Technical Frience

In an article written by Maria Pastorek and Lisa Craig titled Technical Frience they talk about how they integrate multiple subjects and technology into one lesson plan. These subjects are Science, Foreign Language, and Social Studies. The language that this article talks about emphasizing is French. What the teachers have their students do is is very interesting. First the teachers read a book called The Mixed up Chameleon and learn about defenseless animals in English and French. The students then create their own defenseless animal and then used Kid Pix studio to re-create the animal on the computer. They then are assigned a country that speaks French and a title ambassador, consul, etc. and find their country on an atlas or globe. The students then group themselves by country and start the research. They research the habitat and climate in French as well as English and then discuss this with their group and decide what their animal needs to survive. They then go on to create a slide show using software that describes their animals and the country in both languages as well.  The teachers who wrote about this said their students not only learned about animals but how to use a globe/atlas, do research, French words, technology, as well as working in groups (social interaction). I think that this is a very unique way to be able to teach a wide variety of subjects in just one lesson and thought that it also builds student creativity. 

Food for thought Questions

1. What are the cost of this Kid Pix software that was mentioned for the creative process?

It can be picked up off of Amazon for around 20.00 dollars and there are different a few different versions as deluxe four seems to be the newest version.

2. What other alternative ways would you be able to do a similar project if your classroom does not have too many computers? 

You could still do the project just establish a time period for each group to use the computer and so on. Of course you allow everyone the same time just have the final project due at a different time for the different groups.