WebQuest

Here's the link to our Webquest: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?user=8079

Our project for this week focused on Webquests. A Webquest is a research activity in which students collect information, where most of the information comes from the world wide web by the necessary links provided.
My fellow group members for this project were Diane and Clarissa (Clare). We chose our topic to focus on the Solar System. We chose the topic because we wanted it to focus on an area that children have an idea of. The Solar system was a choice because we thought it is an idea that has been talked about for many long centuries. It has brought on many changes till today and still scientists and researchers continue to do research and findings. Our objective for this Webquest is for students to learn more about the different planets and their surroundings and to learn how to work do collaborative and individual group work. The Webquest focus is for students to also have the opportunity to do research using technology.
This Webquest will help improve the students learning by helping them gain an experience on how to use technology and incorporate it in their different strategies of learning. This Webquest will help improve the students’ skills in using a computer and the different related skills needed to operate the Internet in looking for important facts and information.
The most important lesson I learned from this activity is that as a future teacher it wouldn’t be hard for me to incorporate technology and having to spend so much money to buy software or materials to get a lesson relayed to students.
Furthermore, what I like about the web-based online tool we used for our Webquest is that it was very user-friendly. Zunal.com was a great tool because it provided the step-by-step instructions in order to complete the Webquest. The only downfall of zunal.com was to use word to fit the size and how you wanted your text to look and then cutting and pasting it into the template on zunal.com. I also dislike how we didn’t get a preview of what we have done so far; rather we had to publish it first.
Lastly, I really learned a lot from this Webquest project. I really think zunal.com is a great web-based online tool. However, if I were to do another Webquest, I would want to do more research on other interesting topics to focus on. I would want to do web searches on different student and teacher links that will be useful to the theme I will focus on.

Engrade.com

Engrade was such a BLAST!! So easy to use, I didn’t even break a sweat. I like how it’s offered for FREE and how user friendly it is. This is such a great way for teachers to keep student grades and for parents to be involved with their child’s assignments and grades. Further, I like how Engrade takes away the hassle of the old grade book where teachers have to input grades by writing them and having to show students their grade by covering other students grade using a separate sheet of paper.

I love how it creates a student grade sheet with all the assignments and grades for each student that makes it easy to print and keep confidential from others. Moreover, I like how you just have to enter the grades and Engrade does all the calculating for you.
On the other hand, I think the only reason why this software wouldn’t be useful to teachers is if they do not have an access to a computer and if the data is lost by accidentally deleting it. Lastly, Engrade would be great software to use, like I have mentioned; it encourages parents to get involved with their child’s assignments and grades. It keeps students records confidential and it is easy to access. As a future teacher, I am looking forward to using Engrade with my students’ grades.

Flat Stanley Mind Map

Here goes Flat Stanley on Mind-Mapping. The concept or characterization I chose for this Mind-Mapping project was a list of ideas I could include in my Flat Stanley Lesson Plans. I chose this concept because it is a very helpful tool to brainstorm the different ideas that could be used with our lesson plan because without brainstorming you’ll lose all your ideas. This concept will also be a very helpful tool with my future students when planning or doing a certain project or activity. My learning outcome or expected goal for my mind-map is to try to incorporate all these ideas into my Flat Stanley lesson plans and to help myself get organized with setting ideas. Further, this mind-map of my Flat Stanley Project will help improve my students learning of the concept because it further explains the ideas and what activities they will be doing. Basically this mind-map will help students understand and get to know the Flat Stanley Project.
The most important lesson I have learned from this activity is how to outline my activities to help students learn the concept of the Flat Stanley Project. Moreover, this activity will be helpful because we could always edit it for our lesson plans or add other ideas or information that will be useful for creating our Flat Stanley Lesson Plan. This activity has helped me to understand the basic uses of a Web2.0 tool such as Gliffy and the JingProject.
Lastly, because I thought this was really fun and very helpful I will continue to use this tool (mind-map) for projects, activities, and lesson plans for other subjects. However, I hope to discover other FREE and user Friendly Web2.0 tools for mind mapping.