Links

Online Resources

I chose to search the NSDL website to find online resources for my future classroom. Some of the links I found were:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature

This is National Geographic's website for kids featuring animals. I would use the site in my classroom to help my students explore different kinds of animals, habitats, the sounds each animal makes, where they are located in the world, and so forth. This website is definately meant for children to use, because the vocabulary is child-centered, and the pictures are very colorful and fun to look at.

http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/music/zone/

This is a Sesame Street music workshop page made for children to learn more about music. As a musician myself, I would want my students to learn the importance of music in our lives. This site would help them to learn more about what kinds of music is in the society around them, how music is made, get a multicultural view on music, and understand musical terms and approaches.

http://www.kidspsych.org/index2.html

This site is called KidsPsych, and it is for children ages 1-9 to learn more about "understanding ourselves, understanding each other." It helps children's cognitive development increase by having games that increase thinking skills and deductive reasoning. I would use this in my classroom to teach children first and foremost how to use technology, and then as a teaching tool to continue learning more cognitive skills. The games would allow for children to interact with how websites are formed, and how to use a computer, even at a very young age.

imovie assignment

I believe that elementary kids could create a movie, and that it could be very educational and fun for them as well. However, I think that we as teachers REALLY need to understand the technology before we try to incorporate it into an assignment. The instructional values of an assignment like this could be numerous, mostly because movies can be made on just about every subject. I do think, though, that this assignment would require a lot more in depth technology instruction in the classroom, and I would probably recommend it for older grades.
I would definately want to use these programs in my classroom because I think it would be fun for the kids, and can be very educational. When I was doing my movie I had some of my younger siblings and cousin help me and they had a blast! I think that to incorporate movie making would expand learning and make things more hands on and creative.