Well in the presentations today there was a clear difference between elementary level and high school level curriculum. I probably should have given my husband a pat on the back when he had 7 class preperations a day. In elementary we have to prepare all the topics in a day so maybe they are more even than it appeared. I have played the water cycle game and the students are able to connect the thing in nature and just by prior knowledge tell the person next to them how they transfer water. It was very engaging and just fun. It also transfers home through conversation with parents.

wikis

I appreciate the direction from Karen to sign up on the wiki page. I think that would be very useful for managing groups of students presenting lessons, signing up for computer lab schedules. I liked being able to see who had already signed up and how many were listed on one day. It seemed to be a helpful tool for organizing people into a space of time.

keeping up with class

Hi
I have been dealing with my elderly parents and all I can say is that life does not get any easier as we get older. As I was working on my Webquest lesson plan 2 activity my computer contracted a virous off of one of the sites I was surfing. I struggled to get it back up and was surfing again and a spy ware company took my computer hostage! So I chose a safe site UEN.org and did my lesson from there. I guess the spy ware ads have found a way around the avast program I had on my computer. SO surf carefully even if it says teacher lessons. I have been out of town but I found it handy to have the lesson plans or activity addresses on the discussion page of our class page because I have been looking at them and doing the activities. I especially liked on Carli Oneil's math page how the numbers sifted out of the 2 or 3 digit numbers entered. It was fun but directly helped students see and use the divisiblity rules at work.

google docs

I found this tool very interesting because I have had to work in groups that were at different sites and we were emailing our joint document back and forth and it took a long time. This was interactive and it is so much faster than the old way. I was a writing lab manager once and this would have been easier for the teacher to see what students are doing than looking over their shoulder or having them turn in their disks. Even putting it into a joint folder isn't as fast as the google docs.

skype and web quest

I liked the idea of skype but it will make me think twice about what I wear to class. I always picture the person I am talking to on the phone in my head so skype would just make that a more accurate picture.
The web quest activity was good for making me think that when I choose an activity for the class I need to not just choose the one that interests me but will interest the class too. Because each class has so many different personalities choosing group or individual strengths needs to be alternated. I think that the grow school greens website is the best example of how to lay out a web quest. If a person were to post a web quest is it their responsibility to make sure the links are working? Sometimes links work at home but not when I get to school and vice versa and I was having trouble on the Egypt quest getting through on the links which made me less interested in that quest.

website evaluation

I wasn't able to get to all of the sites listed on learning module but for the sites I did get to I used the form I found on the Discovery/Kathy Shrock page and the form from Cyberbee. I printed off the form from NCSU.edu but didn't officially use it on a site, I think it would be used when students will be searching the web for research assignments. A lot of the questions were about how appropriate the site is. I liked Kathy Shrock's form the best because it had information that I could keep on file to use when I am setting up lesson plans. I discovered where to look to see if the site was updated, thats not a hidden secret but I don't look for it most of the time. I think the value of using an evaluation form is the knowledge that I get about each page, how it fits curriculum and how appropriate it is. It helps to organize what page to use when. Using a form will help me not to be embarassed when the students talk about what they learned today with parents. I used the Edhelper.com resource before and I really liked it but it does cost to use. I like Kathy Shrock and Cyberbee as well and they are FREE! I had fun using the puzzle maker on the discovery link.