Wow

I am so completely impressed by the presentations and the various uses that my classmates have come up with with using the handhelds in the classroom. Lessons were formed from using as many as one to something like seven or eight different programs. It is absolutely amazing the creativity that my classmates have come up with with teaching music, language arts, the food chain, and of course my favorite, art. At the start of this class I was in complete denial that you really could teach art with the use of the handheld. Therefore, I thought it was humorous that the majority of the lessons were created to incorporate either the visual or performing arts. Art was incorporated by using Op art, to teach color theory, realistic self-portraits, and the use of angles inspired by artist such as Kandinsky and Picasso. I really was impressed with the TealPaint program. I think that is what it was called. I thought that the layers that you could create and its similarity to photoshop was amazing. I was really impressed by all of the tools that it had and all that you could do with it. However, I did think it looked difficult and was more geared toward the high school student. I was also impressed with the lesson using the angles program and art. I really liked how these projects turned out and I think that it was an impressive way to incorporate art with math. . especially for fifth graders. Overall, I was super excited with all of the new lesson plans that I have and the ideas that are endless. I am really excited to meet with Beth this week and learn how she incorporates handhelds into the fifth grade class!