Here we go!!!!

I have already been in Chile for 5 days, and I can't believe how much I love it! The people here are so kind, and very chill happy people.

The flight here was great, but really long. We left Monday at 9:45 and got to Santiago 1pm on Tuesday. But part of that is we lost 4hours in the time change.

For the most part, the trip here went without a hitch. The only thing that caused this poor girl some stress was that my checked luggage somehow got forgotten in Mexico City. But luckily, I had a change of clothes in my carry-on.

My first few days here have been great! I met my AMAZING Chilean family- my mom Gilda, and my two sisters Caro and Javi. Not to mention my new pets, Balto, Poli, Europea and Diego :) Pictures soon to follow!

I am living in Viña del Mar, which is right next to Valparaiso, which both are right next to the beach. We got to go around to the different schools where we will be teaching, and on the way, we did a little sightseeing.

The beautiful coast!

Me, Erin, Abbie, Kate, Lauren, Tom

Sand-dunes! They surf them :)

On Friday afternoon, we went to Valparaiso, and took the trolley around the city, and then walked around a bit. Then we took an Ascensor up a super steep hill to Concepción. It was so picturesque up there!

This was the trolley ride through Valparaiso, and some of the amazing buildings :)

The Ascensor....so fun! :)

Pictures from Concepción #1

Pictures from Concepción #2

Pictures #3

Pictures #4

As you can tell, I took a LOT of pictures....but I couldn't really help myself. The word that kept going through my mind over and over was "WOW!" I seriously couldn't believe how beautiful everything was up there. There was street art, everywhere, and I wish I could have taken more pictures..... :)

Well, tomorrow I will be beginning my teacher-iness.......I am super excited, but also kinda nervous, because who knows what it will bring!

A New Chapter

Well, I am finallystarting my actual blog, instead of just what I did in my Educational Technologies class :) I think that this blog will be all about my journeys in becoming a teacher, so here we go!

Right now, I am doing my student teaching in a fourth grade classroom. I love the kids and the teacher that I work with.....I've got to say, that I have been completely spoiled in that department! Everyday, I feel that I get just a little better, and I learn so much more! The kids in my class are really so great, and I am so lucky to get the opportunity to be around them.

And now I am getting ready to start another adventure......student teaching in Chile!! I know, crazy right? I really am so blessed! I get to do the second block of my student teaching in the beautiful city of Valparaiso in the wonderful country of Chile. I think that the best way to describe my emotions is NERVOUSLY excited!!!

So I will continue to post as I keep moving forward in this amazing adventure that I have found myself in the middle of.....

Webquest Success!!

In class we made a lesson plan on webquest. Here's my link:
Chunk Change.
I thought that this was a great way to write a lesson plan. I have seen WebQuest's used in different ways too. I have seen it where the students all go to it individually, and then follow the directions. I have also seen in my practicum, that the teacher used it to organize some different websites that she wanted to show her class on the projector. They were learning about the Olympics, and so she showed some footage from the torch relay, and some of the events. It was really great, because the teacher didn't have to waste time surfing, and looking for what she wanted.
I really liked using Instructional Architect too. I think that it is a great program. I really like how easy it is to use. It basically walks you through the entire project, and gives you lots of chances to go back and change what you've done if you don't like how it turned out.
If I had more time, energy, and money, I think that I would like to have my students practice with money on my webquest, and then have them come to a "store" in our classroom, where they would be able to buy some items (kind of like fish pond prizes, but they would "pay" money for them.) I would give them the money ahead of time, and each of the items would be like 70 cents, or 44 cents, or something like that. :)
I really liked the planning sheet that we used, because when I sat down to do my webquest, it was nice to reference it, to help me know what kind of information I needed to include on the webquest. The peer evaluation was also really nice, because it was helpful to get another person's point of view about how it worked for them.
I learned as I did this project, that it is important to plan out the things that you want your webquest to include, so that you can keep it focused, and not branch off in a million different directions.
Overall, I really like using WebQuest, and I liked how easy it makes it to incorporate technology into my classroom.

Fun with Fotos!!!

Today in class, we learned more about digital photography, and how to implement it into the classroom. We learned how to use Photoshop, and also a fun program called Comic Life. It is a program for Mac where you can do pretty much anything to a picture. You can do lots of cool effects to the pictures, and it is very user-friendly.
This is a project that we made in groups. We took pictures of different geometric shapes and angles in the real world, and put them in a little presentation. It was lots of fun to take the pictures and search for the different shapes, and it was ever more fun to put them them together in a presentation.
Now, I am seeing shapes everywhere.......

Web Applications

Today in class we explored different web applications that we can use in our classrooms. They all were lots of fun, and can be applied to many different parts of the curriculum. One that I liked a lot for science, is Phun (Algodoo). It is a very fun program that allows you to work with simple machines, and understanding about applying force to objects. This covers Science 3rd Grade Standard 3. It is also a very "phun" way about understanding physics and how thing respond when you change gravity, or other factors. If I used this in my class, I would explain a bit about the different things that we are going to use, such as pulley's, springs, and what gravity does to objects. Then we would explore using this web application.

For math, I would use Masses and Springs. This application is really useful, because it is an accurate discription of the differences in weights, and how it affects how far the spring will stretch. In my class, they could measure and record how far each differnt weight goes, and also record what changes there are when you change a factor. This web application would cover Math 4th Grade Standard 4 Objective 1.

I really liked (and spent most of my time) on Colonial Williamsburg Kid's Zone. This web application is very helpful because you get to see all the details of what life was like in colonial times. There are lots of games, and they all were pretty fun. I know that it would be a place where kids would like to go to learn as they are having fun. This activity could cover the curriculum for 5th Grade social studies, standard 1 Objective 1. In my classroom, we would talk about the everyday life of early colonists, and then use this web application as an assesment, to determine how much they remember.

Website Evaluation

Today we learned about evaluating a website, because all websites are not created equal. Especially educational websites. Some educational websites look like the real thing, but in reality, it is just someones opinion, even someone trying to purposely misinform people, or something that was made just for fun, but it looks like it could be real. One website that I really like to use for students is the Smithsonian Education website for kids. This website was really amazing! There are lots of different activities and facts that are just about everything. I think that it would be a really good place for children to become more acquainted with the world around them. But sometimes it is really hard to know if a website is really what I want for my students, and so there are different evaluations that help teachers know if it really is a website that students should use. One is Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. The evaluation that I used was for the elementary school. I really liked this evaluation, because it really broke it down, and you could see if it would work in your classroom. It asks you lots of specific questions, like "If you go to another page, is there a way to get back to the first page?" This is really important, because if a website isn't organized and easy to use for children, they may become confused, and really not know what to do. But using this evaluation, I it proved that the Smithsonian website really would be a great resource for students to use, because it is very clear, and there is a wide variety of things that students can learn and do. Another evaluation that I used was from Purdue University. This was a chart that you could use as a checklist, to see if a website that you are interested in really has what you are looking for. The main points that are brought about in this evaluation are "Authority, Reliability, Credibility", "Perspective", and "Purpose". I thought that these topics were really helpful, because it helped you to know really what's going on. The only downside to the Smithsonian website, is that there really weren't accommodations for students with disabilities. There are amazing activities, where you have to invent,and create, but if you can't see it, or hear what it's telling you, those activities really are useless. But overall, if the Smithsonian would fix this problem, this website is amazing!!

Spreadsheets

Today, we learned how to use spreadsheets both in Word, and on Google Docs. What was hard for me was using a Mac...everything is different. But I really like learning how to do it. I also really like GoogleDocs, because sometimes you get to a computer that doesn't have any kind of word processor, or spreadsheet program. So it is great to be able to use, and save it to edit later. We also learned how to create a survey and post it to a blog, which is why there is one. :) I would use this in my classroom for them to learn how to record data for different class projects or other activities we are doing. I really liked the activity that we did with the pennies, because it teaches probability, and it is a pretty easy assignment that they can do.