Webquest Reflection

I really liked using webquest and I think that it is a great tool and program for teachers. I also believe that students will really enjoy doing these assignments using webquest. The thing that works really great about webquest is how easy and nice it is to be able to put the link right there and the students don't have to go searching all over the internet they can just go directly to what you want them to. Its also nice that on the webquest it tells you exactly what you need to write in each topic and that you are able to upload pictures. I wish that maybe I had a bit more time to make changes. You can always make something better and I would have liked to find a few more websites and actually try it out on some students to see if they would have enjoyed it. My peer evaluation went well and they liked it! I think that the planning sheet helped me to get started on an idea and concept for it. Also the peer evaluation helped so that I could improve my webquest. It was also nice to see other peoples webquest to get some other ideas and also to see our peers ideas and creativity. What I learned from the instructional planning process based on the completion of this project was that in order for this project to be successful and enjoyable you needed to really plan and put forth some effort in order to make this something that students would enjoy doing. It was good to have a planning sheet beforehand to get ideas going and to have a rough draft of what you wanted your webquest to be about. Overall I enjoyed doing this lesson plan!

WebQuest

http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=58749

Exploring Web Applications

I think that these web applications were really helpful and fun to explore. There were so many great websites and I know that I would be able to use many of them in my future teaching. Each of the websites were ones that I know students would find engaging and fun. They would also be great tools to have them review what we had discussed and learned in class and yet have fun playing the games and creating things for themselves.

I would like to target third grade students because that is the grade that I would like to teach someday.One website that I really enjoyed was called Mars Quest Online. On this website you could go to different topics that described Mars. It went through its specific features the volcanoes, canyons, and floods. You can also drive a rover on the planet and explore its many features. It also tells about the rovers that NASA has actually sent to Mars and shows pictures. I think that the students would really enjoy this website and have fun learning about this planet. After learning about the planet Mars with my students I would have the students be creative and come up with their own planet and describe its properties. Have them reflect on all of the properties that Mars had and make sure that they include all of them, but have them come up with their own. Have them be as creative as possible. The website was www.marsquestonline.org.

Another website that I really enjoyed was the Colonial Williamsburg website. I think that this website is great and it can really get students engaged and excited! I really could teach so many different history lessons from this but I think it would be fun to go over the lifestyle of the colonists and historical events that happened during the time period. There is a place on the website where you can explore the town and learn about the different people. I think it would be a fun website to visit after learning about this time period and let them explore and have fun!!

Website Evaluations!

I think that it is so important to not only educate your students but also yourself when it comes to identifying a safe website and one that is reliable with correct information. The Internet is so big and there are so many websites out there that it can be hard to distinguish a reliable website from one that is inaccurate and deceiving. By going through EduHound I wanted to find information on coral reefs and it took me to a website that was a coral reef watch and provided information, lesson plans, and various activities to do with your students.
The first evaluation I did was Kathy Schrock's and when going through the checklist to see if the website was reliable everything checked out. The website provided the date of when it was last modified, the authors emailing address and if I decided to go to another page there was a way for me to get back to where I originally was.
Then I decided to compare the website with another evaluation this time using the Purdue Library evaluation. When comparing the website with this evaluation everything seemed to check out as well. The website provided a personal biography and background information and also gave the name of the affiliation it was associated with the NESDIS. One thing that I really liked about the website was that it gave specific updates with activities and current research findings.
Once again I find it very important to educate ourselves and our students on how to identify a reliable website when searching on the Internet. The Internet is such an amazing tool for us to use. Once we learn the proper way to go about finding the information the possibilites are endless!!

Your opinion matters!

I think that it is important to know and be familiar with spreadsheets.

Although at times I tend to get intimidated by them I know that it will

benefit me in my teaching.It will be a great tool in putting grades in

and sorting and collecting data! I also enjoyed creating these

surveys and I also think this is something that my students would

enjoy doing. It would be fun for them to create their own survey and

then get the opinions of their fellow classmates!

All about Google Docs and Word Processing

Learning about Google Docs was really good because now I don't feel as intimidated by them! I think that they could be very beneficial in the classroom and personally I think it would be a great way to connect with the parents and let them check what is going on with our class in case their students aren't the best at getting papers home. All you need is there email addresses and you can keep them updated and also they can post any comments or concerns. I also like the idea of never having to carry around a flash drive because I lose things all the time. It is so nice that you can save it to an account and be able to access it anywhere that has the Internet!

We also discussed word processing and it is great for collaborative writing and I think the students would really enjoy being able to work with one another and share their ideas and to see each others creativity! I know that I like working in groups and with this kind of activity I think that the students would really enjoy creating a story together. I want to teach at the younger grades so I'm not sure how well this will work with them but if later I switch to teaching at the upper grades this is something that I would highly consider doing with my students.

I think that both of these will be great resources and will benefit me in the future with my classroom and also with my teaching!

Copyright

I thought today was really great because I learned a lot about copyright rules that I hadn't before. Normally I would find learning about copyright laws boring but Brian provided us with interesting links and case studies so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was good to go over the case studies because I could see myself making the same mistakes as some of those teachers. These case studies were simple mistakes that could really happen to anyone so its good that you learn and stay informed about the copyright rules so that you can protect yourself and also to respectfully give credit to the person that created what you are wanting to use.When our group discussed the case studies and if the person was at fault we were able to distinguish whether or not they had broken the copyright law. We decided that if you are unsure it is always better to ask for permission. Better to be safe than sorry!! Copyright laws are there to protect us not hinder us!

YETC is the place for me!!

I haven't been to the YETC since my freshman year and I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to go back and visit again. Nathan is amazing and is so helpful. What makes it so great is he is so excited about his job that it is so easy to go to him and ask for help. He showed us so many great tools and resources that we will be able to use while we are preparing to become teachers. He showed us many websites that I know I will use in the future. One of them was a spelling website that had the teacher type in spelling words that they wanted their students to be tested on and then it would give them a test. It would also give them different options of games to play that would help them study and prepare for the test. Nathan also showed us their video library and also told us that they have many Bill Nye, Magic School Bus, and Reading Rainbow episodes. I'm really excited to work with Nathan in the future and to use the endless resources provided by the YETC!!

I think that UEN will be a great tool for me to use in my teaching career. I like that they have sample lesson plans because I think that will help me when I am first teaching because to be honest I struggle with lesson plans right now. They have so many resources and one of my favorites is the Pioneer Library. Under that there are so many great links. It can take you to a Smithsonian's History Explorer site. There you can look at artifacts, see what is going on in the media, and look at several activities and lesson ideas for your classroom to do together. Another fun tool is emedia. You can search by grade and it will pull up several videos according to Utah Core area's. An example of this was I choose the 2nd grade to look at and it pulled up a video of a hippopotamus at the San Diego zoo, for grades 1-4th, and for the Utah Core it was listed under Science! So if you are learning about animals and want a little video clip to use in your lesson you can go and search for exactly what you need! I think that this will be a great tool and I am really excited to use this right now!

Blogs in Education

I think that blogs are a great idea in teaching!!I think that I would use my blog to keep parents updated on what is going on in our classroom. I would post about things that we are going over in the classroom and maybe discuss certain areas that as a class we could improve. I think it would be very helpful to talk about class goals and then parents would be able to stay updated on what is going on in their child's classroom. Also by staying updated they will be able to contribute to accomplishing certain class goals by not letting the learning stop at school, rather they will continue the teaching and learning in their own homes.

I think it would be fun to post about certain activities like art projects, field trips, and anything else that we do as a class. I would like to use it much like a journal in recording events and activities that happen. I know that you can have your blog pages printed off and made into a book and I think that would be fun for each child to have so they could reflect back on things they learned or experienced during that year. I think having a blog would be a great tool to keep parents informed and also something that we could work on together as a class.