Thursday, April 29, 2010
iMovie
This past week in class I have learned how to create a digital story or iMovie. This has probably been one of my favorite tools to learn about in the class. It was fairly simple to compile all the pictures and add in a song, text, and transitions to go along with the pictures. The digital story posted below is one I created about my life and will be a fun way to introduce myself to the students in my classroom one day. I am already planning on using the iMovie software again to create an iMovie for my sister's graduation. I'm sure I will find other ways to use it in my future classroom as well!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Interactive Spreadsheets
So who knew spreadsheets could be used for classroom activities! Below I have posted a quiz I created using excel. I never knew that excel could be used to created assignments and quizzes for students! I was able to lock certain cells containing the questions and create an answer column that will provide feedback to the student based on their response. The last column also calculates points based on the number of questions the student answers correctly. I never knew excel could be used to create such a neat interactive assignment! The only downside to this new tool is that it is quite time consuming, so I probably would not create an assignment/quiz in excel unless there were no other evaluating resources available. It was a fun new tool to learn about!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Inspiration
Recently I have learned about a fun new tool called Inspiration! I used it to create the diagram on the Four Seasons in the post below. It is a neat tool for teachers to use in order to visually explain a new concept, it seems to be a particularly helpful tool for elementary teachers. It was fairly simple to use after experimenting with it for awhile, I'm sure I will use it someday in my classroom!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Google Presentations
In class this week we have learned about another exciting tool that google offers, google presentation! Below I have posted a presentation that I created on a scavenger hunt we did in class. I was so surprised how easy it was to use! I even found it easier to use than regular power point programs. I definitely think google presentation is a great tool for teachers. It can be used to present new concepts with elementary students, or older students can use the google presentation tool to create their own projects for class assignments. This has been one of my favorite tools we have learned about so far, and I am sure that I will use google presentation again in my future classroom.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
WebQuests
WebQuests are a fun online tool for teachers to use in the classroom. Before learning about them in class I had not heard about them. A WebQuest is an online project in which students research information on the web. WebQuests can help students learn a new concept with a short project that takes a couple days or they can explore a topic more intensively by creating something to aid in understanding. In some cases, WebQuests can take a week or up to a month. Many students now enjoy using the internet and WebQuest offers a way to integrate the use of the web in a classroom project or assignment. This could be very engaging for a student and also an exciting way to vary teaching methods. I will definately consider using WebQuest in my future classroom.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wiki Websites
This week we have been learning how to create and use a wiki. This is a pretty neat technology that I have always thought ,”how does that work”, and now I know! A wiki is a collaborative work of multiple authors. Each author can post information as well as edit information posted by other authors. This will be a useful tool as a teacher to communicate with other educators. I am currently starting a wiki with several other Elementary Education majors in efforts to come up with useful teaching website that I hope to one day use in my classroom!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Evaluating Websites
This week we learned how to evaluate websites to ensure their reliability. This was a very helpful activity seeing as how many teachers and students now rely on the internet to get their information on a subject for a class discussion, report, or paper. By using a checklist, we were able to evaluate a website of our choice and decide whether or not it met the criteria for a reliable source. Some of the criteria we looked at included: who is the author of the site, is there a publishing body, does the site show a bias, is the information supported by additional sources, and is the information current. After evaluating all these criteria we were then able to to determine if the site would be a good source to use in the classroom. This activity was definatley useful and I am sure I will take these things into consideration before choosing a website to use with students in my future classroom.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! This blog is about my journey through TPTE 486 class at The University of Tennessee. I usually just use the internet for e-mail and facebook, but I am very excited to start my first blog! This semester I hope to learn more about using technology and learning to incorporate it into the classroom setting.
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