Webquest!!!

Here is my completed Webquest. Enjoy!

http://ia.usu.edu/authorproject3.php

Podcasts

For my podcast, I would choose to do a reading unit in first grade. Towards the middle to end of first grade, there's a really big push for reading, and for students to start to be able to read on their own. I would read a few different books into a podcast and then give the students the option of which book they wanted to read. I'd have copies of the books in the classroom so that the students could be listening and reading at the same time. I think this would be an excellent activity because they would be able to listen and read at the same time. After they had done this activity, I'd give them a chance to record their own podcast of the book they had just read, or a different book of their choice. I think this would be a really fun activity for the students, because it'd be different than just reading a book. It'd be fun for them to record it and then get to listen to their own voice coming out of the computer.

Webquest Educational Software

As I was exploring educational software, I cam across whyville. http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice I really enjoyed this website. It was a little hard to understand at first, but once I played around with it it became really easy to navigate. I think kids would have a really good time on this website, and I don't think it'd be too difficult for them to use. I can't decide which grade level I want to teach. Originally, I was thinking I would do Kindergarten because I've had some experience with children that age. But, I'm not sure if talking about nutrition would be too difficult for a child that age. I played a game on Whyville about fixing someone's diet. Some of the problems included too many calories, not enough calories, too much fat, not enough vitamin A, etc. I really, really enjoyed this activity. I feel like it could teach kids a lot about what nutrients different foods have in them. A few standards I could meet would be to help kids become more familiar with technology and the resources that they can use. I want to show them that technology can help them with all areas of their lives, even with something as simple as what they eat.

Webquest Description

For my webquest, I am going to target it towards Kindergarten students. They're still pretty young so the activities won't be very difficult. I'm going to center the webquest around nutrition and teaching kids about a healthy lifestyle. My learning objectives will be: 1-Students will be able to plan out a balanced diet using all of the food groups from the food guide pyramid. 2-Students will be able to realize why it's important to exercise and the effects it has on their body. This might be a little too difficult for Kindergarten students so I'll either change it and make it for first or second graders, or make it really, really simple so that a Kindergarten aged student will be able to grasp the concept.

Webquests

Today in our technology class we learned about webquests. I think the concept of a webquest for kids is a really great idea. I love incorporating technology into the classroom. I like the idea of doing a webquest based on a problem or project. I'm not really sure what I want to do my webquest on, but I'm thinking I want to do it on nutrition or a balanced diet. I don't know exactly what I'll have the kids do, but I think this could be really interesting for the students and something that could really apply to their lives. I also might add an exercise twist to it, and challenge them to exercise as they eat healthy. I just think it's really important for kids to learn how to eat healthy when they're young, so they'll hopefully do it for the rest of their lives. I think a webquest could be a different and fun way for students to learn subjects than just presenting it in the classroom. I hope I can create one that is interesting enough that the students will want to use it to learn.

Website Evaluations

For my most recent assignment, I evaluated a few different web sites. http://www.alpine.k12.ut.us/phpApps/genericPage.php?pdid=632 The first website I evaluated was actually my former elementary school, Windsor Elementary. I found this website to be pretty easy to use. There were links to information about the school such as the bell schedule, calendar, and faculty and staff. It has the address and phone number of the school. There are only a couple of images and they are both pictures of the school. There isn't any sound on the website that I could find. There was a message on the website about the students getting a visit from Utah Jazz player Andrei Kirilenko because they read 838,146 minutes. I thought this was really cool that they are promoting reading and helping the students learn to have a desire to read so they can have an athlete come visit them. Overall, I'd say this was a pretty good website. It was informational and if a parent needed to find out anything about the school they definitely could, it just wasn't as interesting as I think it could be.
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ The next website I evaluated was a website about lesson plans. To be honest, this website kind of overwhelmed me. I felt like it was way too busy and my eyes didn't know where to focus. There isn't very much blank space and there's just stuff everywhere! The few lesson plans that I looked at weren't really that great, and most of them were just worksheets. If I've learned ANYTHING at all from being in the education program it's that worksheets are not developmentally appropriate and there are many more ways that children can learn and be taught. But, a good aspect of the website, is that they do have a ton of lesson plans and a teacher could easily modify them for their students and change them so that they could be DAP.
http://www.compasslearningodyssey.com/sampleactivity.html The next website I evaluated was a website with learning games for kids. I thought the part of the website where you first entered was really boring. It's not at all decorated and just really isn't very inviting. The part with the games was a lot better. It was colorful and fun and I could see it attracting a child. I was kind of confused with some of the games, so I'm not sure if I just struggle or if it would be difficult for a little kid.
http://historyforkids.utah.gov/ The last website I evaluated was a History of Utah website for kids. I really liked this website. It was easy to navigate and I think it would be for a child too. It had great links on the home page and easy access to get back to the home page. Everything was colorful, but still looked professional. There were really great facts about Utah, fun and games, a time line for Utah, and much more. I don't know all of the facts about Utah, but I didn't see anything that I knew to be wrong. I think this would be a really great website for kids to use to find out information without being frustrated by the website itself.
I think learning how to evaluate websites will be a very important tool for me as a teacher. As technology grows and expands, I will have to know credible information that is on the internet so I can help my students learn what is and is not credible. They will have to learn what information they can use and what they shouldn't. I would definitely use an evaluation form, especially if I wasn't sure how credible the website was. I think a time I might not use a website evaluation form is if a child was using a website for fun and if I wasn't worried about them gaining information from it. If they were playing a game where they were learning something, I wouldn't definitely want that website to teach them correct information, but if they were just playing a game for fun, I think it would be okay if it didn't meet every standard of the website evaluation. I think it will all depend on the situation and what the website is being used for.

How I Will Use Spreadsheets and Google Documents

I think I will be able to use spreadsheets quite a bit in my teaching. One way that I will use spreadsheets in my future classroom is by keeping track of all of my students and their grades. I will keep a hard copy, but I'd also like to keep a copy of it on the computer. I think this would be an excellent way to have a record of all of the students and be able to see them all at one time. I also think this would be a good way to keep track of their progress throughout the year. I could also compare them with their classmates and find the average of the class and how I could help students progress in subjects that they aren't doing as well in.
The next thing I would do with spreadsheets would be to teach my students how to use them and the purpose of them. I think the earlier children are taught technology that could benefit their lives, the better. We need to give kids all the advantages that we can. I probably wouldn't do this if I were teaching a younger grade like Kindergarten, but I'd definitely teach them this concept if I were in an older grade.
I really, really enjoyed doing different things with the google documents. I thought it was so fun to send out surveys to all our friends in class and then have them respond back with their opinion. I think kids would have such a fun time doing this. They could learn how to use this technology while getting to know their friends and their likes and dislikes at the same time. This could also be a really good tool if a child were writing a report and needed to get the opinions of a bunch of different people. Instead of having to go door to door, or ask people during school when the time might not be available, they could just do it over the internet and people could respond when they had time to. I'm really excited about this concept and excited to introduce it to my future students!