TRIG Course- Alma College Winter 2015

The activity is using base ten blocks to play a game with the students. The game will be one player drawing a card with a number on it. The students will then use their base ten blocks to replicate that number. The first one to finish is the winner of that round and gets to keep that card. Since this is hard to explain, I would make a video of it for students to watch before they participate in the classroom. I think that having them watch to see how the game is played will help with any confusion before they start.

For a blended activity, I would modify my lesson for The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. This is a harder piece for 8th graders to read, so I would have them watch a short clip of the story line and have them write predictions of what they think would happen next. Then when we are reading the story, we could use the IPads and I could have the students use Bubbl.us or have them use web diagram webs to plot out the plot structure. Another way is we could use Google Docs to have us collaborate on ideas, such as what description makes up an unreliable narrator. This is the blended because it includes face to face interaction and technology along with the learning. This is different because we could have just read the text and did a plot diagram, but this enhances the learning and students can work collaboratively, but individually in online environments. This is one way I can use blended learning in my English classroom.  

For a blended activity in my social studies curriculum, I would ask my students to Skype with someone from a community they are researching on. This would work on public speaking skills and would also help students form a social network with somebody in another community. I like this idea because you can receive instant feedback with another individual instead of waiting for something to come through mail or email. This also allows kids to work with technology that I also like. This falls under the evaluating and conferencing aspect of Bloomin Apps. 

For a blended activity in my room I could have students make a Google Presentation about a certain zoo animal.  Students will do research on their zoo animal and they will also take a virtual field trip to learn more about their specific animal to see how they interact.  On the Google Presentation, they will reflect on what they did on their virtual field trip and what they learned.  Students will then share what they have learned with the class.  This involves creating, analyzing, and understanding according to Bloomin' Apps.    

I did an activity in my placement classroom where students were to create arrays and write out the multiplication sentence for them. I used blended learning by offering numerous ways for students to learn about arrays. A few students were drawing them on the iPad, others were working with the smart board, others were sharing ideas with white boards and markers with a partner and a few more students were identifying the arrays I showed them. Before, I would have just showed examples and sat around the carpet and had students raise their hand and tell the answer, a very traditional way of teaching. This falls under the rotational method and students are being able to use many different toold liek the ipad and smartboard to learn.

For a blended lesson, I would use one of my struggling reader lessons. I think one of my better lessons would be for phonics and I could use it in a flipped classroom format. In one of my phonics lessons, I teach students about short and long vowels, specifically focusing on adding the magic e to the end of a CVC word. Using a video resource, I could record a lesson on short and long vowels. I would introduce the sounds as a refresher and then I would demonstrate using my magic e wand. The next day in class, students would get wands and  I would have the words already posted around the room to practice using them. But before they got to class the next day, in my video, I would continue my demonstration and also incorporate a YouTube video that held their attention and may even get stuck in their head. Most videos on this topic are songs and are meant to attract the students' attention. 

This lesson idea involves technology and my original lesson doesn't, that is how they are totally different and my instruction is done in the classroom over a two or three day period I would guess. This lesson may only take a day, two at most. 

For music performance, my students will make occasional use of Smart Music to complete tonal and rhythmic literacy assignments and practice their performance repertoire. They will use Smart Music both in the classroom and at home, having the capability of accessing Smart Music's vast repertoire library from any computer with the software installed on it. On Smart Music, I am to create assignments for my students to access through our classroom account, and their results are put on an automatic grade book that I can easily access and look at. Parents can also access this grade book to see how their students are doing. 

I chose Smart Music, because parents and educators from all over have gave it very positive feedback. Parents like it because the software tutors the students and lets them know what they are doing wrong and how they can fix it. Educators like it because it engages students in practicing at home and to become stronger players without relying on their teacher at school. This would have changed what I would have done previously because if the students didn't have access to Smart Music, then they would be stuck at home trying to figure out rhythms on their own without anyone giving them feedback. However, on SmartMusic, if my students play their music, it will critique them and give them instant feedback within seconds. This prevents students from practicing incorrectly at home and allows them to learn it the correct way. 

When I am a band director someday, I hope to have this software installed on at least one of my computers in my practice rooms that students can access. I use it myself currently in college, and it has helped me prepare for recitals and juries greatly, as well as improve my other skills such as improvisation, etude practice, ear training, etc. 

The model of blended that this activity falls under is rotation model. 

Instead of using blended learning for only one activity, I would use it for a full unit on Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Because Shakespeare is so dense and the range of reading abilities in my classroom will most likely be very wide, I will compose a list of guiding questions for students with high, medium, and low reading levels. These guiding questions will be answered using iAnnotate, that way my students and I will be able to collaborate with one another and they will efficiently access my comments. This activity falls under the analysis section of Bloomin Apps.

I have not implemented a blended activity in the classroom, yet, but if I was to do one today I would implement a tool that I learned from learnport--virtual guest speakers. As a future history teacher I would implement a virtual guest speaker like I experienced in EDC 370. I watched on learnport a civil war actor and PhD in civil war medicine and procedures. He gave a lesson to a classroom full of high school students, but I could use that very presentation, which was shared on learnport, to my students so although I could not get him in person it would be as if he was there anyhow. So, instead of having students just do research on their own or reading a textbook, the students can also have a PhD come in and talk to them and give them a different perspective on what they are learning--virtually.  

When I am able to implement a blended activity into a lesson I think I would like to have my students create a video of them reenacting a historical event from the unit we are working on. They could get into groups of 4-5, research the event, then practice recording video then editing it. Depending on the resources available they could use iMovie or Anastasia for editing, preferably iMovie because I think it is the easiest to navigate and learn. I think the students would enjoy this activity because it helps to bring the history alive and it helps promote group work. 

For this activity, I would have my students use Skype to talk to students from another community. The students would be able to interview the students from another class to learn about the state or area that they are from. Before blended learning, I would have had my students write letters to another class. Using Skype would be better because students would have a quick response to their questions and could practice their interview skills. 

I would use skype to have guest speakers talk to my class. This is a good way to get more speakers who are either too far away or don't have the time to travel.  

While teaching my class about physics, or velocity to be more specific, I want to use technology along with the textbook to have them learn.  I will have them read a few passages about velocity from the textbook at home for the following day.  This implements the idea of a flipped classroom.  Then, in class I will show them some videos of velocities in real life examples (i.e. a rocket lifting into space, a drag race, etc.).  Then I will give them some problems to work on in class regarding velocities and what they read the previous night.  That way they will be able to receive help if they need it.  This is a blended lesson because it integrates technology into the lesson, along with the traditional textbook.  It also incorporates a bit of the flipped classroom into it. 

Blended learning can be achieved through a program called Solutions for Teachers. This is a great music program that blends technology and learning music. The program works through students performing selected assignments at home. The assignments are brought in performed and assessed by me. There assessment will be recorded online and can be viewed by the students and the parents. From there they can observe what they did well what they need to improve on and hear different examples to model after. 

This creates a flipped learning environment. Students are creating and developing while in school they are applying what they are learning.    

The activity and programs i would use to have a blended classroom would be a smart board, musictheory.net, and smart music.  Traditional band can be quite dry and hard to follow as a beginner.  When i implement music theory and smart music into my classroom students will learn more, and all students will be able to participate at their own rate.  First i can show the students on how to use the technology (with the smart board) and then i can have them go home and work on assignments through music theory.net and smart music.  This would be a flipped style of classroom learning.  Students will go home and work though the assignments and they will receive help from the programs guidelines and my online feedback.  The best part about these programs is that you can see your results.  This will give students something to look at and it gives them references.  As a young musician, learning on your own at home with independent practice can be very difficult and defeating.  

The lesson I would teach and incorporate for blended learning to use within my classroom is fractions. I know students usually struggle understanding the concept of fractions so I would have my students watch a video I created for lecture as I went around the classroom helping individuals who were struggling with the concepts one-on-one. After my lecture/video was over we would apply the concepts in a Fractions Challenge where I would have my students work in groups that I assigned while they challenged each other to see who could complete the fractions worksheet with 100% efficiency. Once my class has completed this assignment if time permitted I would have the whole class play "Around the World" fraction-style!