Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools

Lesson Idea Name: Thomas Jefferson

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 1st
Content Standard Addressed:
SS1H1 Read about and describe the life of historical figures in American history.
a. Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence)
Technology Standard Addressed:
Understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use, and
troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

Selected Technology Tool:

☒ Blog ☐ Wiki ☐ Other: Website Creation Tool (list):

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☒ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

I will use a UDL lens when analyzing the data I receive from this assessment in order to identify the strengths,
needs, and interests of individual students across the three learning networks (recognition, action and
expression, and engagement) and combine them into a UDL group profile.

Lesson idea implementation:

The teacher will add a posting onto the “Flipped Classroom” page on her edublog. An audio clip created
using Audacity will be attached explaining what the students are to work on over the weekend. The teacher
will also provide a transcript below the audio clip and a link to the video the students are required to watch.
The audio clip says, “Hello class! Over the weekend, watch the video on Thomas Jefferson and try to
remember two important things about him to share with your friends once we get back to school”.
The students will start the lesson at home by going onto the “Flipped Classroom” page on my classroom
blog and listening to the audio clip. They will be instructed to watch a BrainPOP video on Thomas Jefferson
and they should try to remember 2 important things about him. Once they come back to class, I will have the
students talk in groups about what they learned from the video. Then we will come together as a whole group
to talk about what the students remember from the video. I will address any misconceptions or incorrect
facts that the students may say. Student learning will be assessed using a checklist. The teacher will walk
around and listen to the conversations of students during the group discussion to see if each student watched
the video and could remember a fact or two about Thomas Jefferson.

Importance of technology:
Without technology, the students would not have been able to complete the video at home. This means that I
would have had to take time out of class to show the video instead of using the valuable time we have to
have a classroom discussion. This also would’ve taken away the child/parent collaboration that was going on
at home. Since the students need their parents supervision on the computer, it would have pushed the

Summer 2017_SJB
 Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools
parents to spend some quality time with their child while utilizing technology and being able to see what we
are working on in class.
Inspiration (optional): N/A

Internet Safety and Student Privacy:

I will review my district’s Internet Safety and Student Privacy policies to ensure that nothing the students are
doing or anything included in the project is violating any rules or policies. I will be monitoring the students
computers at school and will send notes home to parents to work with their children if they are asked to do
anything outside of school. For this individual assignment, I will communicate to parents to monitor their
child’s computer access when completing the homework. I will tell them to watch the BrainPOP video with
their child to ensure that they aren’t leaving the site without permission. I will speak to
parents/administrators before allowing the students to complete a project online to let them know what is
going on and what I will do to ensure policies are followed and the students information remains confidential.
Reflective Practice:
I think having the students complete a short aspect of the lesson at home gives us more time to have
thorough classroom discussions. It also pushes parents to spend a little time with their kids at home. Students
love working on something with their parents and many times parents don’t know how to help their child at
home and this explicitly lays it out for them.
This video would be used as an introductory activity. After the video, we would have a classroom discussion
on a few facts the students learned from the video which will lead us into our unit on Thomas Jefferson.

Summer 2017_SJB