Post 4 525

Last week we went over a number of new resources. I was very impressed with Rubistar which I hope to use with many projects I create in class. We also went over a few sites that have some pretty good webquests. I do like zunal and webquest.org but I would like to suggest teacherweb.com as well. I use that site to host my classroom website and their webquests are usually quite simple to use.
At this point in the course I am very glad that I have been able to learn so many different resources. I have also had a difficult time adjusting to course work, cohort time, and class time. I had not planned to dive into this program until the last moment so I have overbooked myself a bit. Being the cross country coach, chess coach, ski club coordinator, carpentry club teacher, and still trying to be a good father to my two children has been a challenge to say the least. If I had known that I was going to start this program earlier, I would have dropped some of those extras from my life. Needless to say, I feel maxed out!

Week 3 course 525

Last week, we started with a review of some resources that are available. I could see using the BrainPop in my sixth grade science curriculum, but the other websites seemed like they would not be very useful for me as a sixth grade teacher. The next topic we discussed was the article about the cyberbully from New Berlin. There are always going to be creeps out there and this was another example of why we need to remind students to never put something on the internet that they would not show their parents! I am also torn about the social networking as a teacher’s idea. Should we as teachers allow students access to our Facebook accounts and have them as our friends so that they know that we can view their sites? If we did that, students would know that we are watching them and they keep them clean. Or, are we going to look like creeps for viewing student’s Myspace accounts. I have opted for blocking students from my social networks just as a precaution. However, I am torn on this because somebody needs to monitor what some of these kids are doing on the net or it becomes too tempting to abuse. It is kind of like giving students shop tools and not teaching them how to use them safely.The last thing that we did was to go to a professional online network. I found it interesting to be in the network and I checked out some other sessions on the environment that were going on. I have taken a course through Blackboard and I think that it is an amazing to use tools that spark conversation and build on thoughts and ideas!

Week 3 course 525

Last week, we started with a review of some resources that are available. I could see using the BrainPop in my sixth grade science curriculum, but the other websites seemed like they would not be very useful for me as a sixth grade teacher. The next topic we discussed was the article about the cyberbully from New Berlin. There are always going to be creeps out there and this was another example of why we need to remind students to never put something on the internet that they would not show their parents! I am also torn about the social networking as a teacher’s idea. Should we as teachers allow students access to our Facebook accounts and have them as our friends so that they know that we can view their sites? If we did that, students would know that we are watching them and they keep them clean. Or, are we going to look like creeps for viewing student’s Myspace accounts. I have opted for blocking students from my social networks just as a precaution. However, I am torn on this because somebody needs to monitor what some of these kids are doing on the net or it becomes too tempting to abuse. It is kind of like giving students shop tools and not teaching them how to use them safely.The last thing that we did was to go to a professional online network. I found it interesting to be in the network and I checked out some other sessions on the environment that were going on. I have taken a course through Blackboard and I think that it is an amazing to use tools that spark conversation and build on thoughts and ideas!

Week 2 course reflection, 525.

Last week we learned about another useful website called Filamentality. I could see using the site in the future and I have bookmarked it. It allows you to plan different lessons using the internet and links you with the standards for each of the lessons. After playing around with it for a while, I realize that I need to spend more time exploring it. I did look into some lessons on insects and found some interesting interactive lessons that I could use. I also created a hotlist during class and found that it was very easy. However, I will continue to use my classroom website to store my web addresses since my students are used to using it.
We also spent some time on the online quiz creation sites. The one that I intend using was the ClassMarker. It seems to be the easiest to use and quickest to create. I do not have a lot of time to create quizzes but ClassMarker makes it easy. I am going to attempt making a quiz today for my students that goes along with the webquest that they are working on.
During class my team had to work on QuizCenter which is now part of Discovery School. I was not able to use the site to create a quiz and you need to subscribe to United Streaming to be able to access it. I am a huge fan of United Streaming and I use it often. I think an entire class could be dedicated to the use of United Streaming and the other tools that it provides teachers.