Friday, September 26, 2008

My first lesson plan!

This week we learned all about how to make a curriculm connection lesson plan that involves the use of technology in the classroom. It was very neat to learn the many different parts to a lesson plan. I especially like the ABCD format of the instructional objective. I'm so glad we go to make a lesson plan to integrate technology into the classroom. Lesson plans are essential to managing a successful, organized classroom. I know that as a beginning teacher I will make very elaborate lesson plans so that ever step of the process is planned and thought through.

Another thing that we learned about this week, was the usefulness of the Tech Lab. It is a great resource for textbooks that schools are using. I really enjoyed looking at all the different textbooks and how the units in each book coresponded with the state standards. I'm sure that I will be using that resource in the future.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Training complete!

I really enjoyed class this week, because we got to do more hands on activities and further explore how to use and edit wikis, blogs and webquests. I really enjoy using wikis and experiemented by starting one with a friend of mine. I feel that by doing so I have a better understanding of how they work, since I'm not the only one editing it. I can see a use for these in the classroom. I especially hope to be able to incorporate blogs into my classroom. I feel like students would feel much more classroom envolvement and responsiblity through reporting about the classroom activities.

This week, we actually got to create our own webquest activities. I like researching and finding websites that are good resources for the classroom. I feel that it is very important to make sure the websites are reliable and valid before letting students use them, which is why webquests are very cool, because they lay out the websites for the students. A cool alternative to reading information out of a textbook!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

WebQuests are Awesome!

Today we learned about WebQuests! These are really cool sites created by teachers as an interactive tool to get students more invovled with using the web. We were provided with some great resources and examples of WebQuests. Exploring the different examples today made me really excited about using these types of things in my classroom. It definitely allows students to explore outside of textbooks and do activities that are more engaging.

Monday, September 8, 2008

My first post!

So far in my Instructional Tech Intro class we have learned about internet use and the many helpful tools that are available to organize information and communicate with others. We've learned how to create blogs and this blog is a way to experiment with blogging and document what I've learned in class. Today in class we are learning about wikis and how they can be useful in the classroom.