Using Web 2.0 tools

I found that a lot of these tools can be useful in the classroom and even right now as a student.  I liked smilebox and thought it would be the most useful now and once I am a teacher.  I love making collages and scrapbooks and smilebox has a plethora of ideas and formats I can use.  The great thing about this tool is being able to print it out at home or even save as an electronic copy by emailing it to others.  This is a great tool in keeping photos shared among families and friends.  I would definitely use this tool in the classroom to make end of the year photo books for the students and calenders for the year containing the children.  Children love seeing pictures of themselves in the classroom so this is a great way to engage students in what they are learning. 

Glogging....well that was fun!

       I never thought I would be familiar with the many educational tools the Web has to offer.  For the Web 2.0 project I was assigned glogster. I had no idea what glogster was and being nervous about working with a new tool in technology didn't help.  So my partner and I began working together.  After starting to work with glogster I realized how fun and useful it will be in the classroom.  It was such a cool and creative tool!  I registered an account with glogster and glogster edu and enjoyed playing around with all the possibilities to create my personal page.  I plan on using glosgster in the classroom so the students can do science fair projects and book reports in a new, fun, and creative way.  
       I also enjoyed the other groups presenting more Web 2.0 tools to use in the classroom.  Wordle and smilebox were my favorite.  I like to be creative and incorporate new ways and mechanisms in doing things so these sites stuck out to me.  Wordle is a great site that I can play around with main ideas or themes in a story we read in class or group students together in a certain way.  I love taking photos and scrapbooking so smilebox would definitely be used in my classroom.  I would love to make weekly newsletters to send home with parents and end of the year photo albums or scrapbooks of the children. 
      This web 2.0 assignment turned out to be more useful than I imagined! I can't wait to start working with these different tools!

Evaluating instructorweb

http://www.instructorweb.com/

Instructorweb was the site I evaluated.  This site contained a plethora of lesson plans in math, science, social studies, and language arts mainly focused for elementary students.  Teachers can post these lesson plans and become members to print off copies of worksheets.  I can definitely see myself using this website as a teacher.  This web evaluation opened my eyes to how reliable or unreliable a site may be.  When being a teacher I must make sure the information I receive is credible and the information I want my students to find be the same.  This site seemed reliable to me because the lesson plans contained factual correct information but it listed having no specific author.  Without an author there is no way to check the credibility or ask for additional references.  However, this website provided many creative lessons and numerous classroom activities and was open for all educators.       

Website evaluation

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm

The web evaluation site I found is called teacher tap.  This evaluation is especially useful for educators that can help their students trust a website they are using.  I would definitely use this as a teacher and would also use it now as a student.  It offers so much information and even gives you examples of "misleading websites".  Teacher tap also gives the user various criteria for evaluating a good website including: authority, objectivity, relevance, authenticity, reliability, timeliness, and efficiency.  This would be helpful in an elementary school classroom because it offers links to evaluation activities for these students and also links for middle and high school student activities.