Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Creativity and Innovation
Sunday, February 13, 2011
My Credible Source
Website Evaluation Checklist
Student Name: Angela Torres Date of Evaluation: February 9, 2011
Name of the Website: WeatherWizKids
URL of the Website: http://www.weatherwizkids.com/
| Accuracy of the Web Page | Yes | No | Notes |
| 1. Can you find the author of the page? Hint: Scroll to the bottom of the page. It may be an institution. | X |
| Author Name: Crystal Wicker |
| 2. Can the author be contacted: Hint: Look for an “About Us” or “Contact Link” | X |
| Author email: askcrystal@weatherwizkids.com |
| 3. Do you think this person or institution is qualified to publish this webpage? | X |
| Why or why not? She has a degree. Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology
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| Authority of the Web Page |
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| 1. Check the domain of the URL, particularly the extension. Is this a commercial site? The URL can give clues to the authority. |
| X | What does the extension tell you? That Crystal is the main authority on this website.
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| 2. Are there credentials listed for the author(s)? If not, try Googling the name of the author or the institution.
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| X | What did you find? I tried googling it but it nothing came up.
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| Purpose of the Web Page |
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| 1. Read over the information on this website carefully. Can you determine the purpose of this web page? | X |
| Why is this web page on-line? Think critically about possible opinions or bias? To allow kids to learn the world of weather and have parents get the right tools to teach them.
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| Currency of the Web Page |
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| 1. Can you find a publishing date? | X |
| When was it published? 2003 |
| 2. Can you find the date it was last updated? | X |
| When was it updated? 2009 |
| 3. Are the links working and current? Click on some of the links to check. | X |
| What do you think about the links? I think the links are great. They have great insight and work every time you click on them. |
| Looking at your answers, do you think this website would be a reliable, credible source of information? | X |
| Why or Why not? Crystal has a degree. She knows what she is talking about and has many links to discuss about weather. I could use much information off her website to create my lessons.
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Oh to be DELICIOUS
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
My Retrospective analysis of a goal-oriented activity
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Planning and Identifying Topics
Big Ideas- can help understand strength and weaknesses in the beginning of the school year i.e lessons of what a student should learn throughout.
Conspicuous Strategies- explained information of a tasks or assignment should be taught to students can use them independently.
Mediated Scaffolding- kids have to memorize certain math steps/ spelling words and some more than others need extra help. It's support to help the individual learn the word seeing it, hearing it and eventually knowing on their own without support.
Strategic Integration- Student will learn how things change and must understand the concept of change. Here is where teachers can take them on field trips in order to understand a much more in depth concept of something.
Primed Background Knowledge-this is where a teacher would ask the student what they know of a certain subject, asking of past experiences, connecting old information to new information working towards a class discussion or a report.
Judicious Review- A student will learn to make use of long term memory throughout the course of the year. For example something taught in the beginning of the school year, using is spontaneously throughout the year, ending it with some type of project showing what the child has learned in skills on that matter. Becoming more strategic in teaching, instructors can improve a child's' understanding and content being spoken of.
FINDING LESSON TOPICS:
When finding a lesson topic, a teacher should have knowledge of what the standard based curriculum of the school or district is. The students interest and questions can help shape the topic of the lesson. For example weather is a pretty broad topic. Narrowing it down to seasons and then distributing information of all types of the seasons. Another one would be with planting. Having the experience of learning to plant, how farming changed lives, and base it around the standard of the school and district. Having more information implied through textbooks, videos, guest speakers, websites, and hands on projects can help enhance learning experience and make it more vivid to understand.
Instruction and Assesments to Learning
Understand the learning process can lead to meeting the needs of their students through instructional adaptation. Through accommodations and modifications, will allow each student equal access to the curriculum and allow them to process information that has been taught. Accommodations: student support related to their disability, could consists of a way that helps the student learn to their greatest ability.
Modifications: student support related to their disability, shortening tasks given, making changes for them as well.
ASSESSMENT AND THE MEASURES:
Assessments usually compare a student's performance with one of three different types of standards.
Individual-referenced: a previous test on a student can be compared to a current test based on performance, monitor progress, and helps teacher understand child's strength and weaknesses.
Norm-referenced : standardized test comparing students performance to a group: compare school performance to national norms.
Criterion-referenced: compare students performance to an objective, assessing if the student has mastered skills within a curriculum, a true false test or even a book report shows direct and indirect ways for a reference.
A good assessment must measure the skills, knowledge, or abilities the teacher holds important, se several ways to determine progress, and be "teacher-friendly".
THE INSTRUCTIONAL CYCLE: There are 3 stages
Stage 1: Intended Instructional Outcomes: Teacher should have a clear idea of what they benchmark and content standard will address at the end of unit less or plan. Instructors should have an idea of what students need to know and understand to meet the standard based curriculum. Keeping in mind how they will asses what has been learned as well.
Stage 2: Planning
Teachers should start planning instructional activities and teaching strategies with making test and assessments. When they learn the outcome, instruction, and assessments the teachers should then carry out planning.
Stage 3: Assessment
This final stage which includes implementing the assessment into the lesson, doesn't mean it should be done at the end of the unit or topic. It should be throughout the entire lesson, so that the teacher could see what has or hasn't been learned by that particular student. Assessments are used to see if the student has mastered the intended learning.
Benchmark & Content Standard
Content standards refer to what gets taught in specific content areas (e.g., reading, language arts, mathematics, science, history) Content and performance are two types of standards. Performance is mastering what has been taught and the content which is an outline of what needs to be learned. These goals should be written based on grade level and what should be learned by the end of the year. Some assessments would be used to determine the knowledge and skills students have grasped and be able to guide teachers in a way to understand if their teaching skills have made an impact.
BENCHMARKS
Benchmarks are test usually given throughout the school year or the end of a semester/unit. They are used to determine progression in students based towards goals and standards. The teacher will acknowledge students about benchmarks and help them understand what is to be met of them giving them a greater sense of responsibility to their own learning.
Benchmark and standard remain the same throughout the k-12 grades but as the student goes to another grade, the performance standards change.
LEARNING
Knowing what makes a student struggle to learn and how they remember to learn can make lessons and planning easier for the instructor in her classroom. Learning a students interest, strengths, weaknesses, behavior, what language is spoken at home, interest, talents, religious factors, how they learn, and the knowledge they already have are good information to have before hand. All students don't learn the same or have the same environment around them. Getting to know your students can help the instructor understand each and every student and create ways to help them learn. All the information goes into a student goes to "short term memory" which leads to "long term memory". This isn't easy and cannot be done overnight. This is important for the teacher to incorporate that all student don't learn alike. One student might need visual aids to remember and another might remember by using "alike" words. Teachers can use creative ways to connect to their lessons i.e topics of interest outside the classrooms to help the students remember.