A WebQuest for My Classroom

Fanatic About Fossils
http://questgarden.com/131/50/5/110919113838/index.htm

In this WebQuest 4th graders have the very important role of Paleontologist. They are working with Doctor Mikelson in opes of going back in time. Before he takes them, they must show him that they have seen many different fossils and know about them and their formation. They have a Diary to fill out during the 4 day process and different tasks to discuss every day. There is an interactive fossil dig link as well as a video, links to questions, etc.
This WebQuest would go along with a study of fossils or dinosaurs. It seems like a fun way to present the tasks to the children, through the use of this paleontologist story, while making sure that what they are learning in the classroom is reinforced.

WebQuest, It's a Journey

Through our examination of WebQuests, I think that this can be a great tool to use with older kids. You can set up a project through a WebQuest, explaining every student's role in the project and providing links on the internet they can use. I like this because, rather than providing a handout for each child that has suggested websites on it, you can set up your WebQuest to take the students directly where they need to go for research, etc. The thing that I dislike about them the most is probably their relevance to my field. I am PreK-3, and feel that using a WebQuest would be silly and inaccessible for the majority of the age groups I will be able to work with. WebQuests can be useful, but i believe they are better for older students.

Website Evaluation Tool

This is the site that I found that gives good criteria for evaluating a website. I liked this example because it asked good questions for each of the 5 criteria. Also, it provided a PDF of the evaluation handout that goes with the items discussed on the site. This site and form would be something that I would use to access a website. I also think that his could be used with older kids as a guide while they are doing research in the classroom.

Blog Recomendation & My Evaluation of the Evaluation Form

Overall, I think that I would recommend PBS Teacher to others. It has great lesson plans and other media for a huge range of topics and age groups. It’s easy to search for what you are looking for based on your desired age group and subject matter, by going through a drop-down bar. I think it is difficult to pinpoint who has written up lesson plans and articles, but it is clear that a well informed, educated group of professionals have a big say in this site. Also, I think it is beneficial to the teacher members to have discussion forums to get ideas from each other with.
I think that the evaluation form was helpful to me as I navigated through PBS Teachers. As someone who is new to teacher education pages, it was helpful to see what things I should look for in a good or bad website. I think that in my classroom, this my be a useful tool to use for assessing websites, especially before I really get a knack for evaluating them on my own.

Wikis: My Experience So Far

My first experience using wikis was actually this semester in my Reading Ed class. (We had to use one to sign for discussion leaders) The actual process of using a wiki seems fairly commen sense to me, which is definitely a relief. I have successfully created a wiki bio already and it went pretty well. I was able to successfully embed links within my wikiw, which I thought was really cool! I think the more I play aroud with them and use them, I will really get the hang of how to use them. I could see wikis as being a great way to communicate with others, just like in the "In Plain English" video we watched.