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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Resource Wiki
Monday, October 17, 2011
Colors Scavenger Hunt
In class we were divided into groups to do a digital scavenger hunt where we went outside to take pictures of things that pertained to our topic. My groups topic was "colors" so we took pictures on a digital camera of items that were each of these colors: black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, purple, red, white, and yellow. After we obtained the images on each of our computers, we worked on our own to make slideshows of the scavenger hunt pictures. First, I uploaded my pictures to Picasa Web Album, a picture sharing website, where I created the first slideshow seen below. I later uploaded these same pictures to Google Docs to make a Google Presentation. This is the second slideshow seen below.
Everything went well with this activity, except for the fact that we had a little difficulty transferring the pictures from the camera to the computer. Once we figured out that minor complication, the rest of the activity went smoothly. Both Picasa Web Album and Google Presentation were easy to use and pretty self-explanatory. I enjoyed learning how to use these sites because they will be helpful in the future for picture sharing. I will be able to use this in my classroom for assignments very similar to this one. I think having my students do their own digital scavenger hunts could be very useful in teaching them how to use technology, create slideshows, share pictures, and even teach their peers.
The scavenger hunt itself was a fun activity. I enjoyed going outside during class time to take pictures. I was in a group of three that got along great and enjoyed searching for certain things together! Since our category was "colors" we each looked for items in nature that were a specific color. On a few of the colors (ones that you wouldn't expect to be difficult!) we had to get creative by taking pictures of clothing articles, etc. All went well, and I think this would definitely be an activity that elementary age students would enjoy!
Everything went well with this activity, except for the fact that we had a little difficulty transferring the pictures from the camera to the computer. Once we figured out that minor complication, the rest of the activity went smoothly. Both Picasa Web Album and Google Presentation were easy to use and pretty self-explanatory. I enjoyed learning how to use these sites because they will be helpful in the future for picture sharing. I will be able to use this in my classroom for assignments very similar to this one. I think having my students do their own digital scavenger hunts could be very useful in teaching them how to use technology, create slideshows, share pictures, and even teach their peers.
The scavenger hunt itself was a fun activity. I enjoyed going outside during class time to take pictures. I was in a group of three that got along great and enjoyed searching for certain things together! Since our category was "colors" we each looked for items in nature that were a specific color. On a few of the colors (ones that you wouldn't expect to be difficult!) we had to get creative by taking pictures of clothing articles, etc. All went well, and I think this would definitely be an activity that elementary age students would enjoy!
Smilebox
Halloween Invitation:
This is a site that I could use to create neat things for my future classroom. It was fun and easy to make this invitation. Older students would be able to help create invitations for a class party. Younger students could give input on what they wanted the invitation to look like. There are a lot of ways I could incorporate this tool into my classroom. Next time I would spend more time picking out what I wanted and would already know what picture(s) I wanted to use!
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| Free invite personalized with Smilebox |
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Google Earth
Yesterday in class we learned about Google Earth. A guest speaker, Don McMahon, came to teach us how to use this tool. It is very fascinating, and I enjoyed learning more about how to use it. He showed us many ways that this can be useful in our classrooms. There are so many different ways to use it- from science and social studies lessons to literature lessons. Before his demonstration I had no idea that Google Earth could be used for so many things!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Inquiry-Based Activity
Chelcie and I did our inquiry-based activity on the planets in our solar system. This activity went really well because we had the Rockstar assignment as our guide and were able to easily find a website to use for the activity. This site is the one we used, and it was great for the questions we wanted to ask students.
This tool will be very useful in instruction with students because it was an easy way to have students do their own research on the web in a simple manner. I could definitely see myself using this in the way we used it for the planet assignment or for other topics the students could easily find interesting facts about on a particular website.
The only thing I would consider doing differently next time is having a little bit more time to research and browse the website before creating an assignment from it. We briefly examined the website though, and it seemed very practical.
This tool will be very useful in instruction with students because it was an easy way to have students do their own research on the web in a simple manner. I could definitely see myself using this in the way we used it for the planet assignment or for other topics the students could easily find interesting facts about on a particular website.
The only thing I would consider doing differently next time is having a little bit more time to research and browse the website before creating an assignment from it. We briefly examined the website though, and it seemed very practical.
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