What a cool tool!
After watching the Google Maps tutorial, I couldn’t wait to start making
a lesson that incorporated this technology.
Since my previous position was in 8th grade English, I made a
creative writing lesson.
The students
would be the owners of their own travel agency. They would be presented with the challenge of
introducing and educating foreign visitors to a city/town of their
choosing. They would imagine that a
group of individuals would be traveling to this place, and it is up to them to
make their visit memorable.
The students would need to create a brochure for their
chosen city/town that would highlight some of its key features. This brochure would coincide with their
online map that shows the locations of these features. They could include landmarks, popular
eateries, educational factoids, and important locations such as police/fire
stations.
The final part of their task would be to create a travel
package. In it, they would include
lodging, travel costs, and an estimated budget needed to enjoy the locations
featured on their brochure and map.
Here is an example of a map that might be included in their
final product...
I chose to subscribe to this podcast because he seems to share many of my views on education. In addition, he understands the importance of educational media and often discusses their roles in the classroom. I saw this as a way to gain another perspective on the information that we are learning from this course.
“CCSS, TLE, Virtual School, and Education Reform Update”
This podcast follows Wesley A. Fryer and highlights his opinions and ideas surrounding current events in education. He is an educator and a coach and works with students as well as teachers to help them utilize technology in school. This week’s podcast included his feelings on the way that student performance is being directly linked to teacher performance to determine their effectiveness. The way teachers are being evaluated is changing in his area (OK), just like how things are changing here in Michigan.
Another topic of discussion during this podcast was his opinion on open licensing when it comes to educational resources. He made several great points of how it would be extremely beneficial to take advantage of open licensing to make text, curriculum and teaching resources available to anyone looking to utilize it.
I’d like to start off by saying wow; that was a lot of information in a short chapter. Having said that, I decided on a fun activity for my “class” that would teach them about unit costs using instructional activities that adhere to three theories from the reading. This unit of instruction will be called “Puppy Chow Showdown”.
Overview:
I would divide the class into small groups of 4 or 5 students, and give them a budget of $20. They will also be given a list of ingredients and packaging materials needed to make Puppy Chow. Their goal is to make, package and market their Puppy Chow for sale in the cafeteria (proceeds to charity of course). The group whose business model profits the most money will be the winner.
Educational Outcome:
Among several other larger lessons, the goal of learning how to calculate unit costs will be reached. This will be accomplished by challenging each student to make their money stretch as far as possible. A list of ingredients composed of different prices, quantities and brands will challenge the students to calculate which combination will yield them the most Puppy Chow in the end.
How this lesson adheres to the theories:
Behavioral Learning Theory – One major aspect of this theory was the use of positive and negative reinforcement to modify behaviors. As this lesson progresses, students will have to make purchasing decisions. With each decision there is the possibility of saving money, thereby allowing the student an immediate reward. In addition to this form of reinforcement, there is also the competition aspect. The group that made the wisest purchasing decisions and developed the most cost efficient business model would be rewarded. For the other groups, their learning would take place upon the reveal of the winning group’s business model. As the chapter said, feedback that their answer was wrong would “reduce the incidence of incorrect responding” for future situations.
Cognitive Information Processing Theory – This theory places a large emphasis on the use of graphic diagrams and visual representations in addition to utilizing prior knowledge. This lesson utilizes tangible items and also provides them with many different examples for them to practice the new skill of calculating unit costs (which the text also described as important). Also, the tangible items will allow the students to make meaningful connections between their prior knowledge (simple mathematics) and the new skill.
Constructivism – This lesson’s main goal of “create a business model that will yield you the largest profit” is a high level, complex learning goal as described in the text. Also, this task relates to all four of the bulleted points listed on page 41; the lesson is authentic to the discipline in which they are learning, it provides an opportunity for collaboration and multiple perspectives, the learners set their own goals and regulate their own learning, and the end result encourages learners to reflect on what and how they are learning.
Bonus Material;
Here’s a recipe for Puppy Chow. This stuff is amazing!!!
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My old college friends and I were just telling old stories about "The Wheaton Party House". I thought I'd look it up and make it my post. Good times!!!
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