In Time Video Reflection

The video I watched, Habitats, was a third grade lesson where students created slide shows about a specific habitat. I really like this lesson and I think it is something I can incorporate into my third grade curriculum. The students not only learn about the habitat, but also create a new animal or plant that could survive in that environment (synthesizing information). This project is great in that it moves from basic knowledge up through Bloom's to synthesis. I also like how this project requires group collaboration, which I think my students do not get enough of. This project also forces me to let go and let the students be creative and independent which is really important.

I have never seen this website and it is definitely something I will be able to use in my classroom.

Week 3

This week we are exploring spreadsheets, evaluation software, lesson plan websites, as well reading about supporting creativity and problem solving in our students through technology enhanced activities. I really like the NetTrekker website and will use this to find new lesson plans that I can tweak to fit my needs. I've already had fun looking at a few spreadsheet activities that I can use with my fourth and fifth graders. My district has no set way to buy software, so I am using the evaluation forms to help nudge them in the right direction. Hopefully the new IT Director will put in a specific procedure for purchasing software. This week was much less stressful for me because I am very familiar with spreadsheets and I always look around on the Web to find lesson plans. I love this website for lesson plans (it was also mentioned in our text).

Awesome Website to Share

Here's a website I wanted to share with everyone: http://www.wordle.net

It's really fun and I think you could incorporate this into any subject area.

515 Week 2

This week we are exploring online, free word processors. I use word processing every single day in my teaching. (at right is one of students word processing today, in fact) I never realized there were so many available. I took time to use the three we were linked to and liked using all of them. I can see this as a valuable classroom tool. I particularly like Zoho Writer.

Along with exploring other word processors, we got to use other search engines this week. My eyes are open! I always use Google and now know that I’ve been missing a portion of the Web! I think that knowing this will help me teach students how to search better and more efficiently.

This week made me think a lot about collaboration and having students work together. I would really like to build a new project for later this year that incorporations collaboration using an online word processing program. This would be a new and interesting experience for my fifth graders.