Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

(1) Record Keeping: Teachers have a professional responsibility to monitor, record and communicate student progress. Many schools and districts have adopted networked grading systems, and some publish grades on secure websites.

Use a your school's gradebook program to develop a report for a real or hypothetical class of ten or more students who are assessed on five or more assignments. Submit a printout of your gradebook and the detailed report card (progress report) for an individual student. If you do not have access to such a program, you may use Gradekeeper or download a sample shareware "gradebook" program.

For this task, I chose to use the program “Master Grade,” which I downloaded for my software evaluation on assignment five. My grading comprises ten fictional students, five equally fictional assignments and one progress report. Unfortunately, I was unable to print out a Progress Report, after numerous hours of finagling the Master Grade software. The software instruction set noted that it is possible to email students their Progress Reports, but I was unable to set the system up.

(2) Assessment: Teachers must regularly assess student progress. Many textbook

1

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

publishers make test construction easier by providing test generators, software which allows the teacher to quickly compose tests and keys from question databases. Test generators allow the teacher to input questions, and often provide databases of questions the teacher can select from. *TPE-tip A well-structured exam may be used as an artifact for TPE3, Interpretation and Use of Assessments.

Use a test generator to construct an exam composed of questions you have selected from existing question banks.

Software such as Examview allows teachers to develop tests and post them on the Internet. Take this short physics quiz generated with the Examview, or this geology quiz made with Quizmaker. Include a screen capture of your score (actual score is inconsequential) and discuss the benefits and problems associated with online testing.

ExamView existing question-bank test:

2

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

Geology Quiz:

3

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

Online testing allows teachers to very quickly assess student competency. When coupled with a testmaking program such as ExamView, the time necessary to create and administer such tests is significantly reduced. However, students using this form of testing in a private setting can easily open a browser window to look up the answers to the questions given them. Teachers can counter this practice by requiring students to take online tests in a monitored environment like a computer lab, but the extra work required to set up this scenario might negate the time saved when formulating the test.

(3) Communication: Students benefit when teachers clearly state their expectations in written form. When these expectations are available on the Internet, all students and parents can benefit, particularly students who have been absent. A variety of commercial resources exist with which teachers can post calendars, homework assignments, and other important documents.

Put your class assignments on the web at Yourhomework , SchoolNotes or similar

4

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

service. Include a screen capture of your published assignment schedule.

Here is an assignment list created on www.yourhomework.com when I was a student teacher at Sinaloa Middle School during the Fall Semester, 2006:

(4) Presentations: Presentation software provides teachers the opportunity to display text and graphics in a slide show fashion. PowerPoint and Keynote are two of the most popular presentation tools. Teachers and professors make extensive use of presentations, but many are concerned about the potentially negative effects such presentations can have on instruction. *TPE-tip A well developed educational presentation can serve as an artifact for TPE 4, Making Content Accessible, or TPE 10, Instructional Time, if used

5

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

with presenter tools.

After reading the articles on the educational use and abuse of presentation software, summarize how presentations should be constructed and delivered to maximize learning and minimize abuse.

Locate and download one or more PowerPoint presentations relevant to your teaching needs. Include the URL of the location from which you obtained them and summarize the PowerPoint and where in your curriculum you will use it.

Make a PowerPoint presentation to teach a lesson in your subject area, keeping in mind the principles you have outlined above and the guidelines provided (see tutorial). Your presentation should include numerous graphics and be at least 10 slides in length. (a) Provide an electronic copy of your presentation (ppt format) on your website. (b) Embed screen captures of your presentation in the template. Make sure the content is easy to read.

Using iPhoto (Mac), Picasa (Windows), or similar slide viewer software, create a photo library for your discipline. You should include photos you have taken plus ones retreived from a graphic search engine. Create two or three slide shows from the library. Include a screen shot of the slide sorter window for one of your shows. Create a photopage for your website.

I downloaded a simple “War of 1812” PowerPoint presentation (www.seaford.k12.de.us/es/gzoll/Power%20Points/War%20of%201812.ppt) detailing the reasons for war, basic battle outcomes, perception between nations of America and Great Britain (“Nothing was adjusted, Nothing was settled”), and worldwide opinion (the young United States gained respect in the eyes of other nations). It’s very straightforward, with simple bullet point themes, ideal for students to visualize the flow of events. I may use it as a ten minute review, mixed in with some pictures to help grind in the basics facts surrounding the war.

War of 1812 Power Point Presentation, selective screenshots (created by myself):

6

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

7

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

Photo Slideshow Screen Captures:

(5) Other resources: Complete three of the following, using content related to your curriculum whenever possible.

Use Timeliner to create a timeline relevant to the curriculum you teach. Develop an educational digital video.

8

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

Construct a professional resume using Word. Develop a concept map with graphics and text. Create a crossword puzzle or other puzzle relevant to your class. Create and conduct an on-line survey form for one of your classes. (a) Find the lowest cost of a specific piece of equipment (projector, computer,

digital camera, etc.) for your classroom, (b) identify the next national conference for your discipline, AND (c) determine the best airfare to attend the conference.

9

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

10

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

11

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

(6) DVD: Develop a lesson using a computer-based DVD-player that includes bookmarks and video clips to access specific scenes.

Identify the DVD and explain why you chose this for a lesson.

Include a screen capture showing your catalog of bookmarks and video clips.

Describe how the scan fast, scan slow, step, mute, bookmark, video clip, and screen size features can be used to enhance your lesson.

“All the President’s Men” is a dramatic portrayal depicting the unfolding of the Watergate scandal that crippled the presidency of Richard Nixon. I chose this film because it’s an excellent movie, which should keep students entertained, but also, because it’s a fairly accurate retelling of the unfolding events. If I were to teach US Government, “All the President’s Men” would make for an excellent accompaniment to curriculum focusing on the executive branch.

OS X provides an excellent DVD player with tremendous functionality. It allows one to selectively bookmark precise moments in the film, which can then be accessed by simply filing through the Go menu, and then Bookmarks. Video Clips act in much the same way—allowing one to choose the start time and end time of a segment. Video Clips and Bookmarks can both be titled for easy reference. Coupled with other complimentary features, instructors can easily navigate to any portion of the DVD, including choosing the relative size of the picture, which could work in such a way as utilizing other programs while in the process of playing a clip to students. A teacher could call up a Video Clip on a minute detail, or quote, while in the background, that teacher could have a related photo image to display to students, or can then go ahead and access a specific reference frame from the DVD, depending on the information included. This could be anything from a chart, to other photos.

In essence, a solid DVD interface should be an intuitive, easy to grasp software extension, allowing the instructor full mobility to all portions of the material on the disc. That includes the ability to choose specific titles and chapters, and to scan with variable speed between those segments, both forwards, and backwards. DVD interfaces are almost always equipped with even more basic features, from pausing, to stepping frame by frame, to muting dialogue on the fly.

Below you will find examples of the Bookmarks and Video Clips feature included with Apple’s Tiger build DVD player.

12

Name: June 16, 200510:24 PM

Bookmark Video Clips

13