Dec. 17

The last few days have been exhausting. Our class party was yesterday. The students have been great but they are so excited about Christmas! I hope tomorrow goes well. I plan on using my web quest when we return from the holidays, as that is our next subject in science.

Dec. 16

I finally finished my webquest. I have been working on it for weeks. I had to start over as my computer kept freezing up on the google site. I was almost finished when this started happening. I had to start over in Quest Garden. I can't believe the amount of time it has taken. I think it will be great for the students but can't imagine spending this amount of time on one lesson. Hopefully, it would get quicker the more you used the program. One of the sites I had found for our mid-term had already stopped working. I will be upset, after spending this much time on this project, if my sites quit working. I have noticed on a lot of the sites I have visited that many of the links no longer work. I intended to blog last week but it was so late by the time I stopped working each night on the webquest that I had already turned the computer off before I remembered. Hope everyone is doing well.

Nov. 29

I can't believe the week has come and gone! I finally got my computer working so I can finish working on my webquest. I wanted to have it finished this week while I was off but I really had no time to work on it and my computer was broke. My daughter accidently tripped over it and knocked it off and stepped on the screen. It no longer works and the screen was only about a hundred dollars less than a new computer and the computer was already about four years old. So, I have a new computer. Which is great except for paying for it! It took me a good bit of time to find it, set it up, etc. It is finally working and I hope to get my webquest done this week. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I can't believe it has come and gone. Christmas is around the corner and we have GAPS coming to our school this week. Tra! La! La! La!

Nov 23

This weekend we finished our websites, uploaded them, and presented them to the class. I like mine, but was concerned when I opened mine up Sunday and the first page was gone. When I left on Saturday everything was done and working. I thought I might want to change one picture, but didn't have to change it. I missed my turn Sunday morning, due to the rain and fog. I should have just got right back on the express way but thought I was closer than I was and tried to find my way through neighborhoods. This was not a wise choice as I spent about forty minutes extra driving in the rain. I was stressed and the rain didn't help. I finally found my way to the school and when I signed on the first page of my website was gone! I was not feeling well by this time. On top of everything else, I had some kind of sinus congestion going on. Things were not looking good. However, I recreated my first page, got everything uploaded, and was ready to present on time. I was finally feeling like a litte pressure had been relieved and then I started working on my webquest. So much for relief! My head hurts, does anyone have Advil?

Nov 15

I can't believe another week has come and gone. This year has been so busy! I finally got my Webquest planning sheet completed and submitted. I was glad to have that assignment completed. It took some time deciding on what I wanted to do and then finding websites that answered the questions my students needed to know. I still am a little concerned that the reading level may be too high for some of my students (2nd graders). However, most had pictures and that will help with their understanding. I also will have to make sure I have a strong reader in each group. I think Webquest is a great tool, especially for older students. I think I have everything done now except for the group project. We are meeting this week to complete that. I hope I can remember how to use DreamWeaver next weekend. I wish I had it, so I could have used it over the past weeks. I think it would have helped me remember how to use everything.

Nov. 7

I reviewed a couple of Survey Monkeys this week. It was interesting to compare and contrast how people used them. I hope to continue using this tool in my classroom. I liked using it and found it very user friendly. I have also spent a great deal of time looking for webquest on a 2nd grade level. I finally found a few sites but found that many of the links no longer work. However, I found a few that still worked and have gotten a good idea of what a 2nd grade webquest should look like. I am going to check my GPSs again and hopefully decide tonight on what I am going to do for my webquest. I hope to get some of the template completed tonight, as time is running out!

Oct. 31

I can't believe the week has come and gone. It has been very busy at work. We all feel somewhat overwhelmed with all the new stuff they have added to us. I was glad to get my Survey Monkey completed and submitted. I hope to use it Thursday in my class. I want to figure out to get responses attached to an individual response so I can have the results per student without having to physically print and grade. I am using it for a test over energy in Science. I also got my response to the first discussion question posted. I hope to complete a lot today, Saturday.

Oct 24

It is lunch time and I wanted to catch up so I am writing on my blog. Today we evaluated five webquest sites and shared our two worse and two favorites with the class. We had to evaluate the site according to our role. Some were looking at the technology aspects, some the higher level thinking it provided, some how much time it took, and others whether it lended itself to colloboration. It was interesting taking on a specific role when evaluating. Your perspective did make a difference and it led to great discussion to come to an agreement for the overall best and worse. Before this class began we received several assignments to complete. First, we were given a Monkey Survey to complete. We had to submit it and go onto the discussion board at Lesley and tell how we thought that would be useful in our classroom and/or district. We also had to respond to a couple of peoples opinions of this tool. Second we had a scavenger hunt to complete that helped us learn about the internet, websites, etc. We had to drop our scavenger hunt in the drop box. Finally, we had to read an article about webquests and it provided some links to templates, etc. We have to do a webquest for our midterm and final project. We had homework last night and she took it up today, graded/made comments. It was storyboarding. We are going to use the info we researched and collected last night, on the storyboard, to produce our web page using Dream Weaver.

Oct. 24

Today we did several activities in our class. In one activity we interviewed another person and then had to introduce them to the class. As others were introduced, we took notes. Later we had to ask a person, whose name we drew from a bag, two questions through the email address they supplied. We then had to respond to the questions we received and finally, we posted under the discussion board the list of skills this activity involved and how we thought we could use this activity in our classroom. We learned how to create and join a mailing list for our grad co-hort group. We also learned how to social bookmark using delicious.com. Last, but not least, we created this blog where we will record our thoughts and activities for the week throughout this class. (I wish this had a spell check!)

Oct 24

Today is the first day of class and I feel a little stressed because one of our assignments didn't work quickly and I am still not sure I am on the mailing list for the class. I am concerned that I will miss some news that is important. Hopefully when I go back my welcome message will be there and I can officially reply to the group.