students then each went to a computer and looked at various iconic cities and cultural buildings in both street view and earth view. After correctly finding and identifying 8 places on Google earth the students were shown Google mars and Google moon. For the last ten minutes the students were allowed to look at what their wanted on Google earth.
The technology worked very well, the kids all knew how to use Google earth just fine. The problem came in that some of the group did not know how to use Google earth as well as the kids or some of the other instructors. Some kids also did not want to look at things but only want to go to the bottom of the ocean and "walk across the Pacific ocean." Which was fine, but learning didn't really occur. So the students were persuaded to do other things on Google earth, like street view in Venice. There weren't really learning objectives set which I would say is a big problem this group faces. But we don't want to stress students who are already stressed from a long day of class which make sense.
I really liked doing a Google earth scavenger hunt (essentially what it was), I just want some form of learning objectives at the end of the day. It was difficult to understand the purpose of using Google earth as a teaching device if there was no objective. It did build student knowledge of where in the world various cities are and through teaching them we were able to build knowledge of places like Europe and where the France is. I would make learning objectives a priority and do a short summative assessment such as each student finding one place on Google Earth such as the Pacific Ocean, Antarctica Europe, Greenland, Asia, Mt. Everest, etc. Also, as always some more instruction on the purpose behind virtual piano would be useful. But that was improved upon and I think it went better this week.
The technology worked very well, the kids all knew how to use Google earth just fine. The problem came in that some of the group did not know how to use Google earth as well as the kids or some of the other instructors. Some kids also did not want to look at things but only want to go to the bottom of the ocean and "walk across the Pacific ocean." Which was fine, but learning didn't really occur. So the students were persuaded to do other things on Google earth, like street view in Venice. There weren't really learning objectives set which I would say is a big problem this group faces. But we don't want to stress students who are already stressed from a long day of class which make sense.
I really liked doing a Google earth scavenger hunt (essentially what it was), I just want some form of learning objectives at the end of the day. It was difficult to understand the purpose of using Google earth as a teaching device if there was no objective. It did build student knowledge of where in the world various cities are and through teaching them we were able to build knowledge of places like Europe and where the France is. I would make learning objectives a priority and do a short summative assessment such as each student finding one place on Google Earth such as the Pacific Ocean, Antarctica Europe, Greenland, Asia, Mt. Everest, etc. Also, as always some more instruction on the purpose behind virtual piano would be useful. But that was improved upon and I think it went better this week.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Tech Club Visit Number 2
1. The students typed on a keyboard program called virtual piano for 10 minutes. Then went over to a table in the library with fossils on it and a short presentation was given about what fossil teeth tell us about dinosaurs. Kids were allowed to touch the fossils and ask questions about them and after all the teeth were passed around to look at, numbers were drawn assigning a tooth to a student. Then the students took the fossil teeth to a computer and wrote a short story about what they thought the dinosaur ate, and looked like. Instructors helped build the students creativity by asking various questions such as "what color would it have been." Afterwards the students were shown what a dinosaur actually looks like, not to tell them their ideas were wrong but to give them more perspective.
2. Some of the problems arose with classroom management. The first group of students (there were two) were organized sitting at a table with fossils on the table, this caused them to want to touch everything and I allowed them to look at fossils while I was talking which caused them to not pay attention. I was able to answer any and all questions, but the presentation took too long for the first group and they didn't have much time at the computers. The second group sat on the library floor while the table of fossils was above them, while I talked I didn't pass out fossils but passed out fossils after I showed the students them, and then continued to talk when the fossil was returned to me. This allowed me to answer questions the students had while holding the fossil. The presentation was also made shorter so the students had more time to create. The virtual piano software worked well but the students were initially confused as to what they were supposed to do.
3. Clearer instruction, and classroom management. I don't want to get a recurring theme going but I little to no experience working with elementary school students so my classroom management is mostly built around a fear that they will cry if I tell them no. I would also have enjoyed getting together with the rest of the group to formalize instruction a little more so the rest of the tech club didn't feel so left out (they didn't say they felt left out but they stood there most of the time).
2. Some of the problems arose with classroom management. The first group of students (there were two) were organized sitting at a table with fossils on the table, this caused them to want to touch everything and I allowed them to look at fossils while I was talking which caused them to not pay attention. I was able to answer any and all questions, but the presentation took too long for the first group and they didn't have much time at the computers. The second group sat on the library floor while the table of fossils was above them, while I talked I didn't pass out fossils but passed out fossils after I showed the students them, and then continued to talk when the fossil was returned to me. This allowed me to answer questions the students had while holding the fossil. The presentation was also made shorter so the students had more time to create. The virtual piano software worked well but the students were initially confused as to what they were supposed to do.
3. Clearer instruction, and classroom management. I don't want to get a recurring theme going but I little to no experience working with elementary school students so my classroom management is mostly built around a fear that they will cry if I tell them no. I would also have enjoyed getting together with the rest of the group to formalize instruction a little more so the rest of the tech club didn't feel so left out (they didn't say they felt left out but they stood there most of the time).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)