Friday, March 1, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Digital Material/Website Evaluations
Below are my ten educational digital material/website evaluations. I have choosen the following ten becasue either I have used them personally or I have heard of them. I have divided the material in four sections, educational, educational games, teacher/parent activity and lesson plan, and apps for iphone, ipods,and ipads.
Educational
1. www.khanacademy.org
Salman Khan was a former hedge fund manager, he put a few math videos on YouTube to help tutor his little cousins. The videos were a hit amongst not just his cousins but thousands of others on YouTube. Since then, Khan has launched KhanAcademy.org and uploaded more than 2400 videos across a variety of subjects. The success of the site has attracted big attention from the likes of Bill Gates who has helped fund the academy. One of the most interesting ideas to come out of the Khan Academy is that some kids might be able to spend their "homework time" in the evenings watching videos on KhanAcademy.org and then during "school time" kids could do their homework and get help from teachers. Khanacademy.org is an excellent online educational source. This site covers topics from arithmetic to physics, finance and history. It is beneficial to people of all ages. It could be used for high-school students or even adults that want to improve their skills, or refresh their memory. On a more personal level, Khan Academy was introduced to me by my professor at a time where I needed extra help with algebraic math. I used the Khan Academy videos on YouTube to help with my struggle in a remedial math class. Thanks to my professor and the videos I was able to grasp the information and pass my class.
Educational Games
2. www.funbrain.com
Funbrain is published by the Family Education Netwok which is a part of Pearson Education. Pearson Education is a company that provides educational materials, technologies, and assessments to teachers and students.Within the site there isn't anyway to contact the publisher directly,but there are links at the bottom of the website that gives more resources and information to parents who are granting access to their children. Funbrain is a site parents can trust to bring in a fun and safe experience for even the youngest children. The site was created for children from preschool to age eight but the site has many entertaining and educational elements that can also be useful for pre-teens. Funbrain.com was selected by FamilyFun magazine in the September 2010 issue as one of the top ten websites for kids.This website is great for children to learn while using the internet rather than surfing. Children will like this site and will use it to learn. This website can hold their attention for long because of all the interactive links on the site. This website has all kinds of games and puzzles to stimulate learning.Funbrain.com can provide a safe gaming environment that brings together learning and entertainment.
3. www.brainpop.com
Brainpop.com was made by Avraham Kadar, M.D., an immunologist and pediatrician, as a creative tool to explain difficult concepts to his young patients. Today, it is used in almost 20 percent of U.S. schools, and is growing internationally. Brainpop.com is a great tool for children, parents, and teachers. Brainpop has a collection of short educational videos which are cartoon styled. Their topics range from science, math, social studies and language. It is easy to be able to find more than one video on any topic in which could be used in a classroom or home. The videos come with a pre-tests/practice quizzes and final quizzes. Brainpop is also available in Spanish, which is great for parents who can't speak English and bilingual learners.The only downside to Brainpop.com is that although there are free videos, it's fairly expensive. If purchased for a school it is definitely a great enhancement to children learning.
4. www.pbskids.org
Pbskids.org is a sub website of pbs.com. PBS is the home of great educational television shows such as Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Barney and Friends, The Electric Company, and of course Sesame Street. PBS launched pbskids.org in 1995, bringing all of their television characters to the world wide web.This educational site for preschoolers shows what PBS does best for kids by providing basic lessons involving favorite PBS television characters in an easy to use format with voice over instructions. The site is organized by show and there's so much to do, including watch videos, play games, and print out activities to do offline. With parents help, children can play games based on favorite character or can choose certain skills for them to work on, like letters, numbers, and shapes. The website is so beautifully designed with accessibility options available for children with special needs. The website also has a sections for parents and teachers.
5. www.sproutonline.com
Sproutonline.com is an interactive website that is in conjunction with PBS. Sprout TV is a television channel that is not available in all states, so the website offers a streaming version of their TV station online. It is a preschool websites that has games, recipes, craft ideas and more. The website can be personalized for its members and accessed by friends and family in faraway places through “My Refrigerator” a private webpage that allows posts. Adults are able to upload photos and make posts. It is the website for preschoolers and their families to share together.
6. www.starfall.com
Founded in 2002, Starfall is made possible through the vision of the Polis-Schutz family. Dr. Stephen Schutz and poet Susan Polis Schutz. Dr. Schutz struggled in reading when he was a child. He created the program because he wanted to make sure children in his situation today have a resource that can help. This preschool website has online books which are free. This site is a great free option to the paid reading sites out there. It teaches phonics reading, and for children who are interested learning to read. As the narrator goes along each word gets highlighted which gives the child a visual of how the word looks. There are a few books that are more fun, but mostly it's just assisted reading and not much in the way of games. There is also an animated ABC section that is appropriate for two year olds. This is a good site to give little ones extra practice with sounds and emergent reading activities. This site incorporates a fun way that teaches children the alphabet and how to pronounce the letters using pictures and sound. Starfall.com is a wonderful free resource for pre-reading and basic reading skills. The site is well-developed and easy to access.
Teacher/Parent Activity and Lesson Plan
7. www.everythingpreschool.com
Everthingpreschool.com is a nice preschool website to go for lesson plans, activities, games and much more. It is great for parents who are homeschooling or just want to reinforce what’s going on at school and teachers who need new ideas. Most lesson plans and craft ideas come from teachers and parents. Everything Preschool offers over 30,000 preschool education activities separated into over 100 themes, 26 alphabet areas, and lesson plans. They have a recipe page for just about everything you can imagine: goop, clay, silly putty, homemade crayons, and much more. It is a great place to visit if there is a need for a hands on activity. When I was working in a after school program where I wasn't provided enough materials or lesson plans, I used this website to keep the children busy after homework. I would either printout activity sheets, learn a new game, do arts and crafts and just about anything depending on the time frame we had.
8. www.enchantedlearning.com
Enchanted Learning was founded by Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector in 1993, they began by designing educational games for their own children and in 1995 they started the enchantedlearning.com website. Enchanted Learning produces K-12 educational material that is published online, they have 30,000 pages on their website covering a wide range of topics. This preschool website can be accessed for free, but if subscribed for $20 a year you will be able to view and use additional educational materials. This is a nice site for preschool teachers, home school families, and parents that would like to supplement their child’s learning.
The site offers holiday projects they and printable booklets. This is a great website to start with because activities can be picked and printed out and children do not need not be at the computer. A downfall to the site is for educators, enchantedlearning.com is not too organized.
Apps
9. SirMania-Play & Learn by Diitt Design
SirMania-Play & Learn is a collection of ten different activities designed for children ages 2-6 years old. It is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. With amazing artwork by Anja Bredesen, this app uses outdoor settings as backdrops for its antics. Cute characters hop, peek, honk, prance, cluck, and scramble around. Children can choose from many activities, including assembling an animal puzzle, matching the animal to its shadow, finding hidden animals popping up everywhere, counting sheep, and catching worms. It is easily understandable, designed with a clear purpose in mind, and it is engaging for its target audience. Another positive point is that it has been translated from Swedish into English. It covers basic preschool concepts in a friendly, silly way. From an educational perspective, SirMania has a solid educational foundation, and children will like SirMania because it’s silly and fun.
10. GazziliWords
GazziliWords is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and its an app that uses pictures and animation to create a meaning in a way that makes sense to children. It promotes higher level vocabulary development using great games. GazzilliWorld is a place where kids are learning and learning is a pleasure. GazziliWords acts like a visual encyclopedia designed for preschoolers. It makes the ideas come to life, and that’s what makes it special. GazziliWords was nominated for the Webby Award for gameplay on a tablet device. GazziliWords is an educational app that will appeal to all children, even the more reluctant learners, because it doesn’t feel like an educational app. It draws on the natural curiosity children have and it gives them information that they can really understand.
Educational
1. www.khanacademy.org
Salman Khan was a former hedge fund manager, he put a few math videos on YouTube to help tutor his little cousins. The videos were a hit amongst not just his cousins but thousands of others on YouTube. Since then, Khan has launched KhanAcademy.org and uploaded more than 2400 videos across a variety of subjects. The success of the site has attracted big attention from the likes of Bill Gates who has helped fund the academy. One of the most interesting ideas to come out of the Khan Academy is that some kids might be able to spend their "homework time" in the evenings watching videos on KhanAcademy.org and then during "school time" kids could do their homework and get help from teachers. Khanacademy.org is an excellent online educational source. This site covers topics from arithmetic to physics, finance and history. It is beneficial to people of all ages. It could be used for high-school students or even adults that want to improve their skills, or refresh their memory. On a more personal level, Khan Academy was introduced to me by my professor at a time where I needed extra help with algebraic math. I used the Khan Academy videos on YouTube to help with my struggle in a remedial math class. Thanks to my professor and the videos I was able to grasp the information and pass my class.
Educational Games
2. www.funbrain.com
Funbrain is published by the Family Education Netwok which is a part of Pearson Education. Pearson Education is a company that provides educational materials, technologies, and assessments to teachers and students.Within the site there isn't anyway to contact the publisher directly,but there are links at the bottom of the website that gives more resources and information to parents who are granting access to their children. Funbrain is a site parents can trust to bring in a fun and safe experience for even the youngest children. The site was created for children from preschool to age eight but the site has many entertaining and educational elements that can also be useful for pre-teens. Funbrain.com was selected by FamilyFun magazine in the September 2010 issue as one of the top ten websites for kids.This website is great for children to learn while using the internet rather than surfing. Children will like this site and will use it to learn. This website can hold their attention for long because of all the interactive links on the site. This website has all kinds of games and puzzles to stimulate learning.Funbrain.com can provide a safe gaming environment that brings together learning and entertainment.
3. www.brainpop.com
Brainpop.com was made by Avraham Kadar, M.D., an immunologist and pediatrician, as a creative tool to explain difficult concepts to his young patients. Today, it is used in almost 20 percent of U.S. schools, and is growing internationally. Brainpop.com is a great tool for children, parents, and teachers. Brainpop has a collection of short educational videos which are cartoon styled. Their topics range from science, math, social studies and language. It is easy to be able to find more than one video on any topic in which could be used in a classroom or home. The videos come with a pre-tests/practice quizzes and final quizzes. Brainpop is also available in Spanish, which is great for parents who can't speak English and bilingual learners.The only downside to Brainpop.com is that although there are free videos, it's fairly expensive. If purchased for a school it is definitely a great enhancement to children learning.
4. www.pbskids.org
Pbskids.org is a sub website of pbs.com. PBS is the home of great educational television shows such as Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Barney and Friends, The Electric Company, and of course Sesame Street. PBS launched pbskids.org in 1995, bringing all of their television characters to the world wide web.This educational site for preschoolers shows what PBS does best for kids by providing basic lessons involving favorite PBS television characters in an easy to use format with voice over instructions. The site is organized by show and there's so much to do, including watch videos, play games, and print out activities to do offline. With parents help, children can play games based on favorite character or can choose certain skills for them to work on, like letters, numbers, and shapes. The website is so beautifully designed with accessibility options available for children with special needs. The website also has a sections for parents and teachers.
5. www.sproutonline.com
Sproutonline.com is an interactive website that is in conjunction with PBS. Sprout TV is a television channel that is not available in all states, so the website offers a streaming version of their TV station online. It is a preschool websites that has games, recipes, craft ideas and more. The website can be personalized for its members and accessed by friends and family in faraway places through “My Refrigerator” a private webpage that allows posts. Adults are able to upload photos and make posts. It is the website for preschoolers and their families to share together.
6. www.starfall.com
Founded in 2002, Starfall is made possible through the vision of the Polis-Schutz family. Dr. Stephen Schutz and poet Susan Polis Schutz. Dr. Schutz struggled in reading when he was a child. He created the program because he wanted to make sure children in his situation today have a resource that can help. This preschool website has online books which are free. This site is a great free option to the paid reading sites out there. It teaches phonics reading, and for children who are interested learning to read. As the narrator goes along each word gets highlighted which gives the child a visual of how the word looks. There are a few books that are more fun, but mostly it's just assisted reading and not much in the way of games. There is also an animated ABC section that is appropriate for two year olds. This is a good site to give little ones extra practice with sounds and emergent reading activities. This site incorporates a fun way that teaches children the alphabet and how to pronounce the letters using pictures and sound. Starfall.com is a wonderful free resource for pre-reading and basic reading skills. The site is well-developed and easy to access.
Teacher/Parent Activity and Lesson Plan
7. www.everythingpreschool.com
Everthingpreschool.com is a nice preschool website to go for lesson plans, activities, games and much more. It is great for parents who are homeschooling or just want to reinforce what’s going on at school and teachers who need new ideas. Most lesson plans and craft ideas come from teachers and parents. Everything Preschool offers over 30,000 preschool education activities separated into over 100 themes, 26 alphabet areas, and lesson plans. They have a recipe page for just about everything you can imagine: goop, clay, silly putty, homemade crayons, and much more. It is a great place to visit if there is a need for a hands on activity. When I was working in a after school program where I wasn't provided enough materials or lesson plans, I used this website to keep the children busy after homework. I would either printout activity sheets, learn a new game, do arts and crafts and just about anything depending on the time frame we had.
8. www.enchantedlearning.com
Enchanted Learning was founded by Jeananda Col and Mitchell Spector in 1993, they began by designing educational games for their own children and in 1995 they started the enchantedlearning.com website. Enchanted Learning produces K-12 educational material that is published online, they have 30,000 pages on their website covering a wide range of topics. This preschool website can be accessed for free, but if subscribed for $20 a year you will be able to view and use additional educational materials. This is a nice site for preschool teachers, home school families, and parents that would like to supplement their child’s learning.
The site offers holiday projects they and printable booklets. This is a great website to start with because activities can be picked and printed out and children do not need not be at the computer. A downfall to the site is for educators, enchantedlearning.com is not too organized.
Apps
9. SirMania-Play & Learn by Diitt Design
SirMania-Play & Learn is a collection of ten different activities designed for children ages 2-6 years old. It is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. With amazing artwork by Anja Bredesen, this app uses outdoor settings as backdrops for its antics. Cute characters hop, peek, honk, prance, cluck, and scramble around. Children can choose from many activities, including assembling an animal puzzle, matching the animal to its shadow, finding hidden animals popping up everywhere, counting sheep, and catching worms. It is easily understandable, designed with a clear purpose in mind, and it is engaging for its target audience. Another positive point is that it has been translated from Swedish into English. It covers basic preschool concepts in a friendly, silly way. From an educational perspective, SirMania has a solid educational foundation, and children will like SirMania because it’s silly and fun.
10. GazziliWords
GazziliWords is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and its an app that uses pictures and animation to create a meaning in a way that makes sense to children. It promotes higher level vocabulary development using great games. GazzilliWorld is a place where kids are learning and learning is a pleasure. GazziliWords acts like a visual encyclopedia designed for preschoolers. It makes the ideas come to life, and that’s what makes it special. GazziliWords was nominated for the Webby Award for gameplay on a tablet device. GazziliWords is an educational app that will appeal to all children, even the more reluctant learners, because it doesn’t feel like an educational app. It draws on the natural curiosity children have and it gives them information that they can really understand.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Teacher, Parent and Community Involvement in Schools
According to Pedro Noguera, executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, parents and community involvement is vital to the growth of the school's population. He in a way says that parents who are highly educated are most likely to be more involved in their child's schooling than parents who are not. These schools whose parents are more involved typically have more resources.
I believe this is because parents who aren't highly educated feel like they can leave it up to the teachers and the school administration to handle their children's school needs.
In order to break these habits teachers should inform parents that their participation is crucial to the success of their child. A way to start effective parent involvement is to have..
Effective Communication
Parents and Teacher should meet on a monthly basis in order to meet standards and each student's need. Teachers should come up with lesson plans that involve parents into contributing to the schools.
Parent Teacher Training
Some parents have no idea what goes on through out the day.
...to be continued...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiEKs01ZIho
I believe this is because parents who aren't highly educated feel like they can leave it up to the teachers and the school administration to handle their children's school needs.
In order to break these habits teachers should inform parents that their participation is crucial to the success of their child. A way to start effective parent involvement is to have..
Effective Communication
Parents and Teacher should meet on a monthly basis in order to meet standards and each student's need. Teachers should come up with lesson plans that involve parents into contributing to the schools.
Parent Teacher Training
Some parents have no idea what goes on through out the day.
...to be continued...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiEKs01ZIho
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Technology Education
Technology is now completely taking over. As i think back on the first time I used technology I think about how simple it all used to be. I used to be in fifth grade and we used to do this interactive math program that ran on a DOS program (or something like that).
But..
Times have changed and we have moved on from using DOS to using much more advanced programs. Now if I had the chance to use technology in the classroom. I would use things that would enhance and engage all of my students and their learning.
In a classroom setting as advance as technology is we can computers and apple product lke the ipad and ipod touch.
On the Ipad and Ipod there are apps that go over the ABC,apps that tell stories, apss that help count number, and countless of others.
One way i have noticed apps are efficient as an example ill used Dr. Seuss ABC's its an apple app, which reads the books and children can go back to a word they don't know and it tells the spelling pronunciation.My 4 year old nephew is very attached to this app and with it he has learned lots of words even whimsical one's which Dr. Seuss is known for.
Technology will continue to develop and as it does it will be something we humans will adjust with.
Eventually technology will be in every classroom, and used by everyone.
But..
Times have changed and we have moved on from using DOS to using much more advanced programs. Now if I had the chance to use technology in the classroom. I would use things that would enhance and engage all of my students and their learning.
In a classroom setting as advance as technology is we can computers and apple product lke the ipad and ipod touch.
On the Ipad and Ipod there are apps that go over the ABC,apps that tell stories, apss that help count number, and countless of others.
One way i have noticed apps are efficient as an example ill used Dr. Seuss ABC's its an apple app, which reads the books and children can go back to a word they don't know and it tells the spelling pronunciation.My 4 year old nephew is very attached to this app and with it he has learned lots of words even whimsical one's which Dr. Seuss is known for.
Technology will continue to develop and as it does it will be something we humans will adjust with.
Eventually technology will be in every classroom, and used by everyone.
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