April 8, 2009

This week we have been working on our Powerpoint lessons. I did my lesson on teaching kindergarteners how to care for the books in the classroom library. I think that this is a cool way to present something to students. For kindergarten, I think that it would be more of a presentation than an individual going through the Powerpoint, but I still think that it could be very useful. I did think that it was very time consuming, but if there is time to do it, I think that it is a cool idea. I did mine on caring for books because I think that is something very important for kindergarteners to be aware of. This Powerpoint could be shown at the beginning of the year when the classroom library will be introduced. It is important to allow students to practice the process of things that they are being taught. As I went through this slide show with students I would allow a few of them at a time to practice what we were talking about. I think that it is important to make lessons meaningful to them. This presentation would give them the responsibility of taking care of a part of the classroom, which I think is very important for students to feel as if they are responsible for something.

April 1, 2009

This week we have been working in Microsoft Excel. We learned how to make worksheets and the codes that can be entered so that when you type the answer the computer tells you if you are right or wrong. I thought this was an interesting activity. I think that it could be useful to use in a classroom, but the limitations of computers have to be taken into account. If a classroom had three or four computers in it, making these worksheets to be completed on the computer could be a great idea for a center. It is a good way for students to be able to work independently and be able to look at their answer and figure out why it is wrong and try again. This is also a great way to help them succeed. There is not a limit to how many times they can try a problem to get the right answer, and as the teacher, I would just be looking at the total points at the end. This gives them the chance to get all of them right even if they had to retry them a few times. This can be very effective for their learning, because they are not just being told the right answer, but they have the opportunity to try again to come up with the right answer. I think that this is effective for students in keeping the skills in their long term memory. It becomes more meaningful to them when they have worked to get the right answer.

March 25, 2009

This week we have been working on diagrams in Inspiration. I did my diagram on the five senses for a kindergarten class. I enjoyed working with Inspiration to make these diagrams. I think that these could be very useful in my classroom in the future. I think that it is good that we are learning many different ways to present information. I like having options on how to teach things to students, and the more fun the better. There are a lot of neat features to Inspiration that I liked using. Being able to add notes to some of the topics was nice, because you would be able to pull them out if necessary. I think that this would be a way to present information to students that would be very interesting to them. This can also serve as a way to introduce diagrams to them. After I showed this five senses diagram, I could have the students make their own diagrams about things that would fit into the five senses category. There are many other possibilities that could be done with the students after this diagram has been created.

March 9th, 2009

For the last three class periods, we have been working on iMovies. I did my movie on colors and shapes. I think that it would be a fun way to introduce colors and shapes to kindergarteners. I did shapes that were different colors, and if I was teaching this activity, the students would guess the color and the shape before the words actually came up. Near the end of the movie, I did shapes that they would see in their environment, such as a stop sign, dice, and buildings. One of the kindergarten math standards is for them to recognize 2-D shapes as the faces of 3-D objects in the environment. These pictures in the movie would help them to begin to notice and look for these things. I think that having the words on the movie after the shape is good too, because it shows the students what that word looks like and starts with. This can help them in their emerging literacy. I really enjoyed making this movie and adding in all of the transitions and sound. I think that this is something that I would use in my classroom. I think that this is a fun way to introduce a new subject area, or a great way to review for a test. Although it is time consuming, I think that it can be useful and fun in the classroom.

February 25, 2009

Today we worked with digital images. We worked on resizing them and making sure that they were saved as JPEG of GIFF. We had to make an album of 5 photos all of different media. We also used the Picasa Web Albums to put them all together. The pictures had to be no more than 3x3 and 72 dpi. I thought that this was a good activity to refresh about how to resize pictures in photoshop. It was also good to work with 5 different types of photos. I have always loved working with pictures, so this is something that I enjoy. I think that this could be useful in my teaching career because I would be able to make a Web Album of pictures of my students and share it with the parents. I also think that it is useful for if I want to use pictures in a powerpoint, either for teaching purposes or a presentation to parents. Here is the link to my web album. http://picasaweb.google.com/ssadler1027/DigitalImages486?feat=directlink

February 23, 2009

Today we finished up our lesson plans that we started last week. We had them peer-reviewed and turned them in. I thought that peer-reviewing the lesson plans was very helpful. It was interesting to read someone else's lesson plan and hear their ideas. It is interesting how different all of the plans can be. I liked the format that we used to write the lesson plans, because it helped in how to plan out the lesson. The format made me think through many specifics that I may not have thought through otherwise. I also thought that the format was helpful in reading another person's lesson plan because it helped to see all parts of the lesson and envision what would be going on. The format helped the writer to be very thorough in the plan. I think that it is hard to write a lesson plan in a class like this because it will not be implemented in a classroom any time soon. I also think that it is hard to think of a good lesson because there is not a specific group of students that you are thinking of when writing the lesson. I think that once I am a teacher it will be much easier to write lessons because I will know the students that I am working with and what kind of lesson fits their learning style best.

February 9, 2009

Today we worked with partners to create Webquests in wikis. I worked with another girl who is in ECE with me, Kelly Sauer. We did a science Webquest for second graders about the phases of the moon. This was interesting to make on a wiki, and different than just creating a Webquest like we did last week. I think that this lesson is something that I really would use with students if I end up teaching 2nd grade. I still think that Webquests are impractical for early childhood students because their access to computers is limited, as well as their skills in using computers. I do think that it is interesting and good to learn these things so that I have the option to use them when I do become a teacher. It was good to work together today with someone within my major to create a lesson that is realistic and could be used. I also think that using the wikis today was good because it gave some more practice on using the wikis which we still have to use for some other assignments. I think that practice is always good when learning a new skill so that it is not forgotten as easily.

WebQuests

Yesterday in Instructional Technology 486 we worked on creating WebQuests. I found them to be very interesting, and a great way to walk students through something that they are supposed to be doing. I found a lot of WebQuests that seemed like they would be a lot of fun for students and make that subject area interesting to them. I think that these can be useful in allowing students to take initiative over their learning and feel like they have some sort of control in it. I do think that there is a limit to WebQuests however. I think that in certain schools they would be great for the students to be able to work on outside of school, but the reality is that many students may not have access to computers. I think that this needs to be seriously thought about before assigning them to the students for homework. I think that if there is a school computer lab that would be available for the class to use during that lesson time to work on the WebQuests, that would be the best idea.
I worked with Ashley Cole to create a WebQuest for early elementary students for learning about different animals and their environments. It was a lot of fun to create, and I think that students would have a lot of fun with it. Here is the link to our WebQuest: http://questgarden.com/76/08/3/090202055507/

January 28, 2009

Today we began our instruction on wikis. It was fun to be able to edit the wikis and get everything set up on there. It was difficult that the page is locked every time someone else is editing it, and I think that some people's things got deleted. I am glad that we are learning about these things because I think that it will be very useful to be able to use wikis in the future. I do not think that I will be using wikis with my students seeing as they will be kindergartners, but I do think that the ability to create and maintain a wiki can come in handy. As a teacher, I think that I will use a wiki along with other teachers to post lesson plans or websites that can be helpful either for teaching, or for the children to use in the classroom. I think that this is a good way to share information that other teachers are getting and try new things in my own classroom. This was a good lesson to learn and I feel that I did learn a lot about wikis, and I will definitely use this information in my profession.

January 26, 2009

Today we began using Dreamweaver to make our own websites. I have never used Dreamweaver before and found it quite easy to use. I have made a website before, a long time ago, and used the HTML coding to do so. Dreamweaver is much easier to use. I like being able to see the changes that I am making on my website as I make them, rather than typing in a code and hoping it is the right thing.
I think that having this knowledge of Dreamweaver and how to create a website will be very applicable in my kindergarten or first grade classroom. I can create a home page for a classroom computer with appropriate links for the children to use. These links will go to different educational pages that the children will be able to do research on, and some of the links may be for some online games as well. I think that I would also like to create a website as a teacher for the parents of the children in my classroom. I would include important information each week for the parents as well as pictures of their children doing activities in the classroom. I would also like to include some links for them to visit with their children at home.
I think that Dreamweaver made me more comfortable with approaching the making of a website because of how easy to use it is. I enjoyed getting started on the website today, and am excited to continue adding to it!

This is my first blog for class.