Creating a Website

One of our big projects this semester was to create a classroom website that will be useful to us in the coming years. To do this, we used Google's free website tool. I did enjoy this process because I like to be creative. However, the tool only let me go so far with customization. I suppose this can be expected with a free tool. I was very exciting about creating something that will be useful to me in the future, and a classroom website is definitely something I wanted to have anyway. My classroom website will be used as a tool to help parents stay up-to-date and provide them and students with useful references. Overall, I am happy with how my site turned out. I think it is visually appealing and useful. Next time I work with creating a website, I would like to be able to be more creative with my layouts and custom details. I found a cool site called moonfruit.com that also allows you to create free sites. The customization it allows is much more than Google, and it also lets you have a blog right on the site. Parents can also sign up their emails to notify them about updates. I have only started creating a site there, but I plan to try to develop one.

Here is a link to my site.
Here is a screen shot of the site I created using Google sites:

StoryBird

StoryBird allows you to create your own stories using their collection of artwork. This is a screen shot of the cover of the short story I create for practice. Teachers can use this tool to create any type of story, which can be used electronically and read to the children or printed off to create a physical book. I think this is a fun tool, but I had some trouble with it. I found it hard to search for pictures that fit the topic you are looking for, and I wish that we were not limited to their images only. It would be useful to be able to upload my own images. On the other hand, it was easy to assemble the story once I found images to use. It was very quick, which would be useful for a teacher balancing activities. I think I would use this in my classroom to create stories to read to my class, and display it using an overhead. Next time, I will try to create a story with more in depth text and more pages.

iMovie

I created this video as a mini-tour of Cades Cove (a part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park).

iMovie is a tool that you can use to piece together photos, videos, sound, and other elements to create videos. Videos are great additions to standard curriculum, which can draw the interest of your students. I decided to create a mini-tour of Cades Cove, a part of the Great Smoky Mountains. This can be used as a virtual field trip that shows the highlights of Cades Cove. This video would be a great supplement to environmental lessons, sections about national parks, or any other nature and wildlife lessons. One other way I might use a video in my classroom is for an ABCs video. This could include slides for each letter with images that relate to that letter. I really did enjoy the process of creating my first video. I didn't know that it would be so easy as it was. I do wish I had used more than one sound clip, which I will try next time. I also think it would be interesting to narrate the slide I had text on. It would be useful for younger kids, who may have a hard time reading quickly. So that it something to try in the future.

Excel Spreadsheets

We are currently learning how to use Excel spreadsheets to make interactive worksheets for kids. Excel is a tool made by Microsoft that is used to create spreadsheets for a variety of purposes. For teachers, the spreadsheets can create interactive worksheets. The students can enter their answers electronically and the computer can check the answers automatically. This is a great time saver for teachers. I would most often use this tool to practice math questions because they have cut and dry single answers. I did enjoy my final product, but it took awhile to create the worksheet. I'm sure it would be more useful when I become more familiar with the process. Next time I create a worksheet, I think I will try using math questions.

This is an example of what the children would see:

This is a view of what I see when working on the spreadsheet (includes correct answers and scores):

Inspired by Inspiration

Last week we learned about Inspiration. Inspiration is a tool that enables you to design your own diagrams to supplement classroom topics. You can create a diagram of any topic and customize it to your needs with organization, colors, fonts, etc. I created a diagram of the Life Cycle of a Butterfly, which meets the curriculum standard of GLE 0207.4.1 for second grade. I found Inspiration fun and interesting to use because I was able to make what I wanted from scratch and really customize it. I could make it look like I wanted it to and focus on material I wanted to focus on at the same time. One thing I found difficult was making the arrows for my life cycle. My instructor, Don, and I were unable to find a way to rotate images and/or arrows. Therefore I did not have arrows that fit into my cycle correctly. I had to use arrows from Word Documents and work on them in Photoshop before they were usable. I think it would be a great idea to make diagrams with empty "symbols" attached to the main ideas, so that I can print them and let the children fill them out. Diagrams and flow charts really help children to organize concepts and comprehend the content. I would definitely use Inspiration for this use in my classroom. Next time I would like to try making a web diagram instead of a cycle.


This is the diagram I made using Inspiration:

PodBean

Scavenger Hunt: "Opposites"

We split into groups to go on a scavenger hunt! My group had the theme "opposites". Scavenger hunts are such a great way to get students involved in learning and moving around! I enjoyed the time out of the classroom and the chance to work together in groups. We didn't really get the best photos, so next time I would work harder to get nice photos. I think I would use scavenger hunts in my classroom to supplement any themed topics like colors, opposites, shapes, nature, leaves/plants, etc. It's interesting to the kids because they can get involved in the experience. It also builds team skills, since the children will have to work together.

This is a slideshow that I created using Picasa.



This slideshow was created using a different tool, Google Presentations.