Weekly Blog 5

In this assignment, I had to convert my Google bookmarks list into a Web page. I did not see a convert file dialog box when I tried to open the Web page. I think this somehow messed me up in this process. I saved my page as an HTML document, but while I was on Live Classroom Ctrl + click kept coming up when I tried to go into a site. I was able to go into my sites, so I did get my page presented. I'm still not sure what the problem was. I e-mailed Dr. Leader for suggestions.

I learned some valuable information on Live Classroom. Corey, Seth, Ali, Tonya, Mandi, and Pamela were in my group and presented their found sites. I really enjoyed Seth's resources on how to research different topics. This was geared to 5th graders, but could be used as a resource for upper elementary, middle, and high school students. I also enjoyed Pamela's ideas on how to find things in the media center. Mandi's page was also very useful in identifying parts of speech. I copied several of her sites down and plan to see if they can be adapted to fit second graders.

Weekly Blog 4

I explored Gateway to Educational Materials for the first time. I had not seen this site before and was excited to find such a great resource. I found two lesson plans that other teachers had written about money. Both had several different ideas to incorporate into a money unit. They also provided all of the materials that a teacher would need to implement this lesson right away. I then used GALILEO to find two journal articles relating to my topic. The first article was "Learning About Money: Effects of a Cognitively Appropriate Curriculum on Second-Grade Students and Teachers". The second article was "Everyday Problem Solving: Dollar Wise, Penny Foolish". Both articles encouraged the use of real world situations and manipulatives to help students understand the concept of money. Finally, I cited the Web sites that I had found.

Weekly Blog 3

This week I learned about other search tools like subject directories, invisible web, GALILEO, and ERIC Database. I first used the subject directory in Librarians' Internet Index and About.com. I found a few items that related to my topic. I then investigated the Invisible Web. Here I found information and lesson plans that teachers themselves had submitted to the Internet. I bookmarked "The Lunch Money Jingle" from the I Love that Teaching Idea site. I then went to the ERIC database and tried to conduct a search. I had a hard time with this search. The site kept asking me to enable my cookies. I checked my cookies on my computer and it was enabled. When I was finally able to get into the ERIC database, I did not find any information pertaining to my topic. I then used Ask.com and Yahoo! Search. I found the Georgia Department of Education's Place Value, Money and Estimation Unit. This looked like a very helpful unit. I bookmarked it under my teacher's resources.

Weekly Blog 2

In lesson two, I learned how to search the internet the smart way. I searched Google using keywords like "counting back currency", "counting back money" +second grade, and "counting money" +second grade. This search lead me to several Web sites that I bookmarked using Google bookmarks. I had never used bookmarks before, but found it a useful tool that I'll definately use in the future. I had some difficulty figuring out how to put in the notes, but I got it to work after I explored the things bookmarks could do. I also talked to Mandi, my group partner, via Live Classroom. Last semester, I could never get it working quite right. This time I downloaded it to my work computer and did not have any problems.