Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Final Project Blog # 5

This class has really opened my eyes to a grea tdeal of resources. I did not know there were so many things that you could create on the compute. I loved making the jeopardy game. I also thought the United Streaming was cool, I liked being able to download videos to go with different lessons. Alot of the things that we did in this class were new to me. I had never made my on website or created a blog. I saved a lot of sites that we used to my favorites list and will use them when I become a teacher.

Final Project Blog # 4

There are so many different websites available to teachers for resources. Here is a list of ten sites that I enjoyed the most.

1. Casa Notes @ http://casanotes.4teachers.org, I liked this site because it has all different forms and certificates already typed up so you can just print them off.

2. A to Z Teacher Stuff @ http://www.atozteacherstuff.com, this site has lots of different ideas for lesson plans, games, and different ideas for all kinds of themes.

3. Google Earth @ http://earth.google.com, I like this because it would be great to show the students what different places of the world look like.

4.The Teachers Corner @ http://www.teacherscorner.net , I like this site because you can print off useable worksheets.

5. Discovery Education @ http://school.discovery.com, this site has a cool curriculum center and a puzzle maker.

6. PBS Kids @ http://pbskids.org/games , this site is for the younger kids but is really neat. You can play games, listen to music, and color pictures.

7. Scholastic @ http://www.scholastic.com, this site has lots of different books to look at and you have the option to buy books.

8. Games for Kindergarten @ http://www.wacona.com/kindergartengames/kindergartengames.html, this site has different games that children can play and learn about all different areas like: colors, shapes, alphabet, and patterns.

9.100th Day of School @ http://users.aol.com/a100thday/ideas.html, I like this site because in the kindergarten classes the 100th day is a fun day and this site has lots of good ideas and activities for the 100th day of school.

10. Seussville @ http://seussville.com, I like this site alot everyone has read at least one Dr. Seuss book in their life and this site is excellent for rhyming and for kids to play games on.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Final Project Blog # 3

ALTEC.ORG is a very neat site. It is very organized. I like the 4kids.org. The word frog game is really fun. I think kids of all levels would like this site. I also like the CASA Notes. I think I will use this site alot. the notes to send home to parents would come in very handy for field trips. You wouldn't have to type up your own letter you can just use theirs. I also like the awards that they have made up to give to the kids. I am going to save this site to my faviorites list.

Final Project Blog # 2

The Apple Learning Interchange was a great site. I like how you can do research , listen to podcasts, and even find lesson plans on this site. I shared this with a teacher at my daughter's schiool and she had not heard of it, she said she would research it. From what I had told her about this site she said that it sounds like a good site to use for resources.

Final project Blog # 1

The article on National Education Technology Plan was about getting more technology into schools. I think that we do need more technology in our schools. But, more importantly we need teachers who know what they are doing, when it comes to technology. I have talked with several teachers that say they were scared to teach their class new programs on the computer because they did not know how to fully use the program.

Adopt and Adapt another very good article that says we continue doing things the old way instead of trying to do things a new way. It is stated that if we offered students more technology in the classroom, they would pass the standard tests alot faster and with higher scores. I completley agree with this, maybe if we can show a child how something works instead of lecturing about it, the child will have a better understanding of how things work and will be more enthusiastic to learn.

The article HighSchool.com is about high school students taking classes over the internet instead of being in class. I have found that for myself I like being able to work my classes into my schedule instead of putting my schedule around my classes. There are a few downsides to the virtual classes, but they seem to work really well. I could not believe that there are 300,000 or more students in high school that are taking virtual classes and that 25% of K-12 public schools offer some form of virtual classes.

I could not find the article that was to be read at USA Today.