EDEL 3250-01

This week in technolgy we finally finished up our Webquest and filled out our peer evaluations along with our TCD's. I had a hard time with the Webquest, they were kind of confusing at first but I feel like know that we are done with them I feel a lot more comfortable and can use the many good uses for them in an elementary classroom atmosphere! I think they can be a very productive technology for young children or even students of all ages! We also moved onto digital stories! WOAH! Digial stories are awesome! The ones doc Waters showed to us in class where very fun, intense, eye opening and educational! They were also extremly entertaining! I think I am going to really enjoy creating a digital story with my group! However, I do think it is going to be interesting trying to learn how to use a video maker because it will be a first for me and my team.

From my little knowledge on digital stories I think that they will be very helpful in a classroom setting. I think they are a great tool to use as a hook to engage students in a subject you are going to be teaching or even a whole unit! I also think that the kids will LOVE them, if they are anything like the ones we viewed in class. I really liked how the music set such a intense fun mood in the classroom and kept your attention! I also liked all the deep interesting pictures, that is what makes a great digital story!

I think that learning to make a digital story will be a helful and useful thing in the future, as a teacher I can keep my lessons interesting my involving digial stories along with webquests in my lesson plans. I'm excited for the weeks to come to learn more about making digital stories!

EDEL 3250-01

This week in Doc Waters class we were gave the topic of how to become/ the process to become an educator for our blog. So far on my journey to become an educator its been pretty interesting. First of all, you have to finish up your associates degree along with a few pre-requisets that include classes such as: intro to education, exceptional students, math 2010, Childrens literature and the first computer class that Doc Waters teaches. After you finish up all that, then its on to the tough stuff! You are to take the Praxis II exam and pass that then also have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and pass a group interview to be selected into the Education program. Then you are assigned a cohort ( a four hour period that you will be attending school each day).

As you begin the program you go over so many things and start to realize how much it takes to actually become a teacher! There is so much to learn and practice in order to become a successful and great teacher. One thing we focus alot on is lesson plans. I'm sure it is because coming up with good lesson plans that fit the core curriculum is one of the most important things a teacher does. So we learn all the different ways to teach and all the different ways to design a lesson plan. We also learn about the different types of learners and how to accomodate to each type of learner so everyone gets a chance to learn the material they need to learn even if it is in their own unique way! Another thing we focus strongly on is classroom management, because it is important for everyone to feel safe and accepted in class. Technology is another strong focus in becoming an educator, because today's kids are growing up in a different world, they rely on technology and we as techers need to understand the importance of technology and learn how to incorporate it into our classroom. To become an educator we also need to focus on the other things we are learning like incorporating art methods into our teaching, social studies and also know about the foundations of american education!

The road to becoming an educator is a long yet fun, interesting and worth while ride! That is the process of becoming an educator up to my point in time, thus far! I'm really starting to realize how much I enjoy the career path I chose! I think one day when I become a teacher I will look back on everything and realize how much it was worth it!

EDEL 3250-01

This week in technology we continued going over the wonderful tool WebQuest! We went over how to post it on our google sites page and in our file canbinets. I think it is going to be fun a very useful thing on our sites page. I am glad that we are putting everything and creating our own google sites page because it will be so nice to refer back to and remember all the tools that we can use as soon as we finsih the program and get to start teaching, and even during our student teaching there is a lot of good ideas and technologies to use that we have put on our google sites. I like how with webQuest there is so much variety to choose from! No two webQuests will be the same because there is so many different ideas and ways to create a webQuest and also endless topics!

This week I was thinking how I could apply a webQuest into my other classes. I came to the realization that I could easily incorporate a webQuest into any curriculum! One idea i thought about that would be fun and educational was for social studies with the different houses the native americans built and the way they lived. We could take a tour through the village of the Native Americans and experience what it was like for them back in the day! I thought that a webquest would be a very successful and fun way to teach that topic. Not only would it be great to use in Social Studies but just about anyother class!

I really like the idea of using webQuest in the classroom, but i am still in the process of creating one! I am excited to learn more on the topic and the many ways it can be effective in the classroom!

ELED 3250-01

This week in Doc Waters class we continued working on our webquests! We began to focus on more of the steps and parts of a webquests since the week before we had gone over the ways we can use a webquest as a teacher and what a webquest really is. The first part of a webquest is an Introduction. An introduction, sets the stage and provides background information. It provides an overview of what type of question or subject the student will face in the certain webquest. It is often written as a scenario. The next part of a webquest is called the Task. The task is the part of the webquest that must be accomplished to successfully finish the webquest, It is what the students will be doing. Another part that can be used in webquest is refered to as an Information Source. These are sources needed for the student to complete the task. It gives links to use in order to complete the WebQuest. It's important that the sources used in the WebQuest meet the student's information needs. Not only will these help the student finish the task right but this also keeps the learner from wandering through the web unsupervised. The next part of a Webquest is the process. This is a description of the process the student goes through in accomplishing the task. It is broken down into clearly described steps. Guiding questions and directions also need to be used in order to have a successful webquest. Next in line, usually comes the evaluation. This usually involves the students evaluating themselves to see how well they did while participating in the webquest. Last but not least comes the conclusion, this is an overview of what the student learned from participating in the webquest it helps the student remember what they learned.

I think Webquests are a fun activity for students of all ages. They seem to teach a subject well and organized. It also is a great opportunity for students to work in groups and interact with one antoher. I know that I will at sometime in my future as a teacher incorporate webquests into my students lessons.

This week for the video portion of our blog i watched a youtube video on the water cycle. I think it would be a very useful video for an elementary school teacher because it went through the steps of how our water cycle works and I think that if the students had the chance to watch it, it would really help glue the concept in their heads. I remember learning about the water cycle in school but i didn't learn it to the point that i could know it exactly off the top of my head. I think it was a cute fun video for remembering it!