Lesson Plan Supplemental Materials

Our Day at the Beach is a lesson exploring the weather, beach life, and animals in the ocean. Children will go through various stations and learn through lessons on how to make sand, create their own beaches, answer questions about beaches, and explore videos and other activities related to the beach. Weather, climate, sand and water are all part of science common core standards. By the end of the lesson students should be able to identify basic topics about beaches and beach climate and should be able to identify differences to the weather and life in other climates. These hands on activities will keep the students moving and involved in wanting to learn about other areas that they may have never experienced before.

Loading Our Day at the Beach Pre-Assessment

Pre-Assessment

My first tech based material is a pre-assessment quiz. This online quiz is ten multiple choice questions and are testing what knowledge students already have on this topic. I will be teaching a mini lesson on weather and climates before we start this entire lesson, so they will have some basic knowledge on what is going on around them. I will let students take this on a computer or a print out and will track how well each student does on each question. From here I can modify other parts of my lesson plan to either make it easier or more challenging.

Beach Jeopardy 

My second tech based material is Beach Jeopardy! This will be one of the stations in the lesson. I will be walking around to each station helping students that need it or showing what they need to do. This was always a favorite of mine in school. Students will answer questions and if they get it right they get points. Whoever has the most points win. This will test their knowledge in a fun way. The group of four will play two-on-two. 


Worksheet

My final material is a worksheet that will be at the coloring and worksheet station. This will be a required paper and I will display these on our bulletin board in the hall. This is a "what if I was a mermaid" coloring sheet. Me or my grownup helper will help students come up with their ideas of what they would do if they were a mermaid. This is more of a make-believe assignment, but this will give students the chance to use their imagination if they lived in the ocean themselves. 

My Technology Lesson Plan

EDUC 2220 Lesson Plan by Amanda Foster on Scribd

Reflective Wrap-Up Post

I envision my classroom to be super fun, creative, and unique. Learning from our Pinterest assignment I have so many ideas of things I want to do. Depending on what location I am teaching in I hope I have at least a smartboard and some computers. I would love to have as much technology as I can, but I do not want to get unrealistic expectations if I am at a school that cannot provide these things. I think smartboards are super interactive and get kids up and out of their seats and of course computers to do individual activities. I think at that age (1st-3rd grade) kids are still learning what technology is and how to use it, so I think these basic tech tools will be perfect. If students do not have access to technology I think it will be hard to keep students involved. Today, technology is all around and everything is at our fingertips and not having another way of learning something available then students are restricted. I need to be able to show videos, do games and activities related to lessons, and get students interacting with different tech apps. During the day I think students should have at least an hour exposure to technology. With this I mean using a tech tool during lessons or free time. I think they still need to be engaged together and with me and hands on crafts and projects.

I will be working in Early Childhood Education (K-3rd grade). Like I said before with my students being so young they probably won’t be too exposed to technology, so I will have to teach them how to use different things. I was not exposed to a smartboard until middle school and even then I felt like a grandma not knowing what to do. I think students who do not have much technology at home will struggle with keeping up with technology in the classroom. Those with a ton of technology would strive for more in the classroom and possibly get “bored” with the regular old day to day lessons. I think with the young group they won’t be using snapchat and texting yet, but telling them the cautions of talking to strangers or doing inappropriate things is frowned upon. Technology is great to use when it is used properly. I want them to be involved with technology, but I also want them to be careful of their choices.
I am struggling with coming up with ideas on how to incorporate the technology. What lessons could I do with them or how I could make the classroom a fun place. When I was in elementary school all we had was the old projectors. I think not being in an elementary setting for fifteen years is probably going to be tough because I do not know what is “modern.” I am still learning how to use technology myself so I think I need to do more research myself before I begin teaching others. I think the world of technology in the classroom is a little scary. I do not want my children glued to a laptop or iPad. I also want them to use their imagination and learn from paper and pencil and play outside. Technology is great but it needs to be limited. It should not take over the child and answer for them. Overall technology is a great thing and I want it in my classroom, there are just some kinks and challenges I need to work through myself to ensure I am incorporating it in the right way. This class has definitely opened my eyes a little more to the world of technology in the classroom.

Classroom Design

My first design I wanted to go all out, thinking of the max amount of students I could have in a 25 x 25 space. The first thing I want my students to do in the morning is come through the door and hang up their coats on the stand. Then they will go straight to the rug and be ready for "circle time" where we could go over the days' agenda, the calendar, weather, and maybe have some story time. From there I would want them to go to their seats where we could do a lesson plan/activity. During that time I could pull up the projector or television to use to integrate technology.  I would teach where the projector is currently sitting and use the whiteboard on the wall. Teaching there I would be able to walk back and forth in the front and all of the students are facing my direction and don't have their backs to me. Moving through our day I could use the kidney table to do activities with up to five students at a time, while the rest worked on academic work, reading in the reading nook with bean bag chairs, working together on the computer, or any group activity I create for the day. I would also use the kidney table when someone needs one on one help or a place for students to sit that need to make up a test. One activity I could do at the kidney table is use the iPads I plan to store in the storage room. Finally, I just have my desk facing the class. That way I am open to anyone who wants to come up, I also have a ton of storage space behind me where I could keep supplies, books, or my stuff as well. I always picture windows lining that back wall so I have a ton of light streaming into my classroom. I think this set up with keep my students focused in each area. Everyone will be focused on me at the rug, everyone will be focused on me while I teach because I will be able to see the face of everyone and finally the kidney table will keep the children focused on the activity. The classroom is set up to where I can move about in a circle and see the students from all over, making me easily accessible. 

But besides my all-out fancy classroom I wanted to take this activity in another direction. I wanted to create a smaller classroom. I do not know what school I will end up teaching in. I could be in a small town where there are not many children, or a private school with only a certain number of students in my classroom, or I could even be in an area where a lot of kids do not get to go to school. I wanted to do this because I am good at getting everything I want and making it fit in the best way possible, but I am also a minimalist when there is not much to work with I use it in the best way. So similar to my first work I would have the students enter and hang up their coats. I would then have circle time and then head to their desks for a lesson. I also incorporated a kidney table for small group time and still kept my desk facing the class. I put in a storage room where I could keep a tv on a cart, a projector, and some iPads. I would teach the students where the easel is so they are all facing me. So essentially I was able to create a very similar classroom like the first one, but I was able to create it for a smaller group of students. This room is only 375 square feet, almost half of the other one.