Instructional+Unit+-+The+Day+in+the+Life+of+a+Colonial+Child

= = =** Assignment: **= Our assignment was to create an online instructional class that allowed students to actively participate in a given unit of topic. The class had to include collaborative assignments, online assessments, WIMBA archived classes, voicethreads, screencasts and other web 2.0 applications that we have learned through our journey in this class. The unit was to be four to five lessons in length.

=** Process: **= For this assignment, I tried to think of a topic that I teach in first grade that could be transferred to a Blackboard course. I thought that social studies lent itslef the most to this setting. I chose to design my course around the Colonial Time period and have a course around the one element of "daily life of a child in colonial times." This course would allow me to have student view websites, screencasts, WIMBA sessions, and listen to instruction off of the six areas they would compare to their daily life; school, houses, chores, food, fun & games, and clothing. The students would research each of these areas given certain readings and websites to review their topic and compare their life to that of a colonial child. Their final project would be a written letter to a colonial child comparing their life to the life today and how it is different and the same. = =

=** Reflection: **= This assignment was a lot to take on, but a great experience to use Blackboard and its capabilities. Using Blackboard allowed me to see how courses are built and the advantages to having an online format for a course. Although Blackboard is a great tool, it does limit you to older grades. The content that can be presented using Blackboard is unlimited. I was glad to have learned to use so many web 2.0 tools, such as, Jing and VoiceThread. It really helped me when creating assignments and tasks. I was able to add technology to the unit that can still be used when I teach it this year to my first graders; not just for my Blackboard assignment at Wilmington University. I think that is what I was most pleased with; that I am taking from this course material that can be used in my "real" classroom and not just creating for a "fake" classroom and the content and material will never be used. I learned so much while creating this course and while taking this class. Patience was also in great demand while using these programs and creating this unit. Although I like the idea of using technology in my instruction, I still find it hard to rely solely on it for my instruction, as just taking this one course, I had more problems downloading programs and then they crash during my creating, that I think not having a "plan B" would cause issues in the classroom.

Although I cannot entirely link my Blackboard course to this site, I have included a few screen captures of the pages below that you can access, as well as, my references:

Announcement Page Getting Started Page Activities Page Discussion Board Page Faculty Contact Page WIMBA Page Resources Page

Instructional Unit References:
Colonial Kids: A Celebration of Life in the 1700’s; (N.D), Authors Unknown; Retrieved from: []

Delaware Social Studies Standards; (2001) Retrieved June 6, 2010 from: [|http://www.does.state.de.us/DPIServices/Desk _Ref/SStandrev2001/K_5Standards.PDF] Letter Writing Guide; (2004-2010) Retrieved June 14, 2010 from: [] The First Thanksgiving, Daily Life, (N.D), Scholastic Inc. Retrieved June 16 from: [] Scholastic Inc., (1993) //Sarah Morton’s Day: A day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl;// Scholastic Paperbacks, NY  Waters, K. (1996) //Samuel Eaton’s Day: A day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy;// Perfection Learning, IA