skip to main |
skip to sidebar
1. Inspiration is something that I would want to invest in for my classroom. I feel as though it can be used in so many ways in numerous content areas. It can be incorporated in any subject as a concept map, showing students what they have learned and what they will be learning as they continue to branch out. It can also be used to create quizzes for younger elementary levels since pictures are easy to incorporate. It can be used to show cycles and flow charts in science such as life cycles, animal hierarchy, and weather cycles. It can be used in social studies and writing/English to help organize ideas if the students are writing an essay. Inspiration can also be used to construct graphic organizers that can be easily manipulated if I were to create a tiered lesson plan.
2. My favorite Web Resources from class include United Streaming, 4teachers, and go2web20. I feel that these resources will make the classroom less traditional and ‘boring.’ Instead, these sites will incorporate technology that the students see on a daily basis now in the classroom. I also think that the resources on 4teachers will help make my life as a teacher easier because it helps provide ideas and help save time planning.
I think that I will use 4teachers and go2web20 the most when I become a teacher. 4teachers will help make my life easier and leave me more time to come up with more creative ideas to use in the classroom. With 4teachers I can create rubrics and quizzes easily which will be good because as an elementary school teacher I will have more projects than tests. I will also use go2web20 a lot because it gives me the opportunity to explore many new links that I would not have found if I did not have the site to lead me to them. For example, I found a great site that is a you-tube for children which is sponsored by child-friendly television shows and there are millions of videos on all content areas. They can be incorporated and used as reinforcements to lessons that I will teach.
Social bookmarking would be great to use in any classroom. Whether it is elementary or secondary, even college, it is a great way to share ideas and broaden the horizons of students.
As an elementary school teacher, it would benefit my students because I would be able to find interesting sites to use as reinforcements to lessons that I’m teaching that I could post on my page. I could direct the students to the site and they could access the information during class computer time, or even computer lab time. I would make it available for the parents as well to help their children with at home.
I think that social networking would be very beneficial for students at secondary and college level as well. Since that age group is able to navigate on the Internet without supervision, and they are responsible for writing papers and such, I think that if teachers have social networking sites set up with the material and appropriate websites and articles, the risk of inaccurate information decreases.
As an Albright student, and especially as an education major, I feel that social networking is a very useful and powerful tool. Within any of the majors offered here, there are many projects, papers, and research that need to be completed. If students log onto a social networking site they will have the opportunity to see other useful information others have found, as well as tag their own sites which could help out others.
It is important to evaluate websites prior to using them in the classroom or for research because one would not want to use an invalid, silly, or inaccurate website when he or she wants to be taken seriously. Websites can be made by any person and when they are made, there are no rules or laws stating that information put up on the website has to be true. This is especially important for research because those viewing your research will not take you seriously and anything you try to report again will not be considered reliable or trustworthy, your credibility will basically go out the window. I feel that for the most part, people do apply the evaluation techniques when they evaluate websites, whether they are intentionally or consciously evaluating. As intelligent college students with basic common sense and process skills, we are able to pick out the websites by briefly reading and looking at them to decide whether or not it is reliable. Since many of us were brought up with computers and internet access, we have learned through school as well as personal experience to decide if websites are reliable and true. In my classroom I liked the idea of taking computer lab time, or even a homework assignment of looking at websites, that I provide, and have the students fill out a chart on evaluating that site. This could even be used for assignments and projects, since I will be an elementary school teacher, I would provide a list of websites for research, and maybe even one that is not true and the students will have to figure out that that specific website should not be used. I would only do that after the students had a few months of practice in evaluating websites. The internet is such a power and useful tool to the majority of lives today, however it must be used correctly or it can be disastrous.
Blogs can be incorporated into classrooms in a variety of ways, especially with the technology that is available to most school districts today. Elementary schools have the opportunity to broaden the subject content that is taught on a daily basis in a technologically fun way.
One way this can be done is by having a homework help blog where students have until a certain time at night; let’s say 9:00 pm for elementary students, to write on the blog if there was a problem with the homework that was assigned. For example, if a student is in fourth grade and learning long division, and is confused on one of the problems, or even a concept, then he or she can write on the blog explaining how they tried to do the problem, or what part they do not understand.
The teacher will then, the next day, be able to help the student before the lesson, or at least anticipate that the student will not have that problem done. The teacher could also respond back to the blog, if it is seen early enough, and the student could then complete the assignment. If the blog is an open blog to all students, then other students could go online if they are also having problems and see if the question that he or she has is already asked and answered.
The advantages to using this technology in the classroom is that it open up a new world to some students, it makes learning fun, and with a homework help blog, students will feel more comfortable completing the assignments and asking questions about lessons.
One of the disadvantages of using this technology is if the school district is a lower economic district and the students do not have computer access. The library is an option, however, if the student is home alone while parents are working and cannot go to library, then they will not be able keep up with technological homework or a homework help blog.
Welcome to Amanda's Amazing Blog!
