Thursday, September 18, 2008

Week 6 Reflection

1. How would you describe this course to a colleague?
This is an online course that introduces you to various online tools, encourages you to play around with them, and helps you implement them in your classroom. Along the way, you get to see other teachers use the same tools. This helps answer questions and get ideas for your own classroom.

2. What was the best part of the course and why?
The best part was that it was completely online. I was able to work when and where I wanted to.

3. What will you take away from this course to use in your classroom?
Because of this course, I have started a classroom blog. I wish I would have thought of doing that years ago. I used to teach kindergarten, and I know it would have been a GREAT way to communicate with parents. I have always used classroom webpages, but a blog is much easier to keep updated.

4. What is one thing you would change about this course for the next group?
I think the only thing that I would change would be a face-to-face meeting at both the beginning and the end. It would be nice to see everyone that is in the class at the beginning before getting started. We could start the first lesson together to make sure that everyone understood the expectations and how to begin. Then we could do the rest on our own before having one last meeting at the end.

5. Would you recommend this course to anyone else? Why or why not?
I would definitely recommend this course. I learned so many new things that are available to use in the classroom. I don't think I would have spent the time learning about these things on my own (or even how to find them!), so it was nice to have the guidance. I look forward to Web 2.0 Course 2!

The Next Step

For my last assignment, I decided to create a classroom blog. I'm using Wordpress, so I'm having to relearn how to add things to it and customize it. For now, I'm making sure to post each day so the parents have a summary of our day and the homework assignments. My goal is to add videos of various math concepts as they are taught in class so the parents and students will have something to look back on. I think it would be great if I could get videos of the students teaching a concept put on there as well.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Week 5 Reflection

1. What did you learn?
I learned how to use Photobucket to make adding pictures to my blog SO MUCH EASIER!! I also learned how to make a playlist.

2. How will you use what you have learned?
I think the most useful thing from this lesson for my classroom is embedded videos from YouTube and TeacherTube. I found so many math lessons already created and online. I know that some of my parents will appreciate being able to see a lesson that is similar to what we did in class so they can help their students work at home. I'm not sure that I would use a photo sharing site or playlist on a classroom blog, but I will definitely utilize those things for my personal blog!

3. How did you feel about this tool?
I enjoyed learning about these tools.

4. What do you not want to forget about this tool?
I really want to remember the vast number of video resources available online. I also want to remember how to put them on my blog for parents to access.

5. How can this be used in the classroom or in your educational role?
As I said above, the embedded videos are going to be very useful for showing parents (and reminding students) of what we did in class. I plan on adding this type of video to my classroom blog when I can find one that fits the current curriculum.

6. Should you use this in the classroom or your educational role?
Absolutely!

7. Would you use a shared media like playlist.com?
I don't know that I would use a playlist on a classroom blog. Although I enjoy hearing the music, my parents might not want to hear it every time they open the blog.

8. What questions do you still have about this tool?
Is there a way to search for music by theme/type when creating playlists?

The Sieve of Eratosthenes

We are beginning our unit on Factors and Multiples. Today's lesson was on the Sieve of Eratosthenes. We did the activity with our students in class. This video is a GREAT example to share with parents to show them what we did in class. It's also great for absent students. I am excited about the possibility of finding more math concept videos online!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Houston Children's Museum

Photobucket

Houston Children's Museum

Photobucket

Shared Media

Shared media is putting various forms of media (pictures, video, etc) on the Internet where it is accessible to many people for many things. Creative Commons allows people to use the media for their own purpose. Fair use allows teachers to use various forms of media in an educational way that might otherwise be inaccessible due to copyright laws.