Resume

I am very glad we made a resume in this course. I did not a have a resume before this course. I was unsure of the format and all that needed to be included in a professional resume. The template provided was very helpful for me. A resume is something that we will all need after we graduate and is a very important thing to have. My resume may not be completely ready for me to hand to a potential employer just yet, but it is almost there!

Resource Wiki

The Resource Wiki has been one of my favorite things we have done in this class so far. I'm glad we waited to do this project after we were already comfortable with using wikis. Since I knew how wiki worked, it was much easier for me to complete this task. I had to find some informational websites that could be used in an early childhood education class, then I had to evaluate the site to make sure it was appropriate. The best thing about the resource wiki is that not only do I have the sites I found on there, but classmates and people from other TPTE classes have also put websites on there. This will be a great tool for me to use in preparing my lessons for my own classroom.

IBA Activity

The inquiry-based activity was a good way to introduce us to the idea of using WebQuests. I think it was a good way to start off the lesson and get us more comfortable with WebQuests. Although it was not a full WebQuest and used only one site, it was a good starting point for us to know what we were looking for.

WebQuests

I never knew WebQuests existed until this class, but I am very glad I know now. This is such a great resource for all teachers. Using the WebQuest garden is a good way to search for related WebQuests and find activities. Some of the WebQuests I found I think my future students would really enjoy doing. It is also a great way to incorporate technology into your lesson. This will be a very helpful and useful tool in my classroom!

Wikis

I really like using the Wiki. I think it is a great tool to use and collaborate with your peers. I wish I could've known about this Web 2.0 tool sooner. This would be really helpful to use during group projects. Sometimes it is hard for all group members to meet up at the same time, so this tool would allow each member to work separately at their own time, yet still be able to collaborate with each other. This is definitely a tool I will be using in my future classroom.

Color Scavenger Hunt

That Aha! Moment

I think my Aha! moment in this class was while I was learning about WebQuests. Everything I have learned so far in this class seems like it will be very helpful for me to know in my future years as an educator. However, I think WebQuest will be one of my favorite tools I take away from this class. It seems like such a great resource for teachers to use and find great ideas that their students will really enjoy doing. Really, I sort of have an Aha! moment with every new tool I learn how to use in this class. It is exciting to realize all of the different ways I can use these resources in a classroom. I hope the Aha! moments keep on coming!

Happy Thursday!

TimeToast

Hi bloggers!

Brett and I used TimeToast as our Web 2.0 tool. I think TimeToast is a really cool tool to use in the classroom. This tool allows you to make timelines and share them with others. People can comment on your timeline as well. You can view the timeline in regular timeline format or in text view. You can add as many events to your timeline as you went. It is really neat and a great way to organize important dates and give descriptions with each event. I really enjoyed learning about and using this tool. I think it would be a great tool to use in the classroom and make learning events in history much more interesting for the students. If you haven't checked out TimeToast, you definitely should!

Happy blogging!

Website Evaluations

Hi bloggers!

Today we learned about evaluating websites. I never really thought of this as being an important topic until today. We all know everything you read isn't true. But when I research something on the internet I always just assume I am receiving reliable information. And boy was I wrong! Anyone can have a website and post any sort of information they want. This is why it is important to evaluate the websites you are using, especially in a classroom. As an educator, it is vital that I give my students accurate information. If I use a website with my students that is not reliable, then I am giving them inaccurate information. Not only is it important for me as an educator to use reliable websites during research and with my students, but I should also teach them how to evaluate websites as they do research. If they, like me, assume all information they research on the internet is accurate and reliable then they may come into class trying to save the tree octopuses! Evaluating websites is much more important than I had imagined or even thought of. Moral of the story: Don't forget to evaluate your websites before you use them!

Happy Tuesday!

TPTE Expectations

Welcome to my blog! From my experience in the past two classes, I expect to learn a lot in this course! I am new to the wiki and blogging world. I didn't even really know what they were until today and I now have both of them! I am not very technologically advanced so this class may be a bit of a struggle for me. I hope to learn a lot about how to use technology in my future classrooms. My future students are growing up in a world where technology is everything, so I'm sure they expect it to be a large part of their education. I hope to be able to keep up with them, so I expect to learn the basics of technological uses in the classroom throughout this course. Wish me luck!

-Madison