WEEK 4: M&Ms and Mermaids

This week presented us with a fantastic approach to integrating M&Ms into math. I really enjoyed this lesson. All students were asked to bring a packet of M&Ms to class. The task was to graph the different colours in our packets. We were given a sheet first to graph it.

(Left)





After this we were asked to enter our data into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. A chart was created showing the different colours in our packets. (Below.) Everyone's numbers of the colours were different. This could be a good time to look at mode, mean, median, and range. For example, based on the chart below the mode is 6. The mean is 9. The median is 7. The range is 13. Just doing this could be a lesson in itself. Students could then group together, add their results, and figure out the new mode, mean, median and range. However I would want the students to represent this in some way on a graph or number line. It needs to be made tangible so that students will retain the information.





After we completed the chart we continued on with graphing the M&Ms. This was really exciting: I didn't realise how simple it was to create a graph. We were also shown how to Change the colours and backgrounds of the graphs. In the end, I was very pleased with what I was able to create. (Below)



This activity could be followed up by looking at the nutritional information: looking at kilojoules; fat content; or sugar content. This could be part of a health class. If you were looking at fat content, you could look at the suggested fat intake per day and look at how much a packet of M&Ms would contribute to that.



If any students have allergies, this can be done with another topic such as hair colour, height, ethnic background (if it is a diverse classroom), First letter of a name, etc. There are many possibilities.

The second part of this lesson we looked at a website called DustEchoes. This website is fantastic. I would very much like to use this website in my classroom. We had a look at the video animations on this website. Using the video, we cut and pasted scenes from it into inspiration to create a story map. (Left) The story map I created was of the video called Mermaid.

This would be a good activity to do with students. What is great about this website is that each video comes with a study guide. This study guide contains many different ideas for lessons.

WEEK 3: Technology and thinking

This workshop was broken up into two separate learning areas: Quia games and design briefs.

Quia games is a very interesting website. The variety of games can be very useful in the classroom. Although it can be something for the whole group, more than that, I can see potential for this website to be used with students below the VELS standards and extension students. I think these games would be fantastic when personalised for particular students. If in a class you only have 2 or 3 students in need of extra attention, it would not take long at all to prepare personalised games for them. These games could also function well as an engagement activity. The use of something like hangman on an interactive whiteboard would be great for students. Immersing students in technology everyday can only prepare them better for a future that will be dominated by information and communication technologies.

Having said this, as teachers, we need to be mindful of the method of immersion that we use. It is very simple to give students a research project and send them off to use websites as resources, and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this scenario students are just going to a website, and when teachers have their backs turned, copy and paste information into their presentation. This is a very low order of thinking (in fact I don't think it even registers in Bloom's Taxonomy.)

When integrating technology in the curriculum we should always questions ourselves: Am I challenging the students to use higher thinking orders? Often we get distracted by the flashiness of a program and forget the learning objectives of a lesson.

The danger of modern technology today is that students have all sorts of information just a click away. Whatever the students need to know, they can find it on the internet. (There are even instances where people download whole essays off of the internet.) Because of this ready access to information, thinking has lost its importance and value. Students don't need to analyse, synthesise, or evaluate information because surely someone has done it before and made it available on the internet. We are all guilty of this behaviour; rather than thinking we choose to search the internet. The funny thing is that people will search for hours on the internet to get to a conclusion that they had the potential to reach if they would have just stopped and thought about it.

To promote higher order thinking when using technologies there is a new approach called online learning communities. (You can learn a little more about it here.)

Basically students are a part of this online community where they are able to collaborate and communicate electronically. Supporters of this approach boast an 80%-90% knowledge retention. These online communities are basically taking classroom discussion into the 21st century. I personally feel that regular collaboration and communication is also effective, however, a healthy mix of the two would keep students motivated.



Design briefs also promote higher order thinking. Through group collaboration students are given an objective; they are then challenged to investigate and design; produce; and finally to evaluate and analyse.

The investigate and design phase of the design brief is for students to collaborate and brainstorm. They think of ideas (without touching any materials at this point.) Students are using comprehension and knowledge.

The second phase is produce. Students take their ideas from the former phase and make them tangible. This is using application.

The third phase is analyse and evaluate. Students need to think about what they did and what they could do better. If they did not reach their given objective, they will need to go back to the first phase. Although it seems like it may be time consuming, students will actually move through the phases quite quickly.

During this session we were asked to make a frog jump using glue, scissors, sticky tape and elastic band, and cardboard. It was more difficult than I thought. But it was a great process. We were thinking! It was great to see everyone's ideas.

What is great about using design briefs is that there is one objective for everyone, but the results are very diverse. Students come up with different ideas. Going through the different phases of the design promotes good thinking skills and strategies.

Probably the most important thing to remember here is that it is the process not the product that is important. It is imperative to value ALL students' ideas.

This approach to design is very clever. It incorporates all levels of thinking.

All of de Bono's six thinking hats would also be used in this process of design. De Bono segregated thinking strategies into hats that students can take on and off to help them articulate the type of thinking they are using. (Click here for more information and lesson ideas.)

The white hat is unbiased. It collects the facts and information.

The red hat is feeling and emotion. Students can say what they feel and think without explaining why.

The black hat judges what the problems might be. Scepticism. Rationality.

The yellow hat thinks of positive outcomes and benefits.

The green hat creates and designs.

The blue hat oversees all other hats and tells us when we might need to wear one of the other hats: Metacognition.

If we were to apply this to the design brief approach; phase one would consist of white, red, and greens hats; phase two would consist of green hats; and phase three would consist of blue, yellow, and black hats.

I really like the design brief approach to learning. I believe it teaches a skill that is vital throughout our entire lives.

WEEK 2: Publisher, Profession and Portfolios

This week we learnt how to make a brochure on Microsoft Publisher. Students are often asked to create brochures for various tasks at school. During my last practicum students were working on a unit of work on an Australian state or territory. One of the tasks was to make a brochure. My mentor teacher was not very technologically inclined and so had them complete this task by hand. Problems with this approach were that the students were not very engaged; their work was very messy; and it wasn't substantially different to the other tasks in this unit (poster, website design, etc.) Everything was done by hand (even the website design.)

(Here is an example of a brochure design created on Publisher.)

If I was leading this task I would first make the students confident with any software, information, resources, and techniques they may need. For example a lesson could be spent on how brochures are written. Have a look at real-life examples. What kind of language do they use? What information goes where? What kind of format do brochures follow? I would then get them to create a practice one.


During these sessions, I think I was asked by 50% of the students "What should I write?" in regards to the brochure. This would be a fun interactive way to help them with their task. (And also practical! This is a skill that they may need later on; as useful as word processing.) Using Microsoft Publisher was never something I enjoyed because I simply didn't understand it. Some of that mystery has now been unshrouded. The portfolio/website template could also have been used in that unit from my practicum for the website design.


We also had an in-depth conversation about job applications. This was a very informative session. I received many answers to questions I have not yet formed. This course is so compact with information and assignments that I have been doing my best just to keep up to date with classes and deadlines. To have this advice session was invaluable. I am very grateful for it. The application process seems lengthy and precise, but it does make me wonder how effective it is. It is no secret that there are some teachers in the field that could do better to improve themselves. How do they get these jobs? Even in my classes here at university I can see there are people who may become "at-risk" teachers. The daunting thing is that they have a good knowledge of theories and pedagogies, and also have a silver tongue. With this they will be able to slip through the interview process and into a school where the students will suffer for this person's lack of passion for their profession. I think there a many people who have potential to be amazing teachers but they just haven't had the time to get themselves together in this short year.


We also learnt how to create e-Portfolios. I have only one reservation about ePortfolios to support learning. To create an extensive portfolio spanning a student's entire school life, each teacher each year will need to be committed to compiling the portfolio for each student. This demands a lot of cooperation and work.


ePortfolios and regular paper-based portfolios have been discussed. The benefits of ePortfolios are indisputably greater than those of a paper-based one. Multimedia is described as a collection of all sorts of information representations: text, audio, graphic, and video. Paper-based portfolios at best are restricted to text and graphic. The addition of video and audio open up a whole new world of information to transmit to an intended audience; and in such a digital society, may even do this more effectively. C. Armitage printed an article in The Australian on the 16th of December 1998 entitled The benefits of pause for thought. In this article Armitage argued that ePortfolios result in higher student motivation and self-confidence as their work is being published in a sense rather than merely complied (paper-based approach.)


It seems that ePortfolios have clear benefits for both teachers and students.