Final Project_ETC_Tina_Llopis

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PE_7_Game Classroom

This is another Game Classroom activity. Clara's Fraction Ice Cream Shop is one of the better ones I found.  This one would make 5th graders think about reducing improper fractions to mixed numbers. Once they get the idea of changing the fractions, they can begin to fill the customer's order. 

I would recommend watching the video instructions because it shows how to play the game.  The video doesn't have words, so the kids would have to really pay attention to it in order to understand how to fill the customer's order.  This activity would hold their attention for a while, though there aren't any "bells and whistles", the concepts are right on level for my fifth graders. I'm certain that I'd have to have a small group of learners who do not have the concept of reducing improper fractions to mixed numbers because they are just really being exposed to that this year for the first time. They are introduced to it in 4th grade, but this is more exposure than they've had as yet. I think this would be a great idea for an introduction to the concept as well as a review and a reteaching class.

Using games to teach concepts and ideas is not a new one.  The teachers have to review and play games before they introduce them to their students and decide which ones will be appropriate for the students. Right now, I have at least 5 students who would benefit from these games and activities that I've reviewed from GameClassroom.com
These could also be used as an independent review on a laptop or as a station during our center time. (Yes, 5th graders still have centers.) I use that time as more of a reteaching and review of skills time. It's a short and quiet time just before the end of the day. Students could rotate through each of the games that could be set up for them already.

As I think through the games and activities I've played trying to learn as much about them as possible, I've decided that kids could also make videos using what they've learned to teach other kids or to show what they've learned themselves using those activities.

There are some links on this web site that do not work any longer. Be sure to check out this site and play the games.  Even though it says K-6, I think most of the concepts are beginning and can be used with a whole-group type instruction up to the 4th grade.  The fifth and sixth graders would think these sites are a bit lame and they wouldn't hold their attention for very long.

This is another game on Game Classroom called  "Cows Context Clues."  At first this was interesting because the sentences asked questions that had answers that had to be inferred. It's also a good one for learning generalizations and conclusions. I think my lower students and my ELL students would be the ones to benefit from these types of questions and skills they require in order to move one cow from a pasture to another pasture.

If you miss the answer then you'll get another chance.  If you miss again, it registers in the "wrong" answer box. The right and wrong answers are totaled up as you go through the game.
If a player wants to play again then they will push the "Play again" button, but the same questions repeat and loop through the same order and sequence as before.
For a strong student, this may become tedious, but I think the lower level students and ELL students would benefit from these questions. For my ELL students, I could actually assess them as they are playing this game to see what they've learned.  I've noticed there are no scores kept under a student's name.
 In this game, the pictures are exactly what you see, cows on a blue pasture. Even though this site is a free one, I'm not sure I'd use this for anything other than a review for a whole class introduction.

PE_6-Game Classroom

I thought I'd try the learning games sites out because I know that gaming is one of the classes I'll be in soon.
One site that caught my attention is called Game Classroom. Since this is also a free site to use, I thought I'd like to try it out before I showed the students what is on this site.
It looked interesting because it has games and homework help listed on its site.

Catch the Fly would probably hold my student's attention better than some of the other games included in the math section. This is one of the skills we will be working on in math class next month. I think this would be a good game to play even to introduce the lesson. The lesson we have in our math book is boring and flat.  I usually look for alternative activities to introduce coordinates and grids. This can be used on the SmartBoard with small groups of students who are lost with graphing.
This site is a good review site in that kids can review these skills on the laptop, and when and if they miss one, it's quick to tell you because the frog "dies". The  game is fun for a while, but I can see how kids would lose interest in it after they figured out the grid.

It uses all parts of the grid and kept my interest.

I will keep this gaming site in mind to use with my kids, but I think I will continue looking for something that is a little more interesting, has more to it, and even makes more noise, if you can believe that. 

Batter Up!, another Game Classroom game, started out as an interesting game. You first design your uniform, then you tell the pitcher you are ready to play. This is a figurative language game. I can see my 13 boys getting excited about playing this game...for a while.

Once the pitcher pitches, you have so many seconds to make a decision about the type of figurative language it is displaying. In this example, "The snakes slithered silently in the grass." The choices usually include the correct answer but sometimes it includes, "None of the above."  as a choice. If the player doesn't answer within a few seconds or gives an incorrect answer, then a buzzer goes off and the chance for a homer is reduced to a triple play, and so on until a strike registers.

This game is fun for a while, but it becomes tedious when the questions are repeated and the crowd's cheers and noises are looped sounds. I began watching the crowd and noticed they resembled Lego people. The people walked up and down the stairs of the stands with one color of shirt/pants, but "sat down" with something else on entirely.
If I play this at school, I'll play with a small group of students on the SmartBoard who don't really have a grasp on recognizing figurative language phrases and sentences.This will become boring for the kids who have the concept already.

There are many more games on this site. The ones I previewed were OK. The skills they teach are necessary for and on the grade levels they say they are. I will keep posting about this site.

PE_5GoogleForms

Choose a theme to enhance your survey!

Make a survey that counts and looks great!

Look at the results in a graphic form!

....or view the survey results in a spreadsheet that you can share!

http://web.me.com/tina_llopis/Action_Research

Follow this link in my AR Project's Blog to my comments on Garage Band about Google forms.

PE_4GoogleDocs

Sharing folders with others will be helpful in my AR Project.

Please follow the link below to my AR site to hear my podcast about Google Docs and
my plans to use it in my AR Project. It's listed under the AR blog entries.

http://web.me.com/tina_llopis/Action_Research

BP_11_Pixton.com

One of the best things I learned to do with my videos was the Ken Burns.  Working with each of the photos to change them in some way was interesting. I liked to see the movements incorporated and how they progressed from one shot to the next. Another thing that was fun to do was adding transitions. A goal is to add text to the next movie. 
When the kids at school see this Web 2.0 site I found, I think that the kids will love what I've planned for them. We've been working on an ecology unit in science, and I think this will just fit the bill!

BP10_link to Matthew's blog

http://21staffdev.blogspot.com/2010/12/bp7-commercial.html#comment-form