UR Instructional Tech Integration

Grab your binoculars and field journal and go on a rainforest expedition! Using a  Google Earth tour and the PowerPoint slideshow (below), students will take off on a journey to the Amazon Rainforest, go deep within the jungle, and ‘take pictures’ of the various flora and fauna. This lesson plan will have students using their field journals to [...]

Ideal for the Kindergarten/1st grade classroom, this resource file is comprised of 16 mini-lessons, that addresse the instructional continuum of phonological awareness development. Some of these lessons (where indicated) were created in conjunction with colleagues, as part of a group project. Teacher Resource File (K1 Reading) (function() { var…[Read more]

Simple machines are introduced to third graders in this lesson plan using a favorite board game and a few items from the hardware store. Wrap up the lesson by playing the short movie (below) and have students ‘shout out’ the answer before it appears. LP_SimpleMachines (function() { var scribd [...]

I am a professional communicator providing presentation design for myriad Federal contracts. The following select publications were designed for either the U.S. Department of Education or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Working with small budgets, and usually small clients, I am skilled in the art of costume design. The sampling below represents some of the designs I have originated over the past few years.

As a Girl Scout Leader for more than 2 years, I have enjoyed teaching young girls the importance of leadership, education, and community. Our  journeys have  included overnight trips to the Science Museum of Virginia and Camp Pamunkey Ridge, day trips to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond, and [...]

Just as a picture can enhance a reader’s interpretation of a passage, so can a sound. This lesson plan uses sound to inspire storytelling as well as to enhance its effects as the story is being told. Students will use GarageBand to record their stories and insert sound clips in appropriate places. The sample recording, A [...]

The following PowerPoint Movie illustrates one way to introduce a word sort to students in the derivational relations stage of word study. Click on the image of St. Paul’s Cathedral below to view the PowerPoint presentation as a movie.

This particular presentation corresponds with Words Their Way Sort 28. It was designed as a template for future [...]

FLUSHED_AWAY_ This is a great movie—Flushed Away—featuring the voice talents of Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet. It’s one students will either have already seen or should see. This clip will be the anticipatory set for a discussion of VA Science SOL 5.4b covering parts of Matter, specifically mixtures like solutions. After the clip (and a review of…[Read more]

Our challenge was to find an existing PowerPoint presentation and make it better. Below you will find excerpts of a Wetlands slideshow that I redesigned. The biggest change, other than altering text, is the change in the mood of the presentation. It is terribly distracting when slides are text heavy. I find myself ignoring the presenter, reading [...]

I could not agree more with how horrible most PowerPoint presentations are. I have a background in desktop publishing (layout and design) and have worked in the corporate world for more than a decade. I have seen countless presentations that are worthless. I’m sorry to say that I have even made some of them because it’s [...]

5 personal RSS feeds in Google Reader Girl Scout Blog —A good way to discover what Girl Scouts and Girl Scout Leaders are doing across the country and the globe. Short Pump Elementary PTA —My daughter’s school PTA website. Beliefnet: Entertainment —There used to be a Movie Mom review on Yahoo, then ‘Movie Mom’ moved to Beliefnet, which appears…[Read more]