The College of Southern Nevada

10-8-15
Melissa Gresko

Position Paper
If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.-John Dewey
Technology changes daily so if we do not teach our students to learn how to use it today, how do we expect them to learn it later? Our
jobs as teachers and educators is to prepare our youth for the real world. To become a successful citizen, students must learn to be techsavvy. Technology is all around us, we use it to shop, bank, watch TV, read news, socialize and its used in every job. Technology in the
classroom helps students stay engaged in the lesson plan and it diversifies the learning styles for all students. It allows the students to
collaborate and interact with one another. It allows the students to become more responsible by taking control of their own learning. They
will start making decisions and actually think for themselves. They will keep their creativity flowing instead of learning the old way with
worksheets and reading straight from a text book teaching style.
I know budgeting is a problem and concern but there are ways around it. BYOD is short for Bring Your Own Device. This is a way to bring
technology in the classroom and the schools dont have to take on the full burden of the expense. But they need to have a plan and budget
for some for the students that dont have a device to bring in. With this schools could give their students up to date text books, instead of
the old heavy text books to carry around allowing them access to the newest and latest information. Technology has been proven to be
successful in the classroom and its the way of the future. If we take it out now we are no longer thinking of the students best interest and
we will no longer will be preparing the youth for the real world.

Cited Work
Wainwright, Ashley (N.D.) 10 Reasons todays students need technology in the classroom
http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/10-Reasons-Today-s-Students-NEED-Technology-in-the-Classroom
Long, Julie (N.D.) 4 Essential elements for BYOD in the classroom http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/4-Essential-Elements-forBYOD-in-the-Classroom

Identification of Standards
After reading through all the standards this is what I learned. The ISTE is more of a broad guideline for
teachers of what they should know about technology and be able to teach their students. This standard
doesnt break it down by level on what they need to know by what grade level its for all grade levels. The
Nevada Computer and Technology Education Standards breaks it down by performance level by grade level
on what each student needs to know by the end of milestone grades third, fifth, eighth, and twelfth. It gives
you guidelines to see where the students is at if she or he exceeds, meets, approaches or is below the
standard. This should be helpful to teachers to assess the students and get them up to standards if the
student is not meeting them. The common core standards was mainly based on core curriculums and had
very little technology standards in curriculum. Which I believe is ok as long as there are other areas teachers
have to go by on technology education. I will be focusing on the third grade student. This is an example of
the common core curriculum CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 with guidance and support from adults, use
technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate
with others. This was the only writing standard that had technology included in it. I will pair this with the
ISTE standard 2. Communication and Collaboration a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts
or others employing a variety of digital environments and media and 3. Research and Information Fluency:
plan strategies to guide inquiry. NCTES Content standard 2.0 Productivity Tools: Students use appropriate
productivity tools including but not limited to word processing, spreadsheets, database, multimedia, and
telemarketing. Compose and edit a word processing document. These 3 standards is what Im using for my
lesson plan and they all pretty much say the same thing. Just covering the bases with all standards. I can see
maybe at times it is a little overwhelming for teachers to have to use all 3 standards in each lesson plan can
get to be a little redundant and time consuming. There should be one standard for teachers to go off of, but I
can see why there needs to be 3 as well.

Lesson Plan
Name of lesson: Insect Research Paper
Grade Level Appropriateness: 3rd grade
Technology Content Standard Addressed: NCTES Content standard 2.0 Productivity Tools: Students use appropriate productivity
tools including but not limited to word processing, spreadsheets, database, multimedia, and telemarketing. Compose and edit a word
processing document, ISTE: 2. Communication and Collaboration a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts or others
employing a variety of digital environments and media and 3. Research and Information Fluency: plan strategies to guide inquiry

Other Content Standard Addressed: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 with guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and
publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.4
Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking
clearly at an understandable pace.
Objective: Students will be able to collaborate with their peers and come up with a main topic and key ideas and write a story using
complete sentences, paragraphs and proper grammar. They will use a search engine to get more detailed information on the main
topic,
Materials needed to facilitate the lesson: Computer, search engine(Google), word processing, inspiration 9, power point, paper,
pencil, crayons, a folder with page protectors
Suggested group size: 4 students will be working together
Procedures: First split the class in small groups of 4, have each group pick an insect to research and write the paper on. Once the
insect has been picked have the group put together six questions it wants to find out about its insect. Ex: Where do they live? What do
they eat? Whats their lifespan? Have the students put together a brain storming diagram like the one I provided. Once they come up
with all six questions they can go to the computer and start their research my typing in the question in the search engine. Make sure
you dont write exactly what is shown write it in your own words. After the research part of it is down have each student write their
own paper with the given information on their insect. Make sure they use complete sentences, proper grammar and paragraph form.
Once the paper is written the students will use Microsoft word or PowerPoint to type and paste pictures on their paper of their insect.
After everyone is finished we will have each group come to the front of the class and present their research on their insect.
Assessment: I will use embedded assessment and see how the paper came together as well as on how the students worked
together and presented it to the class

Student Sample

Student Sample
Black Widow
Most people dont even know what Black Widows are here to do. They are good for the
environment by balancing the ecosystem by consuming insects such as flies and mosquitoes. It also eats
pests that defoliate plants such as locusts, grasshoppers, and caterpillars and controls the crop pest
populations. They also consume ants, beetles, cockroaches and scorpions, among others. Many people are
afraid of spiders and Black Widows being one of them. Dont get to close to them because they can bit you
and people have been known to get really sick from their bite.

Student Sample

They like to live in dark or dim light areas like basements, wood piles,
garages, grape vines, dark corners and crevices. They also like to be
secluded where they wont be disturbed. They have a lifespan of one
year in the wild and up to 3 years in captivity.

Student Sample

They dont get to be very big. Their bodies average to be around 3 to

10mm long. You can identify Black widow by their black shiny bodies
with a red hour glass symbol on its bellies.