Blog Post 6

I took a look at my old elementary school, Wakefield Elementary School. I focused on the second grade in particular since that is what I hope to teach. Most of the pages had different tabs. One gave a description of the teacher, although the depth at which they described themselves varied. Most pages were decked out very colorfully with interesting patterns and pictures. Some had helpful links, while others had wish lists. Almost all of the pages I saw also included guidelines and expectations. Some were even helpful enough to put down the curriculum that the students would be learning.

I could see myself using calendars in order to make sure I have everything planned out ahead of time and also so I don't loose track of myself. I could also see myself using a lot of spreadsheets as different kinds of checklists in order to make sure my students and I stick to the tasks at hand. I would also make all of my lesson plans on digital files so that I could reuse and update them in the future. I would probably use both Digo and Evernote to be able so save and take notes on websites I wanted to save, maybe even on the lesson plans that teachers share online. Email would probably be the thing I use most because I always like to keep into contact with people anytime there is new information that I find out. It would also make the communication with teacher and parent better than having students relay what I say.

By working on the wiki, we learned how to properly evaluate websites to make sure they are something that can be used in the classroom. It also gave us a chance to create our own ideas about what exactly makes a website valid. I liked that I got a hands on experience to be able to understand for myself what makes information valid. I am a very kinesthetic learner, so being hands on really helps things sink in for me. I think next time I could make the questionnaire longer so that I can get into more detail about what makes a website that is valid better than another that might also be valid on a basic scale. This assignment will help me better understand what resources I can use in my own classroom.