DEJ #13

When I first tried looking/ thinking of a WebQuest topic, I had no idea what I was going to do.  Then after looking through many WebQuests I finally thought of one because of something that I had done when I was in school.  My class read a book that was about this foreign country and how a certain vegetable was so important to their culture.  We then had a day in class were everyone prepared a dish from that country using the vegetable; it was a very fun day.  I decided to choose something that was similar to this because I had really enjoyed it when I was younger.

My WebQuest is about different countries and experiencing there culture.  The video that I chose talked about how traveling is a great thing and that everyone should experience it; and when kids finish the WebQuest they will get to learn more about other countries and hopefully want to travel when they are old enough.

DEJ #12

1. Which two of example WebQuests are the best ones? Why?I think that the best WebQuests are "Unraveling The Underground Railroad" and "Grow School Greens"  I like the Underground Railroad WebQuest because it is very informational and in depth and students can really understand how the Underground Railroad worked by completing this WebQuest.  The Grow School Greens was also a good WebQuest because there are a lot of things that the students do and it allows the students to educate theirselves more about growing food.
2. Which two are the worst? Why?
   The ice cream WebQuest was definitely the worst one.  Not much can be taken from it information wise, it just seems to be a fun activity.  Students would probably like to do this WebQuest, but its not very educational.  I was also not a fan of the Egyptian WebQuest because it had a very boring format.  The tasks that students had to perform seemed like it would be boring for the students.
   
3. What do best and worst mean to you?
   The Underground Railroad was the best to me because it was the one that even I wanted to complete.  It was a very informational and educational WebQuest that would help the students learn the information emmensely.  The ice cream WebQuest was by for the worst because it was not informational AT ALL!

WebQuest!!

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	This WebQuest deals with teamwork.  The students must collaborate with each other when making final decisions about what to plant, where to plant it, and so forth.	There really aren’t any weaknesses
Where is My Hero?	It allows the students to work together on things such as the interviews and making of the posters.	It deals with some individualized work because students research topics separately, then later talk about it.
Underground Railroad	It allows students to discuss and condense all of their information into main points.	It deals with a lot of individualized work by researching people of the Underground Railroad separately.
Ice Cream	It allows students to discuss and collaborate on what ice cream flavor to choose and how to present the poster.	Students do the ice cream worksheet individually.
Ancient Egypt	It allows students to work with a partner.	There really isn’t any weaknesses besides the facts that some of the work is done individually when making the brochure.

Google Form on vacationnn!

Vacation Time Form!

Thinking Creatively Video

There are many things that can be taken from this video. Putany talks about how teaching/pedagogy can be “messy” and he is very right.  I don’t necessarily believe that messy was the right word to use, complicated would have been a better choice.  There are so many different ways that a teacher can teach a class, and in a way this can be very hard trying to figure out the best way for the students.  Another thing that I learned from the video is that when teachers teach content to the class, a real effective way to allow the students to learn is by making it fun. Someone can be a very intelligent, yet they are horrible at teaching. Teachers have to know how to successfully transfer the content to the students.

Web 2.0 Tools

Describe the tool.
The tool that I chose is called Stencyl. It is an app that allows people to create games, it is similar to the Scratch program.

What content area would you use the tool.
Depending on what you had your students do with Stencyl, you could use the tool in multiple content areas.  You would just have to change the rules of what type of game to build.

Briefly describe a lesson in which you would implement the tool.
Say the class was learning about fractions in class, the students could then all create different games that dealt with fractions or whatever math skills they were learning.

What do you need to consider before using this tool.
The main thing that needs to be considered before using this tool is the fact that computers are needed.  Also you must make sure that all of your students understand what they are supposed to be doing on the computers.

DJ #10 Sewing the Seeds for a More Creative Society

Quote: "Children can use Crickets to create all types of interactive inventions: musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, dancing creatures. In the process, children learn important science and engineering concepts, and they develop a better understanding of the interactive objects in the world around them" (Resnick).

Response:  I think that this is a great thing!  Kids are learning how things function, they are having fun, and they are actually getting involved.  It is good that the kids using Crickets actually get to build things that they think are cool because they are learning about many skills at one time.  Things like this should be incorporated into the classroom more so students can learn and understand how and why certain things work.

Resource: Resnick, Mitchel. "Sewing the Seeds For A New Creative Society." . ISTE, 2007. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. <http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Learning-Leading-final.pdf>.

Reference: This video gives the students point of view of creativity in the classroom.
About Creative Learning In The Classroom