Artifact 3

Competency 10.4- “Goals of the NC Computer Skills Curriculum”
-Develop lesson plans to correlate computer skills with other curriculum objectives
-Incorporate computer skills lesson plans into classroom instruction (demonstration by videotape, principal observation, student work/ portfolios, peer observation)

Competency 11.1- “Use technology in the discipline/subject for learning and as a medium for communications’
-Facilitate student use of technology hardware/software to introduce and reinforce content topics
-Design and deliver lessons using technology resources on a selected discipline/subject

Competency 12.7- “Select and create learning experiences that are appropriate for curriculum goals, relevant to learners, based upon principles of effective teaching and learning, incorporate the use of media and technology for teaching where appropriate, and support learner expression in a variety of media using a variety of media communication tools”

Alignment to INTASC Standards:
This artifact contains a list of consecutive science lesson plans used to teach weather to students in a third grade classroom. The lesson plans use a variety of media communication tools to enrich learning opportunities through the use of integrating educational software to teach weather topics. In using this lesson plan, the teacher uses media communication techniques to foster active inquiry and collaboration into the topic of weather which meets INTASC Standard 6. The software provides supportive interaction with weather ideas so that students can learn through a more hands on approach. This particular software communicates many ideas and a variety of information to students through reading, visual models, and simulations.

Context:
This artifact was created in my microcomputers of education, FDN 3100, class. This artifact consists of five daily lesson plans on the topic of weather. This unit on weather is broken into subunits that cover a different type of weather each day. The individual lessons include clouds, rain, the water cycle, thunderstorms, and thunderstorm safety. The lesson plans are designed so that educational software can be used to compliment each daily lesson. The lessons are centered around software called Explorapedia: The World of Nature. The software is integrated with each lesson to engage children in hands on demonstrations of weather, provide trivial questions, and give children facts about the effects of weather.
Each lesson plan is designed so that the class will start with lecture and some type of hands on activity to arouse interest in the subject of science. Then the software can be used to give further demonstration of the making of thunderstorms and students are to be given worksheets to complete while searching for facts on the software.

Impact:
When using this software to assist teaching in the classroom, I will be helping students meet goals of the NC Computer Skills Curriculum. Therefore, this artifact succeeds in meeting competencies 10.4, 11.1, and 12.7. All students should be exposed to technology and software before they leave elementary school. The use of this software in this curriculum arouses student interest and assist the subject being taught. Educational software can be used to communicate material to students is more fun and creative way.
As an elementary school teacher I plan to use a variety of educational software in the classroom. I think it is important that students be exposed to information in a variety of ways. Lecture can get boring and cause students not to gain all the information they to get for the subject. However, when educational software is used to assist teaching, children will get more information from the hands on and interaction with the material.