Saturday, November 22, 2008

So I am still excited about the idea of my website, but the creation of it is not all it's cracked up to be. I'm frustrated by little things like moving pictures and moving the sizing bars up and down. Some things that I think should work are not and it's a little stressful. I think it's mostly because I don't know anything about Dreamweaver, and boy do I wish that I did!

I am going to have all of my sites and pictures ready to go for Monday, so hopefully that will help me out a little. I'm worried about the time that we have left, three classes, and that I will feel uncomfortable and unprepared with my final/semi-final project.

Oh well, we'll see what this week brings.....

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Fun is Just Beginning!

Well, right now I have no idea about the work that lies ahead of me in creating my personal website, so I am excited and not yet frustrated by the thought of it all. I do think that our websites will be useful and give us a leg up on other incoming teachers who maybe didn't have the exposure to such technology. This is definitely something that we can all take with us and use everyday in our professional career.

The thought of my own classroom is maddening enough, but to think that I can keep in contact with my students and their parents through my own website that I get to maintain is very exciting. Have a question? Just reference the website! How nice! Also this is a tool that I will be able to submit when I'm searching far and wide for the perfect teaching position. This website will be a direct reflection of me and say a lot about who I am before someone even meets me.

I may be writing again in 24 hours to express my deep hatred for web authoring, but for now, I'm ready! I just need to remember to be patient, use my time wisely, and do with it what I want because like I said, this website is a direct reflection of me!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Power Point

Ahhhh.............. That is a sigh of relief because I just completed my interactive Power Point presentation. After 13+ hours, I feel like I created a project that I am proud of, that I would share with others, and most importantly that I would use in my own classroom. I chose the topic of the Solar System and connected it with the 3rd grade Science TN state standards. I included slides on each of the current planets, a summary slide, an interactive quiz with awesome pictures, and cool website that kids can visit after they've studied the Solar System.

This project was helpful to me in another class that I am currently taking. Unfortunately I am in Astronomy 151 now, but because of my power point presentation I now understand the planets a little bit better.

Overall, I enjoyed working with Power Point and learning about URL's, hyperlinks, adding digital images, and everything else that went into creating this masterpiece. I believe interactive presentations can be very powerful in the classroom and look forward to a time where I can implement something like this to make a subject more interesting and fun for my students.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

More about Wikis

Well, I have just completed adding my websites to the 486 wiki and I feel pretty good about them. I've been putting it off because I knew it would take a while and it did. But, now that I'm finished, I feel good about the sites that I added to the collaborative (Jeff's favorite word) list and know they will be great resources for me and the other students using the wiki. All of the sites are interactive and provide information for both teachers and students. Education World even has several WebQuests listed on it and I posted it for that reason. The websites I used are:

Peep and the Big Wide World
Kidsites for Science
Education World - WebQuests
Multiplication.com
Scholastic. com.

I look forward to using our wiki in the future and am excited to use some of the activities and ideas presented on these sites.