WebQuest

Here is my WebQuest.

http://dev-ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:8565

Cameras and Photoshop

I love the idea of having cameras in a classroom.

It would really bring things to life.

And it was lots of fun to play with my picture and add different elements. I enjoyed it very much.

And I think for kids, it will be really fun and they will remember whatever activity we use with cameras, because it is so unique.

Here is my playing around with photoshop:
Before:

After:

Standards and Weblinks

Fifth Graders

___Standards___

Social Studies Standard 4:  Students will understand the 19th century was a time of incredible change for the United States, including geographic expansion, constitutional crisis, and economic growth

Educational Tech Standard 7:  Use telecommunications and on-line recourses to participate in collaborative problem-solving activities to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. 

Language Arts Standard 1:  Students develop language for the purpose of effectively communicating through speaking, viewing, and presenting.

___Web Links___

I found a lot of great websites for Ellis Island.  I found some good ones and I found some horrible ones.  Here are some of the good ones that I found.

Here is an interactive tour of Ellis Island

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/index.htm

I like this one, because it has pictures and captions for each of the pictures.  It is a good resource for students to see the pictures.  It is organized well and very brief to keep students' attention.

http://www.ellisisland.org/quizzes/quiz_a.asp

I really like this quiz.  It's just about the United States, and it would be cool for the students to take this and explain to students that immigrants had to pass this sometimes to live here.  And maybe use it as like, oh, you didn't make it.  And narrow down people.

http://www.ellisilsland.org/immexp/wseix_2_3.asp?

This website is cool.  It shows stories of six different immigrants and their personal stories.  If I have 6 different groups, I could have them each do one different person and they can present their story to the class. 

I found a lot of really cool websites.

Some other cool ones that I found are

http://www.history.com/content/ellisisland/timeline

http://www.ellisisland.org/photoalbums/ellis_island_photo_album.asp

WEBquest contd.

This is going to be for fifth graders.

Students will be able to read, write, and discuss the origins, history, and structure of Ellis Island.

Students will create journals, use the internet, work in groups, and present the information that they found to the class. 

WebQuests.

Webquests are pretty cool.  

For my webquest, I am thinking about doing one for fifth grade social studies.  

In the UEN core curriculum,

1. The 19th century. and the civil war and the underground railroad.  I think that it would be really cool to have the students be different roles in the webquest.  They can research different people in the underground railroad.  I'm still thinking, but they could also make a letter to someone, make a poster, and present the information they found to the class.  That's one of my ideas.  

2.  Another idea is similar to one that I saw while looking up webquests.  In the fifth curriculum, it also talks about different trails that they need to know Oregon, Mormon, California, and Spanish.  I think it would be really cool to do something like that.  Where each student in the group is part of a different trail.  They research it, write a letter or something, make a poster, and present to the class.  

Web Site Evaluation

Answers to some questions about the website evaluation.

Some of the websites that I visited:

www.westfield.alpine.k12.ut.us/school/welcome.html

www.pecentral.com
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/immigration.htm
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interact-math.htm

I love the interactive website. And at another website that I looked at, the Mount Logan Middle School website it has links to different interactive websites, which I enjoyed.

A. What Forms did you like/dislike? I like the ncsu evaluation form. I like the idea of a point system for evaluation. It makes it easier than just a yes/no question. It separated it into four categories: navigation & presentation, content, appropriateness, and scope & validity. And then it narrowed it down even more, asking more specific questions. Then it had the scale at the bottom. It was good. I didn't really like the school discovery one. It was really well organized, but I felt that some of the questions towards the end were irrelevant for a school website. They did not include many questions that they could have to evaluate school websites.

B. Were there any secrets you discovered by using an evaluation form?

I didn't really find any 'secrets' that I discovered. I did find things that I would not normally look at or look for, which is good. Normally, I would just skim through many of these things. I would not normally go through and consciously think about each of those aspects. It is nice to be aware.

C. What is the value of using a web site evaluation process?

I have found that oftentimes, I do all of this evaluating on my own. I am so used to checking the validity of websites that I do it automatically. For the most part, I find many of the evaluation forms tedious and common sense. Because I automatically check the spelling, check the links, think about the pictures, the purpose, the accuracy, the date. However, I may introduce this idea to my students, to understand how to check the validity of a website. Because kids just believe everything that they read on the internet.

D. Are there times that you would/would not use a formal evaluation?

There will be times that I will use formal evaluations. Maybe when I post a website on an information site, as a resource for parents, or have my students themselves evaluating different websites. However, on my own time and for my own resources and coming up with lesson plans, I will most likely not use a formal evaluation.

Microsoft Word/ Google Docs

These programs are both really cool. I am very familiar with Microsoft word, but I have never done much with Google docs. I am so glad that we learned about it. I loved the ways that you can send different things and easily update them. This will be nice to use in classrooms, from classroom to classroom. Other ways you can use this is during classtime between students. It also is a good way for students to get out of the class, and even the school and share ideas and stories with different people from all over the world. What a cool thing!

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are a good way not only to involve students in different activities and projects and collaborate with each other, but it can be used for teacher development as well. In my practicum, my teacher uses different resources to assess what students got what part of the tests or homework assignments. Spreadsheets would be a great way to see exactly where the students are and compare on what I as a teacher will need to go over again, or what individual students need help with what aspects of the lessons.

Collaborative Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is superstitious.  Black cats, walking under ladders, opening umbrellas inside, breaking mirrors all result in horrible events. Today while exiting my house I walked underneath a ladder, tripped over a black cat, popped my umbrella open, and fell on top of my living room mirror all at the same time! What a horrible way to start the day, and all before I had even finished my muffin for breakfast. What could possibly happen next? 

As I was driving along Main Street, I noticed someone exiting the bank with big black bags. I couldn't recognize the person because they were covered from head to toe in clothing. The person was oddly familiar, and the feeling that I recognized was not a good one. I screeched my Batmobile-also known as a 30 year old rusted Ford F-250 stick shift-to a halt. I squinted at the man across the street, knowing I had to take action. What was I going to do? I thought to myself. I decided to dial 9-1-1 on my cell phone. Hyperventilating, I pulled out my phone with my sweaty hands slipping and sliding, unable to dial any numbers.

Then the unexpected happened.  The man turned and looked at me just as my phone slipped to the floor of the truck.  Only on Friday the 13th could such unluckiness happen to me. He had taken in my face, I panicked and knew I had to do something. I jumped out of the truck and ran to tackle the man to the ground. As I ran, I slipped and fell on my face only to find my two front teeth were laying on the ground next to me. In the background I could hear sirens but I couldn't tell how far or close they were. I looked up in a panic and suddenly remembered the familiarity of the face. As I came to consciousness, I realized that the siren was my alarm and the face was my roommate trying to wake me up.

. . .Then I woke up and realized that Friday the 13th was over.  Finally Valentine's day had arrived. . .

Inst Tech: Valentines Story

Shared Valentines Story

Emma Mae woke up early only to groan out loud, realizing the all too familiar date: February 14. She always hated Valentine’s Day. It’s a Hallmark holiday. One that “celebrates” the
loneliness and sadness of poor old spinsters and cat ladies, or in other words, Emma. She has twelve cats, which are all black. She hated this holiday, why did she always have to make such a big deal over this one day? It is a forced love holiday that makes a person feel like crap if they don’t have something for the one they love. 

Today, Emma dressed for the day, all in black. She growled at everyone in the hall as they passed her. She hated the fact that she was even alive today. . .and then it happened. She saw Him. Her heart skipped a bit when she saw him walking down the hall, guitar in hand.

TECH lesson plan.

6th Grade Mathematics
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=22841

UEN Resources

I was never aware or knew about the UEN resources. It has many good ideas for lesson plans and just many ideas to use in a classroom. There are so many different resources that are available to teachers who use the site. Not only does it have lesson plans, but the main page has some new news to keep updated on educational issues and ideas . It also makes it really easy with the tools to not only create lesson plans but also rubrics. This will be beneficial when I am doing my lesson plan, because I'll be able to get ideas from the website.

Blogs.

Hello. Hello. Hello.
After looking at all of the education and classroom blogs, I can see how having a classroom blog will be very beneficial not only to my class, but to me as a teacher. By looking at other education and teacher blogs, I will be able to get ideas for my classroom. And by having a blog for my classroom, however it may turn out to be, my students will be able to understand technology a little better. They can see updates, communicate with each other and myself, and see and complete their assignments in a fun way. I'm excited to start using blogs as a future educator. :)