Classroom Website

Below is the link for my classroom website created for this weeks assignment. I chose to create a place where parents and students could visit to get information about school, calendar dates, and recent assignments. I chose to include the news gadget to give parents a place to find out what is currently happening in the world of education. I also used the calendar gadget to help students stay on track for due dates and upcoming events. I feel like I am constantly sending home notes, reminders, and extra homework sheets for those who have lost theirs. This way, students and parents can be held more accountable for the "happenings" in our classroom!

3rd Grade Team Meyer

Concept Map

This concept map represents the idea of specialization as it relates to the fur trade between the French and Native Americans. I would ask my students to create this type of map after studying and understanding the fur trade to show all of the jobs of each individual involved in the fur trade. From the jobs, the students could also connect the materials related to each job. It would help students solidify the vocabulary and connections between each person. I may choose to use another type of concept map software because I feel my students would benefit a lot from adding pictures to represent the material. The assignment would include students changing the colors of the bubbles to help show differences. I can see many more options for using this type of technology across all subject areas.

Screencasting

This screencast was created to help my students edit a current piece of writing. We do not have classroom computers, so my students are word processing their writing in their computers class. The computer teacher can easily show the video so that the students know my expectations. The students can then watch the screencast as many times as necessary to ensure they have completed all of the steps. On another note, this assignment was rather difficult for me because my computer is too old and would not allow me to download the Jing software. I was able to download it using my husband's computer, but I am not used to using his which made this task more difficult. I also tried to video several times before I really got the hang of it. Once I was ready to capture the video, I sent my dog outside so that there was no noise from him. You will hear near the end of the video that he is scratching the door to come back in! I redid the video but that happened to be the best take so I used it. I hope the noise is not too distracting!