Lisa Busch's Blog (8)

Our assignment was to find a K-12 Open Source class to take online.  I was unable to find a K-12 class, so I took an open course about the American Revolution at the Open Yale Courses website.  The course was a lecture on the American Revolution by Yale professor Joanne Freeman. 

The course was set up as a lecture.  Throughout the entire presentation, Professor Freeman lectured and shared insights with students.  It was obvious that there was also a live audience in the room because…

As a result of our study on social networking, I have learned how valuable it can be in the classroom setting.  I thought of classroom social networking as a tool for higher grades, also, but now I see how it can be used in my 5^th grade classroom.  I was introduced to many new websites and options for the use of social media in my classroom. 

I am excited to implement my new knowledge into the classroom.  Our 5^th grade team shares the responsibility of…

I have used Google apps in the past in my classroom, but not extensively.  One way I used it was to set up a sign-up sheet for parents to bring snacks to a weekly, after school meeting for our Battle of the Books team.  It was not user-friendly for many of the parents, not allowing them to sign on, even after I listed their email as one that could view and update.  There was a lot of frustration to everyone involved.  Now, I think there may be better ways to use different Google apps for…

Now that I have researched the opposite view, my thoughts have not changed.  I support the use of virtual reality in the classroom.  The use of virtual reality gives students the opportunity to step outside the classroom in ways they have never had the opportunity to in the past.  Students can take virtual field trips, do virtual dissections, and “participate” in history like students have never had the opportunity for in the past.  Students tend to be more engaged when they are excited by…

Click here to go to my AUP wordle.

An acceptable use policy (AUP) is a written policy of rules users must follow in order to use a network.  Often, the AUP is authored by an employer, and given to employees to sign in order to gain access to systems such as the computer system and internet, or an internal telephone system.  According to the National Education Association (NEA), an AUP should contain six important features.  (Note:  I located the AUP for both my district and my school.  For the purpose of this blog post, I…

Marzano and Bloom have both affected my teaching, and will continue to affect it in new ways.

The school where I teach has very specific requirements about posting our objectives (we call them learning targets) for every single lesson every day.  By doing so, our students know what they should be able to do by the end of the lesson, and this sets a good expectation for them.  Our learning targets are written as “I can” statements such as “I can investigate at least two reasons for…