Laura

Hi, everyone! I'm a fifth grade teacher in the North Penn School District. This is my fourth year teaching in my own classroom. Prior to that, I was a fifth grade teacher's assistant for a year. The school district I teach in now is actually the district I used to attend as a student from K-8. I love bumping into teachers I used to have when I was a kid!

I'm off to a busy start this year, but I have a great fifth grade class so I'm looking forward to a great school year. :)

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 * 3 principles of Universal Design for Learning **=====

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 * 2 changes in your teaching to reach all learners in the Digital Age **=====

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 * 1 BIG idea to implement “on Monday” **=====

*Using the SmartBoard, introduce vocabulary terms with the Visu Words website
Culminating Activity 2

__Goals:__
 * The students will be able to research and gather information on a famous explorer (ex: Columbus, Magellan, etc.) using a variety of sources including non-digital materials (ex: textbooks, articles, etc.) as well as web-based materials (google scholar, ebscohost, United Streaming, wikipedia).
 * The students will be able to present their explorer’s information to the class in the form of a presentation, video, tri-fold, glogster, PowerPoint, Prezi presentation, game, etc.

__Materials:__
 * Textbooks
 * CD of SS Text
 * Laptops
 * iPads (if available)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SmartBoard
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Posters
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tri-folds
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Markers/Colored Pencils
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Flip Recorder
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Camera

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">__Methods__
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After the class is introduced to the explorers through multiple sources (ex: using a CD of the text, the students will read a brief description about each explorer in their textbooks as well as be given a brief tour of the explorers online using the SmartBoard), the students will have the ability to choose the explorer which interests them most.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students will then be provided with the necessary materials to enable their research (ex: SS textbooks, library books, laptops, etc.).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students will be given time to be actively engaged in their research.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After students have completed their research meeting the requirements outlined on their objective sheet and using at least two different sources, the students will prepare a way to present their information to the rest of the class (ex: oral presentation with visuals, glogs, posters, tri-folds, videos, graphic organizers, PowerPoints, Prezi presentations, games, etc.) and accurately present the material to their peers.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">__Assessment__
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students will be assessed through teacher observation during the entire project, the actual information the students researched, and through each student’s chosen presentation. (Again, the students are able to choose how to present the material to their classmates. Some choices that students may use are glogs, PowerPoints, Prezi presentations, videos, posters, tri-folds, “Inspiration” graphic organizers, games, etc.).