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!

How I Will Use Word Processing in my Classroom

I think students should be taught the skills that go along with word processing at a very young age. Children are far more advanced in technology than they have ever been before. I think it's so smart to teach them while they're young, so they will be able to use it often and early on. Kids these days just have a knack for technology and they understand how to use it, and use it well. Right now, I would like to teach 2nd grade, and I would definitely have my second graders use word processing. I don't think I'd introduce it right at the beginning of the year, because one thing I do worry about with them using it would be that they could be lazy with their grammar and spelling. Kids need to learn how to spell and how to speak correctly, because they can't rely on a computer to do it for them all of the time.

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.

Bertha's Valentine Bash

This Valentine's Day stinks! Bertha yelled to herself in the mirror.
"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

Jake loved when Friday the 13th came around because he loved to play pranks on people. This Friday the 13th was going to be the best one yet, because he had a great prank up his sleeve. He had been scheming for months to make this day the happiest day of the year, for him. “Ha, Ha, Ha, someone is going to pay”, he said. All that was left was to gather up his friends Bill and Joe who had agreed to help. Sneaking out of the house, he stealthily climbed down the tree only to slip on the ice below, cracking his head hard and slipping into darkness. He awoke a minute later, and stumbled to his feet. He grabbed his banjo and headed down the road. Who was he trying to be this time? Oh, yeah! Banjo-Joe from the carnival! Those clowns were going to pay!

Lesson Plan #1

Here is the link to my Lesson Plan #1:

http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=22834

=) Enjoy!

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.

How I would use blogging in my classroom

I'm taking an Instructional Technology class for Elementary School teachers and one of our assignments was to create a blog and write weekly posts on it. I've never had a blog, or a Facebook account for that matter, so this could be interesting and definitely a learning process!

Our first assignment was how we might use blogging in our classroom. I think blogging could be a very effective tool that a teacher could use for a classroom. I would use a blog in my classroom to allow students to get feedback on their work, or post an assignment or project that they are especially proud of. Most elementary school students are very technological savvy, so why not teach them technology in school and help them become better at using it so they can use it for the rest of their life? I think that something like this would be so fun for children. They LOVE getting on the computer and playing around and learning new things. They love the idea that they get to play and use something that adults use, or that they've seen their older siblings use.

I also think a blog would be a good motivation for students to get their assignments and projects done. Instead of having "paper homework" like normal, they get to use the computer and do something different.

I think this would work to do a blog in a classroom, but the teacher would have to be very cautious about how they go about using it and how they teach the students to use it. Children don't think about safety, and that there might be people out there that want to hurt them. There would have to be a lot of instruction on keeping kids safe, and how they can post things about themselves and their school projects without really telling people too much about themselves or their family.