Web Quests

WebQuests provide the opportunity for students to engage in an authentic activity using the World Wide Web. Throughout the use of WebQuests, students are able to engage themselves in real-life situations in their communities. Students use the Internet to solve a problem and come up with a way to incorporate the problem and solution in ther lives. The use of this project provides the opportunity for students to complete assignements that are out of the ordinary.

To have my students learn more about what a Web Quest is, I would have them explore the following cites.

http://www.webquest.org/index.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest

I created a WebQuest about stress management. I would have my students use this to learn how to manage stress. When we think about stress, we commonly view it as an adult problem and concept. We do not take the time to realize that children are also faced with stress daily. Completing my WebQuest would allow students to find appropriate ways to relieve that stress. My WebQuest was designed in mind to take place at the end of a unit and would be long term. The completion of my Quest would take several days. I will use this in the future and definitely believe my students will enjoy completing the entire assignment and task.

Week 3

Field is already over! I can't believe it has gone by so fast. So my technology lessons totally flopped. First of all, my school is virtually void of technology. I had a really hard time finding a time to go to one of the two computer labs that worked with my and the students' schedules. I had to take work off and come in earlier than usual. When I got there, my teacher let me know that the whole system crashed that morning and wouldn't be up for a couple days. This was the beginning of the week. I did my lesson without the computers and rescheduled a time for the computer lab, hoping the system would be fixed. I planned my lesson for a PowerPoint and came in early again. However, the system was still down and stayed that way for the rest of my experience. I racked my brain trying to find other ways I could incorporate technology. The only other technology my school had available were overhead projectors. Hopefully this'll be ok. I had the lessons all planned out and they would have worked wonderfully if the technology hadn't have been so stupid! I guess I should have scheduled a lesson earlier and forgot about chronological order, there was just no way to foresee this happening. Oh well!

Week 2

So far, I have taught three lessons. I am loving it! I have the best group of students. I am teaching about explorers and want to go in chronological order. I have done activities in the classroom for the first two and have reserved the computer lab for a WebQuest about Ferdinand Magellan. I think I am going to have the students make a PowerPoint presentation about one of the explorers for a final assessment. There isn't very much technology here, and so I can really only use the computer lab. I had a really hard time finding an open time to use the lab, too.
The other night I used my digital camera's macro shot to take pictures of primary sources about Cortes. The students thought they were pretty awesome. I am having fun and can't believe two weeks have already gone by.

Week 1

Today was the first day in my classroom. I noticed right away there is absolutely no technology in the room! There is one computer for the teacher and CD Player, that's it. This afternoon I mainly worked with reading students. It was a good way to get to know most of the students and see where they are as far as reading goes.
My first impression of the students was that they know exactly what the teacher expects. They almost seem afraid to misbehave. The teacher isn't too involved and only helps when necessary. He seems really intimidating, but is also fairly easy to work with. I am a little nervous to teach this group, but now that I have met the students, I can't wait to get to know them!

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling uses pictures, technology, and your own voice to make a living book. You can make a story about anything in the world! It can be a historical narrative, a fictional story, or a personal tale. With the use of a computer, microphone, Photostory, and pictures, the possibilities are almost endless!
Within the classroom setting, we could use digital storytelling for getting to know yous, reports, book reviews, almost anything. Students in the class can have a lot of fun working on something serious or entertaining. Digital Storytelling can be a lot of fun.
For my lesson, I would have my students study culture by researching and creating a digital story about how people around the world celebrate Christmas and the history behind it. I chose this topic because most students have personal interest in Christmas and some sort of history with it. This topic would be engaging and interesting. To help them learn how to get started, I would first have them visit these websites.
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling

http://http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/

I would use an example to show the students what goes into the story: voice, images, music, a hook, script, work. After that, we would make a story together so students can become familar with the technology. I would walk them through finding pictures, music, recording voice, everything they need to do to make a great story. I would assign certain areas of research and let my students work in partners.
I would also be sure to go over copyrights and make sure everyone made a works cited page. I would also have them decide how much of their story they would feel comfortable making available to the public.

My digital story was fun to make. Something that was hard was getting the voice to match the time of the pictures. I would recommend to my students that they figure out exactly what they want to say on their movie before they do anything. After that, they can find pictures and music that go with the script.
I would make another digital story again if I had to. My first story wasn't very personal to me, so I didn't like it very much. I would like to do my next story on something I really enjoy. That way, my audience will also enjoy it.

Halloween History

How much do you know about Halloween? Why do we carve pumpkins? Why are black cats and bats so scary around this time of year? Take a look at this Happy Halloween History Page and find out some of the reasons as to why we do and believe the things we do. Have fun!!

Welcome!

Summer is coming to an end and fall is in the air. We are coming to the beginning of an exciting year. Some of the things we get to explore this year include learning about our country, keeping ourselves healthy,speaking and listening, and even some math. Don't worry, we will have a blast while we learn and will be doing some fun activities! Be excited to come every day. We will all become friends very quickly. I can't wait!