Teaching Zack to Think

This article talked about a student who was gathering information from the internet on the Holocaust.He found an article from a well known university that contained information that was untrue. The student believed this information and did not check this information with another source.

I agree that students believe everything that is online. The author provided three categories to use to determine the validity of a website. I think that before we tell students to research topics, we should teach them how to research.

WEBQUEST

Talia and I collaborated on this assignment. The webquest is about a family going on vacation. The students will be placed in teams. Each team will decide on a vacation city for the family and what attractions they will visit. They are responsible for calculating the total cost of the trip. Our webquest is aligned with 3rd grade Alabama Course of Study Standards. The students will also create a brochure. This project will improve and increase the students' social skills.

Click HERE to view the page.

Alabama Kindergarten Conference

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Alabama Kindergarten Conference in Huntsville, AL. This conference was awesome. I had the opportunity to listen to several wonderful speakers, such as Peggy Campbell-Rush, Susan Stevens Crummel, and Janet Stevens. These women were very inspirational. Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel,sibling illustrators/authors, read and demonstrated how to read several of their books. They showed us how they came up with the idea for the story Plaidypus Lost. Janet Stevens informed us that we should not delay doing something that we are passionate about.

Peggy Campbell-Rush is currently a kindergarten teacher and an author. She provided several strategies for teaching kindergarten and reading. She also demonstrated several games to play with the students. I enjoyed her presentation so much that I bought her book.

I can't wait until school starts so that I can tell my students about meeting these wonderful authors.

My Wiki

I really enjoyed working on my wiki. I completed my wiki as well as created one for a friend. My wiki was designed to help parents as well as provide educational assistance to the students.

While designing this wiki, I learned how to utilized SCRIBD. I used Scribd to add my school system's calendar for the 2010-2011 academic school year. I also used Picnik to add features to my picture that I posted on my Glogster page. Glogster is a very cool website. I learned that I could utilizew other's Glogster pages. I also learned how to add videos from Youtube and Teachertube to my Glogster pages.

Here are the links to my completed wikis: http://rburton.wikispaces.com/ and http://msgraham256.wikispaces.com/ I hope you enjoy viewing them.

Skype and Wiki

Today, I skyped with Beverly and Jessica. We viewed each other's wikis and discussed how to add features to wikis. Beverly and I said that we are going to use our wiki's doing the 2010-2011 school year.

I enjoy skyping with web cams versus using IMs. It makes the conversation more personal. I am glad that I have classmates who do not mind sharing ideas and providing assistance whenever I need it.

Skype and Wiki

Last week, Talia and conversed via Skype. We viewed and discussed our wikis. Talia also showed me pictures of her new home.