Artifact Bags

I really enjoyed this activity. When our teacher was showing examples of artifact bags to the class it was fun/interesting revealing all the items inside. The artifacts inside were all about history,the past, and items from a long time ago. As we revealed the items out of the bag we had to try and connect it to why it was there in the first place. I liked how the lesson was about history and how the items were old and interesting to look at and study.
Then it was the classes turn to make our own artifact bag. While I was thinking about ideas for my artifact bag I wanted to pick a TV show that was old and what I thought a lot of people would know. I wanted a TV show that was a piece of history. I finally chose "I Love Lucy" from 1951. I used images off the computer with the actors on it, cameras they used or filmed with, and outfits they wore. The women wore house dresses because they were doing work around the house all day and the men wore business suits. I made the pictures look old by crumpling them up and making little rips into the paper to show old age. I had them made in black and white because back in that time period they didn't have colored pictures. I also made a power point to show my group. In the power point I had the actors names, the dates the show was aired, the old TV sets people watched from and cars that were used in that time. I also added who produced the show. In the last slide I had added the theme song that was from "I Love Lucy" I figured once people heard the song they would make the connection to the show and know what show I was talking about.
I thought this activity/lesson was both fun and interesting to learn about. This lesson would be great for elementary students. I think they would enjoy picking out a piece of history and researching a topic. Once they found a topic they would pick artifacts to put into a creative bag and present it to their class. I think the class would enjoy this activity/lesson because they would have to try and guess how the artifacts would relate  to their classmates topic. The students would get educated on different historian topics and learn new information that might have never crossed their minds.

Native Americans

This lesson was both fun and interesting. We had split the class up into groups and were all assigned different Native American tribes. It was fun to learn about the different tribes. What they wore, what they made, and how they lived and survived. Interesting facts that I learned was that mostly everything the tribes hunted they used the fur for clothes, blankets, their houses and instruments. The tribes would use the bones in the animals for instruments. They played these instruments around the fire at night while telling tales to their fellow friends and families. All the tribes would use the environment around them to survive and their entertainment. It was interesting to learn how all the tribes lived and survived. A major thing to survive was hunting animals in the wilderness for food, shelter, and warmth.
I enjoyed how we got into groups and picked our own tribes to research. Then we got into groups with everyone who had the same tribe and compared and informed other classmates on what information we found. When this process was over we had made power points and got back into our original groups and taught our classmates on tribes that we studied. This would be a fun and enjoyable lesson/assignment for elementary students to do. I think students would have a fun time researching different tribes and teaching their fellow classmates on the information they came up with. Everyone will be learning and educated on information that they've might not have know before.  

Multiple Choice

In class and throughout the week we studied different assessments. Selected response assessment are multiple choice, binary choice and matching. Advantages in a multiple choice is broad sampling of knowledge , scoring is easy and objective, practice on items for high - stake state accountability tests, and more reliable and have more diagnostic power.
Guidelines for designing Multiple choice item are to write clear described question or task. Put as much info in stem instead of in response, use complete stems and short answer. When writing multiple choice write plausible but wrong distracting answers. Identify common misunderstandings or errors by students.
What are multiple choice questions good for? What knowledge do you get from these types of questions?
They are good for assessing declarative (facts) and procedural (how to) knowledge.

Awards / Applauses

This lesson was about recognizing the students for their accomplishments. When we entered the classroom the students were excited that they had finished their movie and they got noticed by both the 2nd graders, teachers and parents for their achievements. Once the students got settled down we had an award ceremony. We acknowledged both the companies and individuals for their hard work and dedication. The students really enjoyed this process and were happy to get awards and trophies. I felt like they were making believe that they were real actors and actresses receiving these awards and trophies just like they were on TV or something. I think that this was one of the most important days for the students because they got recognized by the Mount Saint Mary College teachers and students and community for all of their hard work that they put into this project. All of the students really worked hard achieving this goal and would do the process again with even more motivation and ideas than before.

The Final Action

This was the final day for Diamond Works to complete their movie. They jumped into their costumes, got their scripts and were ready to go. Again we had to remind our students that if they wanted to play around and get off topic then it was okay with us, it was their time and their movie and however it came out it came out. If they wanted to mess around with one another and joke and laugh and stay unfocused then their movie wasn't going to get completed the right way and they weren't going to have the best movie they could have. The students all agreed they were ready to get the final recording set and show everyone how hard they really worked on this project.
It did take a few tries,  but cleaning up the little things were important but understandable. If the students messed up they would quickly quiet down and simply start over again. They wanted to have a great movie just as much as we wanted them to. We were running out of time and we needed the students to be perfect. We remind them that this was our last try to clean up one or two little things and how it came out was what everyone else was going to see in the presentation.
The final recording was perfect! they got into all the right places, stood correctly, spoke loud and slow, and really knocked it out of the park. From when I said "action" to the time I said "cut" it was great. Once we finished Diamond Works saw how happy the Mount Saint Mary College students were and they began to get happy and excited as well because the expressions on our faces showed that it was done and they've finished what they've been working so hard on for weeks and it came out perfect.  

Almost Time For Action

In this lesson it was about getting our companies together and begin recording for our lesson. Diamond works was ahead of the game. Myself and other Mount Saint Mary College students had met with our company over our spring break to start recording and going over scripts. This lesson was just another day to get our students prepared and even more ready than they already were. They were confident in their acting and the way they presented themselves.
Throughout the lesson we wanted Diamond works to be perfect in the way they spoke, stood and acted throughout the whole movie. We were almost there but not yet just yet. We had to remind the students that they had to be adults about this situation and getting dressed up and acting out was a privileged opportunity to show others what they can accomplish. The students were very excited to start the process and excited to jump back into their costumes and begin working again. This process however did take time away from practicing our script but the students finally were ready and came to realize that they only had one more day with us to making it perfect. Diamond Works did a very good job presenting but as a company their were little things that we had to clean up to make the movie that much better. For example standing in the correct spots, talking louder and simply not wasting time in between making mistakes and quieting down again to start the movie over. Once we had these simple but important tasks down then we were ready to save our final recording and it wasn't going to happen that day. We had one more day for the students to be the best they could be and really show everyone what they had been working on for weeks. 

Using The Business Terms In A Different Way

This lesson was for the students to understand the terms that group 3 were using in their lesson. The companies showed good examples and knowledge of the terms. I think group three really did a good job explaining to the companies what each of the terms meant. For example during a hurricane people around the world were worried about having gas. Before the hurricane hit the gas stations were the most popular. This told the students that their was a small supply of gas and everyone was trying to get enough of this product because if they didn't have gas then their would be an effect of running into further problems down the road.
Later on in the lesson the students had assignments where they had to put all these terms into action. The students either had a story to write, a song, or just simply having pictures on a poster board to explain what each of these words really meant. This assignment was for better understanding of the terms and how to explain to the other students / companies their way of thinking.
Diamond works (our group) had to write a rap song using these terms. The students showed confidence and really showed how well they could work together as a company to complete this task. This was a fun lesson for the students because it was using the terms in a different way. They were thinking of rhymes and different connections for the terms to fit together.
Once the companies had finished with the assignment they had to present it to the rest of the class. I believe this was a fun and educational way of teaching this lesson because every company had a different view of describing the words to the other companies. The students are also mastering speaking in front of people and  staying calm throughout their presentations. Another thing that the students are completing, is staying organized and working together as a group. Listening to each others ideas and giving positive feedback to one another. The companies learned that working together as a company / group was the most important thing to overcome and continuing the task ahead of them.