9-12+Technology+Curriculum+Ideas

Dec. 2007 United Nations (from Sheila)

Dec. 2007 [|MovieMaker Lesson] (from Cynthia)

From Cindy Schmidt, Dakota 8 January 2007

We are on the technology curriculum council and have been asked to bring to our next meeting examples of what teachers and staff are doing in the building with technology. An example might be a cool project you do every year in the computer lab, equipment you use to teach a lesson, anything...........it doesn't have to be a MAJOR project, it can be very simple and quick :)

If you do anything like this in your classroom or with your students, please email me a brief description!!! We will take it to our next technology meeting. we will not include your name, unless you want us to :)


 * 11 teachers responded to our email question………………**

· we use the video streaming to show Spanish soap operas.

· I use CBR's ( computer-based ranger finders) to detect motion and have students anaylze graphs based on the motion created or to be able to "walk" the graph based upon their interpretation of the data. I currently use it in Applied 3, but am planning to use other applications in AP Calculus this year.

· We find existing photographs and add images of ourselves to them. Students use a digital camera to photograph themselves with the expression that fits the image and then combine the two images to place themselves in it. This gives them scanning skills, and familiarizes them with Photoshop techniques.

I've attached a sample that Andrea Popa has recently completed.

· I do a lot of webquests on various topics...nothing too new or special. I also keep a class website with homework, links, etc.

· I am Sue Young and I teach Chemistry and AP Chemistry at Dakota High School. We use a lot of technology in the teaching of chemistry. My fellow chemistry teachers at Dakota (Roseanne Macksoud, Marie Saputo and Rick Fontaine) use CBL equipment (Calculator Based Labs) from Vernier. This equipment allows students to program a TI graphing calculator which is connected to a CBL unit and use probes (temperature, pH, gas pressure, etc) to collect data. The CBL unit is then connected to our classroom computers and the data appears on the screen. Students can then label axis, points of interest, graph, etc. and print out their data. This makes it much faster so that the main point of science, which is to interpret the data, can be more efficiently discussed. The funds for this equipment was originally from the "start up" fund when Dakota opened. The boosters have replaced some of the equipment when it was needed and just recently, Craig McBain and his department replaced what needed to be replaced. This same equipment is now being used in most colleges and universities.

· The Boosters also purchased for us a Virtual Lab Program for Chemistry. This program is now on our wireless laptops, our computer labs and media center computers. This allows our students to do simulated experiments that are valuable to the learning process but deemed unsafe and/or unhealthy to do in the classroom.

· Our chemistry books now come with wonderful DVD components which would allow us to do wonderful things in the classroom that would be interactive with students but in reality our classroom TV's are too small to allow this to take place. With larger TV's we have the ability to interject another whole aspect of technology!! (hint, hint :)

· I have found an excellent site where my AP Biology students can do simulated labs that are approved by the College Board. It usually takes one class period for them to go through each lab. There are 12 labs. This minimizes some of the lab equipment that I need to buy for them. And it's fun for them.

· Students design their own homepages on blackboard, www.bb.misd.net, and include biographies, pictures, links to video clips, etc. They then complete an assignment where they randomly draw the name of another student in class and must post a repsonse to their person's homepage on an online discussion board (on blackboard). The assignment is done in the beginning of the ninth grade year when many of the freshmen students do not know each other and it is a great community building exercise for the classroom!

· Edsitement has several lessons on ancient Mesopotamia using web links to the British Museum to observe, analyze & interpret actual artifacts with cuneiform writing. Students see the clay tablets, read the translations, and then draw conclusions about that society. The British Museum site also has an interactive trading voyage (choose your own adventure) to show how cultural exchange occurs through trade. There's also a link to a clay map from 1500 B.C. of an ancient city, with intertactive features showing river docks, city walls, marketplace, etc. Students can see evidence of the importance of trade in ancient times and see how trade affected the development of a city. Edsitement also links from a lesson plan for Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" to a series of sites about women's lives around 1900 -- using cartoons, posters & magazine articles from the times to show the changing roles of women -- the development of the suffrage movement. There's a link to "Within these walls" at the Smithsonian, which lets students see a floor plan of a house that changed from Revolutionary times to modern times, with diaries & artifacts of those who lived there. Also there are links to lots of information -- essays, diaries, etc, -- about working class, immigrant, and African American women of the early 1900s as well.

· I use the Smartboard to show an Oprah clip of an interview with Elie Wiesel when we read his __Night__.

· I use the following in my classroom:

1. United streaming~ whenever I find appropriate material 2. Smart boards for students to present visual aids during speeches and other presentations 3. Cameras and other recording equipment for creating visuals for assignments 4. Inspiration for helping students prepare research papers 5. Students have sent me links of their work through email 6. Internet for research for students and myself 7. Microphones and speakers for radio presentations 8. DVD's and VCR's for acting clips for the theater students


 * Computer Lab

A. Authentic materials in the foreign language. Examples of websearches include: -Spain Remax website for house vocabulary and pictures of typical Spanish homes. -Grocery and store ads -Spanish newspapers (weather, sports, etc.) -Movie Guide (time) -Restaurant menus B. Quia websites C. Textbook website - En Español. On-line flashcards and self-check quizzes D. Microsoft Publisher. Students create a newspaper in Spanish.

2. Videostreaming - Standard Deviants series in Spanish

3. DVD player - shows a movie in Spanish with English or Spanish subtitles.


 * 1) Powerpoint - Flashcards of pictures and vocabulary words displayed on the TV.


 * During my Gothic unit, when we study Edgar Alan Poe, my students go to the following interactive website and do the interactive activities regarding Poe's death. They also explore the link regarding Poe's 5 Poetic Principles, write down the 5 principles, and then study/analyze two poems that Poe identified as having all 5 of his principles. http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default flash.asp


 * I often use [|www.poetry.com] with my creative writing classes...the site has a lot of fun activities for the kids, such as using already given words on the screen to make your own poem (you click and drag the words that you want and put them into the order that you want, kind of like magnetic poetry.) The site also has daily/weekly poetry contests, and places where you can post your work and receive feedback from people around the world. Many of my kids LOVE it, and use the site regularly once I introduce them to it.