Podcasts, Podcasts, Podcasts!

I think podcasts are a great tool to use in the classroom. They can be used for so many different things. They are easy to make and great for students to use. How many times are students doing their homework and they get stuck on a question? Teachers cant be with their students all the time but podcasts can help. By creating a podcast about a topic that you just went over in class and assigned homework on you will be helping your students. Students can refer to the podcast if they are having trouble with their homework. Podcasts can also be used to introduce a topic. What better way is there to get students ready for a new topic? Teachers can make a podcast on a brief introduction to a new topic so students can get a head start. They can have a chance to look over the material and come up with any questions they may have and then ask them in class the next day. Podcasts can also be used to create reminders for parents and students. Parents are very busy and they may forget to sign off on homework or permission slips. Podcasts are a great tool for them as well. They dont have to be long so parents would only have to take out a few minutes and listen to them quickly and keep up on everything that is going on with their children at school. Also students have a lot going on and a great deal of work to keep up with so podcasts are a great way to remind them what they have due. I would definitely use podcasts in my classroom some day.

WebQuests

I really enjoyed making my own WebQuest. I had a lot of fun researching WebQuests and getting ideas from ones that I found. I think students can learn alot from looking at WebQuests and have a good time while doing so. I had fun designing my own and adding a lot of clipart and colors to make it look entertaining for kids. I was really impressed with Quest Garden. It is a great program to use to create WebQuests. I thought it was going to be a lot harder to do. This program took me through all the steps. There is a lot of work and information that needs to be put into the WebQuest but the process was easy to follow. The hardest part was taking the topic and information and making up a creative problem or story for the students to follow. I wanted to make mine interesting so that children would really want to keep going and see what happens next. I think its important to organize the information so that students can understand. I tried to include a lot of colorful pictures and great links that they can explore and learn more about the topic that I chose.

Mid Term Time

I can't believe its mid term time. I have my first mid term tonight. This semester is going by so fast. It's probably because I have so much work that the time is going so quick.
I wanted to share another good website with everyone. This website has a lot of great arts and crafts ideas. It's a great website for preschool or elementary school teachers. It also has a lot of printables that you can use for students to color or create their own projects. Also you can find printable books on this website. They have letter books and many more. I use it all the time for my preschoolers. I have them color the book and then we talk about words that start with the letter we are working on for that week. I also have found a lot of great art project ideas for each and every holiday or season. Some of you might have already heard of DLTK. If not check it out. The link is http://www.dltk-kids.com/.