Lesson 8 - Educational Websites

Bloom’s Website:

http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/curric/newtaxonomy.htm

This above link takes you to a page that discusses into detail Bloom’s Taxonomy. It is a curriculum page for Dr. Leslie Owen Wilson. On this page, Dr. Wilson has listed a lot of hotlinks to information on Blooms as well as organized informational resources that are easily understood. As an undergrad I remember learning a lot Bloom’s different classifications of learning. Until looking at these different websites about Bloom’s, I had forgotten every part of the Blooms Pyramid. For a while now, Bloom’s Taxonomy has been revised, Dr. Wilson’s website compare/contrast the differences between the old and new pyramids. These valuable resources about Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used by almost anyone who reads the different tables provide on the website that breaks down what it truly means to “Synthesize”, “Analyze”, etc. I think that every principal should use the website above or any website that explains Blooms, at the beginning of every school year. This would help the staff keep all children’s learning styles in mind as they plan lessons.

#2 SpicyNodes:

SpicyNodes is a website found here: http://www.spicynodes.org/

To be honest I had never heard of this website/concept mapping program until I followed the link in class. I truly feel that this will be one of the greatest things that I will be able to use next year. Students should always use some sort of outline when writing a paper or should view new information in an organized manner if they want to be the most successful that they can be. I believe that this website takes away the “boring” factor for outlining thoughts such a brainstorming for a paper. I have already shared this link with my co-worker who teaches writing and she loves it. This webpage takes general concept mapping but allows the user to take the information to the next level. It allows you to add color, music (audio), post already created maps, support from the creators, etc. One of the best things about this website is that it is FREE! I would recommend this website to anyone who is an educator!

#3 Brain Information:

http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=28896

I found the article linked above to be very informative for why it is important to learn about the brain and how to incorporate a little bit of neuroscience in the classroom. The above article is, “Promoting Brain-Science Literacy in the K-12 Classroom” by Michaela Labriole. In this article, Labriole discusses how it is important for us as educators not only know who to teach to our students, but also how the brain functions so that we know best practices for teaching. I really thought this article was great at connecting to our class, because it talks about how technology can be used to help bridge the gap of teaching about the brain in class. For example, many computer software programs exist that make learning about the brain a fun interactive lesson.  The article also gives a lot of suggestions for how to incorporate knowledge of the brain in class. For example, teachers can utilize the strong connection between neuroscience and other subject areas to boost scientific literacy. Some students find certain topics in neuroscience, such as neurotransmitters, very abstract. By tying in other subject areas, especially through hands-on techniques, educators can improve student understanding. They can easily turn neurons into an art project by using pipe cleaners and other materials to model different structures, or into an exercise in physical education by asking students to use their arms as axons and dendrites to pass a ball that serves as a neurotransmitter.

Overall I learned a lot about the different types of educational websites that our available to educators on the web for no cost! It amazes me how many free resources are available to educators and that can help improve classroom academics. What’s even more amazing is that most teachers don’t know they exist. I’m going to be sure to share my knowledge learned from this class with my co-workers!

Lesson 8 - Educational Software

One type of educational software that is available at my school is Read Naturally. Our school district just purchased this software at the beginning of this past year.  I don’t teach language arts, I’m the social studies teacher, but there are times when I have students with special needs that may need to use this program in my area with computers. It’s important for me to know about the program so I can help the students if they have questions, and also so I can help other teachers since I’m one of our school’s technology coordinators.

 Read Naturally is a software program that develops fluency, supports vocabulary, and promotes comprehension.  Read Naturally has many different steps involved in the process. Each student has a login name, and get to pick a story on their level.  After picking a story, they can make predictions based on the title, picture clues, etc. They read along with the story (using headphones) and they can do this several times to hear it over and over again. This can help with pronunciation, expression, and phrasing. While practicing they can use a microphone to talk into, and practice reading the story, and practice pronunciation. The next step has them answer comprehension questions about the story. The last step is for the student to read the story to the teacher, and the teacher will document their errors (if any) and then see if the student has met their goal of no more than 3 errors, and answered all the comprehension questions correctly. Although, I have not used this with my students yet since I’m still learning it and it’s SUMMER BREAK!!! I will definitely use this software next school year.

There are some challenges that come with this software. One is the computer’s we have. Our school is next on the district upgrade list (thank goodness) which means we are going through the process of starting to get new computers in our school. We have very limited access to computers in our school, and a lot of the computers that we do have are so old that they don’t really run the program in a manner that benefits the students (really slow). Also, we only have 10 computers in the 5^th grade, so this can cause an issue of who is using them, and at what times. Luckily for me I have a lot of parent involvement at my school, so if I need extra help at getting the computers ready and students prepared to use Read Naturally, I know I can count on them to be there to help me! I look forward to seeing my students’ reading abilities continue to grow!

Lesson 6: Using/Creating WebQuest

This week in class I learned how to create something that I’m definitely going to use in my classroom from now on!! This wonderful thing that I’m talking about is a WebQuest. As an undergrad at Eastern Kentucky University I learned a lot about the benefits of making a WebQuest for the classroom. I knew that they serve as a fun interactive way for students to achieve higher levels of thinking.

WebQuest provide a break from the normal lecture/read from the book routine. I know that when I took Social Studies in elementary school, all we ever did was read from the text. Since I vowed not to do the same, I created a 5^th Grade leveled social studies WebQuest this week. It is about the Causes of the Revolutionary War. You can view it by going to http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=104477. My WebQuest centers on making a timeline about the major causes of the war. I feel that timeline’s are a great manner for students to not only learn important dates, but when they are done with illustrations and extensive research, they can be ways that students can fully comprehend important events in history.

Something new that I learned this week is that not all WebQuest actually have to extensively use the “Web”. Before this class, I always assumed that in order for students to complete a WebQuest in class that we would all have to be able to access the internet at the same time. I found out that this isn’t really true! Sometimes it can be a mixture of both class work and internet work. I took what I learned this week and applied it to my actual self-made WebQuest. I decided to make my WebQuest so that students would have stations set up all around the classroom that they could move to for research specifically available for a Cause of the Revolution. While some of the people in their group were busy researching information at a station in the class, other students could be online researching information about the same event, or another event that led to the war.

WebQuest are very time consuming to make, so proper planning is essential in order for it to be successful. I found that researching other teacher made WebQuest to be very helpful while completing this activity. Although a lot of work goes into developing a WebQuest, it is important for us as educators to know that when they are done with great effort and planning, the benefits that the students gain from them make it worth all the time!!

Lesson 5: Use of Online Communication Tools

When first trying to answer the question of whether or not I've used communication tools in my classroom I thought it was a no brainer. Of course I've used them! I email every single day in school. Then I started to realize that my idea of online communication tools were wrong. I realized that I never have used online communication tools with my students.  I email people every day and sometimes parents, but never to my students. The fact that I don't really correspond with students through email is why thats not a communication tool for my students. I've only really used it as a communication tool for my colleagues. To be honest a lot of these communication tools can be a little overwhelming at first, because I'm not sure if I always have the avaibalbe resources.  I would love to use discussion boards with my students, but I don’t know the first thing about how to get them started or if it even costs money.  When I was researching discussion boards in the classroom, I came across the Microsoft Office website that mentioned about downloading a version of a discussion board.  It looked really confusing to me and I’m sure it would be for my students.  Because of this class, I know that blogs are out and easy to use.  I like the site that we used for this class.  I would think that my students would enjoy creating their own format for their blogs.  I could definitely use blogs next year in my instruction.  I also think Wikis are cool, but once again they are a little confusing and I would need someone to show me how to create one.  So the reason I haven’t utilized all of these tools is due to the lack of resources as well as the lack of know-how.  Our school’s new webpage is supposed to provide teachers with these tools, so I’m excited about this summer’s technology professional development.
If I had to choose one online communication tool to use in my classroom, it would have to be blogs like the one here on blogger.com.  I know they are free and fairly easy to operate.  I think my students would enjoy them.  I would want to show my students blogs using a whole-group step-by-step approach.  Towards the beginning of the school year, I would have my students go to our class webpage to find the blog site.  From there, I would walk them through choosing a username, a url, background, font, font size, etc.  The urls would be similar so the students wouldn’t forget them.  I could even get the computer teacher/media specialist help me with the teaching the studetns this new resource. The first blog I would have them do would be an introduction about themselves; I've seen this done in some of our UC classes and I think it is a good starter. I would show them how to navigate to each other’s blogs with the right guidance, this could allow for some great peer review of assignments. I would want them to do this at the beginning of the year, so that they were proficient in it by the time we began using it on assignments.