Week 8 Blog

There are so many benefits to using online communication tools in the classroom. One benefit that I would personally experience is the ability to share information between colleagues, parents and students. Another is the ability to make lessons interactive in classrooms. A big benefit is also that online tools can be used to better differentiate during instruction time.

I have learned a lot in this course. I think the most valuable thing that I am coming away with is the fact that there are so many more resources available than I ever would have known about on my own. I now have a good list of resources that I would like to use when I begin student teaching next year. I don’t think I would have found many of those resources on my own.

I don’t have a class yet, so I can’t implement anything immediately. However, I can see making quick use of BrainPOP and Storybird when I have my own classroom, as well as basics like Excel, Word, Power Point, etc.  

Week 7 Blog

My WebQuest can be found at: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=223795

This is the first WebQuest I have created. I found it to be pretty difficult overall. My primary problem with it was probably my topic (how plants grow). While it's a topic that I find interesting and think would be interesting for kids, after I got halfway through my WebQuest I began to second guess how much I really liked the topic for this assignment. At that point, though, I felt that it was too late to start completely over. If I were to do it over again, I would pick a different topic that felt more "fun" to explore.

Tech Exploration - Remind 101

Remind 101 is a text messaging service created for teachers to text their classes to remind them about upcoming assignments, tests, etc. It is set up to be safe for teachers and students – teachers don’t see the phone numbers of their students, and students don’t see their teacher’s phone number. Parents and students sign up via email or text after a teacher has set up an account. It is free and seems easy to use.

This would be great in a high school setting. It could be very useful to remind students about important things that are coming up. One more way to remind students that is quick and easy, and students will actually check text messages as opposed to other forms of communication.

I would recommend it to teachers of older students (definitely high school, maybe middle school depending on the particular school). It obviously would not be useful for the vast majority of elementary age students.  I know from experience that text is the way to communicate with high school students, so I think using that technology in a safe and protected way (for students and teachers), is a great idea.