Brainstorming Ideas for Webquest

I started thinking about what subject I want to do for my WebQuest (WQ) this weekend and came up with a few ideas.  First, I was thinking about integrating Language Arts and a novel we are planning to read in class.  To get some ideas, I decided to do a google search on webquests and found several on the books I am planning to do for the remainder of the year.  In fact, I found a great one on Charlotte's Web which my class will read later in the year.  Since I am not into "Reinventing the Wheel", and the WQ and all the links were functional and the content was appropriate, I will just use that one for Charlotte's Web.  I decided to pick a different topic that there isn't already a WQ for.  So I scratched the idea to do Language Arts... 

I feel like the subject I pick is very important because whatever I choose, it will replace what I would have normally done in my class.  I think that is the point of teaching with technology anyway: to do it instead of  (not in addition to) the regular curriculum. I like my hands on Science curriculum and don't want to take those labs away from the students, so that is out.  Then I turned my focus to Social Studies...

In third grade we study Local Government.  Our focus is on government at the city level.  This seems like a great opportunity to create a WQ that will take the students to many different online resources to collect information about the city of Irvine and the mayor, etc.  I googled my topic, and found a similar WQ for Chicago (a really good example) but none for Irvine!  So the topic is picked, and I am happy with my selection.  I will have about a month to get it ready to teach in class, which should correspond nicely with this class timeline.

I expect it will be a couple of weeks before I come back to this (busy with EDEL 594) but I am glad to have my topic picked and a few ideas rolling around in my head!

Time to get to work!

I have enjoyed a nice week off from doing school work!  Can I afford it??? I hope so!  I felt like I was up to date on both classes and needed the time to relax and catch up on 5 episodes of American Idol!  :)

This week I am going to work on my literature review for EDEL 522 and write my narrative for my website.  I already have my own class website through Edline, but it is password protected - only my students and parents have access to it.  So I am not able to share it with my classmates, SORRY!  So I used to keep a website on TeacherWeb several years ago so I decided to check it out.  There have been a lot of nice upgrades since I last used it!  I am posting the link here and if any of my EDEL friends want to give me suggestions or feedback I would appreciate it.  I tried to keep it simple and useful.  The content pages have more of a summary of what is on my actual website. 

http://teacherweb.com/CA/NewHorizonElementarySchoolIrvine/Diaz/apt1.aspx

See you all online!

Hello to EDEL 522 Friends!

So now I have a blog.  Pretty cool!  This is the first time I've ever made my own, thanks to Loretta and 522!  Before this the only blog I ever had posted on was Beyond the Blackboard... My capo friends will know about that!  But I read blogs often to get recommendations or information about a variety of things.  It seems I am a consumer of information rather than a disseminator!  Well I guess that is not true anymore! LOL

I've been working on this week's tech assignments all day, so I can get them out of the way.  I should be working on Chapter 3 of my Thesis which I have not started writing yet...  But tech classes are way more fun! :) 

See everyone later!