Final Thoughts...

I have enjoyed this class so very much. I can think of a way to use every single web 2.0 tool that we have learned about in my future classroom. I plan on using all of these tools to interest, excite, and motivate my students as much as I possibly can. Without this class, I would not know about 95% of the tools that I now know about. This is definitely what went well for me throughout this class. What I would do differently next time is to not panic whenever something (e.g. a tool and/or website) does not work right or go as smoothly as I'd like. This is something I will have to continue to work on.

Finishing our Classroom Websites!

This week we have been putting the finishing touches on our classroom websites. I am so excited to know that I will have this site and all of the resources to take with me when I go to apply to jobs and to use in my future classroom. I will definitely be using this with my students (and their parents) in my classroom not only as an excellent resource for them, but also for me as a teacher. I can feel confident knowing that I am bringing something so useful to my classroom. What didn't go so well for me in creating this site was having to go back and retype (ALL OF) the Wiki resources that I pasted on my resources pages so that the font would match throughout my website. I honestly wouldn't do anything differently next time. I am extremely pleased overall with how my website turned out and I am excited to put it to use! Take a look at Ms. Trimble's Classroom Website!

StoryBird.com

StoryBird is such a great site for teachers to use in their classrooms because they can create original short stories for their students to view and to read. What went well for me was that I loved picking out the illustrations and creating a little story to go along with them. Next time I would like to create several short stories that are similar to a series, because I think that students learning to read would enjoy reading them.

Journey to the Planets...

This week we have been working with iMovie to put together a Digital Story. I really enjoyed learning how to use iMovie because I know it will be a wonderful tool to use in the classroom for teaching lessons on many different subjects. I will be able to use my particular video (Journey to the Planets) in my future classroom as well as a fun way to introduce the topic of outer space and the planets. What went well for me during this assignment was that iMovie was very user friendly. I found it very easy to load the images and the music. I also found it easy to edit the music clips to shorten/lengthen them to my satisfaction. It was difficult for me to find photos that were in either creative commons or public domain that were of high resolution. What I would do differently next time is be more conscious about allowing enough time for the captions to be read.

Animoto!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Animal Cell - Excel Spread Sheet

We have been learning how to create an interactive spreadsheet. We had to come up with ten questions to enter into the spread sheet with one word answers. For my questions, I chose to use the topic of Animal Cells to go along with the diagram I created. What did not go so well for me was that it was a little difficult to enter in the codes for the correct answers and the points. The good news is that I learned to save the original compound words as a template and create my animal cells spreadsheet off of that. I will definitely try and use this in my classroom. I based the questions on my spread sheet off of my diagram so that the two can be used together. The questions on the spreadsheet reinforce what the students should learn from the animal cell diagram. This is an example of how I plan to use spreadsheets in my future classroom.

Compound Word - Excel Spreadsheet

Inspiration 9-Animal Cells

This week, we have been learning how to use Inspiration 9 software to create useful diagrams for the classroom. The topic of my diagram is the Animal Cell. My diagram satisfies the standard GLE 0407.1.1- Recognize that cells are the building blocks of all living things, SPI 0407.1.1- Compare basic structures of plant and animal cells and NETS-T 3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. I have enjoyed learning to use this tool more than any other that we have learned so far. I will definitely use this in my future classroom for presenting new concepts and ideas, especially in areas where a visual tool will be more successful in presenting the information. What went well for me was that the topic that I chose ended up being perfect for diagraming. What didn't go well is that I was not about do a diagram of the plant cell like I had originally wanted to do. I wasn't able to do this because there was not enough room to successfully display both an animal cell diagram and a plant cell diagram. Next time I will try and use more graphics/images in my diagram and less words. I think this would help to hold the students' attention.