WeB QuEsT

I have never experience a web quest first hand that I can recall, so if I did do one, it must not have made much of an impact.  However, the term is familiar, and after reading and hearing about it this week, I am convinced that this strategy will be employed in my classroom.  It seems like the most obvious of assignments, something that is almost common sense.  Using the internet as a source for solving problems, answering questions, analyzing data, is something that everyone will eventually be used to doing (if they are not already).  To simply transfer this to the classroom is so logical.  But I do feel like there is a major difference between sending a student off on their own to simply “research” on the Internet, and helping guide them through a topic, which essentially is a web quest.

There are so many variables that can be employed and they enable teachers to touch on many levels of thinking (Bloom’s Taxonomy).  One of the things that I like most about these types of projects is that they are interactive and can easily become group projects.  I feel that so much of what is done in the work place is cooperation between employees, teaching students the importance of working with one and other on a consistent basis is a critical skill to learn when preparing them for the “real world.”  In addition these projects can take on a long or short-term time frame.  I really like the idea of an evolving web quest that takes place over the length of a semester.  It becomes much more complex and I think increases exponentially on the difficulty scale the deeper students get into a project like that.

The simplicity of the structure, which is, Introduction, Task, Process, Information sources, Evaluation, Conclusion, allows for such diversity and creativity when designing a good quest.  These exercises can turn into group presentations, individual presentations or even extended into a report or physical project.  Really the options are limitless.  As mentioned before, this tool will definitely be used in my classroom.

Sites, Sites and more Sites

There is no doubt that I will be using a website for my classroom.  Even if it is something that is really simple and to the point like the sites that we created this week using the Google sites tool.  Eventually I would like to make something a bit more complex, but nothing that will take an exorbitant amount of time to keep up to date.  That is one of the issues that I see happening when looking at other teacher’s sites.  They have way too much content, it must take a full time jobs just to keep the site up and running.  But besides the time that something like that takes, the aesthetic appeal of a page filled with clutter really diminishes the more that goes up.  People can easily get overwhelmed and frustrated with sites that are just a mess of information.  Things have to be easy to navigate and make some sort of logical sense. 

I would love to include things on my site like blogs, threads, vlogs, pod casts, file sharing and of course a calendar.  I think that websites are the best tool to communicate with parents.  It is so easily accessible and can give a real window into what is happening in a child’s classroom.

As up keep of the site can be an issue.  One idea that came to mind is to have the students help in those tasks.  They would not only learn the intricacies of website maintenance, but it would also help to reinforce the lessons and or assignments.

Write right

Here is the text above:Writing is one of the most important skills that we as educators can learn.   But not only is writing an important skill for teachers and students alike, but for anyone that wishes to be a successful communicator in life.  Being able to articulate ones idea and express a point of view in the written word is an absolute necessity for anyone that is looking to join the professional world.  As teachers we will look for the best way to communicate with our students on how to better improve their writing skills.  One of the best tools for this process is the Track Changes tool in Word.  It is something that I personally have already used in the professional world and can not only be useful to help improve writing but also useful to learn how to comment on others writing.  It is said that the best way to learn something is by teaching it.  And that is one characteristic of this program.

The article that we read this week for class titled “Electronic Editing” was an overview on how to best utilize this tool.  It discussed the different types of ways to utilize electronic communication as a means of receiving and dispersing assignments.  I feel like it is a more effective means of communication between the student and the teacher.  One problem that he points out is the ability to add very long comments, ones that would not be written into a paper by hand due to the constraints of space.  It also eliminates the problem of ineligible handwriting, something that I suffer from.  This is definitely something that I will use in my class.  I think it is a tool that needs to be utilized and can have great benefits on the students development of writing skills.

Teachers Sites

http://www.historyteacher.net/
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=40878
http://www.hilton.k12.ny.us/info/highschool-websites.htm
http://schoolcenter.hilton.k12.ny.us/education/staff/staff.php?sectionid=985

Here are a number of teacher’s sites that I found. There is a bit of variety between them all. One (the first) is a link to a history teachers site that is not only a supreme domain name but also full of content. Almost too much so. The page is so filled that I got lost very easily and did not know where to begin and where to end. This site must have taken a long time and a ton of work to not only set up but also to maintain. And from what I can tell a lot of that work seems to be going to waste. If I am getting lost on the page, and I am searching them for an assignment, I could only imagine what her students must feel when the go to this page. I think this is a good lesson on what not to do. In order to make a site effective, it needs to be clean, direct and easy to navigate.

The second site I was looking at is a blog. Not exactly a site, but more of a running commentary with some still very valuable information.

The third and fourth sites are both derived from the same school. And actually the third site is the schools site. The fourth is just one of the many that can be accessed through the school. I love this idea. All the class sites are very similar, and have a user friendly interface. I feel like all schools should maintain sites for each class. It is the most direct form of communication between the classroom and the home.

Excel in your classroom!

Fortunately or unfortunately for me, depending on how you look at it, I have spent a bit of time in the corporate world. And in this world, the software program Excel is as important as the air you breathe. So I have had a lot of exposure to this program and feel as though I am proficient in it. I am by no means an expert, but I can get by, and if I am not able to perform something, then I am usually pretty good at figuring it out with the ‘help’ tool. Much of what we talked about in class this week regarding Excel was review. But that’s not to say I didn’t get a lot out of it. This program is amazingly deep. There are so many options that are available that can be transferred to the classroom.

Regarding the classroom, I can guarantee that this program will play an important role in everything I do. From keeping track of attendance and grades to amassing large amounts of data for projects and quickly transferring it to an easily readable and presentable type of graph.

The article we read this week was trying to bang home the point that the internet can be a deep well of information if used properly, but it can also provide very misleading and even incorrect information if one is not very careful in doing a thorough check to see where it came from.

This isn’t just useful for students, but also teachers. It can make for a very embarrassing day if you were to provide incorrect info to your students and then got called out on it. So BEWARE!!