Group Discussion about Science Sim

Today we got a scenario from our teacher and had to discuss it with our group for 30 minutes. The scenario was a teacher wanting to buy an Itouch for her students to use in the classroom. We discussed it as the teacher, PTA president, and the principal. It was interesting to discuss because we thought about different scenarios and difficulties we could run into in each of our different roles. We discussed the pros and cons of having Itouches. For example, a pro could be they could be used for educational podcasts. A con could be students would get destracted with them and not listen or learn from the teacher. There also could be problems with funds. Especially in these days there are not a lot of funds to go around. We ended up deciding on getting one Itouch to see how it worked. Another thing we did in class today was tried to get on Science Sim, but it didn't work for most people in the class. This is just another lesson to learn from that you need to make sure the technology is working before you try to teach your students with it. It would be fun to work with Science Sim, but it has never worked for me.

Inquiry Lesson

I loved this class. I went to a seminar a couple weeks ago and learned about WebQuests. I had never even heard about them until then, but I became very interested. I think students would loving doing these technology based lessons if the lessons are put together clearly and concisely. It was very helpful learning about IA and getting an account. Through this class I learned about a ton of resources that are out there. I also learned how to put together something like a WebQuest for my students. Learning about this is helpful for me as a student because I can become more familiar with the technology, so when I become a teacher I can be an expert at it. I can put together lessons quickly and easily by practicing and learning about it now. Students can also benefit from Instructional Architect because this kind of learning is engaging and gets students interested about the subject you are teaching.

WebQuest Post

The subject we covered today was WebQuests. We went to a website, webquest.org, and searched through WebQuests that have already been made. Chelsee and I looked at a math lesson where students went through different tasks to learn how to convert decimals to fractions and percentages. It takes them to a couple of websites that help them review and give them practice. The last step was students had to get a worksheet from their teacher and fill in the columns of how many colors of M&M's came in each bag. They had to convert the fraction into percentages and decimals. It gave the students great practice on how to convert. These WebQuests could be very helpful for students. WebQuests give students a lot of different tasks so they can be able to learn the subject. It covers all kinds of learning styles. I want to use this in my own classroom if I have the resources because students are able to go at their own pace, and a lot of different learning styles. Going at their own pace and using all kinds of learning styles is not probable when using paper and pencil. Teachers could use WebQuests to introduce a new topic or even take a test. WebQuests can be used for most anything teachers want to cover in class. It is a very useful tool.

ScienceSim Blog 6

Today we learned about using a virtual world. We went through a couple different steps to get us to where we were supposed to be. The steps included making a sim character, logging onto imprudence, and then teleporting to Alaska South. It took us awhile to get through these steps. It wasn't a smooth process at all. I either couldn't teleport, or I would get logged off. I think this could be a fun technology to use with my students if the program would actually work. It's not good to come into class and not have the program work. The lesson is thrown off and you've wasted your time as well as the students' time if the program doesn't work. I would use this as a teacher only if I could make sure it actually worked. I had this happen in my practicum where the computer program wouldn't work and so the whole class hour was wasted.

Google Doc Surveys

Today, we learned how to make a survey on Google documents. It was very fun and helpful. I can see this being very helpful in my future classroom. Students can use this to make quizzes of their own. You can learn a lot from students if you'll let them come up with their own quizzes. It's also fun for the students to be able to use technology to answer quizzes instead of pencil and paper. We also learned how to upload and save these documents. It's great to be learning about this information so when we're in the actual classroom we have resources to pull from.

Here is my survey!

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFpEc3Z0UnlUZ01yT0wySzFUS2ROYmc6MA

Spreadsheet

Today, we learned about how to make a gradebook on a spreadsheet. It was a little frustrating because I couldn't get my file to open. It said that it was read only no matter what I did. I got a little behind because of that, but once I caught up I understood the directions and got the gradebook finished. We learned how to make a formula so that the computer does the math for you. I wish we could have learned how to format the cells more and learned more functions to use in excel, but it was I did learn a few things. We also went over the website polleverywhere.com. This could be a neat tool to use when you want to poll your students. They can just text in their response. It's a lot of fun.

Today's Activities

Today we learned about editing in a Microsoft Word document. We learned how to track students as they make changes to their documents. We also learned about google documents. These come in very useful when you're working on an assignment with a partner. Once you share with the person both of you can edit and put your document together. It is very useful and easy to use. I learned a lot in this class.