Pinky Dinky Doo

Pinky Dinky Doo’s website can easily be added into any lesson plan, because it involves helping children learn. You can use this website in helping your students remember names, characters, and roles of people in stories. It teaches about dialogue, sequence of events, and details. You can engage your students in language and help them to interact with their surroundings and with one another.  Pinky Dinky Doo can help children learn to listen, think, and learn. Children can learn to focus on the meaning of different words and interact in fun activities.

Children will enjoy using this tool in class because of the fun activities and the bright colors of the web page. Because Pinky Dinky Doo is a popular cartoon that a lot of children enjoy watching you may have problems that every child will want to play at the same time and they may fight over the computer.  One way to fix this problem is to have a chart of who gets to play on the computer every day, that way every one gets a chance to play and students will not fight over it.

Algebrator

Alegebrator is software used for teaching students math, or helping them in the area of Algebra. The version I reviewed was the 4.0 which cost around $49.95. It can be used for a PC having any version of Windows including: Windows 7. It can also be used for a Mac having any version of OS X. The operating system is WinVista and WinXP. It takes up 25 MB.  It can be used for grades 4-6.

I believe this software to be very helping in the learning process for students. They can actually go to this application and type in any given problem and have help with solving the equation; it even shows them the steps in solving the problem. Teachers can use this application for lessons, practice, testing, and problem-solving.

The content of Algebrator is educational and reliable. It is clear and easily understood. Students can work together using the application or work alone. It is easy to install and set-up. This software can be very useful in the classroom and it can help teachers and students in the teaching/learning process.

Mobile Computing

Advantages & disadvantages of mobile computing devices in the classroom:

Advantages:

·         Highly Motivating for Students

·         Teaching Apps

·         Students get assignments done faster

·         Assignments are easier for Students

·         Constance internet connection

·         Students are writing more

·         Increases students engagement in classroom activities

·         More time spent on classroom assignments

·         Better quality in work

Disadvantages:

—  Text Bullying

—  Theft

—  Unrestricted Internet Access

—  Cost

—  Time Consuming

—  More technical support and maintenance needed

—  Some students may play on personal websites instead of classroom work.

I believe using mobile computing devices in the classroom can be a good thing. Students like to use these types of devices so why not teach them by using the things they love. If any of the disadvantages were to arise then address the situation at that time.   I think you shouldn’t use these devices for the entire teaching time because students will be using them for their personal pleasure instead of paying attention to their teachers, but using them for certain assignments and activities can be helpful for students.

Creativity and Innovation

This week learning to be more creative and innovative was a fun process for me. Generating new ideas for projects and other classes is important. I liked that this week’s assignments helped me learn more for this class and a few others that I taking.  I love looking at websites to create my own ideas and develop my own plans for assignments.

For assignments I am currently working on I have used the following cities:Human Body Printables, Lessons, & References (K-12) - TeacherVision.com and Teaching Body Parts Through Play - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes... - Toddlers Articles - Toddlers Today. These are just two examples that have helped me create my own plans for future assignments. I also love all the ideas that can used in the classroom for students.

Learning to be more creative is fun and great for any teacher. Learning to apply old information to new information and relate certain things to new things.  (Does that make sense to you?) LOL It’s like you can learn to find information about anything you want to teach and change it to fit into your classroom.

I believe learning to be creative and innovative can help teacher create lessons that their students are actually interested in and that they can learn well from. It helps you as the teacher to stay current with trends that are popular at the time.  

Delicious

I enjoyed learning how to use Delicious! I was very thankful that it wasn't too hard to learn how to use, although I'm sure there is more about this site that I will need to learn. I like having a place to save all my resources so that I could come back and find them easily when I needed them.

I kind of think this place is just using the Favorites link though, besides that you can find popular bookmarks and share your with others.

It could be a good website for group projects so that you and your group members can share certain websites with each others. It’s helpful for students that don't live close to each other so you can still stay on board and know what’s going on with your project.

For the most part Delicious is a good website that can be helpful to more than just students. And I like the name Lol.

Teaching Your Toddler Body Parts Through Play

Website Evaluation Checklist

Student Name: Erica Morton              Date of Evaluation: 2/11/2011

Name of the Website:  iParenting

URL of the Website: http://www.toddlerstoday.com/articles/toddlers/teaching-body-parts-through-play-1978/

Accuracy of the Web Page	Yes	No	Notes
1.  Can you find the author of the page? Hint:  Scroll to the bottom of the page.  It may be an institution.	X		Author Name: Carma Haley Shoemaker
2.  Can the author be contacted: Hint:  Look for an “About Us” or “Contact Link”		X	Author email:
3.  Do you think this person or institution is qualified to publish this webpage?	X		Why or why not? iParenting is a legit website that contains information to help parents answers all kinds of different questions.
Authority of the Web Page
1.  Check the domain of the URL, particularly the extension.       Is this a commercial site?   The URL can give clues to the authority.	X		What does the extension tell you? The extension tells you about the information contained in the website. It’s an article about teaching toddlers about body parts through play.
2.       Are there credentials listed for the author(s)? If not, try Googling the name of the author or the institution.		X	What did you find? I found another website about Ms. Shoemaker. It states her current and past careers, her education, her experience, recommendations, and other websites you can find her on. There is also a short summary about her
Purpose of the Web Page
1.  Read over the information on this website carefully.  Can you determine the purpose of this web page?	X		Why is this web page on-line?  Think critically about possible opinions or bias? This webpage was created to answers many different questions for parents. There’s pregnancy information, learning or teaching your children different things, health & nutrition information
Currency of the Web Page
1.  Can you find a publishing date?		X	When was it published?
2.  Can you find the date it was last updated?		X	When was it updated?
3.  Are the links working and current? Click on some of the links to check.	X		What do you think about the links? There are many different links and they all work. There are links to: different articles, Q&A information, recipes, links to Disney, and much more.
Looking at your answers, do you think this website would be a reliable, credible source of information?	X		Why or Why not?  This website contains great information for my topic that is reliable and I can easily add a resource for it.

Identifying Lesson Topics

When choosing lesson topics for your instructions makes sure you consider the intended learning outcomes. Lessons should contain information that is related to the standards or benchmarks of the school. The teacher and students outcomes should be clearly defined. Always provide a focus to the lesson. There should be a clear style for teaching, learning, and the assessment. Have a way to show what the students will learn and what they have learned at the end of every lesson.