Sample Website

Here is a website I created for a class project. This site does not reflect actual teaching and is not connected to any specific school system. It was used as a learning experience and shows most of the same information found on this blog, except the layout is different. I enjoyed making this page and wanted to show it on my blog as well! Enjoy! 

>> https://sites.google.com/site/emiliabediliasclass/  

Self-Directed Learning Project: Virtual Field Trips

What is a Virtual Field Trip?   
This semester I have spent time exploring the topic of virtual field trips. This is an interactive way for students to explore different cities, worlds, and time periods from their own classroom. These are highly engaging for students and of an educational nature. The best part of virtual field trips is that students are in control of their learning. Teachers are used for guidance while the student explores and extends their learning through web-based activities.

How can a Virtual Field Trip be used in the classroom?     
Virtual field trips can be done as a whole class, group, or individual activity. Centers can easily include virtual field trips websites applications. They are easily accessed through iPads, SmartBoards, and computers. A class of students can walk through a different place in the world or a place from the past. The interactive features of virtual field trip lessons give students a chance to further explore and ask questions on a topic. Aside from social studies and geography, science is another subject related to virtual field trips. Such exploration provides students a chance to compare places in the world or in the solar system. A great plus in using virtual field trips is student learning that stems from the 5E lesson design. Virtual field trips can be used in the engage, explore, explanation, extension, or evaluate phase of a lesson; it merely depends on the objective and what the virtual field trip is addressing. These are the main uses for virtual field trips in my future classroom.

Image from: http://www.portnet.k12.ny.us/cms/lib6/NY01001023/Centricity/Domain/35/virtual-field-trip-round-20.png

Examples and Resources:
The following links are resources where virtual field trips can be found:
A. http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/index.html
This website has amazing lesson plans, visuals, and a variety of topics and grades. It is a collection of primary resources for educators to use. Under Science & Technology, The Universe: An Introduction has an interactive session that sizes the universe compared to relatable, concrete items found on earth. This website is easier for teachers and students to use in primary and early secondary levels. (K-8)

B. http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/world-wonders
World Wonders is an incredible virtual field trip website! World Wonders combines geography and history for an in-depth look into current and past locations. Once a location has been chosen, the program provides background information making it perfect for exploratory purposes and understanding geographical regions though pictures and street views. I have visited a few of the castles listed and they are actuate in description and visuals. For example, the Chenonceau Castle in the Loire Valley is beautifully rendered and would be the perfect start to a project or individual activity used to expand learning. This program would be best used with first graders through high schoolers. It would be difficult to navigate the program with kindergartners without several helpers in the room. (1-12)

C. http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/
Google Earth is great for basic geography and location skills practice with younger grades. It can also be used to calculate distance between landmarks and do research for social studies projects. This website also has access to 3D structures, Mars, Moon, and Sky interactive programs. This could be used with any grade level, but would be best for elementary levels. It could be used with older students, but would need to be further scaffolded into a lesson for it to be effective. (K-12)

D. http://www.louvre.fr
Le Lourve is the website for, arguably, one of most amazing and comprehensive museums in the world.  The website has online tours of exhibits, history of the museum, cultural departments, and specific selected works for students to view. This would be wonderful for art classes, European history, and cultural education. This can be used for upper elementary through high school aged students. (3-12)

E. http://googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html
Lit Trips from Google are organized by grade levels and take students to places in books they are reading. This would work well with literary centers for students to work on independently. They would further their engagement and learning of the places from the book while gaining knowledge on the area events took place. (K-12)

F. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/globaltrek/
Global Trek lets students plan a trip and learn about the country where they will travel. Descriptions of the country's people, past events, and debunked myths area few of the features found on this virtual field trip. There is also a journal login for student to keep track of their adventures and thoughts on what they have learned. This works well for an assessment of the activity students are completing. (K-6)

G. http://www.polarhusky.com
This Arctic Adventure is a break down of the Arctic research and dogsled competitions in extreme northern and southern locations of the world.  It listed the standards and curriculum covered in this authentic online learning experience. Students will follow a dog sled team throughout their journey across frozen tundra learning about the environment, climate change, and the huskies leading the sled. this program has weekly quizzes that can be used to check students understanding while following the dogs' journey. Teachers can break this unit across several weeks or use parts of the journey. It is an incredible resource with many activities, new knowledge, and of high interest for students! (K-12)

H. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/inside-white-house/interactive-tour
A tour of the White House is right at students' fingertips using this website! This is a great view for students across the country to see one of the most iconic places in the USA. This would be great to use in a citizenship unit. (K-12)

I. http://www.airpano.com
This website is a collection of panoramic views of man-made and naturally-occurring geographic features around the world. The images can zoom in, zoom out, turn around in 360 degrees and are available on multiple media sources (computer, iPad, iPhone). This tool is great for engagement and exploration of geographic locations in the classroom. Students will enjoy looking through the panoramic images of specific places or events listed. (K-12)

J. http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/
This is a virtual field trip of the entire Smithsonian Museum. This would be perfect for all grades depending on their science content. Specific area can be searched or the entire museum and different levels of the museum can be accessed through the interactive website. This website would best fall under the extension phase of learning. Here, students would specifically research and read about a prehistoric time or other topic located in the Smithsonian. (K-12)

K. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/webcast.htm
Ellis Island has its own virtual field trip site with videos, informational passages, and online tours. It is considered a webcast for the classroom and could be used for a social studies lesson spanning one class period or a full week. It is best for younger students who are just learning the skills of research and discerning credible facts. Older students could investigate Ellis Island without this website. (K-6)

Putting Bloom's Taxonomy into Practice

Bloom's Taxonomy is a daily part of teaching life: 
     Identify parts of a plant to a diagram, Assemble a timeline of voting rights, Support your written response with details from the story.
This is especially true when writing objectives, or goals, for lessons:
     Students will compare and contrast the uses of different graphs. Students will compose a question to poll classmates. Students will identify parts of a plant and their function. 

If you are unfamiliar with Bloom's Taxonomy or need a refresher, here is a comparison of the old and revised edition: 

New Version	In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. During the 1990's a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom), updated the taxonomy to reflect relevance to 21st century work. The two graphics show the revised and original Taxonomy. Note the change from nouns to verbs associated with each level. Note that the top two levels are essentially exchanged from the traditional to the new version.	Old Version
Remembering: can the student recall or remember the information?	define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce state
Understanding: can the student explain ideas or concepts?	classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report, select, translate, paraphrase
Applying: can the student use the information in a new way?	choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
Analyzing: can the student distinguish between the different parts?	appraise, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
Evaluating: can the student justify a stand or decision?	appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate
Creating: can the student create new product or point of view?	assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write.

From: http://ww2.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm **


Alas, Bloom's taxonomy has spilled into technology! This is wonderful for planning lesson and incorporating the constantly expanding world of technology. It is crucial for students to practice using technology while learning. I have complied a list of useful apps and website for this purpose. They are identified by Bloom's levels and given a rationale. 

                                         Technology for Bloom’s Taxonomy! 

Taxonomy Level	Activity/Strategy	Technology Tool	Rationale
Remembering	Recall, list, and define terms	PaperView Lite	This app is a similar to a document camera and white board used on an iPad. This is a great way for students to quiz each other on their spelling words; going back and forth while the other spells it with the “marker” from the program.
Remembering	Recall, repeat, reproduce, memorize	Look & Learn: Animals Vol. 1	This program costs money, however it combines science and literacy. This application is wonderful for preschoolers and kindergartners to memorize different animals and duplicate the spelling. This app is a useful technology skill for kids because it connects pictures to sounds and spellings of real-life animals.
Understanding	Identify, locate, classify; labeling of vocabulary terms	PaperView Lite	It can also be used for students to follow along during whole group or small group lessons. Students can draw/write specific and teacher-directed items. For example, this would be useful in a science lesson on the human body or plants where students could diagram bones or the stem of a plant. Allowing students to draw while listening helps connect information together and creates better comprehension.
Understanding	Classify, select, recognize, identify	Motion Math app	This app costs a $1.99, but would be great for math centers or a workshop. After learning fractions and estimation, etc., students need practice with these skills. This app has simple but interesting pictures that do not overly distract students from the math problem. The iPad must be moved side-to-side for the fraction number line to reach the correct answer mark. This makes the app very appealing and engaging to students. One of the best features in this app is the ability to see the whole number line on a problem before the student guesses. This is a great visual for students to understand number line problems and fractions more easily.
Applying	Interpret, sketch, choose, write	Popplet	This is a concept-making app. It can easily be used in whole group, small group, and individual activities. This application gets students to type (good skill to practice), create concept bubbles as needed, and link them together. This is excellent to teach concept maps, use as a whole class first to learn the program and have them save/print/email their concept maps as a daily grade in any subject.
Applying	Illustrate, interpret, operate, sketch, demonstrate	Slice It!	Slice It introduces students to geometry, fractions, and percentages without much instruction. This directly correlates to the exploration phase of the 5E learning cycle. Here, students are developing the foundational knowledge for skills they have not been explicitly taught. Now, students will be given the chance to develop understanding for the topic before deeply discussing them. This is another individual activity for students and shares an affinity with equal shapes and portioning. Using this app is a great way to scaffold student learning.
Analyzing	Choose, interpret, demonstrate, compare, contrast	Comparative Adjectives	This app has a library of vocabulary words where the student/child chooses which picture corresponds to that adjective. As an excellent Daily 5 center and practice at home, this is another app using parental interaction. It involves listening to reading as the question is posed to compare and contrast pictures of things.
Analyzing	Appraise, compare, contrast, distinguish, examine	Running Record Calculator	Although this app costs money, it would be great for a reading center. After testing it a few times and making sure it came up with the same running record data as the teacher, it would be safe for the students to use it individually. The app emails and/or saves the running record data. Emails could be sent to the teacher and parent as another form of communication. It provides percentages, word count, words per minute, and time. This will easily show student progress over time with the electronic running records.
Evaluating	Assessment, Self Check, Exit Slips	Socrative: Teacher and Student App	This program allows the teacher to give quizzes electronically and receive results via email. Students can also know whether they got the question right or wrong as they are answering questions. This program gives automatic grades and marks problems correct or incorrect in a spreadsheet format. There are previously made quizzes to use or teachers can create their own with the correct choices marked. It is beneficial for teachers and students.
Evaluating	Argue, defend, judge, evaluate, support	TallyPad	This app is less that a dollar and can be used throughout class time. It creates data polls and allows students to ask their own questions. This could be part of a daily job for a student to poll the class on what toy they want, their lunch choice, if they are left or right handed. Instead of Daily Data, this can be used for students to illustrate data from a self-constructed question and take two minutes of math to present it. Student will share their data and explain, or interpret, its results with support.
Creating	Constructing a personalized presentation of a skill to prove comprehension and application on a topic; develop	Prezi/Prezi Viewer app	Prezi is a great way for students to develop their own presentation in a fun way. It is allows students the chance to be creative while compiling what they learned on a certain topic into a fun presentation. The ability to share information is an important life skills students can learn early using this program.
Creating	Design, write, assemble	Photo Card App	This app uses early education skills such as addressing a letter or postcard, composing a message, and using stamps. This would be a great assessment piece after students create a post card. They can be used at the holidays to share trips, after a social studies lesson (travel or back in time messages), and for general composition practice. This would work well as a Daily 5 center for Work on Writing.

 

     Here is a link to the phenomenally resourceful website where I found several of apps listed above. They are ranked by Bloom's taxonomy levels, given criteria for apps chosen, and a description of uses and features of the app.  http://ww2.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm **

Hope this helps your technology use to "Bloom"!

(It's Monday so the extra cheesiness is acceptable.)

Ms. Childs

Update on Virtual Field Trips

     After spending several weeks delving into the topic of virtual field trips and flipped classroom setups, I have come to a conclusion: These classroom tactics are well-worth the effort to find and implement. Both of these strategies hold immense learning opportunity for students when the right website or adventure is used. It may take some time to start using these, but students will grow from this learning as they do the 5-E lesson plan model.
     First, students need to be engaged in the lesson. Next, exploration of the learning topic should take place. An explanation from the engage and exploration section of the lesson is used next to define what the students inquired on their own. The explanation portion of a 5-E lesson is where new vocabulary would be introduced and students can share the interesting things they have learned thus far. An extension of the lesson occurs next. Students would use that they learned in the previous parts of the lesson, but it also takes a further step in their learning to solidify their understanding of the topic. Evaluation is the final part of a 5-E lesson. Here, the teacher implements some sort of evaluation over a topic (observations, worksheet, project, etc) to check the students' understanding and gauge the current learning of the students. Virtual field trips are perfect for this model. Depending on how they are used, it fits into the engage, exploration, explanation, and extension part of the 5-E model.
 
   The school I am working with showed a live webcast  of the Magic Tree House Reading Buddies Week! The author of the series, Mary Pope Osbourne, and the two main characters, Jack and Annie, are appearances. Students loved this and it is a perfect example of an engaging virtual field trip. The students did not travel to NYC where the broadcast was coming from, but viewed in their own classroom as a supplementary activity to our Reading block. Website: http://www.cplwcho.org/content/magic-tree-house’s-mary-pope-osborne-live-webcast-main
     A perfect example from the explanation portion of the 5-E learning cycle comes from this website: http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=40e4e3c446984ebb0f13b7658&id=9e0076030a&e=aaef150220  It was for an electronic field trip that described in detail the American Civil Rights Movement.  
     For extension of a lesson, the Smithsonian Education website is highly useful. It covers an array of topics, gives students a chance to attempt the answer then shares fun facts and mysteries of that topic. Several included in the online field trips are: Abraham Lincoln, The Solar System, and Stamps as Storytellers. This virtual field trip website could be used in a variety of subjects. It could be accessed by classroom computers or iPads, whole class, small groups, and individually. There are endless possibilities.  Website: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org
     Google Maps is another useful tool for virtual field trips. Here is an article further describing this: http://www.teachhub.com/virtual-field-trips-google-maps
     Google also has a new section called World Wonders. Here, students can investigate current famous cities and places in the world from their classroom seat. For example, there are in-depth looks of the Palace of Versailles in France and the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.
Website article: http://ilearntechnology.com/?tag=virtual-field-trip
Website: http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/world-wonders

For more information on virtual field trips and flipped classrooms, check out Susan Pojer's Pinterest board for ideas: http://www.pinterest.com/spojer/blended-learningflipped-classrooms/

Infographics

1. http://prezi.com/_v10vbubjpgy/flower-antomy/

     B. This was obtained from Prezi.

C. I selected this Infographic because it was useful for a lesson I am teaching this coming week.

D. It covers the following ALEX standard:

3.7: Describe the life cycle of plants, including seed, seed germination, growth, and reproduction.

•  Describing how plants occupy space and use light, nutrients, water, and air

•  Classify plants according to their features; Examples: flowering or nonflowering

•  Identify photosynthesis as the method used by plants to produce food

E. I would use this as a center with computers or iPads. In the lesson I am teaching this week, it is being used as an exploration for the students to delve deeper in to the parts of a flower. This is easily explored individually.

2. http://prezi.com/5q9lxvzh1dsh/flower-anatomy/

B. This was obtained from Prezi.

C. I selected this Infographic because it related to a current science inquiry in my lab placement. It is also visually appealing.

D. It covers the following ALEX standard:

3.7: Describe the life cycle of plants, including seed, seed germination, growth, and reproduction.

•  Describing how plants occupy space and use light, nutrients, water, and air

•  Classify plants according to their features; Examples: flowering or nonflowering

•  Identify photosynthesis as the method used by plants to produce food

E. I would use this as a center or enrichment exercise with my students. It is simple   enough for the students to explore independently and go deeper into their understanding. By allowing students to do this not whole group, students who already understand this material can briefly review it and those who are struggling can take their time exploring the pictures and information.

3. http://prezi.com/z9a1kxybocnf/basic-sentence-parts/#share_email

B. This was obtained from Prezi.

C. I selected this Infographic because it is a great review for students and a class before a grammar test. There are also examples with each part of a sentence.

D. This can be used with grades 1-7. This depends on how far into the presentation the teacher reviews the material. If it just concerned subjects and verbs, first graders would benefit form this.

1.10: Use a word that names a person, place, thing, or animal as the subject of a sentence.

•  Using verbs to show action

•  Using adjectives to describe

•  Identifying singular and plural nouns

      It works with older grades to as it discusses indirect objects and understood you.

E. I would use this prezi presentation in whole group learning and review session on grammar. Depending on the grade level, I could just go through the first portion of the prezi, or continue all the way through. This presentation does not have any misspellings or incorrect language making it a fantastic to use with students. It also contains examples for each of the grammar topic discussed.

4. A. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/295267319291058862/

B. This was obtained from Pinterest and is from Kids Discover.com

C. I selected this Infographic because I love social studies and it is perfect for a unit on the rules governing the United States.

D. The Infographic covers the following ALEX standard:

5.9: List steps involved in the development of the Constitution of the United States, including inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation and struggles over the ratification of the Constitution.

•  Listing powers granted to Congress, the President, and those reserved for states or for the people

•  Discussing major ideas and concepts of the Constitution of the United States, including duties and powers of the three branches of government

•  Identifying main principles in the Bill of Rights

E. I would use this Infographic as a class introduction and discuss to the bill of rights. First it would be viewed or the smart board then I would pass out a handout of this Infographic for the students to keep in their folders. It is a great guide that is much more appealing to view than a list of notes or a bulleted list. We would use it as a reference through out a unit on this standard. 

                                                                

5. http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/06/affirmative_action_1965-2013_infographic.html  

B. This is from Colorlines.com.

C. I chose this Infographic because it shows the cultural differences from the 1960s to 2011 concerning affirmative action.

D. This Infographic covered the following ALEX standard:

6.14: Identify cultural and economic changes throughout the United States from 1960 to the present.

E. This Infographic would be great for class discussion showing one slide representation between the two time periods at a time and discussing their significance. This is an important topic and a class period could be used on this Infographic to help students understand its importance and the changes it caused.

I cannot wait to use these in my classroom! Info-graphics are fun for teachers and students! What a great resource!

Learn something new everyday,

Ms. Childs