Internet Awareness

Attendance was crucial in this class, as the details of a large internet project were explained. We are to research the criteria of what makes a website legitimate, or not. Bobbie was missing, and is in my group, so luckily she is sitting next to me in the computer lab at this very minute. The project has a lot of steps, but each builds on the last and the final result will be something that will help us inthe classroom. As teachers, we need to inform our students and their parents how to use the internet in the most effective and safe manner.

PowerPoint Activity

In class we learned the importance of making lessons more hands-on. PowerPoint projects are a great way for students to learn and the possibilities are limitless. This week's assignment will help us to see firsthand what PowerPoint learning is like. Because we are allowed to two extra projects, I will be doing five. I had no idea what Tom Swifties were. Fun stuff! Word Art is one that I will use ALL the time! Not just for kids.

CultureGram Powerpoint

CultureGram is an excellent resource for children and adults alike. The quality of information is impressive, especially knowing it's provided by inside sources. This became especially clear to me when I searched the recipes under the country France. Only after traveling to France did I know that the French put chocolate in their crepes, specifically Nutella. Their crepes are divine, and the chocolate makes them out-of-this-world. The recipe provided mentions the chocolate topping, and the listed method of making the crepes is far different than any I've used. It makes a difference to have the batter sit to rest, etc.. I'm so intrigued by these authentic recipes. What a fun site, and so easy to navigate.

Powerpoint

This week's lesson trumped everything so far regarding usefulness. Because I am a visual learner this is probalbly the tool I will use the most. If prep time is enjoyable it will be easier to spend more time on it and the results will yeild a much higher quality. I wish I had the time to do everything I wanted to do on this project. I even purchased Photo Shop so that I could get started with more quality work in my projects. The runner and cheetah in the racing slide were made possible throught that effort. Powerpoint not only has endless teaching potential, it'sa lot of fun, too.

Pioneer Library Project

This week's assignment was very helpful for my future career as a teacher. Each collection available at Pioneer library provides a wealth of resources. All were valuable, educational, and easy to navigate. As I am an information junkie, this has been my favorite project thus far.

Here are some samples of what is available at Pioneer Library


1. The Library of Congress has many portals available and I will focus on three favorites
- National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
~ As many resources available as a person could want from a library, from children's
books and Talking Books audio library, to complete piano scores in braille.

- Everyday Mysteries- fun Science Facts Form the Library of Congress
~ Every day you can check in and find a 'question of the day', or you can research
the archives to find past Q & A. The question de jour happened to be "what is the
strongets muscle in the body? The answer: There is no one answer since so many
muscles have different muscle function.

- The Bookstore- Offers many items that feature pictures and information found throughout
the library. One catergory I particuarly liked was the calendars. The pictures
come from books within the library, as previously mentioned, and are of the highest quality.

2. SIRS Discoverer is a search engine that filters through to bring the best of educational links. It is far different than engines such as Google, in that it is education based, not retail based. This, however can cause some obstacles, depending on one's needs. For example, I did a search on 'mazes' so that I could print an easy halloween maze for my class. No maze template came up, but there was a lot of information on corn mazes and other agricultural and historal information on mazes. Interesting, but not what I needed
There are many general topics available and can easily be found on the homepage, such as Cultures, Environment, and Drugs and Alcohol. Another fun feature is the Photo Essays, which show a photo of a topic, such as Roman culture, along with an informative essay.

3. Because I am a preschool teacher, I was particularly drawn to Preschool Pioneer.
there is a delightful Word of the Day http://preschool.uen.org/word_day.shtml which is
colorful and exciting. Today's word was 'nail'.

There are many links to educational resources for subjects such as 'Letters, 'Numbers', and
'Me', many of which are provided by PBS. A favorite of mine was "Cows Don't Quack".

There was a reading section which started out with a helpful tip on the home page icon: "Hold
the book upside down and backwards. See if your child can turn it the right way."