Money, Money, Money! An Addition to the Open Court Money Unit, Grade 3. Mary Wilson Dudley Elementary, Antelope, CA CTAP 295 Teaching With Technology

Mary Wilson, Dudley Elementary, Antelope, CA Money, Money, Money I am a third grade teacher who uses Open Court faithfully for my language arts program. However, I wanted to put a spin on things. So I created a web-based lesson to go along with our money unit. Students are enabled to take a virtual journey and learn about currency around the world.

What I Expected… To learn a little bit of this and a little bit of that! Powerpoint Excel Web design Net surfing

What I actually learned… How to design a web-site that my class can use How to design a powerpoint presentation How to use the web to help in my cause How to use excel for data analysis How to be “internet savvy”

Great Achievements Students loved it! Students were successful. I am so much better at this now! I’m comfortable using technology. My activity enables students to practice their skills and get feedback from me indefinitely.

Just Look How They Did!

But… Not every student has access to a computer outside of school. I have to build in on-line time more consistently so everyone has the same ongoing opportunity. It would be nice to have more adult help in the computer lab to ease the fears of a few students.

Compromises and Changes I had to add a rubric which addresses how the looks, not just what they learned. So I used the rubric which is already in place for our district, keeping things consistent. I made it a new goal of mine to allow internet use bi-weekly so nobody is left out.

In Closing… This experience challenged me like no other. I started out as a terrified teacher trying to learn a few things about computers. I froze at the thought of designing a web page. I went through denial of why I needed one anyway. Then I created something I will use for a long time to come. I hope you can use it too.