Practicum Powerpoint

EL ED PRACTICUM EXPERIENCEBy: Kelsey Foster

Larsen Elementary School Nebo School District

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Standard 3 Objective 1: Students will use prior knowledge of their

understanding of the environment to describe relationships between animals and plants found around the world.

Students will discover different plant and animal species found in 7 different parts of the world.

LESSON FOCUS

Buckle up for our ride around the world.

Using my Google Earth Tour kids were able to virtually visit the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.

Each stop on the tour has notes about each area, the vegetation, animal life, and other interesting facts.

We asked students challenging questions like, “Why do you think a toucan bird doesn’t live in the Grand Canyon?”

The children were really engaged and loved the different pictures of animals we had projected.

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Principle 1: Student use of Technology

Every student in the second grade was able to participate in our tour, though they were not using the technology first hand they still benefited from the presentation.

I presented this project with Melissa Anderson, and when the other 2nd grade classes found out about it they decided to join. We were able to include the entire grade, all 80 of them!

Principle 2: Technology use is essential

Technology use was essential in this lesson. I relied totally on the use of the LCD projector, grade level laptop and my Virtual Tour assignment to teach this lesson.

Melissa and I introduced the tour as if we were really on an airplane, and thought this would be a powerful use of technology.

Principle 3: Focus on learning task

Every question we asked, every answer we were given, and every picture used in our tour focused on the learning task.

Children were able to use their knowledge to describe the relationships between plants and animals and the geographical area each were found.

Principle 4: Added Value

This tour added real value to this lesson. Without the opportunities Google Earth provides by allowing the creation of tours provided children would have missed out on the entirety of this lesson.

The children were able to experience things that as 2nd graders they have not yet, and that many people won’t get to see in their lifetime.

This lesson enhanced their understanding of the relationships by allowing the students to draw conclusions of their own, and active their thinking.

THE END!