Sarah's Portfolio

Interactive Health Site

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:53:55 +0000

I found an interesting interactive site that would be good to use during health. On this website there is an interactive board game called “The Bully Roundup”. Students can play this game against someone else or against the computer. Throughout the game there are questions that students have to answer related to the issue of bullying. After they answer a question there is a detailed explanation that expands on the answer. This interactive game has very good visuals, and it provides students with important relevant information about bullying. I would use this site if I were teaching resolving conflicts without violence (Bullying) in grade 3 during health. I think that grade three students would enjoy this game, and it is very educational. There are interesting scenarios in this game that I think many students would be able to relate to and learn from. I would have my students use this interactive game sometime during the middle of my unit. Having some facts about bullying beforehand would help them answer some of the questions correctly. I would want to use the game before the end of my unit because it provides valuable information regarding bullying. I would have students play in partners not against the computer. The instructions on how to play are very simple, and grade three students should not have many problems. I think it would improve students’ learning because I feel that students would really be able to relate to the questions and scenarios in the game, and thus I think it would be more likely that they would learn from that. It might be an eye opening experience for them to learn that they may have not handled bullying situations very well. I think this interactive game would help improve students’ learning because it truly does offer students relevant and important information about bullying that they will likely be able to apply to things that occur in their life. It is usually beneficial when students learn about things in an interactive and fun way and this game would likely capture students interests.

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Interactive Social Studies Site

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:52:10 +0000

When looking for social studies interactive websites I came across this interactive website related to Canadian Geography. This website allows students to learn more about Canadian Provinces/Territories, Capitals, and Landscapes. What is interesting about this site is that it has tutorial levels, intermediate levels, etc. Having different levels would be convenient because students can explore the level that they are comfortable at, and if they are not challenged enough they can move onto a higher level. On this website there are three categories: Provinces/Territories, Capitals, and Landscapes. Students choose a category and a level, and then they are taken to a map of Canada where they test their knowledge about the provinces/territories, capitals, geographic regions, etc. When they have completed the activity they get a score. I would use this website when teaching the topic of location and physical features in social to grade five students. This site is fun, challenging, and I think that it would be very appropriate to use with grade five students. I would have my students use the higher levels of this site as a review towards the end of the unit. It would be a good review because this site has students test their knowledge about the provinces/territories, capitals, geographic regions, etc. which are all topics that I would teach during my unit. I could also use the tutorial levels of this website at the beginning of my unit to provide a good visual introduction to what students will be learning about. This site would improve students’ learning because it allows students to have an interactive experience to learn about or test their knowledge about Canadian Geography. Students get to experience using visual, interactive maps related to different aspects of Canada. Getting to experience the different aspects of Canadian Geography through the use of this website would likely improve students learning because they are interacting with what is on the site at their own pace. Technology has a way of making learning fun, and I think students would find this site fun to use, which would likely create a more memorable experience that could help them with remembering what they learned.

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Interactive Math Site

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:51:34 +0000

Here is an interesting interactive math site that I would use in my classroom. On this website there are a variety of multiplication activities that students could explore in order to gain practice with their multiplication facts. I personally liked the game “Multiplication Missing Number” because it is sometimes challenging to solve a math equation when it is written in a different way. There are timed activities on this website that allow students to try and beat their own best time, which can sometimes be motivating for them. I like this website because it is not too flashy or noisy and it really does allow students to focus when working on their multiplication facts. What is also nice about this website is that for some of the activities it allows you to decide the highest number the activity will use so that students are not asked questions they have not learned. I would use this website when teaching multiplication of whole numbers in math to grade four students. I think grade four students would really enjoy getting to explore the different math activities that would benefit the development of their multiplication skills. I would have my students use this website during a centre activity during math, or I could have students who complete their work early go on a computer and use this site. It would be a good centre activity because the amount of time I had students use it could easily be varied depending on the class time I had. This would also be a good site for students to use when they finished their work early because it provides good practice with multiplication facts, and it is quick and easy to use. I think that if computers were limited I could still allow students to work with a partner when exploring this site. This site would improve my student’s learning because I think it is a motivating way to get them to practice their multiplication facts. If a website is too boring students will not be motivated to use the site to practice math, but this site has enough variety that students are more likely to enjoy using it to practice their multiplication facts. Overall if students used this site I think they would get practice with multiplication facts that could help them to improve their skills.

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Interactive Arts Education Site

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:51:10 +0000

I found a very interesting interactive website that could be used in Arts Ed. called Brushster. On this website students get to create their own unique painting. To make their painting they get to choose from a variety of stroke options such as different sizes, shapes, etc. Students get to explore using different colors, shapes and lines in order to create their own unique piece of Abstract Art. I think I would use this website when teaching Arts Ed. to students in grade five. I think it would relate to the visual art strand of the Arts. Ed. curriculum and match with the objective about developing students ideas into visual art expressions, using the processes and materials of visual art. I think grade five students would really enjoy using this website in order to create their own unique piece of Visual Art. There are so many brush stroke options, smudge, ripple, and blurring effects that students could experiment with when creating their own art piece. I would have my students use this website right after I talked to them about Abstract Art. The website has examples of paintings created and I would show students those in order to help them get ideas for what sorts of things they could do with their painting. Before I had students start the painting I would make sure to really explain all the different brush stroke options and effects that the website offers. Sometimes schools do not have the materials that are needed to experiment with creating different art forms, and I think this website at least offers some way to try and create Abstract Art. I definitely would want to make sure students understood what Abstract Art was before I had them use this website. I think this website would improve student’s learning because it allows them to be very creative in order to create their own unique Abstract Art piece. It allows them to make blurs, smudges, ripples in their paintings that they might not have the understanding of how to make when painting in real life. This website could definitely help improve students understanding about different techniques used in painting that they could apply to when they make real life visual art pieces. I think it would generally improve student’s learning about visual art because it is a fun, easy way to get to experiment with creating visual art and the ideas you learn from this site could be easily applied to real life visual art creations.

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Interactive Science Site

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:50:50 +0000

This is an interesting interactive site based around the topic the digestive system. On this site students get to learn about certain parts of the body and how they are important to the digestive system. Students click on the different parts of the body and learn facts about that part of the body ie. liver, stomach, etc. When students have finished exploring all the different body parts that are important to the digestive system they can take a short quiz to test what they have learned. This site could be used in a grade four science classroom during the nutrition and digestion unit. I think that I would have my students use this website at the beginning of my unit on the digestive system in order to provide them with a quick glance of what they will learn more about. If I did use it at the beginning of my unit I would have students look at this site in partners so that they can talk a little about what they are discovering. I think this site could also be useful to use as a review at the end of a unit instead of at the beginning. I suppose I would decide when to use it depending on my students background knowledge about the digestive system. I like this site because it is easy to navigate around, it has good visuals, and interesting facts about the digestive system. This site could improve students learning because students are getting to explore a very informative depiction of the digestive system. When they are exploring this site they get to discover the information at their own pace, which is important. This site might help improve their learning about the digestive system because it shows students what certain parts of the body look like, and where they are located. When you show students a picture of say a liver for example and then tell them about what it does it can be hard for them to visualize where the liver is located, but this site would be useful in providing a good visual about the location of the liver as well as important information. By having both visuals and information about the digestive system students might gain a better understanding of what they are learning.

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Interactive Site for Kindergarten

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:49:39 +0000

An interactive site that has a social studies theme aspect to it is located on a PBS website. On this website there is an activity called “On the Job” and I think that this would be good to use in Kindergarten when teaching a theme such as “Community Helpers” in social studies. This activity would be good for Kindergarten students because there are no words that they have to read, and it is all visual. By having no words students are not expected to read in order to explore this activity. Students will have to try to match pictures of workers to their tools/items. What happens is there is a picture of a worker in a uniform, and then there are three tools/items to choose from to match he/she with, but only one of the tools/items matches with that worker. I like this site because it is colorful, has nice visuals, and it would be easy for Kindergarten students to use. This website would help students understand that there are certain tools/items for certain jobs. I would have my students use this website probably sometime in the middle of my unit. I would like to teach a little about community helpers before I have my students try this interactive online activity. This website would help me to see whether or not my students understand that there are different tools/items for different jobs. I might have my students work in partners when trying out this website; it all depends on the level of the students. I think this would improve my students’ learning because students are getting to learn about how different community helpers need different tools/items to work with. Students are getting to learn about community helpers in a fun interactive way. By playing this interactive activity students are getting to have a more actively involved experience regarding learning about community helpers. Having actively involved learning experiences will likely help students remember more about what they learn.

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Interactive Language Arts Site

nisbet2s — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:49:18 +0000

As I was looking at a variety of language arts sites I came across one that I really liked. The interactive language arts site that I found interesting was called Paw Park. I would use this site during language arts when I was teaching grade one students about cueing systems and matching beginning sounds of words. The site is very easy to use, and I think grade one students would not have any problems with using it. I like this site because it really requires students to carefully listen to the beginning sounds of words so that they pick the right word in the game. The site uses color and visuals well, and so I think that it would be interesting for the students. It is nice that students can replay the beginning sound of the starter word (which is said by the seal) as many times as they need to in order to really hear the sound so they can match it to another word (that is linked to one of the fish). I would have my students use this website likely during centre time. At the beginning of grade one many students need lots of practice with listening to the sounds of words, and I think that when I had language arts centre time I would use this website as one of my centres. I think this would help improve students’ learning because the students get to go at their own pace when using this website, and it really requires them to listen carefully so they can match the beginning sounds of words. They get to go at their own pace, which I think is important when students are using their listening skills. I think that if students’ use this website there is a chance that they could enhance their ability to recognize the beginning sounds in words.

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Web 2.0

nisbet2s — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:29:01 +0000

I feel pretty positively towards Web 2.0. I like how there is some emphasis on collaboration and sharing information. Having web 2.0 services makes using the Internet a lot easier when it comes to certain things like sharing information. I really like that the users are sometimes important contributors. It is important to allow users to have input and be involved in what is happening because it allows them to have a more positive experience. A web 2.0 service that I think would enhance learning of my students is youtube. I personally have had the opportunity to use youtube within the classroom. I used it during health class in a grade four classroom when I was teaching about saying no to drugs, alcohol and smoking. When I had a lesson about advertisements I decided to use youtube to show a few different smoking and alcohol advertisments. The students were really excited about getting to see different advertisements. I even showed them a smoking advertisement that was from the 50′s that had the Flinstones. Students were shocked and after watching the advertisements we had good discussions. I think that using youtube benefits students because they get to see things that can reinforce what they are learning. There are so many different videos on youtube that are related to what is being taught in the classroom. I have had professors who have even used youtube. If used appropriately I think students would benefit because it allows them to view things that can help enhance what they are learning. What is nice about youtube is that it allows people to upload their own creations.

Interactive Health Site

nisbet2s — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:28:10 +0000

As I was searching the Internet for interactive websites related to health I came across one related to nutrition on a site called nutrition explorations. On this website there is a link to a game called Arianna’s Food Force. In the game students go on an adventure to find different ingredients for combination foods. The directions are quite simple and the characters in the game do a good job of explaining what students should do. I think this site would be perfect to use in grade 2 during health when teaching about following Canada’s Food Guide. In grade 2 students learn all about the different food groups. What is good about this site is that it deals with combination foods that are found throughout the world. So combination foods would be foods such as hamburgers, which contain meat products, milk products, vegetables, etc. Students would have to apply their knowledge of different food groups to play this game. I would have my students use this site once I have taught them all the food groups. It would be kind of pointless to use this game when they do not have a good understanding of different food groups and products. What I really like about this site is that it allows students to see foods from different parts of the world such as Mexico, Japan, Egypt, etc. Before I had students use this site I would have talked to them about what combination foods are, so that they have some background knowledge. I would let students explore the game and then afterwards I would ask them what they discovered and we would have a class discussion. The site is very colorful, has good visuals and I think it would really capture students interests. I think this would help improve my students’ learning because it is a new way of getting to explore different food groups and products. Worksheets, videos, books, etc. can get boring after a while. I think this website is a fun way for students to get to test their knowledge about the different food groups and products while also getting to learn a little about foods that come from different countries. It is important that students know that the food groups apply to all over the world, not just where we live. This site does well at expanding their knowledge about food products, which is why I think it would help improve students’ learning.

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Simple Machines Interactive site

nisbet2s — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:37:03 +0000

An interesting interactive site that I found was based around the topic of simple machines. I would use this site if I were teaching the topic of simple machines during science in grade three. This site allows students to learn more about simple machines by exploring four rooms in a house: the garage, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. I would use this website during the start or the middle of my unit because I think it would be more beneficial for students when they do not have a full understanding about simple machines. I would use it to see how well students did at identifying what type of simple machines a variety of common objects in a household would be considered. When students are done exploring the website it would be a good opportunity to have a class discussion and ask them what they discovered and talk about why certain objects were classified as a certain type of simple machine. This website would be a good way to help students get a better understanding about the characteristics of various simple machines. I think this site would help improve students learning because it is very visual, and provides excellent information about simple machines in a kid friendly appealing way. It is an overall good site to help build students understanding about simple machines.

(A type of Simple Machine)

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