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!