Inspiration Project

Animoto Videos

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

This was my first video on animoto and I found it very easy to make. They have a good selection of stock photos, music, and videos. I think that making animoto videos could be helpful when introducing new concepts into the classroom. The nice thing about making your own video is that you can decide specifically what goes in it and can have it tailored to your lesson plan. I also think animoto could be very useful for student reports. I could have each student make a video to supplement their  oral presentation. All in all, I think animoto is a great tool to know about and should be considered for classroom use.

Sacavenger Hunts

 Scavenger hunts can be an exciting way to introduce students to a new topic. They can also be used to engage your students in their learning and provide a context for them to show the public what they are learning. For example, if you want students to get to know their science lab you could give them a worksheet with all of the components of the lab and the tools they will be using. Then you can give them a sheet with clues to what the tools do. The students must research what the different tools do in order to find them. However, researching will be more engaging than having students just do written work. I think scavenger hunts are great, because they are appropriate for all ages and can be tweaked to work for both primary and secondary grades. I plan on implementing them in my lesson plans when I teach!

Images in the classroom

 

(Screen shot from google images) 

Using images in the classroom can help enhance your lessons. Digital images can be a great asset to teaching because they can so easily be found. For example, going to google and searching under "images" is an easy way to find pictures. Pictures help students who are visual learners visualize what they are learning about. There are several ways to find digital images for the classroom such as: Picassa, google images, scanning images, taking pictures, and CD collections.Pictures can help support notes, labels, power points and lessons. Pictures can enhance lessons and make them more interesting.

Digital Image Collection

This is a digital image collection I made on Picasa.

It was very easy to make and I encorporated several ways of obtaining my images.

I used a scanner to get scan a picture of a magazine, I used my digital camera to import a picture I had taken from a football game, I also used google images to get a free picture of street from the web, finally I took a screenshot of images on the web.

I think the use of digital pictures in the classroom will prove to be very useful since they can aid in giving students a visual of what you are teaching. They can also liven up a lesson and provide a context for discussion

Lesson Plan Project

Our lesson plan project in google docs is my first time actually planning a lesson that includes state standards. I’ve found it to be a very helpful project, because it is exposing me to all of the different things that are involved in planning a lesson. There are a lot of things to have to think about such as: Tennessee standards, NET standards, my objectives, and all things I need to do to prepare for the lesson plan. We have to include the use of technology in our lesson plan and that has also helped me see all of the different ways I can use technology in the classroom. It got me thinking and I can see how computers can be a real asset to the learning process and help supplement my lessons.