Module 5 Activity 5A: Exploring Websites Resources

Modern technology provides some very useful tools that aid teachers in the classroom and help make learning more exciting. Online and downloadable resources are just a mouse click away and some are very cheap even free. No longer are books the only source of materials and teachers parents and students are taking advantage of the many online resources available in the different subject areas. The following websites are some of my favourite source to enhance my teaching, learning process and can be used with students from Grade K to 8.

Education.com (This website caters for a variety of different subject areas such as Language Arts, Science, mathematics and more. It offers games, activities, worksheet, workbooks, articles, Science fair and more. However, a log-in is required to access information or one can log-in using a Facebook account. Free accounts on this site allow a limited quantity of downloads whereas paid account users has unlimited downloads.)

IXL.com (IXL.com is an online software that provide Practice for Math & Language Arts from grade 2–8 A wide range is topic is covered in both subject areas. This software allows free use. No login is necessary but if one wants to track ones progress an account is needed. I is a very useful in providing a variety of topics from which users can benefit.

makemegenius.com (makemegenius website provides useful resources for K1 to K8 (year 5 to 12.) There are videos on Science for Kids, cool facts, educational Power-Point, Jokes for kids, see and learn videos and Science test, Quiz and questions.

kidshealth.org
http://kidshealth.org/  (This site is one I use a lot with my students because it caters for kids, teens, parents and educators. It also has a lot of useful material to work with. For example, video clipping, activities, quizzes, word find and an article with an audio player which reads the content offered.)

Sciencekids/ (This site is very comprehensive and offers some interesting activities for kids. This is my number one science site for teaching and learning. It offers Fun science experiments, Cool science games & activities, Amazing science facts, Science quizzes, Science fair projects, Science lesson plans and class ideas, Science images, photos & pictures, Science videos and Science topics. The site also provides the links for the Math and English sites of the producer.

Module 4 Activity 4 - Software Review

For the activity done, I used a lesson that I planned on teaching. This was "Electrical safety in the home". I then proceeded to teach the lesson and I am please to say that the students found the lesson very interesting - as I thought they will. The use of ICT in teaching learning process really adds zest to the lesson.

Module 5 Activity 3 - Software Review

I've had experience with reviewing webpages before, and this is very similar to it. I did however learnt some new stuff. It was interesting reading what my other colleagues wrote and the comments they posted on my own post.  Some of the criteria I took at face value but as I read the other posts I had to reevaluate my thinking, taking into accounts factors I did not think about before. For instance, as one colleague commented on my post about "cost".

Activity 2- Experiencing Educational Software

Many exciting and useful educational software were provided by my colleagues. Reading the posts, I have tried a few and bookmarked some that I can use in my class and what I can share with other teachers. The great thing is, a lot can be used at different levels. Some of these are quite new to me. Thanks guys. It really shows a network is much more efficient than being alone. Imagine what it will be like searching for all these wonderful activities.

Module 5 Activity 1: Refection on the value of social bookmarking

This activity was quick and fun. I have used bookmarking before, but this is just great. I can access my bookmarks, save a page to read later, make highlights, and the best part I can make notes all in one place.