World War P: Attack of the Zombie PowerPoints

This is a pretty lengthy PowerPoint, but it's very helpful at pulling out all of the parts of a slideshow that people don't like.  It also gives a lot of tips on how to fix those common PowerPoint mistakes, and share slides that are aesthetically appealing to the audience, and don't make them feel like zombies.

Zombie PowerPoint by @ericpesik from Eric Pesik

6: thoughts of a future educator

The teacher site that I decided to look at is a Kindergarten site from Astoria Park Elementary.  I actually work in this classroom a few times a week, so I thought it would be interesting to see what I can view as a "stranger" on this website.  There are tabs for info about the teacher, links that are helpful to students, announcements, assignments and a calendar.  Most of the information is either not filled in, or is unaccessible by me since I'm not logged in as a parent or student that's part of the class.  This is actually quite a comforting thought to me, because I think it would be a little strange if anybody could view what the class is up to, even if it's just talking about what they're doing/where they're going.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the calendar is not filled out.  However, you can also see that there's a place to sign in, which means it might require a login to be visible.

I definitely intend to use technology in the future in my classroom, especially some of the ones that Chapter 7 discussed.  It talked a lot about word processors, which can be used for things ranging from note taking to creating calendars and newsletters.  That's what I used to create my newsletter for the assignment - possibilities are nearly endless when using technology like that.  Also, we discussed applications that help us be efficient as educators, such as the 30/30 app, which can be found here: http://3030.binaryhammer.com.  I think it's a great idea, and I love routines, so turning my work day into a bunch of mini routines just makes sense to me.

Lastly, the Web Evaluation assignment - I had mixed feelings about this assignment.  On one hand, I think that it was kind of tedious, just because judging the credibility of a website has become second nature to so many of us.  Between all of the click bait on Facebook and having to write upper level papers with credible sources, I think we've learned how to differentiate between the two.  However, on the other hand, I also found this assignment kind of useful.  Because we're so adapted to judging sites, we forget that our future students don't have as much experience in judging credibility and may need assistance.  Being able to put it into words now is going to help us out a lot in the future, when we're trying to explain how to find credible sites to our students.  Overall, I found the assignment to be useful.

5: the virtual stage

Web 2.0 tools are very important, because they allow users to interact with each other, and consist of things such as YouTube, blogs, wikis, and social media.  I think these are especially important for students to use because they "allow students their own virtual stage with an audience for their work" as the podcast said.  Wikis help students work collaboratively, and social media allows students to follow people who post things relevant to what they're working on.

The Web 2.0 tool that I might use while teaching that stood out to me is Delicious, which can be found at www.delicious.com.  It's a way for students to bookmark websites for future use or categorize them by topics.  Now, this may seem unnecessary, because you can already bookmark websites on your computer.  However, this site allows you to bookmark them online, so that you can access them anywhere that has internet.  So, for example, if you wanted to bookmark something at school, while on a school computer, you normally wouldn't be able to access those bookmarked pages at home, on a different computer.  With Delicious, you can.

Another really cool feature about Delicious is that it's a social bookmarking site, meaning that you can add other users, and see the pages that they're bookmarking.  This could lead to a lot of new discovery among students, as well as be a helpful resource to students who are working collaboratively.  I really like the idea of using Delicious because it's easier than having to send yourself or write down all the sites that you use.  Since I'm kind of lazy as well as forgetful, this tool seems very useful to me.

I liked the Concept Mapping assignment primarily because I enjoy seeing information broken down and grouped like this.  I think it's much easier to hit the key points in this fashion, as well as a better way to retain it.  I think next time, however, I will try to break the information down even more, as well as add other elements such as graphics and questions.  I liked looking at everyone else's assignments and seeing the different colors and designs.

4: standards so high

http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewStandard/Preview/1622

• Standard SC.2.L.14.1 "Distinguish human body parts (brain, heart, lungs, stomach, muscles, and skeleton) and their basic functions."
• http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/health_games/body_parts/body-parts-word-o-rama.html
• Educational games
• I would use educational games like the one from the site above because they are fun and relatable to children this age.  The subjects can be converted into really creative and fun ideas.

I think that using the internet during student research can be important, but I think that it should also be limited.  There are times when it's appropriate, such as in researching things that require multimedia images or videos or audio clips.  I think using the internet would not only be wise but also helpful in this situation.  However, if books can be used, I think they should be, because even in a world growing with technology, I think books are still important and that students shouldn't lose that skill. 

When I search internet based resources, I evaluate them based on their credibility.  If it's a big name that I've heard of before, or know of a good reputation of, like the Wall Street Journal, or something like that, then I would find it pretty credible.  However, if it's riddled with advertisements or has a bad reputation, such as Wikipedia, I would say that it's not the best resource.

I acquired some cool new skills during the Web Hunt assignment, most of which were learning how to search helpful strings on Google and get more direct results quicker.  The key that we created in class helped a lot with that.  See if you can find the challenges from below:

1. Find a get-to-know you sheet for a game with your classmates.
2. Find a video about the French Revolution.