|
EDU 506,
Computer Applications & Resources in Teaching, has been a very beneficial
class. At first I was worried that the
class was going to be a class on the technology I already knew about. In the end, however, I found the class to
be very helpful. Not only was it a
refresher course, but it also gave me some very valuable knowledge about
various programs that I had little experience with. The programs in class included Microsoft Word, Excel,
PowerPoint and FrontPage. I have used
all of these programs before but this class greatly enhanced my knowledge of
each program. Each one of these
programs is useful in the classroom and can play a very important role. I think understanding and using technology
in my classroom is vital in the world that we live in today. Learning about the different programs in
class will greatly enhance my teaching because it gives me another valuable
tool to use and I’m glad I had to take this class. Title:
Microsoft Word/Name Illustration Portfolio Covers Description:
This lesson involves having the students create a personalized
portfolio cover that incorporates their name. The students will also decide on a medium that will best meet
their needs to finish their portfolio designs. Some mediums the students can explore are pencil, colored
pencil, oil and chalk pastels and tempera paint. The Name Illustration Portfolio Covers was designed as an
introductory lesson for the seventh grade.
It’s a chance for not only the students to think critically and
brainstorm a creative idea, but it also gives me the chance to assess where
the students are at when they return to the art room. The challenge presented to the students is
to create a portfolio design that incorporates their name in a
"logo" or creative graphic
style, or in a design that reflects their interests. They begin the lesson by brainstorming
their ideas on scrap paper and eventually sketch out their idea on the final
paper. Students then have choice over
how to complete their design through their choice of medium. Once the image has been completed, the
students will join the sides of the portfolio together to create a portfolio that
will store the art they complete throughout the semester. Reflection:
Overall I thought this assignment was useful and made me think of
writing lesson plans differently.
I’ve written many lesson plans before but I’ve never actually included
pictures or any other visually appealing objects in my lesson plans. This is ironic because I am an art teacher
and everything I do is very visual. I
liked this assignment because it took Microsoft Word, a program I use almost
on a daily basis, and it opened my eyes to tools I had never knew about or
had always wondered how to use. The
most useful tool I learned about was the word art. I have had trouble in the past trying to use it and basically
have avoided using it because I did not understand the tool. Click here
to view my lesson plan. Title:
Microsoft Excel/Monthly Expenses for Hollie and Nick Description: Instead of using the
Microsoft Excel for grade book purposes, I decided to use it to create a
budget for my boyfriend and I. Nick
and I are looking into either buying a house or purchasing property and
building from the ground up. Before
we can effectively look into this, we need to first figure out what we are
spending. Once we know what we are
spending, then we can figure out what we could comfortable afford as we start
looking into our future plans. This
chart shows what we were spending at the time of date and may not show items
that have since been paid off or altered.
The spreadsheet lets us know what each person is spending and will
help us in the future to figure out what we can comfortably afford. Reflection: I liked the Microsoft Excel assignment
because I have struggled with understand the program in the past. Understanding how to use the functions was
the most useful piece of information I took from this assignment. I focused on creating a budget because
that is something I have wanted to learn how to do for a long time. Now that I understand the program I can
use it create and keep track of a budget for my art classroom. I also learned that I could create a grade
book and also use charts and graphs to help me analyze student
achievement. I thought this was a
very useful lesson and very applicable to my classroom. Click here to view my spreadsheet. Title:
Microsoft PowerPoint/Op-Art Description: This PowerPoint presentation is about
Optical Illusions. It is a
presentation that is given at the beginning of a new lesson to introduce
students to “op-art.” Optical illusions
are abstract and the most famous pieces are created in black and white. When someone looks at an optical illusion,
the image will give off the feeling of movement, sometimes will contain
hidden images and may feel like the image is vibrating. This presentation was created to get the
seventh grade students involved in an interactive presentation where students
look at art and respond to it. At the
end of the presentation there is a link to a website that the students can go
to that also includes many different types of optical illusions. Reflection: Creating a PowerPoint for this class was
very simple. I already use PowerPoint
on a regular basis and already had a presentation created. This class did teach me how to use the different
animations and sounds, something I always had wanted to use but did not quite
understand. Even though using
PowerPoint was not something new for me, I did take away some very valuable
tools. I also know that there were a
few people in class that had little experience with the program or were at
the same stage I was, not understanding a few key components of the
program. Overall, I found the tools
we learned about to be very useful. Click here to view my PowerPoint. Title:
Microsoft FrontPage/Surrealism Magazine Collage Description:
This WebQuest was created from a lesson I have the 8th
grade students do when they complete an art project early. This lesson can easily be adapted for
other grade levels. In this lesson
the students will have to identify pieces of art and artists from the
Surrealist movement. They need to find an artist they like and pick one
image that they will present to the class in a 5-minute
mini-presentation. The students will also need to write a one-page
summary about the artist and the artwork chosen. There is an artist
sheet the students will need to fill out that will aid in the research. Artists to be researched include Salvador Dali,
Rene Magritte, Andre Breton and Max Ernst.
The students will then have to fill out a vocabulary sheet to become
familiar with words that pertain to surrealism and collage. Lastly, the students will create a collage
made from magazine pictures that will resemble a dream. After the completion of the lesson the
students have to self-evaluate themselves using the rubric intended for this
project. Reflection:
I thought this assignment was awesome! It definitely was the most useful and most applicable. I want to create WebQuests for all the lessons
that I do now! When I was in college
I took a computer graphics class and I created a very simple website that
basically included the projects we did in class. That professor never really showed us how to create the
website, she did much of the work herself.
During one of my professional development days at my school, I
attended a workshop on creating a website for the classroom. The workshop was only two hours long and the
information learned was quickly forgotten.
This assignment was a really great refresher course and the
information has finally stuck and while I am proud of the website I designed,
I’m very excited to create one for my classroom that will outshine the one I
did for this class. Click here to view
my WebQuest. |
