I don’t have too much to talk about this week. I have played around with Keynote more and realized that the students will need to use GarageBand in order to record their voices for each slide. Otherwise, the recorded voices continue throughout the whole presentation. The students did more research on Monday. Tuesday we had a field trip, which we were out of the building all day. Wednesday was a half day, so we were unable to get anymore work done. If the students were able to get on a computer at home over the holiday, they were to complete a little more research. If not, they will complete it on Tuesday!
11/19/07 Assignment November 20, 2007
To reflect on last week, I was able to give my own presentation using Keynote on Pennsylvania. Although, I’m still tweaking things a bit, because our computers just got upgraded, so I’ve been playing around with the new features. I’m going to add some of those new features to my presentations, and then show the students how it improved my presentation. The students really seemed to like it. So far, the students have been working in pairs or individually to complete the research part of the project. They were able to find many books in our school library that were useful to them. I did create a webpage that the students could access that had four good links to help them find information about their states. I found that transportation ended up being the hardest thing to research. I’ve been helping those students who were unable to find information on the websites I provided and NetTrekker (a program the school using for researching). I wrote down all those students who were having trouble finding information, and I plan over Thanksgiving to add links to the webpage that they’ll find helpful. Many of the students are getting close to finishing though with their research. They have created a folder on their desktops in which they are able to insert pictures that they would like to use for their presentation. I do have our Tech Coordinator scheduled to come in on Tuesday to help with the Keynote presentation. We’re deciding whether or not it would be best to have a set template for the students to use, or if I’d like to give the students the freedom to pick. There are a few things that I’m weeding out right now, but I think it will turn out great in the end.
11/12/07 Assignment November 12, 2007
Well, I was planning on presenting my demo to my students last week, but with school testing and conferences this coming week, there wasn’t time to fit it in. I do have scheduled two sessions for an hour each this week. If I can, I will fit in another hour session. I was planning on doing my demo presentation today, but our tech coordinator is out of the building. I need him to upload the websites that I picked out for the students to our school webpage. He’ll be back tomorrow, so I’ll be all set to start everything then. The students packets are all put together. The students know which state they are researching. Also, we have finished the review of the Southeast Region in their textbooks. I’m really looking forward to seeing how things turn out. I’m scheduling to do the computers at least twice a week. The research information that they find, they will be compiling and writing out what the important information they would like to include in their reports. I will give them time each day to work on the written part of the project. I’ll be able to give you more information after this week is over. Wish me luck!!!
11/5/07 Assignment November 4, 2007
So I started creating my mock presentation to show to the students. You can check it out!See what you think! I saved it as a pdf, but it will be done in Keynote. Remember this is just a rough draft. I’m going to touch up some of the pictures. Also, I have to add in transitions and my voice to include more information. I’m planning on getting the students started Monday, November 5th. I have already given them a brief over view of the project. Here’s the handout they will use to gather this information. I think this will help guide them through this project. I have already grouped them in two’s. I will have them pick out of a hat for their state tomorrow. I will show them how to look for information using books, internet, and the library. My goal is for them to gain a better understanding of the states. I am also planning on pretesting them tomorrow on the information they will obtain by the end of the presentations. I’ll be able to tell you much more about the students’ ability at the end of the week. I’m excited to see how this works!!!
