California Produce Reports

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California Produce Reports
Kristin Havens Placer Hills Elementary,
Meadow Vista, CA
Final Presentation
CTAP 295 Teaching with Technology
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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary
My name is Kristin Havens, and I teach Title I
Math and Reading to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade
students at Placer Hills Elementary School in
Meadow Vista, CA. In this assignment which fits
in well with 4th Grade study of California
History, students will research a produce grown
in California. It can be a fruit, vegetable, or
nut. This is a fun activity, since California is
such a "Gold Mine" of Agriculture! Each child
is to choose one produce item that he/she is
interested in that is grown in California, visit
a produce section of a grocery store, research
their produce on the internet and encyclopedia,
write up their report, and have a tasting party
where each child brings in a recipe containing
their produce. All document links for black line
masters were produced in Microsoft Word. You
can reach my website at http//ctap295.ctaponline
.org/khavens/ My email addresses are
kristin_h0_at_yahoo.com havens_at_placerhills-usd.k1
2.ca.us
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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary

• Expectations
• To create my own website
• To create a website that students could use to
  learn about California produce
• To become more confident in using different
  search engines on the internet
• To use the internet more efficiently
• To use Power Point Excel and Microsoft Word

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California Produce ReportsKristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary

• I Learned To
• Save early and often to the hard drive
  immediately after every slide on my Power Point
  presentation!
• Create a website that students could use
• Use Netscape Composer
• Use Microsoft Excel and Power Point
• Use Microsoft Word more efficiently
• Use WSFTP uploading and downloading techniques
• Be more efficient while searching on the internet
• Link documents, projects, files, websites, and
  graphics
• To add/delete software and move files to and from
  different drives
• And much, much, more!

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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary

• Successes (Students and Teacher)
• Students were able to turn out a finished produce
  report.
• Parents thought it was a great learning tool.
• Students thought it was Pretty cool that their
  teacher created a website just for them.
• The tasting party was great fun.

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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary

• Successes (Students and Teacher)
• The satisfaction that I had actually completed a
  website my students could use!
• Knowing that other teachers were going through
  the same frustrations/accomplishments that I was!
  
• Students were very interested in using the links
  Id created.

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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary

• Shortcomings (Students and Teacher)
• It took more time in the computer lab than I
  thought it would to go over the website with the
  students.
• There was not enough of me to go around and help
  with all the questions, and to help find all the
  links to print out the documents that they
  needed.
• There was initial frustration on both of our
  parts when the students first tried to go
  through the website.
• Students had difficulty once they got to the
  website links to find the information that they
  needed on their own.

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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary

• Shortcomings (Students and Teacher)
• Not every student had internet access at home to
  reread the website
• with parents.
• Students needed a lot of time to type their own
  projects.
• It took quite a bit of time to grade all the
  reports and read them all.

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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary
Student Data
The students all did much better on their post
tests than on their pretests. Most of the
students also achieved well on their projects,
except for a few, who did not follow directions
completely, and lost points.
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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary
Revisions
After reviewing the data, I noticed that it would
have worked much better if I had had the time to
go over the website with only 3-5 students at a
time. Also, the rubric I first created was a bit
too broad, and I felt was too subjective. I
changed the rubric so it was more precise, listed
exactly what my expectations were, and was more
objective.
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California Produce Reports Kristin Havens, Placer
Hills Elementary
Summary This has been an interesting year with
this CTAP project. There were times I was so
frustrated that I felt like quitting, but still
stuck it out. I honestly feel that I have
gruelingly learned a lot, and feel proud about my
website. Technology can be a useful tool with
children, but it is important to build up their
background knowledge of how to use the internet
first, and to make sure that the activities that
are taking place are age appropriate.