Final Project - Lesson Plan

I have really enjoyed this class. I am so glad that my advisor chose this class for me to start working on my Master's with. After 8 years of being out of school, this class has taught me so much about all the opportunities that technology can offer and how incredibly easy it can tie into the classroom. My lesson plan for our final project is based on where food comes from and the common false interpretations that the public (students in particular)think their food comes from. I found a video on YouTube that I think ties into this lesson plan perfectly. The lesson plan consists of viewing the video and then being placed into groups of 3 and creating a response to the video portraying the correct information to where food really comes from. The response can be in a vodcast, podcast or blog response. Students will be graded on the professionalism of their responses as well as the quality of the information they portray.

Word Could - Danli

Digital Storybook: a story about a little girl with BIG dreams

http://storybird.com/books/a-little-girl-with-big-dreams-4/ I had a REALLY hard time writing this story. I normally consider myself somewhat creative but I had such a MAJOR writing block with this assignment. I'm still not satisfied with it but it's the best I could do. I don't know why but every time I would sit down and try to put words together to tell a clever story I would draw a blank. I can see how this would be fun and interactive for students in a classroom but it wouldn't hurt my feelings to never have to write another story on storybird...

Visual Learning Tools

I wish that I had been able to take this class one week earlier. I just finished creating a training video in MovieMaker and could've really used the help! My training video consisted of overlaying audio to a screen capture video that was about 15 minutes long. I created a title screen with a fade in/out and a theme song overlay during the introduction. I had never worked with MovieMaker before and found it really user friendly and easy to maneuver through. I can see how fun and interactive making a video could be for students. They'd get to use they're creativity and create something as unique and individualistic as they want. As a teacher, you could also create training videos that they could watch from home on a specific topic. I also had a blast creating a video in Animoto. It was really easy and once again, appealed to my creativity. I'm having a hard time figuring out how you could incorporate it into the classroom but it could be a fun project to learn about a students personality or likes/dislikes.

Danli Jo - My Animoto Video

Danli Jo

Social Networks

In a perfect world, meaning no existence of social media site blocks at school, one way that I would incorporate social networking into the classroom would be to create a private Facebook page for each class. On this private page assignments would be posted and student responses and debates would be encouraged. Being private, only the students in that particular class can view and add to the posts. Still staying with Facebook, I think if the students created a student page where they could follow industry professionals or authors or associations that could offer beneficial information that would add to the topics being studied it would broaden their avenues of research. Of course, as a teacher I would have to have some control over who they were "friends" with and what groups the liked. Another way to incorporate social networking would be to create a class Twitter account where updates, assignments, and announcements could be posted for the class. I'm not so sure that I would encourage students to do research on Twitter because I don't think they can learn very much due to the limited number of characters in each post but I do think it's a great way to post important updates, deadlines and assignments.

Always Be Real (Not Just Relevant)

This chapter was hard for me to grasp. I realize that teaching for the future is crucial, that it's more than just curriculum. It's real life experiences that are going to make the biggest impact on a student. I know that I retain so much more when it's hands on and not everyone is like that. Some can just read a book and it sticks, how lucky are they!! I can read the same chapter three times on how to create a blog and never remember anything or I can listen to some instruction on it while actually creating one and it's retained. I can think of several ways that real is more important than relevant, especially in the Ag. classroom. I think that today's students, especially students with an Ag. background, seem to have a much better understanding of real life circumstances than I did when I was in high school. Maybe it's because they're exposed to so much more than I was. I think it's crucial to base every lesson around real life circumstance. It's easier for the kids to grasp, and I also think it would be easier to teach.