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Amanda Scout EDU 506 – Final Self-Reflection Report Overview of EDU 506: At
first, I wasn’t sure what to expect in this class. But once I started
attending the sessions, I really had fun with the different projects that we
did. I enjoyed making things in the
different computer programs we worked with before this class and I feel I’ve
strengthened my computer skills as a result of taking this class. Even though I’ve worked with these programs
before, I still learned some ways to use them that were new to me and that
I’ll now be able to utilize when creating things for teaching. Title: Project #1: Lesson Plan Description: For this project I created a lesson plan
that I ended up using in my 7th grade English class. The first part of the lesson included an
editing sentence activity. The
students were given a sentence with errors on the SmartBoard screen, which
they copied into notebooks, and then they had to correct the sentence. I then would call students up to the
SmartBoard to correct the sentence until all corrections were made. We then discussed the various rules
associated with these errors and the students copied them into their
notebooks. In the second part of the
lesson, the students worked on four Commonly Confused Word examples on the
SmartBoard with me, so they could see how to make the corrections, and then
they finished the worksheet on their own.
This lesson followed New York State Learning Standards for the 7th
grade level of English Language Arts. Reflection: This kind of a project is easy for me
because I have to come up with lesson plans on a regular basis for myself and
for administrators. I like working
with the features in Microsoft Word to make the lesson plan look visually
appealing. I try doing the same thing
when I make assignments and worksheets for my students. It also makes my assignments/worksheets
unique when compared to those of other teachers. Link: Please click here to
view my lesson plan. Title: Project #2: Excel Spreadsheet Description: For this project I created a graph and
included the information in a table.
I took student grades from a quiz I gave based on material covered in
my Lesson Plan project. I have 4
class periods of regular 7th grade English so I divided their
scores into 5 grade ranges from A to F.
I also included the total number of students in each class that took
the quiz. I then put this information
into a bar graph and included a color-coded key. I also included a paragraph explaining the information, the
graph, and its use. This allowed me
to visually observe student performance on this quiz in order to see which
class periods needed more review on the subject matter. Reflection:
I don’t normally use Excel Spreadsheet to create graphs, although I have done
it before. We were shown in class how
we could use it to create a gradebook but my school has a program that we use
where we put in grades and it makes the calculations for us (Schoolmaster
Gradebook). I normally use it for
making students lists of various types, and I worked with it for making
graphs when I was in high school, so I am familiar with the program. Link:
Please click here
to view my Excel spreadsheet. Title: Project #3: PowerPoint Presentation Description: This was our group project. Juli Trush and I created an open house
set-up guide for teachers. This
presentation covered various aspects of an open house and what a teacher
(especially a first-year teacher, for example) can do to create a successful
open house. We used both of our own
open house experiences and what we do individually and then put them all
together into one guide that can be modified for all different grade levels
and disciplines. The presentation
discussed the purposes of an open house, what a teacher should have available,
like handouts and up-to-date student grades, how it can be varied depending
on grade level, discipline, district, and so on, and finally a list of
helpful tips to remember. Reflection: This project was a lot of fun and when
Juli and I finished it, we thought that it might be something nice to give to
our administrators to see if they might want to give it to first-year
teachers at the start of the school year.
I just might do that next year.
I’ve worked with PowerPoint a lot, so I’m familiar with the program,
but again I learned a lot of helpful tips and techniques that I’ll be able to
use when creating presentations for my classroom. Link: Please click here
to view my PowerPoint presentation. Title: Project #4: WebQuest Description: For this last project I created a
WebQuest designed for my 7th grade ELA students and the focus was
on Literary Elements. These terms are
very important to know in all grade levels of English. The WebQuest gave small groups of students
the tasks of creating a graphic organizer/visual for an assigned short story
that would show how all of the literary elements could be applied to that
particular story and would eventually be presented to the other students as a
review tool. Included in the Webquest
was a comprehensive list of the literary elements and their definitions, a
blank and a filled-in plot chart for the students to use as models, and links
to all of the short stories. I also
included the two rubrics that would be used to evaluate them: one for the
graphic organizer/visual and the second for the presentation. I also included a page telling a little
bit about myself, a link to my classroom webpage through my school, and my
email contact information. I was then
able to publish this WebQuest using Microsoft FrontPage through my Oswego
State email account. This WebQuest
followed New York State Learning Standards for the 7th grade level
of English Language Arts. Reflection: This was another project that I had a lot
of fun with. In my busy schedule, I
don’t really have the opportunity to create something fun and interesting
like this. But that’s another
positive result of this class: working on something I wouldn’t normally have
the time to create and then being able to use it in my teaching. I plan to use this WebQuest at some point
this year (if not next year) for review purposes and I would give students
extra credit for it. I use Microsoft
FrontPage for my classroom webpage through my school. I also learned a lot of helpful tips that
I’ve been able to apply to my own webpage that I didn’t know how to do before
this class. Link: Please click here to view
my WebQuest. |