Coastal Habitat Restoration Blog

Coastal Habitat Restoration GIS, this website is very helpful and would be a very good website for any teacher to use in their classroom. I like the links that are on it especially the Texas Beach Watch website. Living here in Corpus Christi, Texas and having no idea about this site is helpful to learn about the water quality at the beach. This site is put together well and it does have tons of information, but it is pretty easy to move around in. You don't seem to get lost as you are going thru the site. The pictures of the different beaches with the data is very detailed. I learned things I had no clue about, so I can imagine the students.

Students voicethread

working with student

I have had many issues with this project, but I think I have finally finished. Ihad issues with finding a CCMS student, so I decided to use the ones that I work with everyday. I started working with a boy named Alex and we did alot of the research on volcanoes and then when it was time to do the voicethread Alex was absent. Then I decided to pull another student and work with them on the voicethread. We decided to go over the research and then I taught her about voicethreads. It ended up working out in the end.

Finally

I finally have a child to work with. After awhile of waiting for responses, I have a child. I really am excited to start and teach him something new. We have done the start up blog, as well as first post we are now gathering the information that we need to do a voicethread and movie. I am feeling a little overwhelmed because we have to find the information and do the assignment. I feel like it is a great learning expierence for the student and I.

CCMS Project

I emailed my parent on Monday. I recieved an email back on Thursday evening that the parent talked to the child and they did not want to be involved. Which is fine I have a child and completely understand a parent signing a child up for something and it back firing. I now have the task of finding out an email for a new student I have been assigned. I hope this works out because I am runnign out of time. I feel somewhat stressed because I have a nine year old and work as a special ed para full time. Oh and do not forget I go to college three nights a week, I am taking twelve hours. I love the technology I have learned, but if I feel the pressure. I hope to have a happier post this week.

weather video

Spreadsheets

This is my wedding budget with graph. I think using spreadsheets in the classroom will be beneficial to the children. You can compare numbers, calculate as well as modify when you need to. Spreadsheets are a nice tool to learn about technology. Learning about formulas is something many do not know as adults now, but teaching your students will help them greatly throughout life.

My unit theme is weather. This would be beneficial in collecting data. Things such as rain and all other weather data could be put on the spreadsheets. I could have them record the tempature outside for a week and then put it into a spreedsheet. This could work with wind or rain as well.

I

student sample

Internet Resources

I can envision using many different things from the Internet in my unit plan. Using images would be very helpful in showing pictures that look different than one you may show out of a book. I think some of the images are more realistic looking than some that you may see in a book. I looked at images of hurricanes and different weather situations. This will be helpful in my unit plan since I am showing weather pictures to get the feel of the different weather that is out there. Another thing I can definitely see myself also using videos, some of the videos I have looked at will make the images I show first come to life with the sound and actual video of the weather.

Blogging in the Classroom

I hope to use technology in my classroom. I just need more training. I think that it will make lesson plans easier and finding things to go along with your lessons, more interesting. Technology is the new up and coming thing. I feel that we as teachers will need to be able to incorporate it into our classrooms. It will make it easier for the students to also learn about it before they get into college.
According to David Warlick, "Essentially, anyone without the technologies for accessing the Internet, and the skills to use that technology, may as well not know how to read." This is why it is important to use blogs and technology in general in the classroom. This is what is all around us and students need to understand computers. This is why a blog would be helpful in teaching technology in the class.

Inquiry-based learning is seeking for truth or knowledge. You seek information by asking an essential questioning. Inquiring approach is focused more on using and learning content through problem solving. Its focused on more how do we come to this knowledge then what we know. It dates back to Socrates and John Dewey is associated with this method of teaching. It is deeply intertwined with Constructivism. In the classroom you should use inference, interpretation, transfer and questions about hypothesis. Teachers should keep in mind four things when developing lesson plans content of subjects, content of a larger conceptual framework, information processing skills and natured habits of mind.
Project-based learning is active and engaged learning. The students actively work in small groups and then the students are evaluated by the basis of their projects. This is different then being graded by a rubric on a essay that you wrote. The student is exploring a real world problem and challenges while working in small groups. http://pbl-online.org is a website that will help you make lessons plans for a project based activity. It has many resources for you to use.