12-6-10

Today was our last day of class. We spent the first half of class finishing up the presentations of our WebQuests. I was again impressed with the types of webquests that my classmates were coming up with, and I think they will be successful in their classrooms. Then, for the last half of class, we worked on our competencies. Dr. Day gave us a worksheet to fill out to count as our competencies. I like this idea because it's not the traditional cover sheet with rationale and explanations. It shows that we are competent by applying our knowledge. It's crazy that was our last class. I had a lot of fun during this class!

11-29-10

Today we spent the entire time class period going over our webquests. I really enjoyed hearing all the work that the rest of the class had put into their webquests and hearing all the other awesome ideas. For my webquest, it was really hard to come up with an idea for high school math, so we used an idea we found online. I was impressed by all the creative ideas and I found them very appealing. I think that I would enjoy doing some of those webquests! It's crazy to think we only have one more class period left! This semester has gone by so fast and I can't believe it's already time for Christmas! I'll be in Merida, Mexico next semester and I can't wait!

11-22-10

Today in class, we had the entire time to work on our webquests. I found this especially helpful because this is such a hectic time of the semester, so the time to work in class was greatly appreciated! I am working with Leland and we basically have our entire webquest finished. We just need a few finishing touches, and we are good to go for the presentation next Monday. We definitely got a lot done in class :)

Class on 11-15

In class today, we watched a short video of a teacher using the internet in her classroom. We answered questions about it and talked about it as a group. I thought it was interesting, and it's good to get younger children using the internet and other technologies at an early age. It has become so standard that kids know how to use the internet, etc. so teaching them in the classroom seems the perfect place to have them learn. After the video, we worked on out webquests with our partner. I am working with Leland and it is coming along pretty well. We have found the website we want to base it on, and have the general idea of how we are putting it together. I think with just a little more time, we will be ready to present it and have it ready. It is weird how little webquests were available for math. Many math teachers must not like to use the internet in their classrooms very often.

Class on 11-8-10

Today in class, we first talked about our observations. It was interesting to see the wide variety of use of technology in the classrooms of the same content area. We talked about these differences and what may have been better for the students. Then we started our topic of Webquests. We didn't get through everything, but we had a solid introduction on what webquests are and how we are going to make one ourselves. I am working with Leland and we looked over some math webquests but didn't really find anything, so we moved onto looking at spanish webquests. We had better success with these, so we will do a spanish one.

Class on 11-1-10

During class last  week, we first talked about the website activity that we did for homework. It was really interesting to hear about the other math websites and other sites in general that would be useful to my future in teaching. The discussion was very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. Then for the rest of the class, we watched video clips of teachers in the classroom and took notes on how they used technology. I liked the use of this technology to see how other teachers use their resources in the classroom. It was really helpful to see a concrete example and it will help me as a future teacher to be able to incorporate technology.

10-18-10

In class on Monday, we talked a lot about google. Google is the most popular search engine, and has many different applications for the classroom. We talked about how we can use these different applications in our classrooms. Some ideas were to use google scholar for research, to use google maps to show geography all over the world, and google images for a collage. It was a very interesting class because I like google so much, but there is still so much I don't know about it! It was fun to learn more about what google has to offer.

10-11-10

In class on Monday, we basically just talked about our wordles. The assignment was to make a lesson plan that incorporates wordles. So everyone in the class shared their wordle and how they would use it in the lesson. It was very interesting because there were some really great ideas that I would have never thought about! This definitely gave me some ideas of how to incorporate wordles into my lessons.

Class on 10-4-10

I unfortunately was not able to be in class because I had a tennis meet. I did talk with Amanda Tower to get caught up on what I missed.

9-27-10

In class today, we talked a lot about active learning. We got up and met some new people and talked about what kinds of active learning we had experienced. It seems to me that active learning is a much better approach so that the students will make better meaningful connections. This way they will learn in a fun way and its more fun for the teacher so they don't have to just stand up and lecture! We then went outside to take a class picture, which was nice because it was about half way through the class. I also learned that you should onlly stay on one topic for about 10 minutes, then change things up so the students don't get bored.

Class 2

In class Monday, we got to play with certain technologies. Dr. Day brought in her computer that is a note pad, her ipad, and her video camera that plugs straight into the computer. It was fun to get to play with them a little and to get some exposure to the types of technologies out there. The other activity we did in class was where we had to stand in the parts of the room that showed how we felt about a certain statement. It was very interesting to see the different perspectives of the class!

First day of class

On our first true day of class, we shared our woordles. Everyone in class got to share their personal woordle, by explaining all the words that were important to them and described them. I thought that this was a great exercise, especially for the first week of class. That way, kids can share about their lives and whats important to them, and they can also find others in the class with those same interests.