Week #2

Work time is the best things possible. I have really enjoyed being exposed to the websites we have talked about this week. Between Thinkfinity and Knowledge Network, there are so many more resources available to me now. Before this class I was a bit lost when I was searching for curricular resources I was just searching the Internet, but now I have trusted resources saved to me delicious account to start my search off right. I really enjoyed getting to know Web Quests on Knowledge Network. I wasn't very sure what Web Quests were or how I could utilize them in my math classes, but I have learned what they are and can see the validity of their use in mathematics. Just having the time to explore these sites and examine a small fraction of what is available to me, I am happy to have these in my back pocket.

The other topic we examined this week was the on-line quizzes. Most of these are hit or miss for me. With mathematics, especially high level math, it is frustrating that some websites will only let you type in letter and do not have the ability to input math equations with proper symbols and proper format. It is more efficient to type quizzes in Microsoft Word and find a different means to post it on-line. It is just interesting to me that most of these sights are geared towards Educators, yet they left our one of the main curriculum areas. Ugh. This is one of the largest factors I examine when looking at these sights. I did, however, find that the flashcards would be very helpful and handy when working with my students. It would be nice to have a set of those for each chapter. We'll see.

Time to explore....

Searching The Internet

This week in class we discussed the Internet and Internet searches.  The Internet is such a great resource for teachers, if others are willing to post and share their activities.  It always astounds me the amount of information that is out there for the taking.  There are many great ideas for curriculum subjects if you are willing to spend the time to look.  Many of the activities that are out there might not fit perfectly with the curriculum you are aiming to teach, but that is part of teaching; flexibility and adaptation to meet the needs of their class.  There are so many wonderful applets that I can incorporate into my classroom and it is handy to have them pre-made for me.  While it might take some time to sift through various lesson plans, it saves more time in the long-run.  I am excited to frequent these websites such as Thinkfinity.org and IDEAS.  These websites are easy to navigate and will allow teachers the ability to quickly search for activities  to implement in the classroom.

I look forward to using these cites to aid me in class and adapting the material to aide my student's learning.

Overall

There is nothing like a class in which you learn by doing.  I really enjoyed how the class time was spent.  We discussed and learned new applets and programs.  After that we were given time to explore, work with, and figure out how it could be implemented in our own classrooms.  Allows us time to make these our own was very helpful to be and allowed me to process it better.  When you see how easy it is to implement and where to put the technologies into the curriculum, it was much more applicable.  Using the blog was a great way to allow and force us to reflect on what we had done and learned in class.  It was also fun and technologically satisfying to be using this type of medium to express my thoughts.  Overall I really an pleased with the masters program so far.  I am excited to be learning new techniques and technologies  that I can use in my classroom.