Here is my Webquest :)

http://ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:13386

At first I tried to do my webquest on a webquest site, I thought that it was too complicated and confusing. I decided to use Instructional Architect instead. I thought that it was really easy to hyperlink the websites and I learned how to hyperlink Googledocs, I thought that that was cool. There were two things that I didn't like about AI was 1. the editing box I felt was too small, it should have been bigger to view it all. 2. There wasn't much background variety. If I had more time I would find a webquest site that is easy to use with more graphic varieties.

Digital Photography

I would use digital photography with older students. I don't think that they would be mature enough to handle digital cameras till the middle of 4th grade. I think that it would be fun and hands-on for the students for math. They could also take pictures of events or people that represent vocabulary words or spelling words they are learning.

Web applications for Math and Science

I looked through the web applications while keeping my 4th grade class in mind.

The Build a Prairie fits perfectly into their curriculum, as they are learning about habitats. The link to this is www.bellmuseum.org/distancelearning/prairie/build/ This would cover Standard 5 in Science

I found the perfect site for 4th grade math: http://www.uen.org/3-6interactives/math.shtml

This math site covers all standards that are required for 4th grade math.

In my 4th grade team the teachers teach a unit, test, and then do remediation for those who did not get 90% or above and then test those students again. I think that these two websites have games that would be great to have the 90% and above kids play while the others are being tested.

My 4th Grade Webquest

This is what I am thinking for my WebQuest. I think that I am going to do a day in the life of...for social studies. In 4th grade they learn about Utah history. I think I would do it four around 1860, a couple of years after the pioneers reached Utah. I want the students to be able to choose who they want to 'be'. I think that my options will be: mountain man, pioneer, and native american. I might even sub divide them with pioneer woman, pioneer man, Ute, Goshute, Shoshoni, Navajo, and Paiute. The students would click on the character they want to 'be' and read about them. For their project they can choose 3 out of 7 things to complete.

1. Write a daily schedule that you live by

2. Write about the foods you eat and what you need to eat them (ingredients, cookware)

3. Create your place of dwelling (this can be a drawing or a 3d replica)

4. Look up and write down 5 words that are in your 'lingo' or language. Define the words and write them in sentences.

5. Create a mini fashion show of your wardrobe throughout the year.

6. Draw a self portrait and write a mini biography

7. Write a story about what would happen if your 1860 self woke up and was in 2010.

Let me know what you think!!!

National Geographic for Kids

What I like about evaluating websites is that it does not take a long time to do! The Kathy Schrock's elementary school guide was fast and easy to fill out. I am sure that once I evaluated a couple of websites I could get the hang of what I was looking for. The other evaluation form was dry and boring.

The website I evaluated was http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

The website has big, easy buttons to press and there is always a button for the home page if the kids get lost. The website has different columns of information that are in bright, different colors. The website gives me the creeps because there are ants crawling across the page, but i'm sure the students will love that!

The only problem that I encountered on this website was that I could not find a handicap accessary area.

Spreadsheets

I will not be using spread sheets with my students, because they will be in the younger grades. I will however be using it for my grade book and for my personal class library inventory. I love spreadsheets for my personal use, I use them all the time. I think that it would be fun though, when they are learning about collecting data to have them conduct surveys and give me the results. I would then make the spread sheet for them and then show them the pie charts and explain the information to them.

Survey

Word Processing

I would like to use Google Docs in my classroom. Instead of buying a jump drive for all of my students, or having students keeping their assignments saved on one computer, I can have the students save all of their computer documents on the internet. With their documents being saved on line they can access them on home or anywhere they have internet access. I think that it also saves paper, which is also an added bonus.

I would prefer that my students do most of their brainstorming on paper though, because I don't want to lose the handwriting aspect of it and I can see how they got to where their paper is going.

Of course my students will be using computer programs for some of their paper, schools have been doing that since I was in first grade.

Copyright...DunDunDun

As a first grade teacher my students will be mostly doing reading, therefore they will be going through many books. Under the law of copyright I cannot go online and print multiple copies of a story that I find on line and keep them throughout the years. Also, if another teacher in the school has a book that I want for my classroom, I cannot just copy it and use it in my classroom. However, I can copy pages from my reading basil and the books in it to hand out to my students to read as long as it doesn't end up as a whole book that I am sending home with them.

As a teacher I also need to be teaching and modeling good copyright use and I need to abide by the laws. It would be out of line for me to burn a mix copy for every student of music we listened to throughout the year as a end of year gift.

YETC!!!

Wow we learned a lot today about what is available for teachers online! I would use a lot of the websites we visited to create or print worksheets for my classroom. Since I hope to be in the first grade classroom I don't think that my students will have as much time to spend on science since they need so much instruction in literacy. The science websites I would use during free-time or if they had indoor recess. I would have all the sites already pulled up and ready to use for the students. The reading, writing, spelling, etc. websites I would use during literacy centers and if I found math websites I would use them during centers as well.

UEN and Me

UEN to me is the fastest way to access state core and standards. Instead of taking my core handbook back and forth from school to home, I can hop on UEN at home and have easy access. I am very computer oriented, so it is easier for me to create a lesson plan on a computer rather than to write it out, I can type faster than I can write. Having lesson templates and lesson ideas would make it all the easier for me. One thing, I would always want to make sure that I am tweaking the lesson plans to fit my classroom, instead of copying and pasting.

Looking around UEN I have noticed that there are also places for teachers to bounce ideas off of each other and to get quick teaching tips.

I am also hoping that they have an area for how to incorporate technology into the classroom!

Blogging in my Classroom

I plan on teaching in the lower grades, 1-3. If I were to have a blog for my classroom it would just be weekly updates. I would put the blog address on a paper that would go home, it would most likely be a locked blog that they would have to sign in to see.

I think it would also be a good idea for each of the kids to have a section of the classroom blog that is theirs, where they could put up pictures of what they have done or post about their work. When there was free time in the class the students could get on a computer and look at or write on the classroom blog. Potentially I could print out the blog pages of my classroom and make books for each of the students at the end of the year. I would only use blogs in my classroom as updates and recreational use, not for school work. My students would be too young for that.