Bible Quotes

Wordlzzzzz

WebQuest for Classroom

Celebrating Holidays Around the World for second graders
http://questgarden.com/129/17/2/110718082712/t-index.htm
This WebQuest is great! Students work in groups to learn different information about celebrations around the world. Each day a book supplements the WebQuest, and students get a chance to explore a new country each day. I really liked this WebQuest because it provided the standards that the quest addresses for social studies. I also liked that it provided ways to extend or shorten the quest. In the quest students learn about different celebrations in China, South Africa, Ireland, and Mexico. Along the way students fill out a "passport" that they record their information in. Finally, students send a "postcard" to their favorite country they visited. The project is designed so that groups can be formed with learners with different strengths.

Website Evaluation

I thought the website evaluation was helpful in demonstrating to me all of the various things to consider when deciding whether a website is appropriate for a K12 classroom. I do; however, think the exercise might have been more helpful if the website I evaluated wasn't as reputable. Something I learned from the evaluation, is how difficult it is to find the author of a website, especially if it is a large website because there are probably many editors. I have always wondered why websites do not have pages that have all their reference information on it. That would be extremely practical with the increasing use of the internet as a source for teachers and students. After the activity, I wonder if websites being under consrtuction automatically make them not reputable. Don't websites have to be under construction at some point? I also  considered, while do my evaluation, how difficult it can be to determine if a website is bias. I did think the evaluation helped me to apply the things I have previously been taught to look out for when looking for sources on the web. I did not, however, ever consider the design and layout of the site when evaluating websites before this activity. The evaluation is helpful in preparing me to appropriately evaluate and present websites for my students, so that they can access relevant and current websites.