Friday, April 24, 2009
Podcasts
Friday, April 3, 2009
Webquest Educational Software
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Webquest Description
Friday, March 20, 2009
Webquests
Friday, March 6, 2009
Website Evaluations
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.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
How I Will Use Spreadsheets and Google Documents
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!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
How I Will Use Word Processing in my Classroom
I think it would be really cool to introduce collaborative writing to students. Students at the second grade level need a lot of practice reading and writing, so this would be a great activity to get a lot of practice in! I think they would have a blast doing this! Kids love to make up stories and talk about adventures they have had. This would be a great way to show kids how to work together, and come up with a story with their friends. I think I would have them do it in small groups, with maybe only 4 or 5 students in the computer lab at a time, or at least only 4 or 5 doing collaborative writing at a time. Kids at this age are still pretty egocentric, so this would be a fabulous way to kind of "force them" to work together. This would give them a chance to see how fun it is to work with other people and what can be accomplished when they do work together. They'll come up with so many different ideas than they would have, had they tried to write a story on their own. I really, really think kids would enjoy this so much, and it'd help them so much with their writing skills. I love doing activities with children when they have so much fun doing it, and don't even realize how much they are learning and gaining from the activity.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Bertha's Valentine Bash
"You are ugly and no one wants to give you a Valentine. Even Timmy the neighbor boy gave you a weird look when you gave him your handmade, doily backed Valentine," She said.
"Ugh! But why does he have to be so perfect? I've loved him for oh so long and all he ever does is look googely eyed at Helga down the street!"
"What does Helga have that I don't?, I guess I will just have to wear my pink retainer valentines day so he will look googely eyed at me!" " I can just see him now. He will look so cute in his overalls and his earmuffs. Oh, how I love his earmuffs. They make his eyes look even more googely. I don't know what could make me love him more...maybe if he had the courage to wear my pink, fuzzy earmuffs. As Bertha walked out the door, she knew what the day would have in store. She would get the courage to ask Timmy to be her Valentine and ask him to wear her pink, fuzzy earmuffs. Suddenly, she knew it was going to be a great day! I got to school and there he was... Oh so dreamy! The glare of the sun was reflecting off of his braces. What a HUNK! I felt for him like I have never felt for any other person. Well except my dog Duke! But still, it was love! As she arrived at school, she saw the telltale purple fuzzy earmuffs of Helga, her greatest enemy...on the head of her greatest love, Timmy! Fury welled up in her heart, and she knew vengance would be hers. "I WILL GET HER!!!" Bertha screamed in her heart. This would not be the last time they felt the fury of Bertha Barbara Baxter! She would get BOTH of them!! To be continued.....
Friday the 13th
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Lesson Plan #1
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=22834
=) Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
How I can use UEN resources in my classroom and for my first lesson plan
I think UEN will be a great resource to use in my classroom and for my first lesson plan. For my lesson plan, it's so convenient that the structure and the format of the lesson plan are already built into UEN. I love that you just have to fill it in as you go, and just create a lesson about a topic. I love technology for this exact reason, because it makes things we have to do as teachers so much easier.
I'm really excited to use Pioneer Library. I love that there are so many resources to use right there all together. I think the news websites and Preschool Pioneer will be the resources I will definitely use the most. I'm doing a duel major-Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education-so I know I will use the preschool resource. I really haven't had to develop a lot of in depth lesson plans, so I think this will help me so much while I'm learning how to create lesson plans.
I will use these same resources once I am a teacher and needing to find information in my classroom. I think it'll be so cool to continue to develop lesson plans. I think it'll motivate me to develop new, exciting lesson plans instead of always using the lessons plans that I've used the year before. I will also definitely use the Wimba classroom management chat feature. I always loved when we would have guest speakers in class. It just made the day more interesting and it broke up the monotony of the normal school day. Now, it's not even essential that the guest speaker is in the classroom, they can be anywhere in the world. I think this is so neat, and a very, very cool way to show children how advanced and global technology really is.