WebQuest Reflection!

I was really excited to create a WebQuest. I think that this technology can be so useful in the classroom and can really engage students and let them explore and learn all on their own. I was sad that I was able to create this WebQuest, but that I would not be able to try it out and use it in the classroom. I hope I can remember it and use it later in my teaching career.

1. What works best about the WebQuest?

WebQuests I think are very engaging. It is a fun way for students to look at resources that are available to them to learn new information. It shows them that they can learn and research about unknown things and it can be fun.

2. What do I wish I could do to make this project even better?

Well if I could, I would apply this learning to the real world and let students experience learning through all their senses. Since my WebQuest has to do with Greek Mythology I would want to take my students to Greece or to a museum that could give them more background knowledge on the subject.

3. What value did the planning sheet and peer evaluation have for your project?

I think it was really beneficial to have a planning sheet. It really helped me to brainstorm and get started earlier on my WebQuest. The only negative part about it was that I felt like I had to have my WebQuest done before doing the planning sheet. Maybe if it just was not as intense. The peer evaluations were great because I could see what someone else thought about my WebQuest and I saw what I could improve on.

4. What have you learned about the instructional planning process based on the completion of this project?

I learned that instructional planning can take some time. I didn't realize how long this WebQuest would take to create. I think though that even though it may take some time to develop, you can reuse it in following years and it will save time in the long run in the classroom. It was a fun project to do.

Here is the link to my WebQuest if you would like to check it out!

www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=57187

Digital Photography!!

I think that it is such a great idea to take lots of pictures in the classroom throughout the school year! I have seen teachers who have taken pictures throughout the year and then made a scrapbook for each year they have taught. Living now in the technology age, we can easily take and post pictures online.

It would be important to inform parents and get permission to take pictures of their children. It will also be important that they are only used on a classroom blog, or something that is safe online. This will let parents see what is going on in the classroom. Children can also get excited and share what they are doing with their parents.

If you have resources to have cameras in the classroom, digital photography can also be used in lesson plans. This is a great way for students to discover how real world objects or things tie back into what they are learning in the classroom!

Here is the digital photo comicbook that we worked on in photoshop! This had to do with geometric shapes.

Web Application!!

Today in instructional technology, we learned about web applications. It was really fun to go searching for my own web applications that I could use in the classroom. It is really so surprising to me how many resources are available to teachers today! I love that I can look at the state core and go to different online resources and find interactive lesson ideas for any topic. It really helps make teaching more engaging for students.

The two web applications I found had to do with 6th grade math and science. I love working with the older grades and I found some really good websites. The first web application was:

http://mathforum.org/cgraph/cslope/

This web resource helps students learn and see about how you can create a graph from an equation by plugging in numbers into a function. Students can even try and make their own graph. I would incorporate this into a lesson after I had instructed students about graphs. Then I would let them explore this site and learn on their own. This covers standard 2 objective 1 in the math state core.

The next web application I found was:

http://www.amnh.org/ology/index.php?channel=astronomy#channel

I was really excited to find this website. This gives great activities and learning for anthropology, archeology, astronomy, and more. On this site, students can make their own observations and can learn about the phases of the moon. After students have learned about the moons phases from this website, they can complete a moon phase flipbook by observing the moon on their own. This covers Standard 1 Objective 1 in the science state core curriculum.

My Idea for an Awesome Webquest!

So this week in my instructional technology class, we learned about webquests. I am actually really excited to learn more about creating them. I think that these webquests will be a really fun way for students to research on their own and get engaged in their learning.

I really enjoy working with older students and grades. I decided to look at 6th grade language arts core since I am currently in a 6th grade language arts class for my practicum. I found ways to incorporate writing skills and some social studies into my webquest.

For my webquest, I want to do something with Rick Riordan's The Lightening Thief (sorry I don't know how to underline it). In my 6th grade class, the students had read this book all together at the beginning of the year. In my class, I would read this book with my students. For their webquest I would have them research about the different Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Greece (especially those mentioned in the book). Then my students would decide which God they would want to be their parent. They will then write an imaginative story where they are a hero at camp half-blood and write about how they are claimed by their parent.

I am excited to get working on this!

Evaluating Educational Websites.

I think that learning how to evaluate websites is a very critical thing to learn. Some websites may appear to hold valuable information, but may lead students astray in their search for knowledge. I think that if I ever have students go to websites to find information, I would want to first evaluate some websites and then let my students pick from the websites I have already evaluated.

The website I chose to evaluate was http://www.space-explorers.com/index.html. I am very curious about space and space exploration so I wanted to find something that I could use in the classroom. This site seemed to be a good site, so I decided to test it.

To initially test it's credibility, I evaluated it using Kathy Schrock's guide. The website seemed to answer all the questions she asked pretty well. The website had photographs that looked real. You could easily navigate back to the home page and the spelling all looked correct. I could also find when the website was last updated and when it was created. The only thing that I was uncertain about was finding information about the author. I was able to find ways to contact the company that created the website, but it was a little strange that they warned that you may have someone answer who represents another company.

Next, I decided to check the accessibility of the website using WAVE. It was a huge shock to me that I found that this website had 35 accessibility errors!

After evaluating this website through these two evaluating websites and devices, I decided that this website would not be a great choice for me as a teacher, or my students to use. While this website looks like it would be very beneficial and fun for students to use, it came up short in the evaluations.

Spreadsheets and my Awesome Survey!

I think that spreadsheets can be very beneficial in the classroom. I love that you can create charts, so that students can enter in their data that they have collected and see the results. They can enter in the numbers they have collected form their peers and then see how they are all related to each other as they appear in a graph!

I also love the survey application on google documents. I could create surveys periodically to get feedback from parents or students. I could ask them about how the parents feel their students are progressing or ask the students what they would prefer to learn in our next lessons. There are so many ways I could use these tools!

Here is the survey that I did for this class! Check it out so I can see the results!

Google Documents and Word Processing

All I can say is that technology can be really frustrating sometimes. For many of these applications, although they are awesome, they can be very frustrating to try and get to work. I had a lot of difficulty trying to get my google documents to work. After awhile, and once I figured it out, I can see the many benefits of it.

I think google documenting or using word processing can be a great way to get kids to work together and be creative with their writing. Often I think kids struggle with thinking up ideas to write about. When kids can work off of each others ideas or work as a group, I think they can get a start to their writing.

I want to teach 3rd grade or above. I really enjoy working with older kids and I can see how google documenting can help them. I think that they will understand how to use it better. You would have to be careful what kids are putting on their document. On this site, people can add whatever they want. They may not take it seriously and may just add silly things to other people's stories. To solve part of this problem you could maybe divid the class into groups and have one account that all the students use. This way you can monitor what your students are writing.

Copyrights!

This week in my instructional technology class I learned about copyrights and how important it is for teachers to be careful in how they use materials. I found it scary that if a teacher uses some sort of material wrongly they could be sued and even fired from their job. There acts could be seen as immoral.

There are so many laws and even though there is the idea of Fair Use, it is not very clear cut. Only the court can decide if your motives were consistent with the Fair Use law. In many instances, it may be best to simply buy material or ask permission just to be safe. There is so much information and material out there for teachers to use that it would be a waist not to use it. As teachers, we are able to use materials more easily because we are using it to benefit our students. It is still better to be safe than to be sorry.

YETC!

Today in my educational technology class, we learned about the many resources that are available from the YETC. I had been on a tour of the YETC, but today I think I learned so much more just how important and wonderful the YETC is. I didn't realize that there are so many resources available online for free. I really want to take advantage of as many of these things as I can.

I will definitely use many of the things we talked about today in my classroom. These resources will make learning so much more engaging for the students and a lot less boring. I really loved the ideas of the spellingcity, storylineonline, and stellarium. Spelling can now become fun and more engaging. Story time can be done through large pictures, read by celebrities that children are familiar with, and become more interactive. I am really excited about the stellarium because I am very interested in astronomy. This can be a great project or activity to do with students. I really enjoyed our tour of the YETC!

UEN! Great fun when it actually works!

So today in my educational technology we learned about and created an account on the UEN website. I think that this is going to be a great tool to use as an educator. I love that it has available so easy the core curriculum for each grade and different subjects. I also love all the videos and interactive activities that you can so easily access. Incorporating the UEN website into the classroom will allow students to be more engaged. This will really make teaching and planning lessons so much easier. There is now so much information and technologies and resources available to teachers. I am excited to explore and use it.

Education Assignment

So this is all very new to me. I have never had a blog before, nor have I had many experiences looking at other people's blogs. It is always crazy to me to see how technology and communication is continually changing and I sometimes feel that I am behind the times even when I was born in the computer generation.

So for my technology in education class, we had the assignment to create a blog. I think that blogs would potentially be very helpful to a classroom. I think especially blogs would allow parents to access student's missed or lost homework. It would also be a great way for parents to see what their child is doing in school and also make comments or questions for the teacher.

I think it would be very beneficial to have students have a daily journal that they can write on the classroom blog. This way they can not only see their own publication on a website, but they can also read and comment on their fellow students postings. I still think that traditional daily journals would be beneficial for students to practice their writing, especially handwriting skills. I would maybe have students once a week post a journal entry on the classroom blog. This way their stories or ideas can be posted for other students to see.