teacher+page

**Joint Statement expressing your understanding of what is required for the ICT Integration Project:**
We believe that the ICT Integration project is designed to assist teachers to successfully integrate ICT into their classrooms for all subjects of the curriculum. The Integration Project aims to help first year teachers become more familiar with ICT so they can be more confident when introducing it into lessons and teaching it to students. ICT is an important resource to use in classroom activities as it can enhance student’s learning and understanding of many topics and can allow for student centred learning and for the completion of many open- ended tasks. By incorporating ICT into a lesson, a teacher can encourage independence in student learning which can assist a student’s personal understanding of subject matter. ICT can extend students learning and can also assist students who are struggling with a subject. A range of delivery methods can be accessed through IT including hands on activities such as mapping, sharing information through blogs and organising information to aid studying. ICT can be used as a method of assessment for teachers in addition to the learning of the task. Interactive Whiteboards are a different and interesting way to brainstorm prior and taught knowledge. As student Teachers it is important to gain the necessary training with technology use, becoming familiar and confident with ICT and incorporate it into lessons. This helps connect the students with the subject matter as they identify with the ICT they use in their personal lives. The teachers can build better rapport with students, as they are not forcing traditional dry lessons on them, that the students see as without meaningful purpose. The Integration Project that we are currently working on is designed to fit within the Australian Curriculum Framework to assist year 5 students with Health and Nutrition in their own lives. By incorporating a range of easily accessible ICT resources such as Microsoft Excel, Wikispaces, Online Shopping, Edublogs, online research and cameras we are allowing students to enjoy and enhance their learning experience.

**Our Project Plan:**

 * Group member || Task || Due Date ||
 * Marion and Monique || Create Wikispace for presentation with Links to websites and Microsoft Excel template || 27 February ||
 * Marion || Lesson Plan Document for presentation || 27 February ||
 * Monique || Research recipe examples || 27 February ||
 * Marion || Research lesson linking to curriculum * Lesson 3 and 4 || 5 March ||
 * Monique || Research lesson linking to curriculum * Lesson 1 and 2 || 5 March ||
 * Marion and Monique || Joint statement || 5 March ||
 * Marion and Monique || Mind map || 5 March ||
 * Marion || Project Plan || 5 March ||
 * Marion and Monique || Forward Planning Document || 5 March ||
 * Marion and Monique || Statement about ICT tools || 5 March ||
 * Marion and Monique || Statement about learning theories || 5 March ||
 * Monique || Create work sheet for English lesson || 5 March ||
 * Marion and Monique || Publish and polish Wikispace || 6 April ||

**Three ICT resources we intend students to use and why:**
In addition to the Internet:
 * Camera:** to photograph student’s final recipe so they can upload it onto their blog. The students can also choose to create a video of them cooking the recipe if they want, which can also be uploaded onto their blogs. Using a camera is a fun way to record information and images, so to introduce it into a lesson may improve a student’s photographic ability and lesson enjoyment. Now that camera’s are found on phones and portable devices such as laptops, they are easily accessible and can be a great way to assist learning. Some people learn visually and associating a photograph with information can help recall information, which can act as a good study method.
 * Microsoft Excel:** to create an ordered tally of items that students are to purchase. Students are to compare the most affordable prices from Coles and Woolworths. Students are also meant to estimate their total expenditure and compare the final result to the estimate. By introducing students to such a resource may assist them with personal budgeting in the future. The teacher is also supposed to ask students if they can think of any other uses for Microsoft Excel and to suggest that they could use the table structure to arrange information to assist with studying.
 * Microsoft Word:** According to a source, when students write on computers they often write more and improve their quality of writing compared to hand writing. It has also been recorded that students have a better attitude to writing when using a computer (Tomkins, 2000. Cited in Fielding- Barnsley, R. (2006)). Writing in a program such as Microsoft Word is an easy task as most students are already familiar with it and will probably use it throughout their lives for word processing. Microsoft Word also has many tools which can make a document look better in terms of paper layout and decoration. Students enjoy making their work look good and their own recipes should be no exception! Students are able to spend extra time on their work out of school time as each lesson ends with students uploading work onto the internet which can be edited later.

Through the internet students utilise the following programs:
 * www.edublog.org :** This is the blog site that students will be uploading their daily progress to. By getting students familiar with blogging in Primary School may encourage them to use it later in life to stay in touch with each other and teachers while studying or to browse for interesting information such as recipes and travel stories. It is important to show students the safe sites on the internet and to properly explain them. From a teacher’s perspective, www.edublog.org allows teachers to monitor students’ progress as each entry is dated. If students are struggling then teachers can offer more support.


 * www.wikispaces.com** : To visit the page that we have created to guide the students through our four lessons. This website contains a Microsoft Excel template, links to both Coles and Woolworths online shops as well as links to get them started with researching the other criteria.


 * http://www2.woolworthsonline.com.au/ and http://www.coles.com.au/Shop-Online.aspx :** These two websites are accessed by students to compare prices of groceries online. By introducing students to such websites means they can apply the internet to real-world situations. Students must budget successfully for the lesson which can assist them in real life scenarios.

Plus a variety of websites to research different recipes that are suitable for a chosen diet and English conventions for writing recipes.

References:

Fielding-Barnsley, R. (2006). Literacy and learning difficulties: Successful outcomes for all students. In M. Keeffe and S. Carrington (Eds.), Schools and Diversity (pp.150-168). Victoria. Pearson Education Australia

**Statement indicating how our project is underpinned by evidence- based learning theory:**
Our four lessons are underpinned by a combination of evidence – based learning theories. One of these learning theories is constructivism. Constructivism encourages active, constructive, authentic, cooperative and intentional learning. Through this theory, students are given open- ended tasks and asked to solve them using a method they think most suitable. Our tasks employ such a theory by asking students to create a recipe from their researched material, by asking them to upload their progress onto a blog in any way they choose, by asking them to make the recipe and record their results in a suitable manner, by using maths in a real- world situation and by encouraging interaction with each other for the entire process. Another theory we have employed when designing the Forward Planning Document was the T-E-T, Teacher Effectiveness Training, developed by Gordon. T-E-T is designed to maximise teacher and student learning time, by minimising time spent on problematic situations. Also the student environment pays an important role in this theory, as it must be safe, inviting, motivating, interesting and most of all flexible. Our lessons incorporate a multitude of skill sets, catering for different learning styles and ultimately allowing for a less problematic student learning environment. Also the tasks are set in group situations, creating windows for students of various abilities to collaborate and participate in the learning task. The creativity of choosing presentation methods and personalising the task also enables students to engage with the material. The task as a whole also teaches values and responsibility (choosing, buying and making food of their own accord), which is another highly prized attribute of the Gordon learning theory.

=**Assessment Rubric: **=