Incorporating Spreadsheets in the Classroom

Spreadsheets take some to learn how to use but if you make it fun and interactive it can be used throughout different grades levels. I choose to make a spreadsheet on multicultural diversity in Texas and the United States. I will use an inquiry-based approach by asking this essential question: "How do we communicate?" I will ask three unit questions which are: "How do different cultures live?", "How do we distiniguish letters and sounds?", and lastly "How many different types of culturals are out there?".

I can incorporate these questions into different subjects such as reading, writing, social studies, and math. They would be able to search for the answers on the web and learn about the many different cultures we have in our area. They would be able to document their information on excel or google docs as a spreadsheet. Once they are done they would be able to make a presentation as a slide share, voice thread, or movie.

There are so many different ways to use spreadsheets. We can even use them to document information for ourselves. Technology makes life today a little bit easier.

Using Technology to Teach

This week's assignment was really fun and informative. We had to create a movie using a camera, movie maker, free play music, audacity, PowerPoint, and the Internet. We used my unit plan on "How do we distinguish letters and sounds?" As we were trying to come up with ideas on how to use these tools, I thought about how students can use the tools to do their projects and how they can incorporate it with inquiry based and/or project based learning.

Just like writing a research paper, we had to plan for the movie by using a storyboard. We went into the unit plan and looked at what needed to be addressed in the movie. The focus of the video was to inform teachers of how we can use technology and books, as well as, utilizing word walls to teach children how to distinguish letters and sounds. We also addressed the use of running records to assess children's knowledge of letters and sounds.

We used power point to make various informative slides and saved the slides in jpeg format. Next, we took video, using a camera, of different types of scenarios that pertained to the unit plan. Some of the video footage we took were longer than others but it was OK. Once we were done shooting the video clips and making the slides, we uploaded them into movie maker. In movie maker, we were able to edit the slides and the video clips. We were also able to add narration using a microphone and add transitions between the images with the video transition feature in movie maker. We were not able to use the free play music website and the audacity website but we did play around in the sites and downloaded the audacity creator. With audacity, we were able to record our voices and other sounds but since we were limited on time we just recorded the narration using the record sound feature on movie maker. When were done editing the movie we uploaded the movie file on to teacher tube and waited for teacher tube to create an embedding code. Once we got the embedding code we were able to post it on our blogs.

Because of this project I learned how to use all the different tools I listed above. I worked with someone who was very interesting. We had quite a few things in common. Which is also a good tool for teachers to think about when they want to incorporate social skills into any project. Technology is definitely the way of the future for learning.

Digital Storytelling

Our Digital Story is titled "Ditinguishing between Sounds and Letters".

We have also have a unit plan that is progress.

Digital Storytelling is the use of different types of digital multimedia used to a story. We will be using a digital camera or camcorder and computer.

The story will be in our point of view, we will be answering questions, we will personalize it with commentary, and we will put just enough information without losing the audience.

We will using the informative type of digital storytelling since we will be showing how someone can distiguish between letters and sounds.

This digital story will be effective for teachers because it will give a visual example on how we can teach a child to distinguish between letters and sounds.

This digital story will be effective for students because they will also see a demonstration and they will be able to view it several times without it changing the way it is being presented.

We will be addressing all of the student literacies for this digital storyboard. They will be weaved together as we progress with this project. The student will visually see the global information being presented by different forms of digital technology.


The skills the student will develop with this digital story will be technology, presentation, assessment, research, and problem solving.


We could face technology problems but could be resolved by seeking help from a techology savvy individual.

How do we distinquish letters and sounds?

Digital storytelling can be used by teachers and students. This tool is used to get the message across using any type of multimedia. For instance, slide share can be used to display pictures with some description. Voice threads are used to display pictures with audio and wording. You are able to comment on both forms of digital storytelling. These tools would be available to use with any subject.

You could teach a math problem using slide share by displaying each step of a math problem and describing each step with a few words. For science you or a student could use voice threads to explain a science project.

You would be able to use both forms of digital storytelling to teach a lesson. I am using slide share to display my slide show, which focuses on the topic, "How do you distinguish letters and sounds?" This unit focus on the English/Reading, Technology, and Social studies TEKS. I have integrated these all on to one slide show.

I am focusing on teachers a teacher's motivational project. I have organized a lesson plan which focus on my unit plan of "How do we distinguish letters and sounds?" The slide show displays on how teachers can use different tools to teach multi-curricular areas of the TEKS.

I love learning about all of the new tools and I want to keep learning more. It took me awhile to figure out how to make my slide show. I focused so much on the bigger picture. I don't know if that is a good thing. This assignment made me think and I think these forms of questions will make the student think too.

How do we distinguish letters and sounds?

View more OpenOffice presentations from elitadperez.

Internet Resources

I researched some resources that can be used by the students or myself. I have made a works cited page with my findings. I envision using these resources in my unit plan because they are easy and safe to use. Students can explore the internet for different types of information. I would be able to regulate them because of used the resources myself and know who to navigate through them. I have also included a detailed listing of resources from the internet I incorporate into my unit plan. I can envision using these tools in my future curricular plans. I can use when the students begin researching the questions that will be asked. They would be able to safe their work on their emails and the would be able to share their findings with other students in the classroom or others. I would be able to assist and assess the students without them even knowing that I am. Assessing the students takes away from structured test taking but that's okay because many students have test anxiety.

Blogging in the Classroom

I would definitely have my students blog. Blogging serves many purposes in the classroom. Students benefit because they are allowed to express their thoughts and research findings. The students can also comment on other classmate's blogging. They can post pictures, videos, audio clippings, and insert links to other sites that will benefit them and their findings.
I can benefit from the students blogging because I can assess the student's knowledge. I can see what the student needs help with during their projects. I can also post comments to the student's blogs. I can link them to other sources without having them write things down. They automatically have access to them. I can possibly set up lesson plans on these blogs. Which makes it easier to do from home and access in the classroom.
David Warlick blogs about the benefits of using technology in the classroom and other subjects pertaining to the use of technology in education.

Learning How we communicate using Inquiry and Project-Based Strategies

My essential question for the unit is:

How do we communicate?

My unit questions for the unit are:

Why do we need to read?

How do we distiguish letters and sounds?

What are the different types of languages?

We will solve all of these questions using inquiry and/or projected based learning as per my unit plan. We will use these types of strategies because they allow the students to use critical thinking skills, research, experiment and analysis. We must different types of approches to educating student instead of just regular paper and pencil work. The strategies incorporate the questions into different areas of learning such as reading, writing, science, math, etc. The strategies help to create a community of learners in the classroom, the students are not only a part of the learning process they are a part of the teaching process too.