Wiki & Flicker

When I read these chapters over the break, I really enjoyed learning about how useful they really inside the classroom. I especially like how wiki can be so beneficial for students when they conduct a research project. I would definitely have my class do this as a way to incorporate technology into a lesson. For the primary grade levels, I think it would be useful to have a class wiki for parents as well as students to check up on updates, and for the upper grade levels, a class wiki as well as individual project would be beneficial. I also found Flickers to be a great tool to provide students useful research resources. I could post up picture and attach notes as well as label the pictures for students to look at. I also find that Flickers would definitely be a wonderful way for students to use technology for their research projects.

Richardson ch.1,2,5

In in week's reading, I got to know a lot more about what RSS is all about. I find that the google reader was very useful because I can just go to one website to look for new updates for websites that I'm interest in viewing/reading. I can see how beneficial the RSS programs can be within the classroom, especially for me as a teacher. I would definitely incorporate google readers for kids' news (students are continuously being updates with world/local news- social studies) and student's blogging (class discussion and projects). I'm sure there are a lot more ways to incorporate RSS programs into the classroom, but this is all I can think of. I'm sure I will find more ways later on into the course. :)

My experience with Social Studies last semester

Last semester, I was able to work with a 3rd grade GATE class. I did not get to plan and/or teach a social studies lesson, but I was able to observe my teacher doing so during my field work. At the time, the students were learning about the history of the "First Americans". During the lessons, my teacher mainly read books related to the subject and showed maps to the students. Since it was a GATE class, the students also had a GATE project that focused on finding information their heritage. There were no use of technology, other than the fact that computers were available for the students to type or print out picture. Looking back at this, I think that I would definitely introduce the idea of blogging to the class and then have them share and reflect on their heritage and background through blogging (instead of just doing a presentation). By allowing the students to blog about their heritage, they'll be able to learn about uploading pictures and other useful skill through blogging as well.