On a quest-a "web-quest"

I am still in the process of creating my very first web-quest. I am nervous because I have never created one before, but excited to be able to have an interactive finished product to use during my lesson, and with other students in the future. Wish me luck as I dive deeper into these new technology skills!

Voki Voki Karoke!

I have officially made my first "voki". I am proud to say that I actually created one to use with the 4th grade class that I worked with today. I created one for the class to look at before we started our writers workshop lesson. They were thrilled because they had never seen anything like it before. I was happy to see such a great reaction. Many of them asked for the website to make their own at home. I was glad I could recommend a website that is appropriate for them to use while at home or in school.

Since I got such a positive reaction with this "voki", I will definitely be using one for my anticipatory set during my lesson, especially because this is the class I will be teaching. The excitement of seeing children's reactions over your work is contagious! I hope that I can keep using my skills from this class to create more engaging and solid lessons.

Learning a LESSON or two

We are now flying high in the world of lesson planning! I have finally figured out my topic for my first lesson, which will coincide with my web quest: 4th grade plant parts and their function. I chose this because I have worked in a 4th grade class for 3 years, and love the science curriculum! I specifically like the topic of plants. Since we needed to pick a direct instruction lesson, I thought this introduction to plants would be perfect. I love the idea of being able to bring in real plants, as well as the use of the outdoors to incorporate into my lesson. So far we have worked on our drafts. I feel like I am finally coming into a firm understanding of the different aspects of the lesson, and its purpose. I am still working on incorporating new technology into my lessons. My first endeavor is to create a "voki" for my anticipatory set. I am excited to use this because what I have seen before with these, they are very engaging! I hope the next few weeks will solidify any other uncertainties I may have. I am looking forward to creating my E-Porfolio to use during interviews and want to include all my work from this class within that. Wish me luck!!!!

September Snapshot

So far we have had a month filled with lessons, lectures, group projects, fieldwork, and TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY! Dr. S sure does love to integrate that into her grad classes, but, as we know now we MUST be able to use technology to our advantage in order to teach in the 21st century.

I feel like I have learned so much already in such a short time. Even though I took curricular planning,( which I thought drilled the MSMC lesson plan format in our heads) there is so much I have yet to learn! In methods, I feel like I am learning why we do what we do when it comes to lesson planning. I never knew there were so many different approaches, methods, strategies etc when it comes to choosing how to effectively teach a lesson. However, it makes sense. We want our students to benefit the most they can to what we are teaching right? Well, then we need to know how to do it right and why. It almost is as if we are learning the "behind the scenes" to lesson planning. I am excited to use this knowledge when actually writing my lessons this semester.

Since I am fortunate enough to be already working in an elementary school and teach I feel blessed that I am able to see so many teachers and their ways of teaching and compare it to what we are learning in class. There are so many different ways teachers use to motivate, gain attention, teach, and evaluate students. I am using this resource as a learning experience all in itself.

Not only am I learning from Dr.S and my real life experience, I am getting to collaborate with others that have such a great deal of knowledge of their own. It has been great to work with Sally, Wendy, and Kelly on our drill and practice lesson for the class. We had a lot of fun getting creative, but at the same time really learned the importance of drill and practice. It made us all think back to our years in school, and the types of lessons that our teachers did or did not use with us.

Bottomline is I want to be able to become an expert when it comes to the methods of teaching. I feel confident that I will not only learn a great deal during this semester from Dr. S, but also from my classmates, and fieldwork experiences. Wish me luck!

Pam :)