Frustrations!

Well I have real frustrations and funny ones. Let's start with the real one that are less entertaining.
First: Wikis. Now everything is fine, but this process was very frustrating because we had to figure out completely on our own what we were to do. After we our group figured out what the heck we were supposed to do, we were told that there is some rubric we are to follow and that most things we had done were wrong. Now everyone is one the same page, so this has been solved.
Second: Evaluating websites. So again, apparently there was a rubric we were to use to for this website, but most of our class was unaware of this. So now we have to do this assignment again. We have to some how find a way to edit a PDF file and email it back to our teacher tonight. Well... I downloaded adobe reader to do this, but apparently in adobe reader you can't edit and save a PDF. Well that is NO help for me considering I have to email it! So I downloaded adobe acrobat pro to see if that would solve my problem. I am still waiting for the email link to come in my email to download it. I didn't know this assignment was such a big deal!!
Third: This one is funnier...well not to me. So last week I attempted to write a comment on another person's blog three different times. Each time I would hit post.....it would not post. After the third time I just gave up. So maybe this person has a weird setting to were they have to read comments before they are posted. I don't know.
All I do know is I can't do the homework for this class right now matter how hard I try.

Web Quest for Elementary

So the concept of a webquest has slowly but surely made sense to me. They all are about the same. They start with a question (or questions) and the teacher provides links for the students to explore and find the answer to the question(s) presented. I am not sure why this idea so so long for me to comprehend. Through my search for webquest on the internet, I have realized that there are many wonderful home made webquest, and other that are not so reliable. Unfortunately, the first few I tried to explore did not even work! Eventually I found a site that looked reliable and actually had working links. The website is called the Literacy Web and it is put on by the University of Connecticut. It has many helpful things are the site, webquests being one of them. Here is the link to all the webquest the site offers...

Web Quests 5-6
(Below is the link to the webquest I reviewed in my wiki. It was found at the website above)
Back to the Age of Exploration

I think this is a good source to have because of the variety of webquests it offers to teacher. Another great thing is you do not have to pay to use the webquest, This was another problem I was running into when I was searching for a webquest myself. I really like the list of social study webquests, because that is a subject that could greatly benefit from webquests and would be the easiest to find a need for a webquest. ( I wish there was a synonym for webquest).
I have not yet started my own webwuest, becuase I am totally confused on how to find the document I am to base my webquest off. I anticipate that I will learn a lot about how much work it takes to make a productive web quest. I guess we shall see.

Twitter in the Classroom?

In our TPTE 486 class, we are trying to incorporate using twitter and making connections for our future as educators. After going through all of the effort to find fellow teachers on twitter, I feel more twitter savvy and would like to us this knowledge for my future classroom. The only problem I have is I want to be an elementary teacher, so using twitter seems less applicable than for teachers who have older students. I found a website that gave me some ideas on how to appropriately use Twitter for younger students.

Here are some of the ideas...

1. Using www.twitterfall.com
Type in a keyword ("communism", "appeasement", "poverty")
Then watch the results come pouring in using twitterfall!

This could be a fun way for students to apply what they are talking about in social studies and can see what are are saying on that topic.

2. Collaborating a story
First...Choose your theme
(example) Genre - Fairy Tale, Sports Story, Adventure etc.
Give it a standard story opener and tweet this to your network
Ask network to continue the story in tweets, collaborating with the previous tweets and following them via www.twitterfall.com or a #tag
Then...students follow via twitterfall,choose the best ones and edit them into a coherent story
Great for editing skills, story structure etc.

This could be a fun way to encourage students to write (or type) and use sequences skills to create a fun story. This way kids can feel creative, yet they must say what they want to say in 140 characters. This calls for precise creative writing.

3. Let the parents be informed
Set up a new Twitter account for your class - you will possibly want to 'protect' your updates. Invite parents to 'follow' you, and they can see what the class are up to from any computer (home, work, Internet cafe...) at any time of the day or night. Parents could even tweet back if they desire.

This could be an easy way for parents to see first hand what is going on in the classroom. This is nice because it would not be a required activity, so if a family does not have a computer, this exercise is still appropriate.

Well these were some of the ideas that stuck out the most. If want to know more, the link is here
The only hesitations I have is that I have not used twitterfall. I would have to familiarize myself with that program before I implemented it with my classroom.

Intergrating Technology into the classroom.

Well, I just wrote this great post, and the computer I am on deleted it so here I go again....

Technology Integration in the classroom:

1. Use a smart board if provided: I have heard wonderful things about smart boards. Because I have had limited experience with them, I need to learn more about them before I could use them to their full potential.

2. schooltimegames.com: this site has great educational games that could be used when students have a break or if they are finished with work. This could serve as a motivator to get work done.

3. Email lesson: I could teach students not only how to write and sent emails, but teach them proper email etiquete. It is important for student to see how they come across when they send messages.