A Teacher in a 1-2 Classroom Explores the Role of Internet Resources in Student and Teacher Research
Jessica Morton
Mendocino Grammar School
Grade Level:
1-2
Length Of Unit: On-Going During the Year
Produced in Conjunctin with The NASA K-12 NREN Partner School Program and The California Telemation Project
My project involves the use of the Internet as a communications tool for myself and possibly my first and second-grade students, as well as using online resources to expand our science program in the study of birds. The major focus of this project is for my own Collaborative Action Research (referring to How to Conduct Collaborative Action Research: Richard Sagor, published by ASCD 1992 ). I have already connected with a 2nd grade teacher in Nebraska through a Newswatcher list, and expect to add one or two other classroom teachers at my grade levels as sounding boards and mutual encouragers in making our teaching more child-centered. I especially hope to contact a teacher in New Zealand for this project because I have been very impressed with what I've heard of their educational system and values.
I have maintained an interest since I began teaching 21 years ago in helping children become responsible for their own learning; my focus in this project will be to explore ways that goal can be approached using computer technology for my own theory-building and teacher collaboration and support, as well as to enhance a unit I plan to teach on birds throughout the year. I want to explore with other teachers online ways in which they have attempted or are currently working to make their curriculum in science reflect the interests of their students in an active and ongoing way.
The first is for them to be able to think of and pursue a specific area about birds that interests them and to create a project around that interest.
The second is for them to be familiar with and able to choose appropriate resource tools for their projects with adult support. Another teacher in my district will be working with my class as part of her Telemation project, introducing the children about online resources as well as where else to look for what they want to know. She is our district librarian and would like to help train children to choose wisely among available options for research and investigation: the computer, books, magazines, teachers other students and media.
I have goals also for myself: that through this project I will become more able to provide opportunities for student-directed learning (always a goal in my classroom) using teacher-directed activities as a springboard, and that I will grow professionally as a result of the students and media and that as a result of the communications between other teachers and myself.
I will be taking my usual anecdotal notes on students throughout the year and will use these notes for planning further student-chosen curriculum when feasible. I will also become more comfortable cruising the highway after using the resources that exist online to support a science unit I have successfully taught in the past. I will work from a personal Hotlist of bird resources including Webird and The following bird resources on the network are worth exploring:
University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School announces the Web server, CompStat, with departmental information and Birding on the Web, a resource for birders.
http: www.compstat.wharton.upenn.edu
The Guide to Australia now includes a selection of Australian bird line drawings and bird calls. http:155.187.10.12
http: kaos.erin.gov.au has articles on bird migration
Bird information including a pointer to bird images and sounds can be found via gopher: simon.wharton.upenn.edu
A hypercard bird stack can be found at mcgnext.cc.columbia.edu
Another stack on bird anatomy can be found at biogopher.clemson.edu
Many articles on birds and the two stacks mentioned above can be retrieved through a veronica search
We will begin the Birds unit as I usually do: soliciting questions the children have about birds. The differences this year will be that we should be able to use their questions to base their own research on, and that many answers should be available online using various listserves and academic resources I've been discovering: BIRDchat, Mosaic, and university resources among others. Because the teacher I'm conversing online with in Nebraska is also teaching a birds unit, I expect that our students could not only share questions but perhaps also answers to each other's questions throughout the year.
We will take numerous bird-watching hikes in different locations around Mendocino and note bird behaviors I teach the children to observe. It seems logical to exchange these observations with another class or two in different parts of the country (and perhaps the world), to expand the childrens' sense of geography and different climates and ecosystems.
I have taught my previous students to identify several local birds by their calls on tape. I am hoping to use our connections worldwide to introduce them to more unusual bird calls and sounds and perhaps even to classify them in relation to local bird calls.
My assessment will be based first of all on discussions with the students as part of their ongoing afternoon Projects Time.
--I intend to ask them what they are working on, what they need, and how it's working on a regular basis, and to have them evaluating their own and others' work in group discussions and Project Journals.
--I will also keep my own anecdotal records to record my observations and impressions of the project and my students' learnings.
-- I have been archiving conversations with the Nebraska teacher and will continue to do so, so that I can re-read and track our thoughts and ideas.
--I expect to have student work in portfolios and/or photo or videotaped so that they and I can assess it throughout the year.
--Students will be presenting their work to each other in my class and perhaps sharing it electronically with other classrooms as well, to complete the circle of research begun with the support of the computer.