Capstone

Capstone Lesson Plan

Programming with Scratch Jr.

Reflection - The programming apps were a lot of fun to me coming off the Hour of Code. Problem solving is something that our students struggle with. Part of the problem is not having perseverance to stick with a task. Also, there is the fear of getting something wrong. When you are programming, it uses a lot of trial and error to make something work the way you want it to. They can also discover that there are many ways to solve problems. Some may take more steps than others, but they can accomplish the same goal. The challenges I see with programming on the iPad is the fact that we have a very limited supply. Not everyone can use iPads at the same time. I think another problem that will occur is the inability to stop! I have a hard time with both the problem solving games and the programming with coming to an ending point! I think students will have this same issue. They won't want to stop after a given time period. 

Problem Solving with Bubble Ball and Tinker Box

Reflection - I tried out the Bubble Ball and Tinker Box apps. Bubble Ball was the easier of the two. A ball has to reach a checkered flag. The user can move different blocks and tools around the screen to help the ball reach the goal. There isn't anything fancy about the game. You can change the color of the ball and the level of the music. The graphics in this game are very basic. The Tinker Box game has a lot more to it. The graphics are very detailed. The tools and apparatus are complex. I did the tutorial level which helped give me the basics. My son tried to start right off at the challenges but struggled with how to connect and build certain machines. He ended up going back to the tutorial level to get the basics. Each level is a new challenge. The screen will give you some hint about the general area to place an apparatus, but it takes trial and error to accomplish the task. Both of the games require perseverance. There is a lot of testing that has to be done. Just because you don't reach the goal the first time, you have to keep trying things until you can make it work. Perseverance is a skill that many of our students lack, and these games would help them reach new levels of sticking to it!

Online Bookmarking with Diigo and Pinterest

Reflection - I am a fan of Pinterest. I like collecting links and posts on all different topics. It has been a great tool for school, helping me find ideas for everything from bulletin boards, to party planning, to lesson plan ideas. I have never tried Diigo until now. Since I am used to Pinterest, I didn't care for Diigo in the beginning, but I think that it would take some getting used to. I liked being able to tag my posts and search the tags at a later time. As for the limitations, I can pin all day long, it is just a matter of actually going back and reviewing my pins and incorporating them into my lessons. My "School" board has also gotten too large to search effectively so I need to reorganize my folders so that they are more specific and more manageable 

Dictionary

Reflection - After using both of the dictionary apps, I prefer the Dictionary.com app over the Merriam-Webster. I had some difficulties with Dictionary.com at first because I had apparently installed the Word-of-the-Day widget, but not the entire dictionary. Once I found the correct app and loaded it to my iPad, I was very pleased with the features. I really like way the thesaurus and dictionary are set up in different formats with a different color tabs. I liked the tabs along the top of the screen in Dictionary.com. It helped me find exactly what I was looking for without having to search down the screen.

Citations with EasyBib

Reflection - EasyBib sure simplifies doing citations! When I had to do citations the long way, I was constantly questioning the order that I put the information, and where to put the appropriate punctuation! This straightens it all out! There would be some down sides to this method, though. Students can cite books that they have never seen or researched from. And though this seems like a great tool for citing books, how does one go about citing journal articles or websites? Internet sources are always the hardest to cite and I'm not sure this app has the capability of citing a blog or online journal. As always, this app only works when students have access to Internet and a device. 

Mind Mapping with Popplet Lite

Reflection - This app was very easy to use. It was easy to add popples, draw pictures, and add images. This would be a great app to map out a story during prewriting. It would also be a great way to summarize a unit in social studies. It could even be broken down so that different groups could work on different subtopics and then bring it all together in the end. I also think this app would be good for planning events in the classroom. The plan can be mapped out so that each task is assigned to different people in order for the event to run smoothly.