Miss Young's Blog

A friend told me about a great website for Health. Kidnetic is a very hands on website. It touches upon many health related issues, and also areas of study in the curriculum. It covers physical activty and nutritian. There are many interesting games that students can play. These games range from simple to complex. Also there are healthy recipies. I really liked the fact that this website encourages students to get out of their chairs and get moving. There is a very good fitness challenge that actually has the students get up and do it right infront of their computer, very fun. There is also a great dance activity where students can manipulate a body to dance, by creating steps for him. This would be a great website for elementary aged children. It would fit in with Saskatchewan's In Motion, by getting our students up and movin.

Hershey's Video Tour is a great way for students to learn about the making of chocolate. Hershey has used digital editing to make up a very interesting, and fun tour for children. It takes students through all of the stages involved in the making of chocolate. I feel that this is a great use of technology, and gives students visual information that they might not get from reading a bood. I believe that actually seeing the process would teach the students alot more. There was one downfull that this site has. That is that Hershey plugs their product alot, but I feel that the video is well worth it even with the "Hershey" icon plastered on the screen. It would be nice if we could all visit the Hershey factory, but this is the next best thing. I would use this in a thematic unit on chocolate.

I ran across another good website today. National Geographic Kids is a spin off from the very popular magazine of the same name. The website has some awsome information. Some of the main pages topics (for today) were ranging from Turtles to The Future. There are some great educational games, and activities for students to try. Although the games and activities are worthwile, I really enjoyed the information on different kinds of animals. Students would click on the animal (of their choice) icon and be taken to a page on that animal. Here a great digital movie of the animal is found, audio of the animal, and also a map of the places that this animal lives. The only problem with this website is that it is a bit slow to load some of the videos. I really like the idea that alot of information on one topic can be found on one website. I believe that this is important as a time saver. Instead of the students spending hours in the library searching for books on a topic they could simply visit this site. This website is very good because it ecourages students to explore and learn. It makes learning fun.

I came across a very interactive and exciting sight for Art. National Gallery of Art allows students to become artists. Students can visit the exibhits of the Gallery, by seeing digital photos and reading information about the pieces of art and their creators. But the exciting part of this sight comes in the form of very interactive technology. By downloading a Shockwave Player studetns (form about grade 1 to 12) can explore creating, and manipulating art. These activities are very hands on, and very constructavist. The students are able to explore and experiment with a varieity of art forms, and a variety of art techniques. In the process of creating and manipulating art the students are learning. They are learning about a number of artisits (that they may have never been exposed to), and they are also learning about the creating of art and different art forms. This would be a wonderful website to use in an art class, or as an art lesson.

I have been preparing to do a EPSY presentation on communication disorders and have had to find a number of resources on Sign Language. This is a topic that I take to heart because a few of the students at my internship school had to use Sign Language. I found it very hard to communicate with these students. This was very frustrating. I tried to find different information on the internet to help me with this frustration. I wanted to be able to communicate a bit with these students. But, I had very little luck finding anything useful on the internet to help me.

As I was searching for this presentation I came across a great website on Sign Language. The website is Silent Thunder Animations Page. It makes great use of the technology that exists in today's society. It uses multimedia movies to demonstrate specific words in Sign Language.

Take, for example, a word lik Mom. You simply click on this word and above it will appear a movie of an adult or child performing the sign for this word. What a great use for technology! Students would be able to navigate through this website very easily. There was only one problem I found with theis website - it is not the most pleasent to look at. But, it serves its purpose full force. Students could learn basic words in sign language simply by clicking a word. Great also for teachers of students with communication disorders.

I was searching again today for some websites that I can use at the early childhood level. I came across a very interesting one, Starfall. This website is a reading website for early childhood students (students who are just learning to read). It uses very interesting and colorful technology. It is very interactive. It is very hard to find easily naviagted websites for students from Pre-K to Grade One, but this website is very easy to navigate. The website contains a number of "guided reading" books, and takes the students through these books word by word. I really enjoyed the fact that thier was a very friendly voice saying each word as the child clicked on them. The text is very large and simplistic, so it is great for the beggining reader. I would use this website as part of a reading center in my early childhood classroom. Students could go here to read the stories on their own, or they could use the technology to their advantage by having the program help them with their reading techniques. This is definatly a website that makes use of technology, and all that it has to offer. I believe that the students would get a great deal out of this website, and would have fun exploring and learning.
This is a website that I will be making use of in the next year.

I was searching the net today for a variety of Language Arts related websites. I believe that Language Arts would be one of the easiest subjects to integrate with technology because there is a wealth of online and technological activities that exist. As I was searching came across a very interesting website. This website contained a project like I have never seen before. Surfing for ABC's is a project that some Kindergarten and Grade One students. The project involved them searching the internet for a variety of websites. The cetch was that they had to find a website for each letter of the alphabet. The website is a hotlist of a variety of websites that they enjoyed, and found exciting. It follows the ABC format very closly.

The reason that I found this sight so great was that it was compiled by Kindgarteners and Grade Ones. I have been struggling a great deal with ideas for integrating technology into the early childhood classroom, and this website renews my faith that there are activities that you can do with these younger children, that involve technology. The site is only a hotlist (as such), but it was an eye-opener for me. I thought that this was a great activity to do with students. I will definatly be doing this type of activity with my early childhood classroom, in the fall. By giving them such a great task they were able to search the internet, and by making a hotlist they were learning about technology.

I was again on the search for some amazing online resources. I was able to find an incredible website called Exploratorium. This would be a geat website for many grade levels (ranging from grade 3 to high school). This is an online museum. I enjoyed this sight, and know that my students would enjoy this sight for many reasons. It allows them to explore a variety of topics ranging from space to music. It is very diverse. Students are able to explore a variety of exhibits. There is information on the specific topic they are looking at. The use of hypermedia and video is used throughout this website. Digital video really adds to this website. It is not simply used as an "add on", but as an educational tool.
Let me give you an example of the incedible information, and learning technology, that is available. My webquest was on Music (as you have seen in past posts) and I wish I would have found this website before I had finished my webquest. (I am actually going to go back and add this link). The music part of this online museum takes students through a variety of items. These include written information, hypermedia, and video. One part that I found extremely exciting was the video of the man making instruments from every day projects. How benifitial this would be for students learning about music, and instruments.
I was so happy to have found this website! I will be using this in my classroom.

As I continue along my journey to find great mathematically rich websites I have found one very interesting one. It encompasses many of the topics that we have been discussing in ECMP 455. Aunty Math is a problem solving based website. It makes use of TeleCollaboration. Students are invited to click on the math problem for the day (the problems change daily). They are then encouraged to use a vareity of problem solving techniques to solve the problem. Students can then send their solution into the website. In addition to sending the answer they must also give an explination on how they came to their conclusion.
I feel that this website would be very benifitial for students from grade 3 to grade 5. The questions are fairly basic, but do require the students to be able to understand problem solving techniques. This website allows the students to explore, and also asks problems that students can apply to their lives. With the great use of Telecollaboration and problem solving approaches this website would be a welcome addtion to any elementary math program.

Over the past few weeks I have been very interested in finding quality math websites, for a math class I am taking. I have found this task to be fairly hard. Many of the websites are basically online worksheets. I did manage to find one website that especially enjoyed. Figure This! is a very interesting and comprehensive website. I feel that this website could be used in many grades, starting in grade 1 and moving all the way up to grade 8. This website allows students to explore a number of mathematically related topics, but it also puts these concepts into applied everyday real-life situations. Students are really encouraged to use their mathematical knowledge. Figure This! allows students to experiment and explore math. It makes it turly a fun experience. Another aspect of this website that I enjoyed was that it has a family emphasis. The set up, of the site, encourages families to problem solve togther. I feel that this is so important. It is very difficult to get families to work together on a project, and this website lends itself to this.