Blog # 3

I would construct a lesson plan based around exploration. I would first read a story about a character that explores an unknown location. I would then have my 3rd or 4th grade class have a discussion about a place that they have always dreamed of visiting. To incorporate technology I would have the children explore the internet and try and learn as much as possible about their destination. The children will each have a computer or take turns using computers and find as much information to turn into a presentation as possible. The children could use MS Word to create word are or clip art, they could use power point, or they could use inspiration to create charts of their findings.
www.Health.com This website would not be for the use of children as it has some explicit topics. The design of the site has good visuals that correspond to the text. There is little animation but a rotating list of articles is present. It is organized well with the subheadings at the top but very clutters with advertisements. The text seems to be justified correctly and there is a common font and font color used throughout. There is intractability with a quiz at the bottom of the page and helpful tools such as a recipe finder and symptom checker. I would have to say that there is a lot of superfluous items, as the page is jumbled with advertisements and useless words. Lastly I think that it has a clear target audience and is overall a good website for the health conscious.
Throughout your educational career and even when just browsing the internet, you come across pieces of interesting information that you want to hold onto. But you need to remember that someone else had written these words that you are in a way stealing. In the majority of my classes we have had to cite our posts with the author’s name, year published, and page number or website domain. A lot of teachers have integrated the use of websites to verify that the work being submitted is legitimate and not copies. It is important to always cite the work that you are teaching or having your students locate, so teaching children how to cite properly right of the bat will hopefully take care of any persisting issues.

Blog # 2

Throughout school we utilize computers as a means of exploration and learning. We used MS word to create documents to write papers, create headings and present our findings. It is important for students to learn the proper uses of MS word in order to move forward in school. Technology use in the classroom is growing and students must know the at least the minimum in order to keep up. Teachers use MS word daily to create printouts and visual tools, to create exams, and much more.
In chapter 9 they discussed the real reason for using a word processor to teach content and skills. The benefits are the speed of the act being done as opposed to doing it with a pen and paper. The chapter outlines the creating of a newspaper as a tool for high level analysis. I believe this is a helpful tool to teach children and will implement this in my own classroom. Other skills listed in the chapter as helpful tools to use in a classroom is bullets and numbered lists, making links to the internet, importing information, and spell checks. A lesson plan on the proper usage of MS word would be beneficial to the students in learning computers.
So far in this class I have learned many helpful tools that I plan on using in my classroom. I have learned how to create a newsletter that looks phenomenal. I have learned to create mail databases as an efficient was to send out mass letters to parents. I have also learned how to save documents that can be opened by any other teacher, faculty member, parent, or student. The tools I have learned in this class so far I will take with me and use often.