Week 9

Today was mostly pinpointed on learning how to create a website on Wordpress.com. This website really jumped out at me once we began learning about it. You can start with deciding if you want a free website or if you want to pay more to get a website ending in; .com, .org, etc. To begin we got to pick whatever template spoke to us the most and from there the website has many options for you to choose from and decide how complex you want your website. From adding different tabs/ pages, to adding different posts this website is amazing. I was very intrigued by it and have already committed to helping my dad make a website for his company. When I got introduced to this website, at first I thought it would be a lot harder then it really is. I know there are many more tools within the website I haven't learned or realized yet but along the way, just messing around with the site, I have learned so much. This could easily be a website I turn to to make my own website for my future classroom. Its user friendly and comes out looking very professional. Once again, never a dull moment in ED270!
Until next time!

Week 8

Today we were shown what hour of code was. We were told to jump right in and pick whatever games we wanted to see what coding really is. I started with a harder game and finished with an easier one. The games made you critically think without really showing you that you were doing what coding is. I took away from this that coding is simply just a long list of moves for the computer to do to create something awesome. Then we used dreamworks to begin on making a website. It is very interesting that you have to edit your website in the application and then go to the website to see how it actually what you have made. It seems every plan and boring, but it is awesome to see how the basics of a website is made. I don't know how much I would use this application down the road because it does seem very complex, but the website looks very plain. After being introduced to this application I can see why people are intimidated by it. After working in dreamworks for awhile the application became more complex and more scary, but it was so cool to see how the website grows. Today was just another day of learning something new. I can't wait to see what next week has in store. Until next time!

Week 7

Today in class we got to explore the apple app store to find apps we could potentially use within our classroom. Once we found an app we could use we did a quick class write up of how we would use it in the class. It was simply just a quick mini "lesson plan" and what we wanted our students to learn from the app being used. Then we got to make our own app on this website, ibuildapp.com. This was one amazing experience, and awesome that we could make our own app how we wanted for our fake school. This website is amazing because without putting it into the app store you can just send it to those that you want to see it and have it. This website will be something I use later down the road for my own classroom to have for the parents of my students. This will be a way to stay connected with my students parents. I never knew this was even out there and available for people to make. I liked having an option of templates to start off with and then the freedom to arrange and change things to make it the way you want your app. Today was just another eye opener to how many tools and new websites are really out there to discover and use within our classroom. I cannot wait to stay involved and keep researching for more websites to use within my class or create things such as the app to then use for my classroom. Another day at ED270 class was full of information as always.
Until next time!

Week 6

This weeks class started out by looking up a few websites to see if they are credible or not. It was interesting to see the different kinds of websites out there and see how some of them are hard to figure out if they are legit or not. We then were assigned on making a multiple choice or true/false question on media literacy guidelines. The hard part of this is that we had to try and make it so it was a critical thinking question and not a right and wrong question. We then moved into learning about podcast and got to go onto itunes to see what we could find at a quick search and if we could use such a thing in the classroom. It was interesting to see how many podcast are really out there and the different variety of podcast there are. It could be learning a new math technique while watching the person work through problems while they explain it. On the other hand you can have just images and words of a story while a person reads the story. You could easily figure out a way to use different podcast in the class or making your own podcast for students to refer back to or watch if they missed the class. This is an amazing tool I will really try and use with my younger classes just as another tool to try and key on different math techniques, as well as possibly do read aloud over a podcast so they could watch it at home. To broaden that use of this tool I could issue out books to the whole class and do a daily podcast to have the students follow along with the story to help them improve their own reading skills. On top of all this, we got introduced to Garage Band which is a really cool tool to make an auditorial type deal. You could easily use this to read a story to a class so they could follow along. This would be a great benefit if you as a teacher would be missing a day and wanted to record a read aloud to keep the kids going on a story you have been reading in class. This would allow you not get behind just because you as a teacher had to miss a day, or even if a student had to miss a day. This was just another awesome day filled with new tools I never understood what they were for and how I could use them within my own classroom. Until next week! I can't wait to see what new and exciting things I will learn!