Week # 6: Internet education tools

Week #6:

I have very little Internet/web abilities and therefore found almost all the sites fascinating.
I really liked the immediate feedback available when using the computer as an educational tool.  The computer promotes self learning which can be motivational as well as self exploratory for students at any level and age.

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/speechclass/a/debate.htm 
http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/index.html

http://www.spellingcity.com/

http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html

http://www.kidsspell.com/

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmsv/smg/

 http://thinktank.4teachers.org/
http://storybird.com/
online interactive printing 
 Ten Additional Ideas on How to Use Technology to Teach Writingpress.  

The first site regarding debates was a wonderful low tech idea. My educational agenda being; to further students abilities to form thoughts in English fulfills itself fully in this method.
I like the idea of team work within strict debate rules and then the chance to proceed with an open class discussion involving all students.
I feel this method will provide the students with; persuasion skills, debating skills, research skills, public speaking and most importantly confidence when expressing themselves in English.
The next tool I chose was Skyp. I think it is a great way to create inter-school debates as well as international relationships between students in different countries. Maybe even tolerance, but I may be taking this a little too far....
I thought the sites that taught spelling were a wonderful way to encourage self learning in the classroom as well as at home. They motivate the student to plow forward by competing against themselves without feeling the pressure of their peers. I will choose not to disclose what level I reached. Ha Ha Ha
I am not sure about the "thinktank" site. I feel it might be too high a level for students of ESL. I don't remember being at that level in grade 12?!
I thought the story maker was "WOW" but do not know how it promotes writing, the process or the ability of the student. 

Week #4 (second post)
I wanted to add that from all the tools provided in this unit I liked the painting tutorials on Youtube and the picture incerting instruction units the best.  First because they were informative and second because seeing the instructions on Youtube made the whole concept much easier to understand.
I think that when I start teaching the idea of visualizing my lession (as much as possible) with video tools would be a great idea.  The visualization of the instruction and picture explanations make understanding much simpler.

Keeping in touch with my education blogs: Week #4

Candace Hachette Shivley:
First, I must say that her name was spelt wrong in the charte as well as her blog sit;
blog.teachersfirst.com 
This week she wrote an obituary for a web tool and I have no idea to which tool she is alluding to?!
Candace says that Edsurge noted it in their blog but again I don't know what she is talking about.
Purelypaperless:
Did not update her blog....
Innovative educator:
Lisa is dealing with the connecting of home schoolers with texting.  Lisa has chosen two options; twitter and Remind 101.
She lists the pros and cons of each:
Twitter: helps teachers and parents get to know each other.  " Twitter fast follow" allows recieving twitter without setting up an acount.  The drawback is that this is a form of public engagment and not all parents or schools are open to this formate.
Remind 101: more personal.  It is a one-way  notification system verses the two-way twitter system.

I forgot to call this last entry "Week 3".  My short term memory does not seem to exist.

keeping intouch with my teaching technology sites Social Media

Innovative Educator (23.2.2014)
This entry raised the topic of social media.  Lisa believes that social media, specifically Facebook is not a threat.  Given  the right tools, Facebook can be used as a positive tool in teaching.

Purely Paperless:
Kate mentions new classroom tools she will expand on in the coming weeks; CatterPix, Animaoto, Google Research Tools, and Kidblog.

Think like a Teacher:
Candace uses the "Cat in the Hat" and Dr. Seuss's birthday as a metaphor to relay a situation a college encountered.  As wrote in Purely Paperless, Candice tells of a teacher who was given a grant to introduce Learning of Science via a free and safe social Internet network.  The school declined the offer.  Candace feels the school administration has chosen to remain behind closed doors...