2. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens Placer Hills Elementary, Meadow Vista, CA FinalPresentation CTAP 295 Teaching with Technology

3. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary My name is Kristin Havens, and I teach Title I Math and Reading to 3 rd, 4 th, and 5 th grade students at Placer Hills Elementary School in Meadow Vista, CA. In this assignment which fits in well with 4 th Grade study of California History, students will research a produce grown in California. It can be a fruit, vegetable, or nut. This is a fun activity, since California is such a "Gold Mine" of Agriculture! Each child is to choose one produce item that he/she is interested in that is grown in California, visit a produce section of a grocery store, research their produce on the internet and encyclopedia, write up their report, and have a tasting party where each child brings in a recipe containing their produce. All document links for black line masters were produced in Microsoft Word. You can reach my website at: http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~khavens/http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~khavens/ My email addresses are: kristin_h0@yahoo.comkristin_h0@yahoo.com havens@placerhills-usd.k12.ca.us

4. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Expectations: fTo create my own website fTo create a website that students could use to learn about California produce fTo become more confident in using different search engines on the internet fTo use the internet more efficiently  To use Power Point Excel and Microsoft Word

5. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary I Learned To: dSave early and often to the hard drive immediately after every slide on my Power Point presentation! dCreate a website that students could use dUse Netscape Composer dUse Microsoft Excel and Power Point dUse Microsoft Word more efficiently dUse WSFTP uploading and downloading techniques dBe more efficient while searching on the internet dLink documents, projects, files, websites, and graphics dTo add/delete software and move files to and from different drives dAnd much, much, more!

6. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Successes (Students and Teacher): fStudents were able to turn out a finished produce report. fParents thought it was a great learning tool. fStudents thought it was “Pretty cool” that their teacher created a website just for them. fThe tasting party was great fun.

7. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Successes (Students and Teacher): fThe satisfaction that I had actually completed a website my students could use!  Knowing that other teachers were going through the same frustrations/accomplishments that I was! fStudents were very interested in using the links I’d created.

8. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Shortcomings: (Students and Teacher): dIt took more time in the computer lab than I thought it would to go over the website with the students. dThere was not enough of me to go around and help with all the questions, and to help find all the links to print out the documents that they needed. dThere was initial frustration on both of our parts when the students first tried to go through the website. dStudents had difficulty once they got to the website links to find the information that they needed on their own.

9. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Shortcomings: (Students and Teacher): dNot every student had internet access at home to reread the website with parents. dStudents needed a lot of time to type their own projects. dIt took quite a bit of time to grade all the reports and read them all.

10. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Student Data: The students all did much better on their post tests than on their pretests. Most of the students also achieved well on their projects, except for a few, who did not follow directions completely, and lost points.

11. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Revisions: After reviewing the data, I noticed that it would have worked much better if I had had the time to go over the website with only 3-5 students at a time. Also, the rubric I first created was a bit too broad, and I felt was too subjective. I changed the rubric so it was more precise, listed exactly what my expectations were, and was more objective.

12. California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer Hills Elementary Summary: This has been an interesting year with this CTAP project. There were times I was so frustrated that I felt like quitting, but still stuck it out. I honestly feel that I have gruelingly learned a lot, and feel proud about my website. Technology can be a useful tool with children, but it is important to build up their background knowledge of how to use the internet first, and to make sure that the activities that are taking place are age appropriate.