Podcasts

Podcasts can be used in the classroom to help the students meet the standards and objectives below. You can record them speaking, reading, and participating in dramatic play and the students can hear how they sound. It will help them learn to hear if they are speaking in complete, clear sentences. This will help develop the students listening skills as well. They are still very egocentric at this stage and will get very excited to hear their own voice. It will also be a fun thing for the parents to listen to.

Standard 1 (Oral Language) Students develop language for the purpose of effectively
communicating through listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting.
Objective 1: Develop language through listening and speaking.
a. Listen attentively.
b. Listen and demonstrate understanding by responding appropriately (e.g., follow two-step
directions).
c. Speak clearly and audibly with expression in communicating ideas.
d. Speak in complete sentences.

Webquest

Here is my webquest on plant growth

http://questgarden.com/81/10/5/090421102038/

Creating Instructional Media About Geometry Concepts

I think this geometry lesson is a great one that I plan on implementing one day in my classroom. I think digital cameras help drive the concept home because the students get to apply their knowledge of geometric shapes by actually looking for them in their daily environment. This lesson plan would fits under this core curriculum standard:

Standard 3: Students will understand simple geometry and measurement concepts as well
as collect, represent, and draw conclusions from data.
Objective 1: Identify, describe, and create simple geometric figures.
a. Name, create, and sort geometric plane figures (i.e., circle, triangle, rectangle, square,
trapezoid, rhombus, parallelogram, hexagon).
b. Identify geometric plane and solid figures (i.e., circle, triangle, rectangle, square,
trapezoid, hexagon, rhombus, parallelogram, cube, sphere, cone) in the students’
environment.
c. Compose and decompose plane and solid figures (e.g., make two triangles from a square)
and describe the part-whole relationships, the attributes of the figures, and how they are
different and similar.

I am definitely planning on using digital cameras in my classroom. I have already designed a lesson plan for the fall season where the students get to take pictures of the changing environment. I also think the comic life program was pretty cool. I can see that being a really appealing application for students to use. I also learned a lot more about photoshop today and plan on editing my photos in this program to enhance them and make them look cooler.

Website Evaluations

Since my webquest has to do with plant growth, I found websites that had to do with that topic. I will be creating a webquest for first graders. Here is the standard from the core curriculum that these websites fall under:

Standard 3: Students will develop an understanding of their environment.
Objective 1: Investigate plants and plant growth.
a. Observe and draw pictures of plants.
b. Compare seeds of plants and describe ways they may be carried through the environment
(e.g., wind, water, animals).
c. Observe and describe plants as they grow from seeds.
d. Identify how people use plants (e.g., food, clothing, paper, shelter).
e. Investigate and report conditions that affect plant growth.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/index.html
I liked this website a lot because it's fun and educational. The first graders may need the plug-in that reads the text to the student because there are a lot of words.


http://plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/plantmotion/earlygrowth/germination/germ.html
I think this website is really neat because it has a video of a live plant growing. The words might be too advanced but the video would be beneficial for them to watch.

http://www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/grow.html
I like this website because it has real life videos and lots of great information about seeds and plants. It also gives definitions of important words like "germinate."

http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/plant/index.html
This one is great for first graders. The written words are on their level and the pictures are labeled with the simple descriptions.