Monday, November 24, 2008
The final stretch!
I appreciated all the time we had in class to work on our final project. Each section seems to be a little bit of a challenge mixed with just the right amount of fun and learning. I feel like I have acquired several new skill that will help me day to day as well as in my career as a teacher. My only concern is the fact that I don't want to forget how to use and access the many, many different software programs I have found. I am looking forward to getting a lot of pactice as I continue my eduation. By the time I am finished with my Master's degree I figure there will be a whole new world of softward at our fingertips. I'm excited to see what the future holds for technology in education.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Kidspiration/Inspiration
We were asked this week to play around on "Kidspiration"/"Inspiration" for 30 min. or so. The biggest problem I had was making myself stop after 30 minutes. By the time I was done "playing" I realized I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface. What an incredible resource for teachers and their students! "Kidspiration" seemed to be geared more toward younger children and "Inspiration" was geared for a little bit older student, but both were amazing!
A few of the activities I tried on "Kidspiration" were, "Alike and Different", "Balanced Meals" and the "50 States". In the "Alike and Different" category a student learns to group similar items. After removing items that do not belong and finding a new item that matches the others the student then moves to step two. This step involves critical thinking as the student must think about what makes these items alike, such as animals, or flowers. Then the student is to write down these similarities. Since students learn in several different ways, this is a great tool to help children learn the same idea from many angles.
"Balanced Meals" was a lot of fun. Students are to create a nutritious meal from the library of food items displayed on the side. The students drag the items onto the lunch tray and creat a healty choice of foods for their meal. There are several choices of "junk food" items as well as healthy foods for them to choose from. What a creative way for children to learn to make good food choices when faced with many options.
The "50 States" were a great tool as well. Each state was layed out like a puzzle. Students are to move the states into their proper location on the map and make the United States look as it should. Then they can add labels with the democraphics of the state featuring items such as the state capital, or the terrain in the area...
Mathematics were very colorful and fun for the students as well. The children could learn even basic statistics by learning to use bar graphs from data they can pull from at school. One way they could do this would be to count how many students ate each different meal for lunch in their classroom. The possiblities in "Kidspiration" were endless!
Like I said earlier, "Inspiration" seemed geared toward a little bit older crowd, but had very similar software. The students were able to have help outlining and creating an essay, doing a science experiment, adding hyperlinks to their projects and increasing their vocabulary.
One of many tools inspiration has is a word guide to pull from as you are writing research papers and essay's . If the student were to type in a word such as "happy", not only would they be told it is an adjective, they would also be given a huge list of synonyms as well as Antonymsn(the opposite meaning). The student can then click "insert" and it will automatically insert the word into the writing assignment.
As the students read a book they can also take the main character and find how every other character in the book influences or connects to the main cahracter, such as enemies, friends, relatives, school friends... Students are then able to practice retaining and recalling information which is a skill they will need throughout all of their years of school.
If taken advantage of in the classroom, this software, like all the others we have been learning to use are a wonderful resource for students and educators everywhere!
A few of the activities I tried on "Kidspiration" were, "Alike and Different", "Balanced Meals" and the "50 States". In the "Alike and Different" category a student learns to group similar items. After removing items that do not belong and finding a new item that matches the others the student then moves to step two. This step involves critical thinking as the student must think about what makes these items alike, such as animals, or flowers. Then the student is to write down these similarities. Since students learn in several different ways, this is a great tool to help children learn the same idea from many angles.
"Balanced Meals" was a lot of fun. Students are to create a nutritious meal from the library of food items displayed on the side. The students drag the items onto the lunch tray and creat a healty choice of foods for their meal. There are several choices of "junk food" items as well as healthy foods for them to choose from. What a creative way for children to learn to make good food choices when faced with many options.
The "50 States" were a great tool as well. Each state was layed out like a puzzle. Students are to move the states into their proper location on the map and make the United States look as it should. Then they can add labels with the democraphics of the state featuring items such as the state capital, or the terrain in the area...
Mathematics were very colorful and fun for the students as well. The children could learn even basic statistics by learning to use bar graphs from data they can pull from at school. One way they could do this would be to count how many students ate each different meal for lunch in their classroom. The possiblities in "Kidspiration" were endless!
Like I said earlier, "Inspiration" seemed geared toward a little bit older crowd, but had very similar software. The students were able to have help outlining and creating an essay, doing a science experiment, adding hyperlinks to their projects and increasing their vocabulary.
One of many tools inspiration has is a word guide to pull from as you are writing research papers and essay's . If the student were to type in a word such as "happy", not only would they be told it is an adjective, they would also be given a huge list of synonyms as well as Antonymsn(the opposite meaning). The student can then click "insert" and it will automatically insert the word into the writing assignment.
As the students read a book they can also take the main character and find how every other character in the book influences or connects to the main cahracter, such as enemies, friends, relatives, school friends... Students are then able to practice retaining and recalling information which is a skill they will need throughout all of their years of school.
If taken advantage of in the classroom, this software, like all the others we have been learning to use are a wonderful resource for students and educators everywhere!
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