First Real Test

Well, its been a few weeks now, but I finally had my first real test of planning and implementing a lesson using technology in the classroom. For my lesson I taught the students (fourth graders) how to use MS Excel to graph their data. We used their time for Hands on Math on a Friday to teach the lesson. Each student had their own laptop computer, although we did end up putting a few students at the desktops in the back of the classroom for different reasons. I used the computer at the front of the room which projects onto a screen which can be seen from anywhere in the classroom. The main goal of the lesson was to teach the students about the different parts of a graph and what type of graphs were good for different types of data. I also wanted to teach the students about using the graph function of Excel and some of the basic terms for using a spreadsheet application.

We started the lesson off by going over some of the basic terms that are used in spreadsheet applications. These terms included things like cell, row, column, function, and formula. I also showed the students how each cell was labeled and how to move around from cell to cell.

Next, I chose a research topic for them. I wanted to know what each of the students' favorite subjects was. We went around the room and each student told me what their favorite subject was. I recorded the results in a Notepad on the projected computer so that everyone could see the results. Then we talked about different types of graphs and which type was best suited to show the data we had just collected. There was a brief discussion regarding whether a pie or bar graph would be best, but the class eventually decided that a bar graph was the best choice.

Once we had decided on what we were going to do, the students had to learn how to make it. The first step was entering all of the data into the spreadsheet. After the students entered the data, I had them select the data and then click on the graph function. Then the students had to pick the bar graph from the choices on the menu. When the students clicked finished, we had a graph. Well, we had a very basic skeleton of a graph.

For the next few minutes we talked about different things that would make the graph more useful. These were things like a title, labels for the two axes, a scale, and a legend. After we talked about why each of these was useful, I showed the students how to insert these things into their graphs. Once each of the students had completed this part and the graphs had everything they needed to be useful resources, I showed the students how to edit things like the font and color. Although these were merely cosmetic changes, the students spent the most time on this part trying to make the graph look as nice as possible.

Throughout the entire lesson I walked around the classroom and helped any students who seemed to be having trouble. The students were first supposed to ask a neighbor if they didn't understand something and then ask one of the teachers if necessary. All of the students saved their graphs to the student network so that they could print them later. Many of the students spent extra time later in the day working on their graphs, and several of them went home and brought back graphs they had made on their own the next day. All in all it was a very successful lesson.

There were a few minor setbacks though. Some of the students had problems without having a mouse to move through the screens. Although the lab set has some USB mice, there aren't enough for the entire class. The other big technical issue I had was that two of the laptops died during the middle of the lesson. A smaller issue was that some of the toolbars had been edited so that functions I demonstrated to the students weren't visible on their screens. We only had an issue with two students not following directions and they ended up at a desktop at the back so that the assistant teacher could monitor them. The students whose batteries had died also ended up at the desktops

The only thing I would do differently when teaching this lesson is allowing more time so that the students could have a chance to create graphs of data they had collected. I think this would have given some of the students more motivation and also shown them how they could use the program for their own benefit.

Tapped In

The Tapped-In website was an incredible resource over the course of the spring semester. For me, the biggest advantage of the Tapped-In resource was a large pool of mentors who had experienced many of the same things, that we as student teachers, were experiencing over the semester. These teachers could give us examples of how they dealt with similar situations, or advice, or point us in the direction of a vast number of resources. At one point in the semester, I went through all of the discussion boards and copied down all the links, and there were over ten pages of links that had been posted. Many of these were great resources, that I doubt we could have found on our own. The constant encouragement from our mentors was also greatly appreciated. Whenever one of us felt that we were never going to survive in the classroom, there were always plenty of positive voices coming from all across the world. Another advantage of the Tapped-In website was that the students could discuss how different situations were dealt with in their practicum classrooms. Many of these issues are important, but because of the WM scheduling, we had very little time in any of our education classes to discuss things that did not relate directly to the course material. It also gave us a perspective of what our classmates were doing in their practicum classrooms and their views on a number of subjects. Although it was incredibly useful, it did have a few disadvantages as well. Not everyone checked the site on a regular basis and often conversations would be repeated or go through long periods with no comment before being picked up again. Also, topics would be originated in different threads and you would either have to post in both of them to make the same point, or the people who only read one thread wouldn't get a true account of everyone's input. Overall though Tapped-In was a valuable resource and I think it would be beneficial for each school to have a forum for parents and teachers to discuss school matters.