My Classroom Website

I created a classroom website. It was actually more difficult to do than I thought it would be. I like the idea of having a classroom website though. I think it will be useful and a great tool for communication with both parents and students. Next time I think I will have more freedom to design my website how I'd like it to look. The rules for this website were strict, and while I agree with the reasoning, I would appreciate being able to do what I want and designing the website how I think it should look and flow. I will use this tool in my classroom mainly as a means of communicating with parents.

iMovie

I created a virtual field trip of the San Diego Zoo using iMovie. This is the first time I have used iMovie like this. I found it surprisingly easy to use. The program was useful and the directions were clear. The most difficult part was finding music we were allowed to use. Next time I would like to try to use music that goes along with the theme of my movie better. I used music I found in the public domain, but next time I'd like to use 30 second clips of songs to see how I could play around with it and make it fit well. I think I would like to use this in my classroom. iMovie is easy to create and could be useful in making classroom videos as well as teaching topics. I did enjoy making this video and look forward to creating another one one day.

Excel Spreadsheet

I actually really did enjoy this activity. I have Excel on my own Mac laptop, but I rarely use it. I never knew logic statements could be used, so I was very impressed with the interactive spreadsheets. The instructions given were easy to follow for the most part. I got a little confused or had trouble finding things occasionally, but I was able to figure everything out eventually. Overall, this was a easy to use and useful activity. I think I will use it in my classroom often. It would be very good to use for quizzes and assessing students' knowledge on material. I especially like that these give immediate feedback and students are able to see their mistakes and learn from them right away.

Animoto

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Inspiration

We learned how to use Inspiration to create diagrams. I made a web diagram of a classification of organisms from the standard for fourth grade science. This was my first time ever using Inspiration, so it took a little while to get the hang of it. But after playing around for some time, I was able to figure everything out pretty easily. Really the only problem I ran into was locating specific items, but I was able to find them once I spent sometime trying things out. Also, it was difficult to fit it all into a space without scrolling, but after rearranging the information, I was able to make it fit. I think that next time I will able to do even better and make my web diagram faster and with more ease since I've experienced it before. I actually enjoyed making this. I feel like it would be a beneficial tool to use in my classroom. It would provide a way for students to view information in a new way. Maybe they would be able to comprehend the information more clearly in a web diagram than they would reading it in a textbook. If my students were older I think they would benefit from using Inspiration to create webs themselves.

Picasa Web Album

In class we went on a picture scavenger hunt. My group was looking for colors. We walked around campus and took pictures of all the different colors on our list. We shared pictures using a Picasa web slideshow and a Google presentation. The process of uploading and sharing pictures was fairly simple. I had never used either Picasa Web Albums or Google Presentation, so it took a little bit of getting used to and exploring to figure it out. Google Presentation was especially easy to learn to use because it is just like PowerPoint which I am very familiar with. The one problem I had was when I embedded it in my blog my teacher could not see it. So next time I would make sure and remember to change who can see it off of the private setting.
Both Picasa Web Albums and Google Presentation would be very useful in the classroom. If students were old enough and had computer skills, we could do a similar activity where they took pictures on a scavenger hunt, and then shared them. For younger students, teachers can make slideshows and web albums of concepts and lessons and use them while teaching. Having pictures as visual aids to accompany lessons could make it more interesting for students and allow them to see concepts in "real life."
I will definitely use both Picasa Web Albums and Google Presentations in my classroom.

Smilebox

Customize your own free invite card

I really enjoyed Smilebox. It was so easy to use and very fun to make. The whole process went well. I did not have a difficult time figuring out how to use it. I think it would be really fun to use this tool to invite parents to an end of year class party. I would include pictures of students throughout the year so they could see their child in the invitation. The kids would also enjoy seeing themselves as part of it. The only thing I would do differently next time is create it for an actual event and use pictures of people so it will be more personable and enjoyable.

Glogster

Delaney and I presented the Web 2.0 tool, Glogster ,to the class.
Glogster is an online tool that allows you to make virtual posters.
Delaney and I created the Glog embedded on this blog on the top of the page.
The creating of our Glog went well and Glogster is fairly easy to use. Sometimes it was hard to find specific items we wanted to add to our Glog. Some of the buttons were confusing, and it was repetitive having to apply and save every time we added a new thing to our Glog.
This tool is easy to use and would be beneficial in the classroom. Older elementary students would be able to use Glogster to create their own Glogs. They could create an "All About Me" glog, or use it to create a poster about a subject for a project. Teachers could also use glogs in the same way posters are used. They could be visual aids in teaching lessons or introducing new material.
I do not think I would change very much about our Glogster experience. It was challenging to figure out, but once we got the hang of it it went smoothly. I think next time we will be even better at making our glogs.

Picnik

Delicious

This is a screenshot of my Delicious account.

Wordle

This was not my first time using Wordle, however I learned things I didn't know this time. One of the things I learned is how to get two words to stay together once the Wordle is created. The site is incredible easy to use. It is fun, colorful, creative, and simple. Next time I think I would like to a speech or something more meaningful than just the words from one of my blog posts. I think this would be fun to use in the classroom to teach a lesson. I could type a bunch of information relating to a topic, for example, amphibians, into Wordle and repeat the most important ones, thus creating a stimulating, yet informative work for my students. It would also be fun to let students create "All About Me" Wordles in which they type in multiple times the things that are most important to them in their lives. Overall, I enjoyed using Wordle and look forward to using it again.

Evalutating a Website

I decided to evaluate Funbrain.
I was surprised to discover that evaluating it was more challenging than I thought it would be. A couple of the items were difficult to find, including the author and contact information. Other than this frustration at the beginning of the evaluation, the rest of it went fairly smoothly. Funbrain is both easy to navigate and attention grabbing. I was able to give positive answers to most of the questions on the list. I feel like anything that I had to fill in as a "no" was not necessarily a requirement in regards to this particular website. For example, there were not links to back up information, but the information provided by this website is elementary and not primarily focused on giving facts.
I appreciated evaluating the website because it encouraged me to look at websites differently than I ever have had to before. I now know how to analyze a source and determine if it is reliable and usable. I would use Funbrain in my classroom because I think children would enjoy learning and practicing skills in a new, unique way. As I said, it is easy to navigate and I think children who are old enough to have keyboard and computer skills would be able to use it on their own without too much assistance. It is an educational and would be appropriate to use in the classroom.
The only thing I would do differently next time is try to find a website where the author is clearly given. Other than that, I would not change anything. I will use this technique of website evaluation again in the future to decide whether or not a website is good for using in the classroom.    

Wikis

Last week we learned about Wikis in TPTE 486. Before these lessons I knew very little about Wikis. I had, of course, used Wikipedia before. Other than that, however, I did not even know such Wiki tools existed. The whole process of creating, editing, and publishing our class Wiki was surprisingly easy. I did not have any real problems with it, as it was all pretty easy to understand and figure out.

As for using Wikis in my classroom, I particularly like the ideas of creating a class encyclopedia, or going on virtual fieldtrips. My students could potentially create “About Me” pages like we did, but since I will probably be teaching lower elementary school, they will need some assistance in creating their own pages. Hopefully I will have some kind of aid in the classroom that can help the children create their page.

I think Wikis are useful tools that I will employ in my classroom more than once through the year.

If you would like to see our class Wiki please click here!

Welcome!

Welcome to my second blog! This blog will be used to document my experiences in my journey to become a teacher, particularly in my TPTE 486 class. I expect to learn how to use technology in new ways as well as ideas I can integrate into my own classroom one day. I hope that this blog serves as a way of keeping up with this new information as I learn throughout this semester. Enjoy!