This week in computer was very interesting! We learned about web Quest! I think web quest is a very useful tool! I know that is students use web quest correctly it will teach them so much! It also gets them so involved and focused. I think web quest is a fun way to get students working with technology and with each other. What is a webquest? A webquest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. Webquests are designed to use learners time well, to focus on using information instead of looking for it. A webquest typically includes the following elements: An Introduction, a presentation of the Task, a list of Resources, a step-by-step description of the Process, a form or rubric for Evaluation, and a Conclusion that summarizes what students have learned. WebQuests are designed to bring together the most effective instructional practices into one student activity which involves critical thinking, constructivism, cooperative learning, authentic assessment, and technology integration.

In the future when I become a teacher, I know I will use webquests in my classroom. I think they are a great fun way to have a student learn any subject. I also think the students will really enjoy them. You can use a webquest for any topic or in anyclass.

EDEL 3250-01

So this week we went over podcast and vidcasts. And it was cool for me, because I had NO CLUE what a podcast or a vidcast was before this. I think vidcast and podcast could be really helpful in my future class. You can post vidcast and podcasts on your classroom website so parents and students can just click and hear instructions for a certain assignment, or a list of some important things for a future school day! I think children would expecially like the idea of a podcast or a vidcast because how fun is it to see your teachers face on your computer or to hear her voice at home. Also it would be easy for younger children to follow intructions with a vidcast or podcast for instance maybe a kindergartener cause they might not know how to read yet so its easy for them to follow instructions with a visual or listening. We also are getting to create our own vid and pod casts in class in our groups, its fun using the new technology I have never seen or used. We are having fun and thinking of some creative ideas! And I am also so thankful we learned about googledocs cause it has been EXTREMLY useful during this semester being in the program!

This week in our other classes we went over different types of lesson plans! It is insane how many different ways there is to create a lesson plan from backwards to design to an inquiry lesson plan! I am excited to create my own lesson plans to use for our student teaching coming up sooner than later!

WOW! This weeks video really opened my eyes to blogging! Before I watched that video
I didn't realize how important blogging can be! All those reasons for blogging the video showed are really true! Blogs help kids, have a voice, share, create conversation and so much more! One thing that is really going to stick with me is when the movie said, "To prepare students for their Digital Futures" and that is so true! Everyday that passes more things rely on technology. I really enjoyed this video it stated a really good point! I think blogging is definatly a good thing to have in todays classrooms.

Blog #3 EDEL-01

This week in EDEL 3250 we learned about the presentation option in google. I Really like this option because it is more simple version of powerpoint. One big bonus it has over powerpoint is it saves it onto the site not onto the computer so you can access any of your presentations from any computer not just the one you created and saved it to! I think it will come in handy for me as a student and a teacher. I can create alot of presentations for my classes using it and one day as a teacher I can use it to present important information to my class. Also I think it will be a fun tool for my students to use. They can get the chance to research a topic to learn more about it and then use their knowedge and creativity into making a presentation. Another thing we went over in class was igoogle. I think igoogle will be a useful tool for me to stay organized and keep all my sites organized and simple onto one page. I want to experiement with it more to see all it has to offer when i get the chance!

In our other classes this week we also did a ton! To make it simple and summarize it up, we went over creating lesson plans a lot! We were taught how to make one for each subject and some of the many different ways we can do it. It made me a little nervous and stressed because lesson plans are new to me and I have yet to do one in my life. But we will be doing alot of them so hopefully it becomes easy for me! Expecially since its a HUGE part of being a teacher. Im excited about everything I have been learning its really opened my eyes the last few weeks!

This weeks video was a little different. It was about some different technologies for example blogger, wiki, podcasts and a few more. I thought it was educational because it broke down each one of them and gave a deep answer for what they were, however I didn't love it. I got a little lost in it and confused. I know it has the complete potential to be great but I think it needed dumbed down for me! But, I really did like the music and background like you were going through space :D

Blog #2 EDEL 3250-01

This week was a very interesting week. It was the first real week of the program and I have already learned so much! First of all in Doc Waters class I recieved a refresher on everything from a year ago when i took the first computer class from her, it was fun to see how much important stuff I really learned but forgotten. We went over Google Docs and how it works. Not only will it help me a ton throughout the program but also in the future when I am a teacher. In the program Google Docs will make it so much easier for me and the other girls when we are working in groups. We can all upload our part of the project into Google Docs so we can all give each other ideas and edit one another's work and put it all together. I also think it will come in handy when im a teacher because I can teach my students how to use it and it will work the same for them as it does for me. They can work eaiser in groups and view everyones work from any computer. They can also use the fun drawing techniques to make their work more creative I know they will expecially enjoy that since they are elementary aged children. I also love the idea of having our own google site! It makes it so easy to outline the class criteria not only for me as a teacher but easy for my students to view so there is less confusion on what is expected of them and they will have something to refer back to. I think the parents of my students would also love the idea of me as their child's teacher having a google site for the class. This way they can keep track of what their child is doing in school and how the class room functions.

In my other classes we also have went over a lot of useful stuff! In my psychology class we learned how the brain works and some fun facts that can help us with our students. In our Art methods we learned about all the different learners. A color stood for each kind of learner. It was fun to see what color each one of us was and it will be useful because we need to aply different learning ways into our teaching so every child has a chance to learn the way they learn best. In social studies we learned how to incorporate social studies into other subjects such as language arts because teachers are not always giving enough time for social studies and it is important so we can incorporate social studies into other subjects that way everything is covered. A fun fact i learned this week was that teachers that include art into their lessons, their students always test higher then the students of teachers who do not include art. I had a lot of fun this week in all my classes, im really starting to enjoy learning the ways to be a successful teacher in the future.

This weeks video cracked me up!! I thought it was so funny and fun to watch. It was on fractions and I think it would be a great beggining to a fraction lesson. It was very educational and even taught me a few things! I thought it was upbeat and funny, it really put a twist on learning fractions! I would definatly put this to use in my classroom!