This week we looked at search engines for educators. I find it really important to have different search engines to use in the education world because there is so much on the Internet that is inappropriate for students to see. Having a safe outlet for students to use is important.
The 12 search engines we had to look at were great. I like how academicinfo listed topics from A to Z and that directory includes printed work as well as electronic. Archival Research Catalog and Library of Congress is a great tool to use for social studies research. It also includes teacher resources! The scholarly search engines are very useful and I know I will be using them in my own education. Infotopia is my favorite search engine because you could pick a topic like Science or Math and narrow results even more.
The one thing this list was lacking was search engines appropriate for younger children. Being Childhood certified I was hoping to find a search engine where the information was given at a younger reading level. I think it is important that students start learning how to search for credible sources at a young age so being able to use the computer would help greatly with that. Having results at lower reading levels can help include all students that have different reading abilities.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Web Based Tools Tryout
I had a great time this week working on the examples of web based tools! It really makes you realize how cool these tools can be and how great they would be for the classroom. They were all very simple to use and can be implemented into a classroom easily.
The first tool I used was Animoto. I made a simple 30 second clip at first and fell in love. It was so cool seeing pictures in that video form. Its a lot more entertaining then using a windows movie maker to create a video out of pictures. I then signed up for an educators account which gave me the capabilities of making a longer video. I decided to make a video on my cross country trip I took this past summer with my three best friends. I thought that this was a good video to make because it shows one way that this could be used in the classroom. When there is a spotlight student of the week, instead of students bringing in a few pictures, which is sometimes uncommon with photos being digital now, they could make a video about a certain time in his or her life. There is a variety of other ways that this web based tool could be used in the classroom and this is just one example. Animoto
The next tool I tried was Wordle. Wordle is a great tool for vocabulary words, analyzing a character of a story or even a historical figure. For my example, I stayed with the theme of describing myself. This could be used the first week of school for students to hang around the room. They can choose words that they think describe themselves then can present them to the class.
The first tool I used was Animoto. I made a simple 30 second clip at first and fell in love. It was so cool seeing pictures in that video form. Its a lot more entertaining then using a windows movie maker to create a video out of pictures. I then signed up for an educators account which gave me the capabilities of making a longer video. I decided to make a video on my cross country trip I took this past summer with my three best friends. I thought that this was a good video to make because it shows one way that this could be used in the classroom. When there is a spotlight student of the week, instead of students bringing in a few pictures, which is sometimes uncommon with photos being digital now, they could make a video about a certain time in his or her life. There is a variety of other ways that this web based tool could be used in the classroom and this is just one example. Animoto
The next tool I tried was Wordle. Wordle is a great tool for vocabulary words, analyzing a character of a story or even a historical figure. For my example, I stayed with the theme of describing myself. This could be used the first week of school for students to hang around the room. They can choose words that they think describe themselves then can present them to the class.
Last was VoiceThread. This was the web based tool that was the hardest for me. VoiceThread would be a great way for students to work on a project if they are all not in one place together or doing it at the same time. This would also be a great way to get responses on some sort of piece that the class could have a discussion on, maybe a poem or picture. I do not know if it was my computer but the uploading of files was very slow when I tried to add pictures. I also was not able to put any voice comments into it because of my computer. When completely the VoiceThread I noticed that the doodling tool was not as great as I thought it was. Doodles that I canceled or from other slides would show up. Although this is a great tool I think students would need to be pretty experienced with computers to be able to use it without guidance from the teacher. VoiceThread
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Finding Access to be a Keeper!
Usually when I look at the list of Microsoft Office applications, I usually click on Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or Publisher. I have never thought about exploring the other programs or even had a clue what they did. I was excited to give Access a try and was pleasantly surprised with it.
This week's assignment was actually pretty challenging for me. I first wanted to learn what Microsoft Access was and how it is used. When I was looking into it, I thought it seemed similar to Excel and did not understand what the difference between the two. I went through the tutorials and started to learn more about the program. I thought I had a good handle on how to use it but once I began the assignment, I got a little lost. I walked through the assignment with the tutorial as a guide. I slowly started to make progress on it. But then it came to the queries and I was lost again. The first query we were asked to make wanted us to only show presents over the price of $40.00. I searched through the tutorials to find something to help me and played around for awhile before I realized I was stuck. Finally I used the Microsoft Help and found an article that explained all the different criteria you could use. After I figured this out I flew through the assignment.
I quickly fell in love with Access. This program could be so useful for teachers. This would be a great way for teachers to track students progress. Special Education teachers could use this to track students' goals to see if they have met it. Being able to draw the information you need out of these tables can really be useful for teachers. When grouping students by skill level you can figure out which students grades are averaged above a 90 or below a 60. I really think that Access will be very helpful to me as a teacher!
This week's assignment was actually pretty challenging for me. I first wanted to learn what Microsoft Access was and how it is used. When I was looking into it, I thought it seemed similar to Excel and did not understand what the difference between the two. I went through the tutorials and started to learn more about the program. I thought I had a good handle on how to use it but once I began the assignment, I got a little lost. I walked through the assignment with the tutorial as a guide. I slowly started to make progress on it. But then it came to the queries and I was lost again. The first query we were asked to make wanted us to only show presents over the price of $40.00. I searched through the tutorials to find something to help me and played around for awhile before I realized I was stuck. Finally I used the Microsoft Help and found an article that explained all the different criteria you could use. After I figured this out I flew through the assignment.
I quickly fell in love with Access. This program could be so useful for teachers. This would be a great way for teachers to track students progress. Special Education teachers could use this to track students' goals to see if they have met it. Being able to draw the information you need out of these tables can really be useful for teachers. When grouping students by skill level you can figure out which students grades are averaged above a 90 or below a 60. I really think that Access will be very helpful to me as a teacher!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Web Based Tools Part 2
After last week, I was excited to find even more web based tools that I could use in my classroom. I liked how this list was organized by activities. This will be helpful for future reference when there is a specific activity I am interested in doing with my class, I can come back to this site and find a tool easily.
The first activity I found interesting was the time lines. This section had multiple web based tools that would be very helpful in the classroom. I found the website, Timetoast timeline, to be the best. I liked this website the best because it was very user friendly. It was really easy to make a timeline using this site. The free account only allows one user to work on the timeline but the more advanced accounts allow multiple users to work on it. This would be great for working in groups on a project. The tool allows the user to add events which includes pictures and description, great for making time lines for historical events.
The web tool Chatzy was another that I found intriguing. Students always have questions at home about homework or projects and they do not always have a way of asking the teacher. Chatzy is a private chat room that can be created by the teacher. It would be a great way for students to talk about projects together after school hours. The great thing is that it is private and a teacher could easily monitor it.
I think my favorite web tool on the whole list is ePals Global Community. Teachers from all around the world can look for other classrooms to connect with virtually or even to become pen pals with. A Spanish teacher in the US could search for classes from Spanish speaking countries and even by age so that the students can be communicating with peers. It is a simple way to become connected with people from all over. They have some great resources for teachers as well.
The last tool I found to be really great is Sweet Search. This is a search engine designed for students. It searches websites and articles for the words you searched for and yields many more results than google seems to do. I searched a simple statement like "animals" and found a great assortment of information that involved animals in some way.
I think it is great that people have created these lists of resources on the web because without it, many people would never find these tools. So many of them can easily be used in the classroom, making it more effective or more interactive. I know that I will be bookmarking these lists to come back to in the future!
The first activity I found interesting was the time lines. This section had multiple web based tools that would be very helpful in the classroom. I found the website, Timetoast timeline, to be the best. I liked this website the best because it was very user friendly. It was really easy to make a timeline using this site. The free account only allows one user to work on the timeline but the more advanced accounts allow multiple users to work on it. This would be great for working in groups on a project. The tool allows the user to add events which includes pictures and description, great for making time lines for historical events.
The web tool Chatzy was another that I found intriguing. Students always have questions at home about homework or projects and they do not always have a way of asking the teacher. Chatzy is a private chat room that can be created by the teacher. It would be a great way for students to talk about projects together after school hours. The great thing is that it is private and a teacher could easily monitor it.
I think my favorite web tool on the whole list is ePals Global Community. Teachers from all around the world can look for other classrooms to connect with virtually or even to become pen pals with. A Spanish teacher in the US could search for classes from Spanish speaking countries and even by age so that the students can be communicating with peers. It is a simple way to become connected with people from all over. They have some great resources for teachers as well.
The last tool I found to be really great is Sweet Search. This is a search engine designed for students. It searches websites and articles for the words you searched for and yields many more results than google seems to do. I searched a simple statement like "animals" and found a great assortment of information that involved animals in some way.
I think it is great that people have created these lists of resources on the web because without it, many people would never find these tools. So many of them can easily be used in the classroom, making it more effective or more interactive. I know that I will be bookmarking these lists to come back to in the future!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
The Hidden Gems of Web 2.0
Who knew that there was so many resources out there for using Web 2.0 in the classroom?! When I previously thought about it I only considered the really popular tools that are out there and did not even know about most of the ones on this list. This week I really took my time to go through this list and familiarize myself with these tools. We are only suppose to blog about five new tools but I could have written about most of them!
Poll Everywhere- This tool can so easily be implemented into a classroom and used all the time. Teachers are all about informal assessments but sometimes it can be tricky to do it and get accurate information. Tickets out the door can sometimes be time consuming when you need to move students onto the next lesson or a special. Poll Everywhere is a great tool to solve that problem. When ever you wanted to get your students feed back you can create a poll and students can respond. The teacher would get the results instantly. There are some downfalls to this tool for a classroom. Not all students are going to have cellphones to use especially in younger grades. You could always use computers but getting every student a computer may not be available in your school or even more time consuming. If a teacher has the resources like a class set of iPads then this tool would work really well!
Edmodo- This is a great site for teachers that are nervous about using Facebook in their classroom. Set up very similarly to Facebook but is geared to education. I signed up for an account so that I could get the inside scoop. It is really cool that educators can post to each other asking for advice and ideas. You can also create a classroom for your students. You are given a code that you hand out to your students. Once they join the group you lock it so no one else can see it or join. This privacy is one of the great things about Edmodo. Unlike Facebook you can really control the privacy so you know that students are safely interacting in your group. Once in the group you can share files, create assignments for your students, give students quizzes, and poll students. This is a great tool but again the lack of resources like computers in your school or availability of computers to students outside of school come into play.
Wordle- This is a great Web 2.0 tool to have some fun in the classroom. This would be a great beginning of the school year project for students to get to know each other. Students would write words that have to do with themselves then put it in Wordle and have a cool image to show to the class. This would also be a great way to do character studies, vocab words, and a variety of things in the classroom.
Typing Adventure- With classroom time getting limited and keyboarding now included in Common Core this is a great way for teachers to have students practice their keyboarding. After they finish work, during computer time, when they have free time students can go on Typing Adventure and practice. Making sure that all students are getting on this tool and actually doing the practice is what teachers would have to monitor.
ClassDojo- This is a great tool for teacher, parents and students. It is a way for teachers to manage their students right during class. As students are working or a teacher is teaching a lesson, the teacher can reward the students with points based on their behavior. The teacher can take attendance, they can give points for a variety of things as well as take away points. Although I am not the biggest fan of point systems in the classroom but this is a great way for teachers to communicate with parents about student behavior. Parents can have an account and log on to check their son or daughters behavior. I think ClassDojo could be a great addition to a teacher's classroom management plan, maybe not the only part of it but it could be a great asset.
I could go on for days about all the different tools on this list. I emailed it to most of my teacher friends so that they know about all the great tools that are out there on the Internet.
Poll Everywhere- This tool can so easily be implemented into a classroom and used all the time. Teachers are all about informal assessments but sometimes it can be tricky to do it and get accurate information. Tickets out the door can sometimes be time consuming when you need to move students onto the next lesson or a special. Poll Everywhere is a great tool to solve that problem. When ever you wanted to get your students feed back you can create a poll and students can respond. The teacher would get the results instantly. There are some downfalls to this tool for a classroom. Not all students are going to have cellphones to use especially in younger grades. You could always use computers but getting every student a computer may not be available in your school or even more time consuming. If a teacher has the resources like a class set of iPads then this tool would work really well!
Edmodo- This is a great site for teachers that are nervous about using Facebook in their classroom. Set up very similarly to Facebook but is geared to education. I signed up for an account so that I could get the inside scoop. It is really cool that educators can post to each other asking for advice and ideas. You can also create a classroom for your students. You are given a code that you hand out to your students. Once they join the group you lock it so no one else can see it or join. This privacy is one of the great things about Edmodo. Unlike Facebook you can really control the privacy so you know that students are safely interacting in your group. Once in the group you can share files, create assignments for your students, give students quizzes, and poll students. This is a great tool but again the lack of resources like computers in your school or availability of computers to students outside of school come into play.
Wordle- This is a great Web 2.0 tool to have some fun in the classroom. This would be a great beginning of the school year project for students to get to know each other. Students would write words that have to do with themselves then put it in Wordle and have a cool image to show to the class. This would also be a great way to do character studies, vocab words, and a variety of things in the classroom.
Typing Adventure- With classroom time getting limited and keyboarding now included in Common Core this is a great way for teachers to have students practice their keyboarding. After they finish work, during computer time, when they have free time students can go on Typing Adventure and practice. Making sure that all students are getting on this tool and actually doing the practice is what teachers would have to monitor.
ClassDojo- This is a great tool for teacher, parents and students. It is a way for teachers to manage their students right during class. As students are working or a teacher is teaching a lesson, the teacher can reward the students with points based on their behavior. The teacher can take attendance, they can give points for a variety of things as well as take away points. Although I am not the biggest fan of point systems in the classroom but this is a great way for teachers to communicate with parents about student behavior. Parents can have an account and log on to check their son or daughters behavior. I think ClassDojo could be a great addition to a teacher's classroom management plan, maybe not the only part of it but it could be a great asset.
I could go on for days about all the different tools on this list. I emailed it to most of my teacher friends so that they know about all the great tools that are out there on the Internet.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Crossword Puzzle Conundrum
This week we were assigned to Excel. I was glad to go through the tutorials because Excel is one of the programs I feel least comfortable with. I know the basics and use it frequently but am not very advanced with it.
When I read the assignment that we were suppose to turn in I was a little confused by it. Crossword puzzle or timeline on excel? I never thought of producing either of those using the application. Since I could see how you could make a crossword puzzle I decided to create one of those. Now prior to this assignment I have made plenty of crossword puzzles but by using online generators. I have always been pleased with the way they turn out so I never have tried any other way. After trying to create a crossword puzzle on excel, I can tell you that I would never stray away from my online generators again. I am not sure if I was missing something but creating a crossword on excel made the process extremely more difficult and time consuming. I think that there is time when thinking and hard work are very important, obviously. This is not one of them. Teachers have so much to do in their day that it is important we find ways to be effective so our time is spent doing the most important thing, teaching our students. Taking the time to try to figure out how to make all your words work in a crossword puzzle seems to be ineffective and time consuming.
I am glad that I was able to go through this experience. This is the part of teaching and education that I love. You have to try new things out and figure out if it works for you and your students. Some will work, some will not. I know that every time I go to make a crossword puzzle my mind will go back to this moment and realize how much technology has evolved helping teachers on the way!
When I read the assignment that we were suppose to turn in I was a little confused by it. Crossword puzzle or timeline on excel? I never thought of producing either of those using the application. Since I could see how you could make a crossword puzzle I decided to create one of those. Now prior to this assignment I have made plenty of crossword puzzles but by using online generators. I have always been pleased with the way they turn out so I never have tried any other way. After trying to create a crossword puzzle on excel, I can tell you that I would never stray away from my online generators again. I am not sure if I was missing something but creating a crossword on excel made the process extremely more difficult and time consuming. I think that there is time when thinking and hard work are very important, obviously. This is not one of them. Teachers have so much to do in their day that it is important we find ways to be effective so our time is spent doing the most important thing, teaching our students. Taking the time to try to figure out how to make all your words work in a crossword puzzle seems to be ineffective and time consuming.
I am glad that I was able to go through this experience. This is the part of teaching and education that I love. You have to try new things out and figure out if it works for you and your students. Some will work, some will not. I know that every time I go to make a crossword puzzle my mind will go back to this moment and realize how much technology has evolved helping teachers on the way!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Microsoft Word Eye-Opener
Well I always thought I was confident in my abilities on Microsoft Word. After reading over the Advanced Tutorial from West Chester University, I am finding that I am not as skilled as I assumed. Word is one of those applications I have used pretty much from day one. In computer class, we were taught how to use Word and ever since then I have used it to write a surplus of papers, along with a variety of different documents. But now, I have to courageously stand up and say, "I know very little about Microsoft Word!"
I decided to read through the whole tutorial and mark the topics that I did not already know or learned something new about. I thought I was doing well but I hit page 9 and Drop Caps and I started marking almost every topic. Most topics, like Drop Caps, I have always seen the icon or menu but never took the time to try what it did. Only some of those topics, again like Drop Caps, I simply needed to read the tutorial and was all set on how to use them. The majority of the topics, I had to find some sort of document on my flash drive and try it out to really get the hang of it.
The one thing I was amazed with was how many times when I discovered something new I could do on Word I thought to myself, "I can use this, this way in the classroom!" So many of these features are applicable to the classroom its a shame I did not know about them earlier. Drop Caps can be used when students are writing narratives and are typing up their final copies to make it more like a book. I can type up poems that the class is studying and add Line Numbers for easier discussion on the poems. Students could get one or two classmates to revise their paper and then Compare Documents to see the differences between them. The Language Tools like Translate Document would be great for converting worksheets and readings into the languages of my ESL students. Being able to use Mail Merge is a life saver for a teacher. Using the Bibliography tool as a student writing a research paper can help make sure APA format is correct. There is just a plethora of ways to make Word a tool used in all aspect of the classroom.
Reading this tutorial even helped me just as a technology student. I have always had a difficult time with Columns. We have not had a pleasant relationship and there were plenty of times I wanted to throw my computer against the wall because I could not get the columns to format how I wanted. Well now I do not have to worry about wrecking my expensive laptop because I now have a better understanding of how to use this tool.
I am proud to say now that I have a better understanding of Word. Not only can I use tools I was unfamiliar with before, but I can use the application in different ways to become more effective in the classroom.
I decided to read through the whole tutorial and mark the topics that I did not already know or learned something new about. I thought I was doing well but I hit page 9 and Drop Caps and I started marking almost every topic. Most topics, like Drop Caps, I have always seen the icon or menu but never took the time to try what it did. Only some of those topics, again like Drop Caps, I simply needed to read the tutorial and was all set on how to use them. The majority of the topics, I had to find some sort of document on my flash drive and try it out to really get the hang of it.
The one thing I was amazed with was how many times when I discovered something new I could do on Word I thought to myself, "I can use this, this way in the classroom!" So many of these features are applicable to the classroom its a shame I did not know about them earlier. Drop Caps can be used when students are writing narratives and are typing up their final copies to make it more like a book. I can type up poems that the class is studying and add Line Numbers for easier discussion on the poems. Students could get one or two classmates to revise their paper and then Compare Documents to see the differences between them. The Language Tools like Translate Document would be great for converting worksheets and readings into the languages of my ESL students. Being able to use Mail Merge is a life saver for a teacher. Using the Bibliography tool as a student writing a research paper can help make sure APA format is correct. There is just a plethora of ways to make Word a tool used in all aspect of the classroom.
Reading this tutorial even helped me just as a technology student. I have always had a difficult time with Columns. We have not had a pleasant relationship and there were plenty of times I wanted to throw my computer against the wall because I could not get the columns to format how I wanted. Well now I do not have to worry about wrecking my expensive laptop because I now have a better understanding of how to use this tool.
I am proud to say now that I have a better understanding of Word. Not only can I use tools I was unfamiliar with before, but I can use the application in different ways to become more effective in the classroom.
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