ABC COMMUNITY SCHOOL 1

ABC Community School

Isabella Lee Henkel

June 30th 2019

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Technology itself is a powerful milestone that has brought many different achievements
to the human race. Through something as simple as 0’s and 1’s on an LED screen, we have been
able to go from walking baby steps into a sprint into a new era of possibilities. Our world is
shaped by these small advancements that built up overtime and led to breakthroughs the way we
as a society function, and has paved the way for our generation and those ahead of us. So it
should not be a surprise that we have all collectively moved forward and adapted to the ever-
evolving world of technology and began to use it in many ways that most did not think it would
have a place in. The educational field is one of the many places where technology itself shines
the brightest, and has so much untapped potential that gets wasted by either loss of opportunity
or the inability to walk alongside an ever-changing path. Humans are not ones to stay stagnant
and sit in the dark, but are opportunists that jump for the next “evolutionary milestone” and
grows alongside the ever-changing world around them. So why should we, educators, leaders,
and role-models, work against our nature to improve? To succeed? To thrive?

Teaching and learning with technology are things we should embrace fully as leaders in
the education system.We are doing our students a disservice if we try and bring them back a
decade and ignore the endless opportunities and advancements that several educational resources
have given to us. Technology itself is not a distraction, but a tool that can be used to empower
and enforce learning and give even the most hated of subjects a structural backbone that students
can depend on. Students are not anymore willing to learn if we give them a simple stick and a
board to ride down a river with, when we very clearly have well-built boats and paddles hidden
away because they’re simply “not providing results in the right areas.” Learning should not be
about statistics, namely in tests, but if we were to look at some statistics of our own, we could
see just how beneficial technology in the everyday classroom is. “There was overwhelming
agreement, as well, that tech has had a positive impact on the effectiveness of teaching. Eighty-
seven percent of respondents said tech has positively impacted their ability to teach. Ten percent
said it's had no effect. Three percent said it's had a negative effect.” (Nagel, 2018) It’s almost
universally agreed that technology has an incredibly positive impact on how a teacher can
effectively relay across information and how effectively a student can retain it. Our students and
teachers alike both need and rely on technology for more than just test scores, and if we were to
factor out something so clearly important and necessary in the education system, the overall
quality of what our students are learning and retaining will suffer.
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The differences and similarities between the nation’s ISTE standards and Nevada’s own
regional technology and education standards are far and wide. Standard 1 of the Nevada
technology and education standards is Creativity and Innovation, which shares the Standard 6 of
the national ISTE standards titled Creative Communicator. The Nevada standard puts an
emphasis on student creativity that is endorsed and influenced by the use of technology within
the lesson, much like the goal of Creative Communicator. However, the national standard puts
more focus on the creative uses of technology through communication, while the Nevada one is a
more overall statement of creative application within the assignment.

Nevada standard number 2, Communication and Collaboration, also shares a likeness

with the national ISTE standard number 7, Global Collaborator. Both share the same focal point
of wanting students to use digital media and technology to collaborate and work together.The
Nevada standard has a more educational focus than the national standard, which has a global
focus that is meant to transcend past the educational setting.

Nevada standard number 3, Research and Information Fluency, shares its similarities
with ISTE standard number 3, Knowledge constructor. Both have the goal that students use
technology to gather and evaluate information, but the national standard has a heavier focus on
tool usage while the Nevada standard has a heavier focus on research and analysis.

Nevada standard number 4, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision making is
similar to ISTE’s fifth standard, Computational thinker. Both have the common goal that
students are able to employ critical thinking skills and solve problems with technological
solutions. Both are very similar.

Nevada standard number 5, Digital Citizenship, is the same as ISTE’s standard number 2,
Digital Citizen, that wants students to use and employ technology and their digital skills in safe
and ethical ways.

Nevada standard number 6, Technology Operations and Concepts, is the same as the
ISTE standard’s first standard, Empowered Learner. The goal is that students display an
understanding and show they are competent with the technology they are using. ISTE’s standard
has a focus on the more educational aspects, while Nevada’s standard focuses more on hardware
competency.

The standard I will be discussing in my lesson plan is Standard 1 of the Nevada

Computer and Technology Standards, which is Creativity and Innovation.

• Name of lesson: I like Onion Rings - Visual Wordplay

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• Grade Level Appropriateness: 7th to 8th grade

• Technology Content Standard Addressed: Nevada Computer and Technology

Standards 1: Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking,
construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

• Other Content Standard Addressed: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.5: Demonstrate

understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

• Objective: Students will be able to learn to use an image editing software to create and
manipulate images. Students will be able to use a collection of images in a creative and
mindful way that successfully “morphs” the different parts of the image into one collective
picture. Students will be able to recognize different aspects of the English language and
understand the difference between homophones and polysemy. Students will have a
better linguistic understanding of the English Language.

• Materials needed to facilitate the lesson: Computers, image editing software (MSPaint,
Photoshop, ETC.)

• Suggested group size: Solo student work.

• Procedures: 1. Introduce the lesson with a simple pun or wordplay first by discussing it
verbally (Say: I love onion rings) and then display a visual reference of a more literal
version of said wordplay. (White board illustration of an onion on a ring. Ask the students
what they had expected from the previous statement before the visual was brought up.

2. Discuss puns by talking about how they require a certain kind of understanding of the
language they come from. Tell the students that puns rely on a “double meaning” of sorts
that can change the way how the joke is taken entirely depending on how proficient a
student may be in the English language.

3. Give them examples of different types of puns.

Homophone puns: Explain that these typically rely on homophones, which are words that
sound similar but have different meanings and are spelled differently. Give an example:
I’m bored/board. (Provide a visual example such as a board drawing of the difference, or
explain it verbally how the meaning changes.)

Polysemous puns: Explain Polysemous. Polysemy is when a word holds many different
related meanings. Give an example: Is your refrigerator running? You better go catch it.

Similar sound puns: Explain how some phrases or words may sound similar and can
“replace” another word and change the meaning. Give an example: What time do you visit
the dentist? At tooth-hurty.
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4. Ask the class by a raise of hands for what puns they may know. Write them down on the
board at first. Then when you’ve collected all of their answers, ask them to think about
what other meaning their “puns” may have. Are there homophone-based puns that have
hidden double meanings? Polysemous puns where the meaning can also change
depending on the context? Dissect similar sound puns and explain why the “similarity”
between the words makes the joke make sense?

5. Project teacher computer screen to the main board. Open image editing program of
choice (MSPaint, Photoshop, ETC.) Photoshop is the recommended program to use here
due to its heftier capabilities, but MSPaint works as well. Tell the students that they will
be making “Visuals” for their puns in the style of a pieced together “collage.”

6. Begin by modeling your original example (I like onion rings) by showcasing how the
students will complete their assignment. Start with a blank white canvas.

7. Search online for free-use images of rings and onions. To make this easier, instruct the
students to search for images by searching “[image] transparent background” that will
provide a background-less image that can be saved and uploaded through the FILE option
at the top bar and selecting OPEN. This will make it easy for the student and you to place
objects on top of each other without a white border/background.

If no image is usable, or we are using MSPaint, instruct the students and demonstrate how
to get rid of the “white background” by erasing the white border and (MSPAINT exclusive)
then using the SELECT tool.
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And selecting the Transparent selection option at the bottom. There, they can select their
freshly edited image and drag it over any other images.

8. If we are using Photoshop, tell the students to make use of the transparent or edited
images with the LAYER system.

Explain and demonstrate that they can “layer” images on top of each other by separating
them onto different “layers”. By having one image be on Layer 1 and another image on
Layer 2, the image on Layer 2 can be placed over Layer 1 without “deleting” or
“permanently covering” any parts of the other image. This gives the work a more
professional look.
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9. Begin by putting the image of the ring onto LAYER 1. And then you can click on the
WHITE PAGE button on top of the LAYERS window.

This will give you a LAYER 2, in which you can copy your uploaded or edited onion photo
onto. Then, you will SELECT the onion using the selection tool and dragging your cursor
over the image.

Then you will move it onto the ring, and tell the class that you have made an onion ring.

10. Tell them that with this they are going to be putting together a visual to their “verbal
puns” that explains the “other meaning” their joke may have. They cannot draw these
images on their own using their mouses, but are allowed to “edit” the images with their
mouses to make them transparent. The goal here is to have them create a “collage” out of
these images through different image sources.

11. Then, at the end of class, display the different images created by the students on the
board and have them describe their pun and what they changed it into.

• Assessment: Students will be graded on creativity of both of their visual aid and their
“wordplay” pun. Note that creativity does NOT mean “prettiest” image created. Creativity
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means a student that was able to piece together two or more images into one collective
“collage” that describes their pun in a way that can help the reader connect to what pun
the student had chosen for their project.
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Nagel07/11/18, D. (n.d.). Teaching with Technology in 2018. Retrieved from

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/07/11/teaching-with-technology-in-2018.aspx