WebQuests

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.

Since those beginning days, tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests as a way to make good use of the internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires. The model has spread around the world, with special enthusiasm in Brazil, Spain, China, Australia and Holland.

http://webquest.org/index.php

This link has some great WebQuest examples, including a section of social studies WebQuests:

http://www.kathimitchell.com/quests.htm

Here is a neat a WebQuest about volcanoes:

http://rocksforkids.com/WebQuest/VolcanoWebQuest.htm

WebQuests are neat ways to individualize instruction and engage students in learning!

Great Googely Moogely!

I think that Maggie and the Ferocious Beast would agree that Google is quite amazing. Not only do I love that my gmail account separates my emails into my primary category, emails from social groups and promotional emails; but I love that there is just so much to do. The one aspect that I frequently use is Google Drive. I often start my homework at home at night, want to work on it while at work during the day, and then need to finish it the next night. So instead of having to constantly email updated versions of the document to myself, I can just work on it using Drive and I can automatically access it no matter which computer I am on. I also think that it is valuable to use Google Drive when working on projects within a group. I worked with two peers to present information about Digital Literacy to my classmates in one of my reading classes, and we used the presentation aspect of Google Drive to present our findings. It was so convenient that we could each add our own information and still see what the other group members were doing. Apps, maps, and more can be accessed through Google. There is so much to investigate! Come explore it with me!

Blogging

Blogging Discussion Questions Due Feb 12

 

How can you use blogs in your classroom? What is the purpose of blogging in the classroom?

 

-Teachers can share important information such as links, lessons, and newsletters to students via blogs

-Students and teachers can collaborate and post discussion questions (could be used for Book Clubs)

-Teachers can relate news to parents online that would normally be in a newsletter, parents can view students' work and projects 

-Teachers can share their lesson plans and get feedback and ideas from colleagues

-Teachers and parents can give and get feedback 
-Teachers can post tutorials on math lessons and social studies projects
-College online courses involve a lot of posting to discussion questions which essentially is blogging, so it is important to teach skills that go along with blogging at a young age so people are comfortable with it as an adult

This video expresses some of the ways to incorporate blogs into the classroom:

 

Where or how will blogs fit into your curriculum?

-Book Club: Have each group create a blog to discuss their book, each member can post their response for their job for that day (Questioner, reporter, word wizzard, etc.)
-Students can collaborate on group projects 
-Students can blog about places that they visit throughout the year, with their family or as a field trip and then pinpoint them on a virtual map on the blog
-Students can post their hypotheses about a science experiment before conducting the actual experiment in class
-The teacher can post a variety of journal prompts and have the students record their responses in the blog instead of on paper
-Students can report on a social issue in a blog post
-Students can pose questions on math assignments to be answered by the teacher or classmates

 

WELCOME!

Welcome to my blog! 

      My name is Kelsey Schneider and I am a Junior at Marian University. I am pursing a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. I have created this blog as a requirement for my EME 322 Social Studies Methods Class. My blogs will include lessons for teaching social studies, uses of technology in the classroom, and other relevant information. I look forward to having you read my posts! ENJOY!