Inquiry Based Lesson

This week was a rather challenging week trying to come up with an activity and worksheet that was developmentally appropriate for Kindergartners. I was really unsure at first how I was going to develop a lesson plan that required children to use the internet to retrieve information that helped them answer questions on a worksheet. Fortunately, I found a fantastic educational website that was very interactive and that tied back to the counting one by one topic in my curriculum textbook. After finding this website everything else seemed to fall in place. I was able to find standards that could be met both through the internet and the questions that were being asked on the worksheet.  I also learned through this experience that the format of the worksheet needs to be designed so that all children can easily read and understand the information given to them. I had a few problems with the format on my worksheet, but with trial and error I figured it out.

WebQuests

This week we evaluated many different WebQuests that can be used in elementary and determined which WebQuest would be the most effective for one's learning. Through this assignment, I learned a lot about what makes a WebQuest resourceful and what does not. I believe that an inquiry-based learning is a great way for children to learn about how information can be found on the internet. Since the internet is growing rapidly, I believe it important that children get a head start on learning how the internet can be used and the many resources available to them.

As I viewed each WebQuest, I tried to view them from both a teacher's perspective and the child's perspective. I had to determine whether the WebQuest was valuable to one's learning and could easily be accessed. I also determined whether the website encouraged cooperation among peers, easy to read, promoted higher order thinking, and was worthwhile to children. 

Website Evaluation

For this particular assignment, I evaluated the reliability and usability of a website of my choice. This assignment brought my attention to what a quality and effective website should include and look like. In the field of early education, teachers use websites for many educative purposes inside and outside of the classroom, but do they know if the websites that are being used are a reliable resource for children and their parents? Before I completed this assignment I was not aware of how much information actually went into making a website. I learned that a quality and effective educative preschool website is one that can be easily accessed by teachers, children, and caregivers. These websites should include a clear objective along with useful information about the authors and how they can be contacted. Additionally, all information should be relevant to it's readers and easy to navigate.


Overall, this assignment was a great way to familiarize myself with the different parts of a website. I know have a better idea of what to look for in order to determine whether a website is a valuable resource for children, caregivers, and myself.

Expectations for course

During the course of this semester, I hope to learn several different techniques and strategies for using technology. I like to consider myself as tech savvy, but with the growth of technology there are still a lot of things I need to learn. This semester I want to learn how to use several different programs that will best help me in my teaching profession. To help me become a better profession in the field of teaching, I will use these blogs to help me become a reflective learner. As I have learned in many of my child and family studies courses, reflection helps us recall and develop a deeper understanding of what has been learned.