First Glog! I kinda went with a hippie theme for fun.

Timeline

This timetoast is a little more interesting than mine. Ladies and Gentlemen the Beatles!

TimeToast!

Webquests

This week we learned about webquests and more importantly how to evaluate them so we do not waste our time as well as the student's time. Much like how important it was to evaluate websites webquests are the exact same but webquests need a little more

attention to the detail than websites require. I struggled to find a good webquest to use for my class but eventually I did find one.The webquest I found was about global warming. It has enough structure already in it so the students know exactly what they're responsibilities are for this assignment. There are plenty of additional sites given to supply more than enough information but I have a problem in this because most of the article links are dead. I thought about it and this is to be expected because this webquest was created in 2003, and since then there has been a lot more research on global warming so the older articles would have so out of date that the students should not have used them anyway. I really like the thought of using webquests in my classroom because it gives the students even more information on some of the topics we would be covering or it could give them knowledge on topics we wouldn't have the opportunity to cover. Instead of finding webquests already out on the internet, next time I might want to consider creating my own in case I can't find a pre-existing webquest that I really like and suits my classes needs.

UT Alma Mater Wordle

Google Forms!!!

This week we were working on our web 2.0 tool wiki. At first there was a little stumble as I keep forgetting to save my work before I leave the Google Forms page I am working on. Sometimes I remember and other times I seem to forget. I wonder if this just goes away with constant practice. On the upside my partner, Kayla, and I are working really well together. We had a limited time to work together in class, but we made it work. She made the general layout of our Google Forms page while I worked on linking our page to the main page as well as the sidebar. Google Forms is really cool. It allows teachers or future teachers in this case, to quickly create surveys, quizzes, and tests. The really cool part is that Google Forms ability to create is only limited by my or the teacher's imagination. I could quickly create quizzes for my students to see if they are doing the assigned homework or readings. I could create a really intricate "get to know you" survey to hand out on the first day of classes.The more I know them the better I could tailor the material to their individual needs. I don't know what I would do differently next time because its so easy to use. I might play around with it in my very little free time to see what other amazing things Google Forms can do.

Website Evaluation Necessity

This week we learned the importance of evaluating websites in order to insure that they are appropriate for our students. I initially had a hard time finding a website to evaluate but using one of the sites talked about in class I stumbled upon the right one.The website I found was Cells Alive! and can be found at http://cellsalive.com. I really learned a lot about evaluating websites. Many sites I could use in my classroom would not be good primary sources or even secondary sources so evaluating those sites before hand will prevent students from utilizing the bad sites. I really enjoyed the cells alive site. I was pleasantly surprised that the website allowed the students to take quizzes and solve puzzles to further their grasp of the material. The website seems professional enough, but it appears like this is a project of love from the author and not like it was from a serious money backed website. With that being said the material was factual and not mixed with personal messages. While there are some negatives about this site, such as not showing how regularly it is updated or having alt tags attached to the pictures, there are a lot more positives that make this website worthwhile to educators and students alike. I really wish the author had more references in the website so students could go to the other sites and see what they had to offer but it was not a huge issue to me. I would have loved to have seen how often he updated the site, because the site is so good and the information really has not changed in a long time, so we could make certain the information is 100% up to date.The ability to come to this website and take quick quizzes and puzzles makes this an extremely helpful website that will useful in my future classroom.