My Dear Webquest!

So, I decided that WebQuests are actually a neat way to give students opportunities to use the internet in a way that will be helpful to them. It's a good way to show them that the internet can be used to find information - it at least gives them a taste of that.

Reflection:

a) What works best on my WebQuest? I really like that we can put videos on there. I think it is a good way to motivate and catch their interest. I think that the links that I put up are fairly easy to navigate.

b) What more would I do if I could? I would like to take the children on a Field Trip to the aquarium so that they could see the animals that they did their research on in person. I think that would be a great learning experience that would add to what they learned by doing the WebQuest.

c) The planning sheet helped me to get an idea of what I wanted to do and how I should organize it. The peer evaluation was really helpful. It was nice to get ideas from someone else in the class and she gave me some good suggestions.

d) What have I learned about the planning process? I learned that as the teacher I am responsible for making sure that my students have authentic experiences. I need to be the one that finds materials that will be helpful and relevant to them. I learned that a little bit of effort and work put in by me can go a long way for my students.

Oops!!

Well, I don't know how this happened... But I failed to do my Website Evaluation! So, I'm going to do that now.

It was really interesting for me to look through all the links that talked about different websites, and what to look for to check for authenticity. There is a lot that I probably wouldn't have thought of.

I decided to do my Website Evaluation on an article posted on the Smithsonian Website. It is about the Giant Squid and it is for young children to read. Here is some of the information that I've used, by using the different web site evaluation forms:

1. This page didn't have an author, but it did include the website where it came from and information on how to get ahold of them.

2. The publisher corresponds to the site.

3. It had a date: 2007, and it's linked to the Smithsonian

4. The page looks very organized and neat. The pictures and text are easy to see and read. Children would be able to navigate this page with ease.

5. There were no external links, but I was able to redirect back to the main webpage.

6. Sources are well documented. At the bottom of the page, there was a list of the sources - they were well documented.

7. The document page was also very non-biased. I read through the materials and it was very factual.

8. This page is linked into Google - I was able to find it by posting it into the subject header.

Overall, I think that this is a good website to use for children. I think that they put it together well and that they contain information that would be valid.

WebQuest Link

So, if anyone wants to view my WebQuest, here is the web address for it:
http://ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:12992.

Comic Life

For our class, we were able to learn about a program called Comic Life. It is a fun little program. The children are able to take pictures and then incorporate them into a comic strip. I think this is a good way to motivate children, since they love taking pictures and having pictures taken of them. It also incorporates literacy and technology into the classroom

Some ideas that I feel could go with this:
- A class story or book
- A class newspaper
- Spotlights on the children
- Informational guide for the children

Here are some of the things that I experimented with on Comic Life:

These are photos of different shapes found in our world!

Online Resources

So, today we talked about different resources that we will be able to use for children in the classroom. There were many different websites that we were able to look at.

For Social Studies, I found a fun website that goes through the Underground Railroad - http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/index.htm. The children go through each step and listen to a slave as he goes through how he came to escape slavery. This would go well with 5th grade standard 1: Students will understand how the exploration and colonization of North America transformed human history, Objective 3: Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities held by different groups of people during the colonial period, and indicator a: Compare the varying degrees of freedom held by different groups (e.g. American Indians, landowners, women, indentured servants, enslaved people).

http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/grade-5-place-values was a good review for students to use with place value. It goes through a series of questions, and the students have to figure out the number by using place value. This website had a lot of different resources and I think that there are many different ways that it will be able to be used in the future. This link would be good for 5th Grade Math Standard 1: Students will expand number sense to include integers and perform operations with whole numbers, simple fractions, and decimals, Objective 1: Represent whole numbers and decimals from thousandths to one billion, fractions, percents, integers, Indicator a: Read and write numbers in standard and expanded form.

There are a lot of websites out there. Sometimes it is hard to know which ones to use, but I feel like they give the students more practice and can be a lot of fun in the process.

WebQuests!!

Today I was able to learn about WebQuests and how they can be used in the classroom. I think that this is such a good idea! Children will love being able to work on computers to find their research, and there are so many different and fun activities that they can do as well. I feel like it is a good way to stay organized, and it helps the children follow and carry out instructions. We also live in a world that uses the internet for research and it is important for them to be exposed to it in a friendly and fun way.

For my WebQuest I am thinking that I would like to do something about creatures that live in the ocean. I think that I will focus it for the 2nd grade Language Arts and Science Core. I would use Science Standard 3, Objective 1, indicator c, which talks about creating pictures and stories about real animals and comparing them to stories about those same make-believe animals. I'd have to find animals that were in both real and make-believe stories. I would want the children to pick an animal that lives in the ocean, and research more about it: the area of the ocean they live in, what they eat, what they do, whether they are alone or in groups, etc.... They could also do Language Arts Standard 8, Objective b and creat an imaginative story about a day in the life of their animal. I'm still not exactly sure what I want to do with this... I guess it's a start??

Survey Says...?!

Today we talked about using spreadsheets in our classrooms. They can be great tools for the teachers. It is a great way to store data, whether it is grades, assignments, and pretty much any other thing that you can think of. That way, we could even make charts that would show where all our students are at, or who is falling behind. As far as participating with the class, you can take surveys with your students, make data charts, and all that good stuff. We did a chart with M & M's and the colors that people had in their packets. For the younger grades I wouldn't think that they would be able to use spreadsheets as much, but as the teacher you could still record data. With the older grades it would be a lot of fun :) I think there are a lot of positive ways that you could use these programs.

We also learned how to do surveys in google docs. This would be a fun activity for the kids! They can see what they like as opposed to their friends and any time that kids will love anything that they can do with technology.

Surveys are FUN! So you should take my FUN SuRvEy!!