The Curriculum Unit

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Generative Topic:  My generative topic is Exploration Investigation.  Throughout this unit the students will discover the various ways in which exploration leads to new knowledge and opportunities for people.  The students will learn about explorers, the reasons for exploration, and the impact of exploration. "Curriculum Unit"

Essential Questions: My essential question are the guiding questions for this unit on explorers.  By the end of the unit, the students will be have answered these questions:

What are the reasons that cause people to explore?

What are some effects of exploration on both the people and the lands being explored?

"Curriculum Unit"

Unit Goals: The unit goals I have chosen come from the new Georgia Perfomance Standards in the content area of Social Studies and Language Arts.  I have chosen technology goals from the ISTE national standards to help students effectivly use technology throughout this curriculum unit. "Curriculum Unit"

Learning Targets: The learning targets help to define how my students will reach the learning goal.  I feel that it is important for students to learn in a variety of ways.  I have opportunities for the students to engage in  discussions, make comparisons, research for new knowledge, as well as create a product.  These opportunities engage all learners throughout the unit. "Curriculum Unit"

Technology Plan: I have created a technology plan to help identify ways in which technology will be integrated throughout this unit.  I wanted to make sure that I expanded the use of technology beyond research.  Students will be given an opportunity to either create a digital story or a podcast as a culminating activity. "Curriculum Unit"

Activities and Performances:  Creating activities for this unit was particularly exciting.  Students will move through the unit engaging in meaninful learning activites.  They will participate in discussions, brainstorming activities, and will create a digital story or a podcast.  These activities each are created to meet the learning goals."Curriculum Unit"

Assessment Decisions: Assessment is an important part of every curriculum unit.  In this unit, I will use a variety of assessments for the children.  Some assessments will simply be teacher observations or checklists, while other assessments will be more in depth rubrics. Rubrics allow students to know what is expected from them prior to beginning the activity."Curriculum Unit"

Exploring Integrating Technology

To read further about the information below, click on "Exploring Integrating Technology" to see my master document.

Helpful Hints in Word: This course taught me many new hints when it came to using Microsoft Word. In particular I learned how to convert a table to and from text, insert cells/rows into tables, change spacing between paragraphs.  I also learned how to create a table of contents and link the table of contents to particular places in the document.  I will carry these hints with me as I continue to use Word.

Inspiration Web: I tried using two different programs to create my mind map, Inspiration and MindMeister. I found Inspiration to be a much easier program for creating webs.  I use Inspiration and Kidspiration in my classroom to help children organize their thoughts as they brainstorm.  We also use Inspiration to organize writing and stories.

Click here to see my Inspiration Web. 

Word Chains: The word chains activity was an interesting way to learn how words are connected.  I could see this being used in a language arts or reading class to discuss synonyms or even antonyms.  Students would have fun choosing the words then editing the color and font of the words to show meaning.

Earth Browser/Excel: I enjoyed working on the earthquake/Excel activity.  I gained a better knowledge of Excel and creating graphs in Excel.  I see how students could be very interested in finding and plotting earthquakes.  This would make a great addition to a land form unit or it could make a great independent project.Earthquake graph

Technology Brochure: Creating my technology brochure created some challenges.  After ironing the challenges out, I really enjoyed the experience of creating a brochure.  I especially enjoyed learning about different websites and technology tools from classmates. Teachers at my school have their students create handwritten brochures as final assessments, now I can help the students create brochures on the computer.

Inspiredata/Database: WOW!  This program is incredible. I would often have my students go from class to class to survey other children, tally the results, and draw a graph using graph paper.  Inspiredata is an easy way for students to get the same results in less time.  The ease in which the students can manipulate the data is incredible.  I can see this program being beneficial in a school setting.

Portfolio Reflection 

This is a reflection of what I learned in this course.  Please click on the link to read the document.

Portfolio Reflection

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