As the World Turns

Oceanside Unified School District

Lessons to Meet

3rd Grade Physical Earth Standards

David Harrington

My Expectations

•   Learn more about FTP

•   Put lessons on the internet

•   Learn to refine searches for information on internet

•   Become more adept at creating web pages

•   Learn to use Dreamweaver

•   Learn more of the features of Excel

Actual Learning• Learned to use Dreamweaver, Power Point, and Excel much more effectively

• Learned to create web pages and link them more quickly

• Learned how to effectively use FTP, as part of Dreamweaver and Fetch

• Learned to refine internet searches

• Learned how excited students are to learn about astronomy

Successes

• Students initiated their own projects

• Students were highly interested in the topic

• Students had many questions

• Learned how excited students are to learn about astronomy

• The ‘Star Watch’ had a big turnout

Shortcomings

• The CTAP site was not always accessible

• Lack of internet access in the classroom for further research

• Not all students have access to the student site

• Not all students came to the ‘Star Watch’

• It would have helped to see a finished CTAP project at the beginning

Student Data

Student Assessment

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

Pre

Post

Written

Students improved their scores on the post-test. However, the written test I devised was unrealistic.

Revisions• The rubric needed to be revised to make it more thorough

• Several of the test questions in the pre-post test needed to be revised

• The written test was not realistic (it was too hard)

• More jpeg's needed to be added to better demonstrate some of the lessons

Summary

I acquired a lot of knowledge about using the internet as a tool to facilitate planning lessons. I still wonder how much use will be made of the CTAP site by other teachers. I also wonder how much students of the elementary school age will be using the internet for research. There are still many parents and students who do not really understand how to navigate the web or download information. There are some very good teachers at my school who are not particularly computer literate but their kids sure learn a lot during the school year. There is probably not much use for web-based lessons for teachers at schools without internet access in the classroom, At the same time, it was a very good experience to plan out a whole unit based on standards, including a pre-post test.

This student is looking at sunspots through a solar filter. Her eyes are protected. Never look directly at the sun.