Assignment #3 - Smart Board Lesson

After a few trial and error attempts I have finally found a great Smart Board lesson. It satisfies the Washington state EALRs for Grade 3 and 4 in Science 1.1, 2.1, and 3. The NETS that this lesson covers are I.A, I.C, II.A, III.C, IV.C, V.B, VI.A, and VI.B. The subject is "Categorizing Objects" and gives the teacher the option to find clip art to expand the lesson. Although the lesson says that it is for grades 4-6 I would most likely teach this lesson to 3rd graders. This is a great science lesson that helps students compare and contrast objects' size and shape. I would have the students do most of the work on the Smart Board. They can move the objects around with their finger. Since the lesson is smaller than others I might add more objects from Clip art. This would be my preparation. The students would be assessed on how well they categorized the objects and how they got along with each other. The Smart Board is designed for one person to use at a time. The students will have to wait their turn and be patient. This is why I might want to add more pages to the activity. By adding pages, each of the students will get their turn categorizing objects.

Internet Safety Issues

There are so many issues when it comes to internet safety. I believe that students need to be constantly reminded that they cannot for any reason give out any personal information. There are so many internet predators out there. I think that people sometimes are naive when it comes to this issue. These people who prey on children are smart and know how to use the internet for their advantage. This is an issue that I think is just starting to get the attention that it deserves.

Not only are there sexual predators, but there are people who prey on the young and old in hopes to get money. There are so many scams out there that it's ridiculous. There are really no rules when it comes to using the internet for this purpose. Just 2 months ago my brother and cousin were close to being scammed for renting an apartment. They found a great place to live in over the internet, but the tenants (supposedly missionaries living in Africa) wanted them to send a deposit. They decided that it sounded "fishy" so they drove 3 hours to the apartment and couldn't find it because it wasn't there.

Parents and teachers need to be extra cautious in explaining the dangers to their students. It's important that the reasons are explained to them (within reasons). So many times I think that people don't want to "scare" children. I understand that this is important, but they also need to know why they shouldn't post their address or phone number on Myspace, or anywhere else. This may sound like common sense, but that is because we know the consequences.

Another internet safety issue is pornography. This is a safety issue because I don't believe that any child should accidentally come across a pornographic site. The internet is mainly used for pornography. 90% of the websites are geared for porn. There are some great resources and internet search engines that make sure that porn is filtered out. But in all honesty, I think that parents and teachers need to be smart about this issue. Boys will find a way.

So there are plenty of internet dangers, but the best way to avoid these dangers is to be smart and communicate with children.

SMART Board and teaching

I think that using a Smart Board can be a great asset if the teacher knows how to use it and can keep up with the technology. It's a commitment, but I believe that if a teacher puts in the time to understand it the benefits will start to show. Just like everything, people have to choose what they want to use. There are so many different available resources available, but it's important to only pick a few so that technology "overload" won't happen. The Smart Board can really be fun, but only if a person practices and knows how to use it effectively. It can help students interact and physically manipulate the objects in the lessons.

I think once the Smart Board becomes more popular there will be more lessons available. There are some great lessons available, but I think that there could be more. I think that it would be a great idea to have the lessons separated by grade instead of K-3, and so on. I picked a lesson that was said to be for K-3, but it was more for Kindergarten. I want to see lessons that are accurate to what the students are learning in that grade level.