Website Summaries

Website Summaries

http://eduscapes.com/geocaching/kids.htm

This website explains the hobby if geocaching. It shows how geocaching is a fun and a healthy pastime for individuals of all ages especially for groups like classes and youth groups working as teams. The basic idea is to have individuals and groups set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet.

Geocaching consists of using a handheld GPS receiver unit, such as the Garnin GPS 12, to guide you to a destination where a hidden treasure or cache is stored. Once found, you log your visit in an included logbook, and optionally trade one of the many contained "goodies" for one of your own. Typically, cache treasures are not high in monetary value but may hold intrinsic value to the finder.

The website provided visuals and ideas for teachers and students. The idea is to plan ahead and imagine the activities that will appeal to the children and stimulate them. As a teacher, you want to encourage the children to enjoy nature by bringing along items such as nature guidebooks, cameras, pda’s, and audio/video recorders. This technology will give the students an opportunity to see, feel, and smell what nature is. In conclusion, this website showed you how to 1. find a cache, 2. incorporate a geocache project as a nature cleanup, 3. create a cache, and 4. establish a historical or cultural cache.

http://ceismc.gatech.edu/busyt/

The Busy Teachers website provided teachers with all sorts of visuals, games, lesson plans, and other materials to enhance classroom activities. The site has an archive of questions for all grade levels. College students, professors, and teachers are available to answer any questions or to give advice.

There were several links that were interesting. However, I thought the link to the Learning Center was very brilliant. The Learning Center helps provide online tutoring for students. As a student of any age, this is a great way to enhance mastery of a specific subject matter.

This website contained activities for both students and teachers. There were visuals, games, magazines, puzzles, and interactive labs. Any teacher can utilize and implement any of the activities from this website and incorporate it in any lesson. The activities will be fun, engaging, and will merit class participation.

http://www.firn.edu/doe/menu/sss.htm

The website for the State of Florida Sunshine State Standards is a very user friendly website. All teachers should use this site because it is very detailed and thorough. Although the site is under revision, “the Sunshine State Standards were approved by the State Board of Education in 1996 to provide expectations for student achievement in Florida”.

This website contains a grid that lists all subjects on the left vertical side of the grid. Also, it lists the Sunshine State Standards, the Sunshine State Standards with grade level expectations, and the overview of grade level expectations on the top portion of the grid. Then, the top portion is divided into four different grade levels such as Pre K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. There are bullets listed on the grid, and all anyone has to do is to click the proper bullet to download a PDF file on a particular subject. Once the file displays, each subject is divided into different areas with each standard listed.

Anyone who teaches in Florida has to be very well informed of the Sunshine States Standards. Teachers will be able to incorporate these standards when designing lessons, which will help students reach mastery. As a teacher, we have to maximize our abilities to help children realize their full potential.

http://englishlearner.com/

This website is full of information. This site will be most useful to teachers working with ESL students. There are interactive tests, exercises, and lessons by email. All of this is free. A bookshop is available, and you can browse electronic dictionaries for over forty-five languages.

As a student, there are tons of activities available. A student can access grammar, vocabulary, crosswords, and hangman activities. Students can take advantage of the students’ mailing lists to find new penfriends. There is also a link for writing help.

In conclusion, this site would be a great reference addition for any student or teacher. There are many links available that can be used to implement new techniques in the classroom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/computer-assisted_language_learning

This website is an article listed on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The article references Computer-assisted language learning or CALL as “an approach to language teaching and learning in which computer technology is used as an aid to the presentation, reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including a substantial interactive element”.

There is an outline on the website to emphasis what the article will contain. Initially the article references the history of CALL. Computer Assisted Language Instruction or CALI originated in the USA , and in the early 80’s CALL became the actual term that everyone would reference.

Typically a CALL program presents a stimulus to which the learner must react or respond, which may be inserted in any combination of text, still images, sound, and motion video. The learner must reply by typing on the keyboard, utilizing the mouse, or speaking into a microphone. The computer offers feedback, which indicates whether the learner’s response is right or wrong.

Finally the article, discusses the pedagogical and methodological cosiderations, the current situation, and further readings. What was interesting is that CALL initially featured whole-class teaching. Since schools could only afford one computer per classroom, the introduction of interactive whitboards is now making a comeback. In conclusion teachers can review this article a possibly utilize some of the innovative software such as “Wordstore”, “Textmixer”, and “Matchmaster”.

http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/organization/onecompclass040799.html

This website is designed specifically for teachers. There are links for lesson plans, power tools, sharing ideas, and help. The lesson plans are listed in different subject areas and are divided into mastery suject areas. There is also a link for parents.

The power tools section is a section that references tools and ideas to use online to help save teachers time. There’s