My Webquest Reflection

Check out my webquest for 5th graders at: http://ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:13237


I think the highlight of my webquest is that it immediately grabs students' interests and they are excited to begin the project. It was really important to me that I design a webquest that was extremely motivating and engaging for students because that allows their learning to be maximized. I wish I had the money to allow each of these students to go on a field trip to areas that the animal they're reporting on actually lives, so they could see its true habitat and observe what it actually does in the wild first-hand.

The planning sheet was very helpful to me. Once I completed it, I knew exactly where my webquest was headed and had a clear direction when it came time to actually putting it together. My peer evaluation was also helpful. It allowed me to make some needed corrections and improvements.

I've learned that when we as teachers put some time into planning technology-based instruction for our students, it can reap big rewards. The biggest reward is how much students enjoy using the projects. By using webquests and other such tools, we can make a significant difference in how motivated they are to learn.

I was very excited to learn about ways I can use digital photography in my classroom. Using digital photography is very motivating for students. It provides another way of using technology in the classroom. I loved the idea of teaching about geometric shapes through the use of photography because it helps students see that the environment all around them contains shapes. It makes learning personal to them. All of a sudden geometric shapes have purpose and are a concrete idea, rather than being an abstract subject they have to learn about.

Geometric Shapes!

Web Applications

Today we explored more into web applications. Web applications are an interactive, extremely engaging and motivating for children to learn various concepts across all the subject areas. The following are some I explored today that I thought I could use in my future classroom.

Science--Build a prairie game--This game went right along with my Webquest idea for 5th graders, in that it addresses Science Standard 5, in which students learn about characteristics that help plants and animals survive in their environments. I think it would be very fun way for students to learn about about this. It's found at the following website:

http://www.bellmuseum.org/distancelearning/prairie/build/

Science--Nasa website--This game would work well in 1st grade where students are learning about the water cycle, it's steps and processes. I think it would provide a wonderful way for students to individually review what we've learned as a class because as they play this game, it asks questions about the water cycle. It's found at the following website:

http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/droplet.html

Social Studies--5th Grade Social Studies Standards address exploration and settling of North America. Completing this activity will help students become motivated about using maps, learn about technology advances that led to an increase in exploration, and also reasons for exploration. All of these are indicators in Standard 1, Objective 1 that students will learn about and explore through this activity.

http://www.bellmuseum.org/distancelearning/prairie/build/

And this is just a note to myself so I don't forget about it. The following is a website that makes math fun and exciting for students: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

Webquest Ideas

Today we learned about Webquests. These allow children to gain experience with and exposure to using the information available on the web, without having to get lost in the navigating of the web. I think it provides a very engaging and exciting way for children to learn.

I've been brainstorming a few different topics I could do for my webquest. One is to create a webquest for 3-5 grade students about Endangered Species. I really think they'd enjoy researching about an animal that's endangered. Also, I've considered doing a webquest on natural disasters/safety, including earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. This is another topic that I believe is always intriguing to students.

Website Evaluation

Today we learned about website evaluations and the importance of ensuring that our future students know how to discern a good website from a bad website. The first website I looked at was the Smithsonian Education website, http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/index.html. I loved this website! It was extremely easy to navigate and contained very useful, intriguing information. Using Kathy Schrock's guide for Educators, I observed that this website was very well done because the information was organized, including introductions, title pages, and it even include information (links) that led me to more information on the subject. Additionally, the graphics on the pages facilitated my learning. Plus, contact information was available for the director and editors of the site.

I also used WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) located at http://wave.webaim.org/ to evaluate the accessibility for ALL of my students to the website. I was extremely impressed to discover that the Smithsonian Education website had no accessibility errors! Therefore, my students with visual or hearing impairments should have no problem accessing the information available on that website. How wonderful!

Creating Spreadsheets & Surveys!

Hallelujah! I finally got a little brush-up on on how to create and use spreadsheets. The functions available, such as finding a sum or average, will definitely be extremely useful in my future classroom. I think it could provide a fun way for students to learn about averages and charts, as we could take surveys in the class and talk about the results. Also, spreadsheets will be very helpful in recording, organizing, and evaluating test scores, etc. I was also very excited to learn about creating surveys in google docs. I think that would be a wonderful way to involve parents in the classroom and have their input help me in educating their children. So...about those surveys...you should look at mine posted below here! :)

Let me know what your favorite vacation spot is!