The Growth of a Bean Plant

Our group entered our data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. We then are going to use the spreadsheet to make a graph.

Here is a picture of our spreadsheet that we created using Excel.





Week 0 - At the start of the project, the bean plant was a small seed that was only about 1.5 inches long. It was a cream color and had a soft texture. We placed the seed in a bag and placed a little water in the bag after putting the bag by the window.

Week 1 - The seed has begun to slowly sprout. It is not 2.5 inches long; it has grown a whole inch since last week. Green leaf-like stems have begun to come out of the seed. We continue to water the bean daily and keep it under the sun.

Week 2 - The seed is really starting to grow into a plant, and it is now 5 inches long. It has doubled in size since last week. Leafs and stems are now sprouting.

Week 3 - The seed is now 7.5 inches long. It seems that the bean plant grows about 2.5 inches long after the trend from the past 2 weeks. The seed is barely visible now. It is starting to form more into a plant.

Week 4 - It now appears to be a plant. The plant is 9 inches long, again following the trend of growing 2.5 inches this week. It kind of looks like ivy, it has a stem with leaves coming from it. The plant is also getting too big for the bag and needs more water now.

Week 5 - We are done watering the plant. It has grown to a total of 11 inches long. The growth is no longer following the trend of growing 2.5 inches every week since it only grew 2 more inches this week. It looks much the same as last week. We do not think it will grow much more if we were to keep watering it and keep it in the sun.

Exploring Assistive Technology

Text to Speech

This assistive technology tool allows one to type in text and then the text is spoken aloud. In the above screen shot, I typed in "The lesson of the day is..." and then chose an English-speaking female to speak that text. Many options of speech (English-speaking male, Chinese, etc.) are offered as well. This would be beneficial to students with disabilities concerning reading and comprehending written information, such as those students with dyslexia.

Windows Magnifyer

Windows Magnifyer is an assistive technology tool that can be found at the Ease of Access Center on the Control Panel in Windows. The above screen shot shows where to find this tool, and also above that, a shot of what the tool looks like in action. The user scrolls across the screen, and the images scrolled across are magnified and displayed up top. This tool would be beneficial to those with visual impairments, such as ones that make it hard to read fine print.


On-Screen Keyboard
The on-screen keyboard is another assistive technology tool that Windows offers by going to the Ease of Access Center through the Control Panel. The above screen shot shows the actual on-screen keyboard as it would display on the computer screen. The user of this tool would simply use the mouse and click on whatever key as needed. This tool would benefit those with dexterity disabilities. These students would use this because they may have a hard time using all of their fingers when typing on a regular keyboard, but by using this tool, they only have to use the click of a mouse.

Kidspiration

Kidspiration: A Content Exploration Tool for Elementary School Teachers

Kidspiration is a software program that offers a visual way for elementary school students to explore and understand words, numbers, and concepts.

This program is a content exploration tool, more specifically a open-ended tool. Kidspiration provides opportunities for students to interact with the content and solve problems. This tool can be manipulated to accomodate carious content areas. In the picture above, an example of how to sort parts of speech is displayed. The students are given various vocabulary words, and then they are to sort them into the types of speech each word is. Following that, they are to write sentences using the words. The tool offers a great amount of educational value since the students are able to interact in a fun way with the subject area, in this case, language arts. Then, the subject area is reinforced by having to apply what they just did by writing out sentences.

Professional Development Podcast Summary

Self-Driven and Classroom Based: Professional Development in the 21st Century

The link to the podcast above was found on the http://k12online.ning.com/video website, which contains many podcasts that are excellent for elementary and high school teachers to view.

In this particular podcast, professional development is discussed. The man talking in the podcast beings by talking about how many of us teachers here in the United States have the luxury of using technology in our classroom, whether it be smartboards or powerpoint presentations or computers at each student's desk. Meanwhile, many places in the world do not have these capabilities. Wherever you are as a teacher and what exactly you have, it does not matter. All teachers share a common trait: the classroom. The classroom, as the man says, is a "vital part to our identity". It's where teachers grow as teachers. It is there in the classroom where teachers should develop professionally and be learners themselves. He believes that teachers growth should not be reflected on the current trends, such as the boom in technology. Instead, it should be emerging from their classrooms and starting there. Classroom-based professional development means for teachers to build on relationships with students, involves students in classroom development, and focus on classroom as an evironment. Teachers need to be first and foremost teachers. In order to be teachers, they need to reflect on what they are doing in the classroom and learn from that and then involve and teach their students. Most importantly, the man in this podcast believe that classrooms have to become places where the teachers continually engage in practice and experiment on what is best for the learners.

Pro Teacher! Evaluation

Pro Teacher!

This website offers teaching ideas and resources for elementary school teachers, such as teacher blogs, classroom management strategies, child development discussion, and subject matter content.

Since it offers so many resources for elementary school teachers, it is very useful. It is very efficient for teachers; it seems to cover many topics and issues that come up for elementary school teachers. You won't need to visit any other site; it'll save you time!
The website is also effective, with great quality and will definitely be of use for elementary school teachers.
Also, the website is enhancing for teachers to use. You can partake in discussions and read and contribute to other teachers blogs. It offers opportunity for your voice to be heard and also to listen to others!

The Lesson Plan Library Evaluation

The Lesson Plan Library

The Lesson Plan Library is provided by Discovery Education and contains free lesson plans in numerous subjects for elementary, middle, and high school students, that are written by teachers for teachers.

Teachers can use this tool in their current, or future, classrooms to plan their lesson plans accordingly, with subject topics varying from animals to the micro world to the human body. It is very useful and from the many I have observed, the lesson plans really seem to engage the student with the material being learned. The website offers efficient lesson plans in being able to teach in a short amount of time and for students to grasp the material. Also, the lesson plans are effective for teaching students, since many of the lesson plans involve having the students have a hands-on approach with the material, thus making their own learning enhancing.