February 2009
Tech Talk Instructional Technology Louisa County Public Schools 2008-09 School Year
February’s Featured Article The Internet Takes Cooperative Learning to a New Level JoAnn Marshall, ITRT Trevilians Elementary The Internet was created to allow scientists to collaborate across the barriers of time and space. It continues to be a high speed information highway that affords users the opportunity to communicate with others on an endless array of topics. Cooperative learning is a teaching technique that encourages students to work together to solve problems as they learn. When the Internet and Cooperative learning are combined, the collaboration possibilities are endless.
It is important that we prepare our students to live in the 21st century. Using the Internet, students can reach out to other classes, interact with subject matter experts, exchange information and data, express opinions, and access current information almost instantly. Entering the “online” collaborative environment will allow students to build knowledge with information taken from many sources that reflect differing perspectives. Now, for example, instead of researching how climate affects agriculture, students can learn first-hand by having “conversations” with peers around the world and sharing data.
Continued on page ….4
Inside this issue:
Spotlight on Schools
2-3
Feature Article Continued
4
February Lesson Plan
5
Black History Month Quiz
6-7
Thomas Jefferson Elementary TJES Technology Club members work together to create a PhotoStory project.
Download PhotoStory software FREE and follow step-by-step screencast tutorials here: http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm
Jouett Elementary
Kidspiration software uses the philosophies of visual learning to support students as they think creatively and organize ideas to write, comprehend and communicate successfully.
Fourth graders use Kidspiration organize research for an upcoming research project.
Trevilians Elementary 5th grade students work cooperatively to complete a project.
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LCPS Tech Talk
Technology in our schools... educating each student for life long learning!
LC Middle School 7th grade science students use the Internet to answer questions on Evolution
LC High School Patrick Janovick attended a LCHS staff development session on PhotoStory.
2008-09 School Year
Page 3
Cooperative Learning cont…
JoAnn Marshall, ITRT Trevilians Elementary
As safety concerns increase, it is
Sites for Internet Collaboration
important to teach our students how to communicate using the Internet in a safe manner. Many safe Internet learning environments have been created with students of all ages in mind. Look for sites that require accounts. allow monitoring by an
Find a Project www.gsn.org/project/index.html http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic1a.htm www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/projects.html
administrator and are password protected. You may want to create your own project or
Ask an Expert
join someone else’s. Existing projects are a
www.yahooligans.com/content/tg/expert
good way to start. It requires some time on the teacher’s part to investigate and make the most appropriate choice. Examples of
www.telementor.org/ www.askascientist.org
sites are provided in the inset. Engaged students are happy students. Take a leap of faith! Your ITRT will help get you started and develop meaningful projects. It is time to move our students from class-
Find KeyPals epals.com www. kidlink.org/English/index www.iecc.org
room cooperative learning groups to online collaborative learning communities.
Create a Project (advanced) These require accounts and administers www.google.com/apps/
LCPS has an account with: www.thinkquest.com (see your ITRT for assistance)
Louisa County Public Schools 953 Davis Highway Mineral, VA 23117 Phone: 540-894-5115 Fax: 540-894-5436
Creative Commons Copyright Jennifer Downey, Louisa County Public Schools February 2009
By: Jennifer Downey
Integrating technology Before...During...After your lesson with Clickers! Okay, so it is really called a Classroom Response System but you know everyone calls them “clickers”!
Black History Month Activity—resources on next page Before—use clickers to assess prior knowledge Plan ahead...enter pre-test quiz questions into the CPS software. When the students “click” their answer it will be automatically recorded in the software. Show the students a graph of what they know about the topic! During—Keep students attention with a mid-class pop quiz. Arrange students into small learning communities and allow groups to choose a person from the pretest to research (Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglas, etc). Provide books from the library, articles, or internet access for research. Students should share what they learn before the close of class. In the meantime don’t forget you have those clickers!! Throw up an impromptu pop quiz: Are you paying attention? Is your group socializing or on task? Do you need help? You can plot their answers and even create some healthy competition by comparing the results of each group! After—use clickers to assess student learning Reuse the pre-test quiz after students have explored facts about Black History. Compare and Contrast the graphs of their responses before and after the lesson.
Black History Month QUIZ ~ Grade 4+ www.teachervision.com Answers in Bold 1. Which former slave and noted abolitionist edited and published "The North Star," an abolitionist newspaper? Phillis Wheatley Benjamin Banneker Frederick Douglass 2. The 15th Amendment, which granted African-Americans the right to vote, was passed on which date? February 3, 1870 July 14, 1889 November 19, 1910 3. Which civil rights activist gained notoriety in the late 19th century for her scathing editorials denouncing racial injustice? Sojourner Truth Zora Neale Hurston Ida B. Wells 4.Noted African-American intellectual and civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois was a founding member of which organization in 1910? National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) The National Negro Business League Southern Christian Leadership Conference 5.Which landmark Supreme Court case represented an important victory for the civil rights movement in 1954? Plessy vs. Ferguson Dred Scott vs. Sandford Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka
6. Who is generally considered the mother of the civil rights movement? Harriet Tubman Susan B. Anthony Rosa Parks 7. Which of the following propelled Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence as a leader of the civil rights movement? He led the boycott (1955–56) by African-Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, against the segregated city bus lines. He organized the massive March on Washington (1963), at which he gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1964) for his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. 8. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy ordered the National Guard to ensure the enrollment of two African-American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, at which university? University of Mississippi University of Chicago University of Alabama 9. What key event in the civil rights movement happened in 1964? Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. The Black Panther Party was formed. 10. The National Rainbow Coalition, a political organization uniting various minority groups, was formed in 1986 by which African-American political leader? General Colin Powell Louis Farrakhan Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.