webquest. PATTERNS.

The URL of your IA project Patterns In Our World Around Us:
http://ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:9154

geometry concepts through technology.

I really like this activity because it was a hands on learning assignment. We were able to use technology to bring in math concepts about shapes. I enjoyed being able to find shapes in my environment around me. I loved being able to partner up to take each others creative ideas to make into geometric shapes.

educational games.

Grade: 2nd
Standard 2: Students will recognize their role and responsibility in relation to their community.
Objective 2: Identify and examine cultural diversity within our community.
Website: http://history.org/kids/

I really enjoyed this software. Partially, because my family lives in Williamsburg. Therefore, I had some type of connection. I felt as though the ease of use was very easy. The games were easy to follow with good instructions. I loved the graphics. The website was very appealing. I feel as though this website could be helpful to all children second grade on up. I feel like this is the bench mark because many of the games and activities involve being able to read. Without knowing how to read, this website could become very frusterating to one. I think 2nd grade is perfect for this. They are beginning to gain a vocabulary and starting to learn about the relation to their community and the nation. This helps students identify and examine the different cultural diversity that can be found just here in the United States. I felt that all the games were appropriate. There is a variety which is a good thing. They had some art activities, actual games, and sites in which to learn more about the people of Colonial Williamsburg. For the older children, there are autobiographies and longer passages of who the people are. This shows how this educational website can be helpful to children amongst all levels.

learning objectives.

Learning Objectives:
1. Students will be able to recognize people in their community.
2. Students will realize why communities are important.
3. Students will gain knowledge of basic skills and traits the people in the community share.
4. Students will know why it is crucial to have a strong community.

Target: Kindergarten

Web Quest: The children will have an opportunity to learn more about the people around them in their community. They will learn about fire fighters, police officers, medical help (doctors, nurses...etc), clerk, mayor, and professors. The students will need to know who is involved in their communities and basic attributes of them to be able to at least recognize them. By having this background knowledge will help the children to build a project about a community member.

webQuests.

I really like the concept of webquests. It is a really great way to bring technology into the classroom and homes. If I were going to develop a webquest, I would produce one off of a project or problem. For my webquest project, I would like to develop a site that teaches kindergarteners more about their community and the people involved within it.

Standard II: Students will develop a snese of self in relation to families and community.
Objective 2: Identify important aspects of community and culture that strengthen relationships.
Indicator c. Describe resources in the community (e.g., police officer, firefighter, library, museum)

This webquest could be very interactive and make learning more fun! Webquests really motivate a child's learning and addresses their needs and interests!

[this is just an IDEA...]

website eval.

After using the different evaluations, this one was the most useful in my mind:
http://www.bv229.k12.ks.us/bvn_lmc/web_site_evaluation_form2.htm


a. I liked this form the best because it allows you to write in your own comments about the website you evaluated. In some of the others, it doesn't allow you to personalize it but only lets you check yes or no. If you are going to take the time to do an evaluation, make it worth while so that if you ever need to refer to it again, you would know exactly why you would or wouldn't use it.

b. I didn't find any hidden secrets in the websites I evaluated but I am sure there are many in others. Evaluations do allow you to discover these hidden bias. When you do find them, you can make a note of them in your evaluation form to remind you later.

c. Websites can be created by anyone, therefore I believe that it is crucial to follow an evaluation if the website is being provided to parents or students. The value of the website evaluation could be very helpful and useful in the future. Without some type of evaluation, the usefulness and critiques of the website will be forgotten.

d. Not every time would you use a formal evaluation because it takes time, and that is not something teachers have. Many times you can use your knowledge to gain a pretty good idea whether the website is a credible source or not. When you are providing the website to students, parents, faculty, or a community of people an evaluation should be done to make sure it is credible for them to use.

Evaluations I feel over all are beneficial but can also be time consuming. It is your best judgment when to feel one out or not!

graphs. surveys. SPREADSHEETS. tables.

The spreadsheet program on both Google and Excel are great ways to bring technology into the classroom. As for myself, early childhood aged children would have a difficult time creating a graph but they could plug the numbers in to see the graph or table develop. You could take a survey but have a teacher read to each child what the question asks. I believe this would also be a great way to better the parent involvement in your classroom. Setting up times for parent teacher conferences, parties, deciding about different choices could all be ways I would use spreadsheets to gather my data. For me as a teacher, spreadsheets is a great way to develop a grading system or a way to keep data all together. With spreadsheets it is easily seen and read. I hope to better educate myself even more about these programs and the parents and children I will be working with. If we all have a basic understanding of the programs, it could really benefit our classroom needs.

a motivational way to write.

Collaborative Writing Project: A great way to make students excited about writing and can be done between classrooms throughout the world. It is a way to get students to be motivational and work together to be creative.

WORD PROCESSING:

"Valentine’s Day is an overrated holiday. I have felt that way ever since I was sitting in my 7^th grade math class with nothing, as everyone else was receiving roses and singing candy grams. I never received one thing. This year I thought it would be the same old same old, why even bother with the holiday if it makes everyone depressed? I will never forget that day I received my first valentine. I expected today to be just like every other Valentine’s Day, but when I opened my locker there it was, a bright pink envelope. Inside of it there was a white powder, shortly after the whole school was on lock down, someone had tried to kill me. The anger boiled inside of me as I fumed over who the culprit of this evil plan might be. Was love really driving my supposed killer? No! At least not a love that I wanted to be a part of! I would find whoever did this to me, and they would pay!!! By pay I mean with real money, my rent was due two days ago. "

GOOGLE DOCS:

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 lying 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. . .

collaborative writing . word processing

Collaborative writing is when more than one person comes together to write something. Two great ways we can do this in our classrooms is through word processing and Google docs. Word processing and Google docs makes the collaborative writing easier for students to participate in. Word processing is becoming a norm throughout the school systems. Many assignments and projects are all word processed. By knowing how to work the program can make this easier for you and the teacher. The teacher can grade and make changes right on your processed document and send it back to you. You can see the changes that need to be made by marks that she made. Google docs was something I had heard of but never knew exactly what it was all about. I am amazed that there was such a program that I could have been using for years. Google docs is just like word processing but online. Google docs saves your documents within your account. This is a great way to save work and to know that if something happens to the computer or disk, your document is still online. For collaborative writing, you can invite others by emails to help add to your work, make changes, or give suggestions. This type of program targets students at more of an upper grade level in elementary than it does for preschool and kindergarteners. I doubt my students will get to use this much, but I sure would love to start. I will always be able to access documents- no matter what computer I am on. I like this idea!

lesson plan creator.uen

Lesson Plan: Kindergarten Language Arts

http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=22780

y.e.t.c.

The YETC is a Resource Center for the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. It has about 80 computers for students and staff to use, K-12 curriculum materials library, a NASA Resource Center as well as many collections of technology products. The YETC is a useful place for beginning teachers.

I hope to use many of the software programs we were shown such as Stellarium, "Phun", www.gutenberg.com (free books with out copyright), www.teachertube.com. All of these resources I felt were beneficial and something "extra" to have while teaching a subject. The ones I mentioned are just a few out of thousands that can be found on the internet or located in the YETC. I also liked the idea of the scanner. I could take old hard copies of lesson plans and such and make them PDF files. This could definitely help when space is always a problem in the classroom. I hope to use the YETC to make dvds of educational videos, to help me prepare myself for a technology portfolio and to start compiling materials that I hope will someday benefit me in my years of teaching.

Utah Education Network

The UEN website is a resourceful place for educators to go. Some things that I find useful are:

• Lesson Plan Tool: You can make lesson plans!
• Rubric Tool: You can easily make rubrics according to your requirements for the assignment
• Database of Articles (Online Library): You can easily research journals, newspapers etc. by databases provided on the website
• Storage: You can store documents that can be easily shared by students and parents.
• Core Curriculum: The Core Curriculum is provided online with also endless lesson plans that meet all the standards and objectives.
• Wimba Classroom: Allows for special visitors to visit the classroom through webcam rather than coming to the classroom.
  

All of these features are ones that I would use weekly to provide the best for my students. My favorite is the Wimba Clasroom. I think this tool could become very useful. It would provide my students with other opinions and to have a greater respect for knowledgeable people around the world. This would allow me to bring many visitors to the classroom with no financial means needed. I also like the online library. I would be able to find scholarly sources to read to my students and to keep me updated on new research. This website can become your best friend as a teacher, as long as you get to know it well.

blogging for success...

Technology is changing the world of education at a fast pace. Just since I was in elementary school the computer has become a necessity for classrooms and a must for teachers. Blogging is something new that has yet to hit all schools. I feel blogging is beneficial for me as a future teacher because it could save a lot of time. Instead of writing newsletters, I could blog about what is going on in the classroom, reminders for the next week, and fun activities to do with the children at home. It is what you make it. This would give parents a way to feel more involved in the classroom without actually being there. Communication with parents/guardians of the children in your classroom is key to success. Blogging motivates the children to write. We have to remember that the generations are changing and we need to keep up to date in order to prepare our students for what they need to know in the future!