WEEK 10: Change of Topic!!!

Ok, after going over details with the professor, I am now changing my WQ topic and grade level. I'm currently teaching High School, but somewhere, I got the idea from my peers that it had to be related or directed at the grade we were currently teaching. That made it difficult for me because this is my first time teaching High School.

Anyhow, my WQ topic will be on 5th grade Earth Science (the water Unit).

5th Grade Science Standards for Earth:

3. Water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of evaporation and condensation. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know most of Earth’s water is present as salt water in the oceans, which cover most of Earth’s surface.
b. Students know when liquid water evaporates, it turns into water vapor in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water.
c. Students know water vapor in the air moves from one place to another and can form fog or clouds, which are tiny droplets of water or ice, and can fall to Earth as rain, hail, sleet, or snow.
d. Students know that the amount of fresh water located in rivers, lakes, underground sources, and glaciers is limited and that its availability can be extended by recycling and decreasing the use of water.
e. Students know the origin of the water used by their local communities.

I'm really exciting because I've found some great sites. I will compile it into another blog post soon.

I picked this topic because students for the most part do not think about the scarcity or water because it is readily available to them. However, students need to understand that water is a limited resource and that we need to be more mindful about how we use it.

The "hook" or problem will be related to the scarcity of the water and possibly along the lines of the government limiting your water usage.
-Where are the different water sources located?
-How does the water cycle work?
-Why might California be in a drought even though there was a lot of rain this season?
-How much water do we need to produce foods (ref. to link on "How much water does it take to grow a hamburger?")
-Where does the water go after we flush a toilet (ref. to Orange County Sanitation District link).

WEEK 9

Hooray! No midterm and spring break has finally come!

Okay, back to business. As I evaluated a webquest (WQ) this week and previewed plenty more, I'm starting to get a better feel for my own. At this time, I am still deciding on the topic and the "hook". Since I am teaching high school US government and economics, I have been trying to located more resources to use in the class as well.

My Googling skills are becoming stronger where I can usually find what I am looking for on the first or second try.

Here are some websites that I have located for this week:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Education/High-School-Government.pg_00.html
Which lead me to some additional sites:
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ (TIME magazine website for kids)
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/ (CNN Student News page)

I've had an interested week with my Google searches. Even though Google is my usual search engine, different laptops show different results even when I type in the same subject matter for what I am looking for!  Good thing, I didn't close the tabs on my laptop! Time to save those links on my portaportal!

It's also time to look over the California Content Standards again to see how my WQ can align with those standards. I want my WQ to be fun and engaging where students want to solve it.

I think that's it for now. I'll be reviewing the other assignments for the upcoming weeks.

Week 8: Webquest stuff

My understanding is that I will be evaluating a Webquest first using the rubric provided. I will also need to write a narrative for this assignment. This is due Saturday during Week 9
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I will need to create my own Webquest due April 30th.
For my topic: I'm considering Economics, maybe World History
Content Area: High School Economics and different Economic Systems
Resources: Discovery Streaming Online, colleagues, textbooks and books, other online resources
Questions: Nothing at the moment pertaining to the assignment. However, Mozilla Firefox has been weird with loading webpages and things... I don't know why. So I'm using Internet Explorer. Even Blogger was having issues loading with Firefox...

Wikis and Wikipedia

Over this last year I have learned more about create and using wikis. It really is a neat concept.

In light of the recent mega earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I have been able to see the rapid development and information progression on wikipedia. As soon as the earthquake hit, it was roughly 10 hours or less that it one had been created for the 2011 Sentai Earthquake. I started watching at 10:30pm on Thursday evening and continued watching until midnight or so. I want to say a wiki was probably up when I went to bed. It was short. But as the days and hours progressed, the wiki has already doubled and tripled in size, with more and more information constantly coming through.

It was nice to see the short and most basic wiki and its components like the information followed by the references at the end. It's amazing to see that wiki grow in such a short amount of time. Technology is amazing.

My heart and prayers go out to all those people in Japan and those around the world who have loved ones or have lost loved ones in Japan...

If you're looking for someone or have information about someone, Google has set up a webpage to help.
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

Time for WebQuest!

Ok. HTML done. Printed up Week 8 Expectations.

Now it's time for the BIG PROJECT! Just finished reading the assignment. I clicked on the evaluation tool link, but it currently is down, or does not exist... http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestrubric.html.
Hmmm... does the Professor know it's not working? It says the file cannot be found.

Ok, it looks like I need to evaluate one WebQuest relevant to my current teaching position (High School ESL) (and use the evaluation tool provided). There seems to be about 10 items on the rubric. I should print that out soon, especially since I'm on my netbook and don't want to scroll back and forth.

And I'll need to make a GoogleDoc with scores for each part.

That's it for now. Looks like a lot of work, but manageable. We shall see!

Making changes...

Tuesday was a day spend trying to adjust the look of the site as I noticed the template I picked did not have a color layout that made it easy to see the different tabs on the left side. I kept trying and trying to no avail. I eventually "googled it" and found the answer. Whew, what a relief!
I can't believe how the simplest things can be the most difficult (at the time).

Once again, I'm glad there are companies out there that have a service for websites that have all the "bells and whistles" to make it easy. But of course it comes at a cost.

Anyhow, I think there was a lot of trial and error in this process. Another thing I realized is that I can't just "delete" something on the template. First of all you have to click the edit feature. But there are some things, that "remain on the template" even after you supposedly delete it. Imagine my frustration to see the thing I "deleted" still there. How did I know it was "deleted"? Because my gmail e-mail account will notify me of any changes. Every "little" change. So I received a few dozen e-mails that night.

So then I realize that deleting things on the template will just take you to a "non-existent" page. My website would just say, "The page you are looking for does not exist". After reviewing another peer's site, I realized it would have been better to pick them most basic one and go from there...
I guess the other thing was a relief to know was that my deleted items could be recovered.=)

Sigh... it's coming... slowly, but surely I suppose!

Utilizing the blog as an educational tool

I think it's pretty exciting to actually make a blog and use it! I had tried creating one last year, but was unsuccessful. The short intro "how to create a blog" video really helped me to set one up with just the basics.
So the first official blog I created was a personal one. It was a blog about my new joy in cowbells. If you click on my profile, you can check that one out it you want.

So a brief introduction about me. My name is Helen and I went to Cal State Fullerton for my B.S. in Child and Adolescent Studies. I complete the multiple subject program there as well in 2007. In the fall of 2009, I started the Graduate program and will be completing in May 2011 (only 2 months away!??!!!).

I currently teach at a private Japanese High School in Torrance where I work with the students on their speaking and pronunciation skills and U.S. government and economics.

I have created a website that I plan to use with my students. I discussed it with my cohort buddies to see what the different options were. It seemed like Google had a free one, but a www.teacherweb.com was a service you could pay for that had most things set up. I considered this, but ultimately decided "no" because I didn't want to fork out the $40.00 for a year subscription, and I thought it would be good to actually learn how to make my own. Maybe when I get my own classroom and a full time teaching position, I'll use the paid version.=)

With that said, I am currently using Google and their templates.