Blog Journal 8

Web quest is an extremely helpful and efficient tool when it comes to teaching. Since my project is on more advanced material such as secondary science, a web quest would be very efficient in aiding the success my project has on a student’s ability to learn. Since we are teaching the students about genetics and punnett squares, a web quest could be great because it is very helpful to use real life scenarios when discussing genetics. Webquests can help the students take what they’ve learned about genetics and apply real life scenarios and begin role-playing to make learning the topics hands on. Webquests make learning more of a game than a chore.
A great example of a Web quest that I think would be most helpful in teaching students secondary science is the webquest entitled “The Science of Genetics.”

This webquest gets students focused and gets their brains working to learn about genetics.
New skills that I acquired last week were the skills I learned with excel. When I begin teaching I will need to be making many spreadsheets. The most important skill I learned was creating a grade book spreadsheet. The shortcuts we were taught is going to save me so much time and spare me of headaches!

Blog Journal 7

If you haven't already figured it out by browsing my previous blog entries, my favorite web-based learning tool is starfall. This website really helps young children to read by making it fun and interactive. The students can play a game and learn the basics of reading, for example letter sounds and working with small words. The website is fancy and colorful and seems to work extremely well with early childhood students. When I become a teacher I will use Excel for many fun activities. However, most importantly, I will be using excel on a day to day basis by using it as a gradebook. Excel is the most convenient and easy way to keep track of each and every one of my students' grades. In the classroom, I will create activities where the students can learn about excel as well. Since I will be teaching young students I will perform the functions of excel for them instead of them actually using the program themselves. I will have the students create their own survey and they will be instructed to go home and interview their family using the questions they came up with. In class, I will use excel to record all their results and we will compare their answers and I will make a pie chart to help them visualize the results.

Blog #6

My personal PowerPoint presentation followed the guidelines discussed in chapter 8 pretty accurately. However, I must admit, I don't think my presentation has met the "content" rule. My presentation was meant to be aimed toward the younger children so I tried to use younger language which took away from the content quality. My presentation's screen design meets the rules pretty closely. I made sure my slides were organized and aesthetically pleasing without overdoing it and making them too crowded.
I will integrate peripherals and non-computer based audio-technology in my classroom through creative videos aimed at teaching a lesson. All students love watching t.v. so how could they not love learning a new lesson from the t.v. It will keep them alert and interested in learning new material. Especially if the video is creatively made and taught in an interesting way. Kind of like the "Bill Nye" videos! I will use my videos with computer based technologies through displaying the videos on the big screen by playing them on the computer and projecting them on to the whiteboard.
I learned many new skills last week that I will be using very frequently in my classroom in the future. PowerPoint is a teacher's best friend and I learned everything PowerPoint has to offer. I can now incorporate more advanced details in my presentations and I'm very excited to start making presentations for my very own class and teaching my very own lessons!

POST #5

A website that I found to be very beneficial to elementary aged students is a website called Starfall. This website is very interactive and met the majority of the rules listed in Chapter Six with the exception of a few. This website made great use of organization to keep students on track and excited to learn. It also used many images and pretty colors to hold the audience’s attention. The website has a very organized method of teaching students in its ability to display headings and titles the students can click to take them forward. The one rule Starfall defied was Rule 16: Do Not Flash. The website uses a ton of flashing text, but I believe it is still okay because I think it uses the flashing text to its advantage. Elementary aged students enjoy the flashing text displayed by Starfall. Starfall is a great tool to use when teaching students to read. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Learn To Read.mht
I think using presentation software in the classroom is an effective way to teach students the material they need to be taught. Students love being in control, and giving them the opportunity to take your role as the “teacher” and make their own presentations will really help keep them engaged in the material. I also truly believe the best way to learn is to learn as if you are going to teach the material to somebody else. Giving students the opportunity to this will force them to master the material so that they may feel comfortable enough to make a presentation and teach others the material they’ve learned.
You could use PowerPoint to support student learning at each knowledge dimension by creating a slide show of steps to solving a problem. Each slide can display one step and provide further details of each step. I think PowerPoint is a great teaching tool. It keeps material simple and easy to understand instead of displaying a big jumble of steps it makes it simple and slow so the students may keep up.

Class Practice #1- Flow Chart

Blog Journal 4

Outlines, Idea Maps, and Storyboards are all extremely effective techniques in teaching students to write properly and effectively. When I become a teacher I will definitely put all these techniques to use through a variety of computer programs. To teach outlines I will stick with the standard Microsoft Word. I could even use the new techniques we learned in class to develop idea maps with Microsoft Word, however I may be interested in using a more advanced software, which I have found online. To create story boards and incorporate branching along the way I think I will look for software that is easy to use to teach my students those techniques. I will create the empty story boards and hand them each their own printout that they may use to fill in with their own personal ideas.
I strongly believe learning techniques like outlining, mapping, and story boarding is essential for a student to learn to write. It will help students stay on topic and it will help them get more organized with their writing. When given an essay prompt, a student can get overwhelmed with deciding what ideas to incorporate or how to even begin. Getting their ideas on paper in an organized fashion through brainstorm trees and then incorporating those ideas into an outline can help students feel less overwhelmed and place their ideas in the appropriate parts of the essay. It's crucial in keeping your writing organized.
Many of the new skills we learned last week will be extremely useful in incorporating these writing techniques in the classroom. Last week we learned to insert shapes in word, and through that we can insert a variety of different concept maps. We can insert bubbles, trees, boxes, everything you can think of to organize ideas. I will definitely put all these techniques to good use in the future teaching world!

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