Internet Resources

                                     
WOW! What great progress the internet has made for school teachers and students. The internet has so many tools for teachers to use for free or for a slight fee. There are so many things we can do on the internet. In the book that we currently read in class you can find very useful information about what educational tools the internet has to offer. I have some information, Internet Resources   on a few chapters that I found most useful to take on to my classroom.

I think it is important for teachers to use computers and technology because it can become very fun for the students and it gets them engaged. Its just a matter of time on teaching them how to access certain information and how to use the computers or iPads. Whether the students are reading on the computer or iPad or doing math problems they will still enjoy it. Students tend to like anything that gets away from paper and pencil. In my classroom we will not sit and lecture the whole day. It is my responsibility to get my student active and at the end of the day still learn something and go home ready to come to school the next day. Some teachers can make school very overwhelming for students. I think if we can create class blogs we can probably eliminate homework. It will be like homework because they will have to blog a post but since it is on the computer they won't seem to have a problem with it. They won't even notice that blogging will be considered Homework even though it is done at home.

Students should be able to express themselves and give their opinions about a topic. Blogging will allow this because there can never be a wrong answer. It is always what you think and if a student thinks blogging is not his thing then we will accommodate something else that he likes. It is all about the students interests. We need to teach to their abilities.

Technology Day's

I think it is important to get my students familiar with using a blog because our generation is basically run off of technology. Students need to know how to post things and publish them so that their classmates can see and work off of their ideas.  As a teacher I will help students to build a blog but only for school purposes. It is very important to make sure and be able to track their progress because we don't want to be opening them up to inappropriate things on the Internet.  My students will learn how to look up information on the Web and publish it on their blog. I think blogs can also keep the students from becoming nervous because they won't have to get in front of the class and read their papers. I know this can make students shy and embarrassed about their work. In my class we will be able to post anything about a topic and feel confident because for one it is on a blog, and for two their peers will be learning off of each other. This will be a no judgment zone and students will comment on how well a student covered a certain area. 

My student's parents will also have access to all of the students blog entries. I will always include the parents. I will also have parents consent to make sure it is okay to have my students create a blog. My students and I will learn off of each other. We will go forward all the time and if anyone is every stuck we will all work from their. For more information check out David Warlick blog. He has very interesting things.

Inquiry and Project Based Learning to Solve Problems

This week the students in my class will have a Unit Plan that is over problem solving and discovering how to solve problems in science, social studies, and mathematics. These three subjects can come together and form one essential question which was, How do you solve a problem? It is important for students at the kindergarden grade level to become familiar with solving problems since we do this just about everyday. 

• For science my unit question is How can we eliminate littering at the beach? This question allows students to use critical thinking skills to come up with a solution on ways to eliminate littering at the beach. We can even go deeper into the question and subject and ask students, What is littering?
• For Social Studies I will ask the students in groups What is the most effective way to design a volcano? The students will be able to come up with a problem and experience different ways to solve and make a decision. 
• For Mathematics the students will be asked How can we construct a table of favorite pets? The students will have to make a table by given information on a survey on favorite pets. They will come up with a way to put all the information on a table and determine what the favorite pet of the classroom is. 

The students will be using inquiry and project based learning throughout the problem solving process. They will need to use some background knowledge for all three subjects in order to come up with a solution. They will also need to do some research to look further into a subject and by doing so I will have them look online and in non-fiction books. We will be working as a class for the most part and we will come up with the best solution for each question.

Unit Plan