Wikipedia Edits

Activity:

Find something on two different Wikipedia entries and edit them.

My reaction and work:

I started out by typing the name of the school I teach at in the search bar. When I did this I found Creekland MIddle school however it wasn't my school. It was another with the same name. So I really had a big task ahead of me. With help from John I finally got the hang of going into a Wikipedia entry that already existed and adding to it by distinguishing that there could be multiple choices. I realized that there was going to be a lot of coding but luckily I could just copy what the other school had already done and put mine through the same codes.
I went to my school website and took info from the school improvement plan so that I didn't misquote any information. I sited my source but apparently there was a Wikipedia Nazi that felt it was copyright infringement violoations so all facts from the improvement plan were deleted. Boooo :(.

Click here for the link to the wiki entry I edited.

Photo Editing Websites

Activity:

Web sites used: http://www.befunky.com/ and http://www.webresizer.com/resizer/

1. Select a photo from your collection or another you would like to play with.

2. Go to the befunky web site and upload your photo.

3. Experiment with the different photo editing options.

4. Make four different versions of your same photo.

5. Make sure you save them with different names: Ex: abe1, abe2, abe3, abe4

6. Use the webresizer website to crop off the befunky label and add a border or other effects.

7. Upload the original photo, plus the four new photos to your class blog.

My Work:

Original Photo:

Picture Number 1 Edited -Befunky (Black and White), Webresizer (Curved edges)

Picture Number 2 edited: Befunky (Popart) Webresizer (Cropped myself and my husband out of picture)

Picture Number 3 edited: Befunky (Sketch) and Webresizer (added thick border)

Picture Number 4 Edited: Befunky ( ) and Webresizer (multiple borders)

One of my favorite reads this year

Reading is a luxury that doesn't come very often in my household these days. Usually when I have a free moment I am cleaning or taking a nap but there have been occasional days where I have just soaked myself in self gratification by reading a book. One book in particular was "Eat, Pray, Love." I think only because it reminds me of the summer I met my husband. I am excited that the movie will be coming out soon!

Oil Activity

Goal: Work with Google docs, discussion of standardized tests, sharing documents,
Web sites used: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/11/06/business/20071107_WINNERSLOSERS_GRAPHIC.html#
http://docs.google.com/
Standardized tests today nearly often involve problem solving skills.
Several require students to take information from graphs and charts and use it to answer questions.
1. Visit the World Oil Map listed in the New York Times.
2. Make a simple worksheet (using google Docs) or word if you prefer that requires students to gather information from this site. Five Questions is all you need. At the bottom of the worksheet - list the answers.
The hardest should require some real thinking or problem solving skills (appropriate for your age group)
3. Share the document with one of your computer neighbors,
4. Post it on your blog.
(Please note that there are three tabs which give different types of information. There is also a zoom feature on each map.)
If you like this type of interactive map and data, there are many more found at the New York times web site. Search for the word interactive or talk to me.
When finished, make a blog post about this acitivity, include appropriate links and discuss what you can take from this to use in your classroom.

My Work:
Oil Activity
5 Questions:
1. What countries are the top 3 producers of oil?
2. What countries are the top 3 consumers?
3. What countries are the top 3 suppliers to the US?
4. What do the circles on the maps represent?
5. On average, the United States consumed how many barrels of oil?

Answers: 1. Saudia Arabia, Russia, United States2. United States, China, and Japan3. United States, Canda and Mexico4. Proportional to the number of barrels5. 20.6 million barrels per day

Stock Market

Activity: Stock Market Game
Website Used: http://vse.marketwatch.com/Game/Homepage.aspx
1. You will need to add your stocks.
2. You must buy at least 12 stocks. You have $100,000 to spend. You may want to search for "best stock picks" in Google for ideas. You'll need the stock symbol (abbreviation)
3. The game lasts 60 days.

My Work:

My Reaction:

Teaching stocks is not in my curriculum however, I think I might play this just so I can learn more about the stock market! A little fun competition is great for a class to build community as well. Thanks for introducing me to this website.

Titanic

Activity:
Teacher gave each student a word to look up with the topic "Titanic." Each student was to find out a few facts to share with the class on their word.

My work:

I was given the word "conclusion." Could I have gotten an easier one? I don't think so... :)

However, I do think this is such a great activity to do with a classroom. It would be a great classroom warm up to get the students interested in a topic! When our class did it together I could see all of us grow with interest in the subject and we didn't even have to learn about it! Great lesson that I know I will use again.

20 Links

Activity:
1. Create a webpage page using Google Sites.
2. On this site you are to place links to 20 of your favorite websites.
3. Place 2 of John's favorite site links.

My reaction:
It was very hard for me to think of 20 websites because at home I keep the bookmarked. Google Site was not very intuitive. I accidently chose a template that was already created which ended making me delete most of the things within the template.

Click here to see my site.

Word Search Fun

Activity:
Web sites used: http://www.wikipedia.org and http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
and any other web site you want.
1. Create a online scavenger hunt that is appropriate for the age of your students. If you want to limit the web sites that your students can search from, list them at the top of your document.
2. Have a mininum of 15 questions. Some easy, some hard.
3. Put the 15 word answers into one of the puzzles available at the discovery channel puzzle maker.

My Reaction:
I have to say this activty was a bit difficult for me due to the curriculum content. I am switching teaching positions next year and I actually don't know what I am going to be teaching (standards). I also tried putting it into googledocs but it wasn't very user-friendly. I ended up putting it into a Word document and then transferring it into Paint.

My Work:

Wikipedia English vs Simple English vs Britannica Online

Activity:
Research Wikipedia - English and Simple English, compare articles on something you are "passionate about" to the Free Britannica and write a post about what you discovered.

My Response:
Below is a graph I made to describe my reaction to the three sites. Please click on it to enlarge.

Wunderland

ASSIGNMENT: Wunderground Activity

• Goal: To become familiar with Google Docs, gmail, Docs - spreadsheet, Wunderground, images, blogger, data transfer.
• Websites used: http://www.wunderground.com/ and http://docs.google.com/

1. Pick a location on earth that you've never been but always wanted to go.
2. Using the weather history link on Wunderground, write down the high and the low temperature for the 15th of every month in 2009.
3. Enter the data into the spreadsheet program in Google Docs.
4. Create a graph (or chart) of your data.
5. Work with the graphing features to make your graph just what you want.
6. Save the graph as an image and post it on your blog.
7. Add a post on your blog about this activity with site links and some ideas you can take from it to use in your classroom
   
8. Enrichment actitivies:
   Have your graph show averages as well. Spend more time with wunderground and see all the other historical data they list.
   Create a ongoing graph, of your own community and consider how you can make this a daily or weekly activiy in your classroom.
   
   
   MY REACTION:
   I am really interested in traveling so I found this website really cool for personal use. I would love to incorporate it in a lesson I just haven't figured out how yet.
   
   MY WORK:
   

ABE

How could I use something like the Lincoln Powerpoint example in my teaching situation?

I absoluetly loved the Lincolm assingment. It is one that can be used in most educational settings from pre-k to college age students. As I am about to begin my 7th year teaching, I will be a collaborative teacher for Special needs students. For the past 6 years I have taught very low functioning (MID/MOID) disabilities. I am looking forward to teaching a more academic curriculum rather than functional so an activity like this will be very helpful to have in my back pocket! I will be teaching Social Studies and Science so I am thinking this will be great for students to learn definitions for standarized testing. It will intrigue students more to learn about the content that usually only finds their boredom.