Webquest

A webquest is a way to help you learn more information about a particular topic. It is a way to help guide your research. After looking at a couple of examples and reading a few websites with information you will all become webquest pro's! You will even have an opportunity to complete a webquest made by me!

I would like you to view the following websites to help you understand what a webquest is as well as see a couple examples.

What is a webquest?

Example-Medievel Times Webquest

Example-Chocolate Chip Cookie Webquest

After reading the websites and looking at the examples above you are going to have the oppurtunity to go through a webquest called Fighting Stress. This webquest was created by a friend of mine and with you in mind. The webquest is located at the top of this blog, follow the directions and have fun!

Week 3

I can't believe the third week of field is already over. This week was again another eventful week. This week each day I taught social studies lessons as well as finished up the art lesson from the previous week. In Social Studies the first lesson we did a little role play activity which the students seemed to really enjoy they actually asked if they could do it again. At first going into the lesson I didn't feel as prepared as I wanted and somethings could have gone better but for the most part I think the lesson was well received by the children. The next day we did a colonial settlement model which turned out great but took a lot more time then I had anticipated. This gave the students a way to see how the colonists decided where to build towns by doing a hands on activity. All in all it was great. During this week I helped a lot in their small reading groups, we would read together as a group and I was asked to give them a little assignment to do on their own after we had read a chapter or so together. This was great because it gave me the opportunity to work with all the students on different reading levels. I have learned a ton from my cooperating teacher she was awesome, she gave me feedback on everything and it was so helpful. The kids I taught were great, I was extremely nervous to teach 5th grade but after this I really think I could and love it! I am sad to go but I am actually coming back on Tuesday to help with their colonial fair.

Week 2

This week was very eventful. On Monday I had my first observation by my supervisor. She was not able to come during Social Studies so I planned and taught a reading lesson. I had the students practice their new reading comprehension strategy of asking questions. We read the first two pages of the story Abulea's Feast together as a class. I then modeled the strategy for the students and they were required to partner read the rest of the story as well and finish their worksheet. This lesson went very well and my supervisor gave me great feedback. This week we also started our art project, we made cornucopias out of construction paper and the students then tore the shapes for their fruits and vegetables out of construction paper. This was a fun project but I was surprised at how much complaining I had from the students. I taught this lesson each day to four different 5th grade classes. One each day of the week. It was really fun, but was a ton work work to get ready for. All in the the kids seem to be enjoying themselves. We will not be able to finish the project this week we will work on it again for next week. On Friday we finished up their unit in Social Studies so my teacher had be prepare a review game. I decided to play jeopardy which turned out to be really fun and the kids did better on their review quiz. It was something the students had never played before and so it was exciting for them. All in all an eventful week with lots of stuff going on everyday! The kids are great though and I am really enjoying field!

Week 1

For the first couple of days in field I had the chance to observe my cooperating teacher and get a feel for how things were run in her classroom. I got a chance to learn the personalities of the students while watching them interact in their classroom environment. My cooperating teacher had me run around make copies of worksheets that she needed as well as help her grade assignments. The end of the trimester was during this week and so she needed a lot of help making sure everything was caught up. On Monday and Tuesday she discussed the election with the kids and surprisingly I learned a ton. On Thursday she had me help her with her small reading groups, I worked with two of the student who struggled in reading. It was my job to help them practice their reading comprehension strategies as well as provide them with corrective feedback on their oral reading skills. All in all this week wasn't to eventful but provided me with a lot of opportunity to get to know the students and my cooperating teacher better.

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is a way to tell or show a story through pictures, narration, and music. It can be a great way to tell someone a story. We are going to be learning about digital storytelling this week and by the end you will all be pro's! You will even have an oppurtunity to make your own story to share with the whole class.

I would like you to view the following websites to help you understand the ways we can use digital storytelling as well as understand some different aspects of it.

Digital Story Telling

Using Technology To Tell Stories

Digital Stories

Another important thing to learn about is something called Creative Commons. Creative Commons provides us with free tools that let us as creators mark our creative work. It guarantees that we get credit work for the work we did. It is important to understand because when we create something we automatically own the rights to it. Creative commons allows us to share our ideas with others as well as allow them to use our work. We can determine how and what others can do with our creation. Click here to find out more.

Watch the example video here and the digital story that I created that is in the post below titled The First Thanksgiving. After you watch those you can get started. You may pick any topic that we have been learning about in social studiest, science, or art. Have fun and be creative!

The Very First Thanksgiving

How A Bill Becomes A Bill

After watching this video write a paragraph explaining the process of how a bill becomes a bill.

Trick Or Treat-Halloween History

Happy Halloween. Halloween is my favorite time of year! There are a lot of fun things to learn about! Have you ever wondered when trick or treating was started, why was it started? Come and learn about the Trick or Treat history of Halloween. This web page will explore Trick or Treating history from the beginning upto the current history of this fun Halloween tradition.

Welcome To The 5th Grade

Hello to all of my new 5th grade students and parents! My name is Ms. Funk and as you can see my classroom is going to be full of some Funky Monkeys this year! I enjoy having fun while learning and that is the goal of our classroom this year. We are embarking on another school year and I am excited to get the chance to get to know each and everyone of you! We have an exciting school year ahead of us and are going to need everyone's support in order to succeed. This blog is was started for use by students and parents alike. Please check it often as this is the place where you will find information about the different things we have been learning and doing in our class throughout the school year. My contact information is also on the page, if you ever have any questions or concerns please contact me. This year we will continue to work with your students to improve their reading skills, but parents, we are going to need your help. Please know that we would like your child to spend 15 minutes each day reading to you. Please set time aside for this, also as we send homework home, please set aside time to review your child's homework with them and help them with any questions they may have! Parents please remember that your child's education is a team effort, if we work together we can help your child succeed. I am excited for this new school year and look forward to working with all of you! Welcome to the 5th grade!

This Is Me

My name is Bridgette Funk, I am an Elementary Ed major. I have always loved kids and have known that I wanted to teach since I was old enough to babysit. I am the oldest of 4 children, I have three brothers, so yes that makes me the only girl. I have been a Utah County girl my whole life, I graduated from Lehi High School. I then went to Snow College in Ephraim Utah for a year and then transfered to UVU in hopes of getting involved in the Elementary Ed program there. My dreams came true and here I am a year later starting the program. I love to do absolutely nothing in my spare time (because I hardly ever have spare time). I currently work at a company called OrangeSoda and am going to school full time, which keeps me plenty busy. I love music, particularly playing the piano and singing, I also enjoy to read when I have time.

Professional Development Profile

My Beliefs About Technology In Education

I have never really had to sit down and think about my beliefs in regards to education, technology, and student learning. But after giving it some thought I have come to the following conclusions. First and foremost I believe education is important, obviously I believe that or I wouldn’t be going into education or even continuing my education further. I believe education can change a person’s life. It is an amazing thing and we as future teachers have a huge responsibility to help each child succeed.
In order to help children succeed I think integrating technology into the classroom is vital. We live in a fast paced world and our students are going to be bored if we don’t change the way we present the material. Right now I have a job in which I am on the computer all day. I have also learned a lot about technology from my job. Personally I already get bored in a classroom where I just have to sit and listen to a lecture for a couple of hours. I know that the students that I am going to have in the near future spend a lot of free time on the computer and it is important for us to keep up with technology. We are going to need to provide our students with resources that will help them learn. In addition to this there are so many free things we can use out there on the internet to teach our children that we don't really have a good excuse not to. The way students learn is ever changing because of technology and we are going to have to continually change the way we teach in order to help students learn.

National Education Technology Standards

The National Education Technology Standards have given me a great idea at where I need to head in regards to incorporating technology into my classroom. After reviewing these standards I feel I am only at a very basic level. There are many things that I am already doing to incorporate technology in my life, but there are a great many other things I need to be doing in order to meet these standards. After comparing the NETS to the UNI standards I still feel like I am at the basic level. I think I have a pretty decent start but still have a ways to go in order to meet these standards.

Pedagogy & Student Learning

Being a teacher is one of the most important jobs in the world. We have the opportunity to shape the future leaders of our country. We have the opportunity to change the lives of children for the better. I believe students learn in many different ways, so there is not only one correct way to teach. I believe we need to teach in a variety of ways so we can engage all of our students. Our students live fast paced lives, and are stimulated by some form of media every single day, and so we need to incorporate this into our classrooms. Each of our students should have equal opportunity to succeed and if we only teach a certain way all of students are not getting equal opportunity to succeed and learn. We have a responsibility to teach our students how to live in the 21^st century, in order to do this we need to stay on top the information ourselves.

Reflect & Synthesize

After watching the first video, I am astounded to see the numbers and I know those numbers have only steadily increased since the video was made. As I watch that video I can see that we have to step up our game. What are we going to do when our students know more about technology then we do? They already will but it is our job to prepare our students for the 21^st century. Technology is constantly changing, we can see that as new technology is continues to be released, but technology is also becoming easier to access and cheaper to own. For example the price on the iphone, computers, etc… has gone down.
Technology is changing the world and has the potential to change education and the future of the world’s careers. It has been changing the way people learn as well as lowering the cost of providing training. The next generation of short hand article gives us a little peak into the future of IM and text messaging. We are going to have the responsibility as teachers to help our students learn how to communicate effectively in the real world and not only in the cyber world. It is easy to forget how to really type or communicate but it is necessary to learn those skills. Obviously in the article we can see that it will get easier and easier to just shorten things and talk that way. It also proves that not only the younger generations are into these things but also adults. They are learning how to communicate in the ever changing technology world.
Most schools are lagging when it comes to integrating technology into the classroom. It is interesting to think that integration truly means integrating technology into all aspects of education and all subjects that are taught. Technology changes the way teachers teach. And gives us the ability to reach different types of learners and assess those learners in their own unique way.
Students will use engaging technology in their learning environment if they have teachers who are willing and able to use technology’s power to their advantage. This is the vision on k-12 students today. I have always known this was true but it has been interesting to think about. 21^st century learners spend a lot of time watching TV, gaming, listening to MP3’s, email, text messaging, instant messaging, blogging etc… But not enough teachers have used that technology. Children learn by doing; if they just sit there they are not learning anything. Because of the lack of technology in education only half of America’s students will graduate from high school. It is because we don’t incorporate the things that they use in their everyday life into their learning. We need to teach them how to do exciting things on the computer, to help them feel like they are engaged in learning. That is the true vision of k-12.
We can see this in the video about the Millennial Generation, students talk about taking everything you want & need on the go. For example pictures, music, basically you entire computer, they think that our media should be accessible anywhere at anytime with no limitations.
The world of social networking is pretty new to me, I only started using Facebook in the last year, but from the article we can see that it is another large source of internet use. I was astonished to see that 94% of teens use the internet and 76% of those teens’ social profiles on MySpace, Facebook, or some other social network. These numbers only again prove that we have to increase technology in the classroom to keep these students entertained.
I believe in technology already but after reading the articles and watching the videos the importance of incorporating technology in teaching has improved greatly. It has seemed almost vital to me now that we learn how to do this. We as teachers have to keep up with the ever changing world of technology. This not only gives students an opportunity to succeed in the world but it also gives us as teachers endless resources that we can use to teach our students.

Strengths

Before taking this survey I had a lot more confidence in my technical abilities, but have since realized that I have a lot to learn. I am not particularly strong in any one area, I do know a few things about computers on a basic level. I feel that I have at least some knowledge as to the resources that are out there for the general public to use as well as teachers. I use basic things such as email, Google, Word, Excel etc… every single day and I even know some cool little tricks but I know I have a lot to learn.

Weaknesses

Again I have a lot to learn. My biggest area of weakness according to the survey is using databases. I don’t ever use them and don’t even know how. I think this is the area I need to improve the most. Another area of improvement needs to be in the use of instructional software. I have no idea what is really out there for me to use. Overall I need to improve each area I am not perfect in any one area and can use all the help I can get.

Goals

My main goal is to really use the tutorials that I have found to learn about those areas that I specifically identified as well as just soaking up all the information I can from this class. I think this will be a great class and will help us as teachers realize the unlimited amount of resources that we have for our classrooms.

Tutorials

Step-By-Step Guide to Using Databases

Teachnology Tutorials