Group items tagged

Peggy Hall\nAugust 31, 2010\nWebsite Evaluation\nOverview:\nI reviewed the website, Reach Every Child which is a website that helps teachers establish lesson plans. I believe the point of this website is to link the viewer to other websites that have information (i.e. lesson plans, facts, and data) about certain subjects. It is mostly a resource for teachers and students looking for information in whatever subject they need to discover more information in. I feel like this website could use some more content in explaining its overall use, but it does have a lot of great links for the viewer. This website needs to be enhanced, but the meaning behind it is good. I did also find some lack in labeling each section effectively. It took me a little while to completely understand how this website works and the author's credibility and contact information is lacking. \nContent:\nAs I previously mentioned it was not easy for me to decipher the overall objective of this site, I knew it dealt with lesson plans, but how those lessons plans were presented and used on the site was a little confusing at first. It is known on the webpage that Horace Mann developed it and that it is founded by educators for educators, but it does not have a bibliography page or link describing who Horace Mann Company is. It addresses in its disclaimer that if there are any questions to email them, but there is not an email address. This website does have over 5,000 resources and different links which I do find beneficial. However, it does also mention that you could hit a dead end and to not be discouraged. It is not apparent how current the information is that is being displayed on the webpage. This site does have some organization, but as I previously mentioned there is not exactly a clear homepage or labeled content links etc… There are a lot of links which do not clearly explain where they will be taking you next. \nDesign:\nThe design is lacking. It does not catch my eye appeal when I first l

Mandy Schumacher 1-24-10 Overview: goalsguy.com is a website devoted to goal setting. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning how to set and achieve goals. This site can be used by teachers to instruct their students on how to make reasonable, reachable goals but it is more focused on promoting their products. This site is both informational and commercialized. Content: This particular site is full of information about goal setting. On the homepage there are seven separate links: About, Knowledge, Events, Affiliates, Support, Books, and Contact Us. Under the Knowledge link the user will find a ton of information about goal setting. Here would be the best place for someone to go if they are hoping to gain knowledge about goals and how to set them. The rest of the links on the homepage are less informational and a lot more commercialized. This site is more based on commercialized material then it is on information. Design: goalsguy.com downloaded to the homepage quickly. However, the information on this site is not very organized and is kind of hard to navigate. The main purpose of this site is to promote their products (cds, videos, and handbooks) so it is hard to get to the informational portion of this website.

Jaymes Talkington\nJanuary 24, 2010\nhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/about/white-house-101/\n\nContent\nThis site is full of information about the Whitehouse and all its former presidents. Both teachers and students can find a use for this site. Other information given on the site includes facts about how our government works, how the administration processes, and issues that are currently a problem in the Whitehouse. There shouldn't be any question of the authenticity of the information since it is a .gov site, although the authors are not named. The site is well organized to find what you need right away. \nDesign\nI didn't have any problems pulling up the site right away, and all the links seemed to be working. The homepage is easy to use and has a lot of different categories and news on it. All of the videos are used to inform not to advertise anything. There is plenty of information on the site that makes it worth visiting. I wasn't able to find any dates on when the site was last revised. \nOverview\nThis is a good site to use when wanting information on the Whitehouse and how our government works. The website itself is easy to use and contains a lot of information. I would be comfortable using the information on a paper or for teaching history and government. \n

Cole Baumann January 24, 2010 This website helps teachers understand more about learning disabilities such as dyslexia and ADD. This is helpful in today's society as there is a very high probability that there will be a dyslexic student in their classroom and the teacher needs to help him/her learn in a way that the student can understand what is happening and help them retain the information the best way possible. There are stories of success throughout the website and journals from teachers who found a way to help the student who had a learning disability succeed in the class, all of which could help other teachers do the same. This web site feels like it is a large community of teachers coming together and trying to help each other succeed with the students who have learning disabilities. Suggestions abound for helping those students prevail without having to make them standout from the class, all within budget limitations. This website is a little bit more confusing than what I would like initially. But, after you explore it for a while, you start to understand and notice that it is actually quite easy to navigate. This website will help teachers learn more about learning disabilities and how to cope with them without drastically changing the students' learning. The pictures on the website seem old and outdated which makes the reader feel like maybe some of the information is outdated but that is the only downside I can see in this website. On the whole, is seems this site would be very helpful for any teacher This website is specifically for the teacher to help the students. It is not describing what dyslexia is and how to cope with it or what a learning disability is and how to cope with it. This site is saying that if you have the student with this learning disability these are ways to help them and make them successful in your class without making them feel too strange or too different from all the other students. This is very important as children wit

Danielle Walter 9/5/11 Storyplace: The Chldren's Digital Library Overview: The Storyplace.org website is a great educational website for both English speaking students and Spanish speaking students. Or it also can be used for helping a child learn English or Spanish. The website has activities for pre-school age children and also for elementary age children. It offers an online reading, an activity, a take home activity and also a reading list so children can explore other books. The website is a great resource for teachers and parents to help children be excited about reading. Content: The Storyplace.org website is easy to navigate for children and adults. It is also set up nicely. It has the grade levels on the left side and when you click on one it comes up with a menu of the reading and activities. This is a great website for helping children learn how to read and to become excited about reading, but it is also great for teaching children how to navigate the web and to show them how useful it can be in learning. Design: The Storyplace.org website has very bold colors that are eye catching. It's also easy to navigate. It is a .org website so I would trust it to be a good website for my children or students to be on. It also contains the copyright on the page so it is even more trusted.

No longer is Agriculture Education just about Cows, Sows and Plows! We as Ag educators have a duty to our students to educate them about basic real world principles. One of the most important things we can teach that many of those kids are not getting is money management; How to make good financial decisions and how to keep from collecting millions of dollars in dept. We as a world are still in the recession, and it is important that as the new generation of teachers we take our experiences and teach those kids to that their world can be better as they get older. One of the most important lessons I ever learned in ag was how credit cards work kiplinger.com offers basic information about how finances work, we can base a section for our class to focus on how to be financially sound, and that is what is going to benefit those kids the most. They need to realize that Ag education is about real world application and what is more real than understanding how to take care of yourself without having a gloomy cloud of debt over your head.

This is a wonderful site that gives a lot of information on how college and pro track and field athletes are doing around the Country. It shows when big races are coming up, how athletes are doing, results of other races, and much more. It talks a lot about injuries that athletes have and their performances. I think this is a great site becasue it is easy to access. If you want results, you click that.... if you want photos... click that. It is such a great way to keep Universities connected and see how other teams and athletes are doing. You can check all the different races going on the same weekend. It is just a wonderful site to know what is happening in the track and field world!

Overview: This website is a great way for an elementary teacher teaching math. Videos are the main point for this website. There are multiple videos that show elementary kids how to do the math that the teacher is presenting. This helps the kids because they get to see how to do the math in another way. But in addition it can help the teacher in finding new ways to teach the math in which they are trying to present.

Overview: This website is a great way for an elementary teacher teaching math. Videos are the main point for this website. There are multiple videos that show elementary kids how to do the math that the teacher is presenting. This helps the kids because they get to see how to do the math in another way. But in addition it can help the teacher in finding new ways to teach the math in which they are trying to present.

The second article I had found was based out of California and was explaining what high school and administration does to protect themselves and their students without pushing any legal limits or freedom of speech. I think that this article was also meant for the general public and other school administrators as it was posted in a school magazine. I enjoyed this article because it wasn't a study, instead it spoke more about what the schools did to take action about this dilemma. This article game a wide variety of things that the administrators did to stop the bullying. As well as giving examples on things that they couldn't change or stop. Such as some of the students were able to outsmart the firewalls blocking them from specific websites or freedom of speech. This article also did a good job on giving a great example of how a principle of a prestigious high school that focused on arts got involved with a cyberbullying incident. It showed how administration in many other schools can struggle with managing their students in a lawful manner without crossing a line.

The second article I had found was based out of California and was explaining what high school and administration does to protect themselves and their students without pushing any legal limits or freedom of speech. I think that this article was also meant for the general public and other school administrators as it was posted in a school magazine. I enjoyed this article because it wasn't a study, instead it spoke more about what the schools did to take action about this dilemma. This article game a wide variety of things that the administrators did to stop the bullying. As well as giving examples on things that they couldn't change or stop. Such as some of the students were able to outsmart the firewalls blocking them from specific websites or freedom of speech. This article also did a good job on giving a great example of how a principle of a prestigious high school that focused on arts got involved with a cyberbullying incident. It showed how administration in many other schools can struggle with managing their students in a lawful manner without crossing a line.

In the first article that I found, there was a study done on cyberbullying in Greece. They looked at all things that could impact the bully and the victim from things such as parenting to online impulsiveness. I believe the intended audience is for the general public especially parents and school staff personnel. As I read through this article I find that it is a very good study with relevant information and a good purpose. The introduction did a great job on explaining what cyberbully is and who are the bullies and victims. They also did a great job on explaining why people bully other online such as gaining a sense of empowerment or simply out of boredom. The article gave plenty of statistics that made the article easier to follow and understand. The results were very easy to understand which was nice when trying to apply this study to something else. I also think that they did a good job on correlating parent to child bonding and how that could make an impact. Something I did not particularly like about this study is that it was done in one place, on an island. I think that it is hard to truly measure how much adolescents get cyberbullied with the study if over a single group of kids. This study really focuses on the fact that cyberbullying is a big problem in the world of adolescents.

In the first article that I found, there was a study done on cyberbullying in Greece. They looked at all things that could impact the bully and the victim from things such as parenting to online impulsiveness. I believe the intended audience is for the general public especially parents and school staff personnel. As I read through this article I find that it is a very good study with relevant information and a good purpose. The introduction did a great job on explaining what cyberbully is and who are the bullies and victims. They also did a great job on explaining why people bully other online such as gaining a sense of empowerment or simply out of boredom. The article gave plenty of statistics that made the article easier to follow and understand. The results were very easy to understand which was nice when trying to apply this study to something else. I also think that they did a good job on correlating parent to child bonding and how that could make an impact. Something I did not particularly like about this study is that it was done in one place, on an island. I think that it is hard to truly measure how much adolescents get cyberbullied with the study if over a single group of kids. This study really focuses on the fact that cyberbullying is a big problem in the world of adolescents.

Audience: Parents, but with the provided information, it can easily be translated into advice for teachers, guardians or loved ones of a student. Overview: The purpose of this website is to provide parents with information about how to work with and help children who have anxiety disorders relating to school. Available resources that have been provided on this page include information on how to prepare a special needs child for school, how to help relieve a child's anxiety or depression, and ways to help a special needs child with homework. Though there were some minor visual and content flaws about the site, it does give good advice and is worth revisiting when needed. Content: This page mainly provided different approaches for parents to take and numerous tips to follow when dealing with their anxious child, but those tips and approaches can be very useful to parents and the main point of each tip is given immediately. Intended purpose was clear and in bold print. There's no wondering and translating what each tip "could have" meant or what it "was trying to say". The only thing that the website didn't provide was the last revision date. The website also provided additional videos, but they were not directly related to school anxiety---under the "Related Video" section, there were videos on ways to relieve breastfeeding problems, relieve separation and anxiety, and what as 504 Plan was. Though there are available articles given to further advance a viewer's knowledge on ways to help children with anxiety, or "special needs", the "Related Videos" (except for the breastfeeding problems one!!!) does mention other related anxieties and provides a useful way to help an anxious child succeed and feel comfortable in school (aka the 504 plan). This website is definitely one that is worth revisiting just because it does provide useful tips and points to help viewers learn about how to help an anxious child, without any word confusion.

Lauren John 1/30/2011 Jumpstart.com Overview: This site was created to help children learn to read through online games set in a fantasy land. It is focusing on making reading enjoyable and imaginative for those students who may have shorter attention spans or read at lower levels than other students. It offers incentives for completing lessons and practice of more school skills than just reading. The audience not only includes those with attention deficits, but also very young children who would be drawn in by the cartoon images and colorful designs. Although cute, the web design was not the easiest to get around. They offered directions verbally on what each place had in store for the child and how to maneuver in each game, but I had to figure out for myself how to move the person and what the buttons meant. Overall it was well designed though and the content was related. The biggest difficulty I ran into was that the player must be a member to take part in almost every one of the games. Content: The content of this website was fairly desirable. It was clearly stated in an upfront manner who and what they site were intended for. Although there is no author information or way to reach them, the sponsors are clearly identified and they are jointed with several other reputable sites. There is no revision date, but the materials are copyrighted through 2010, and I have actually seen the children I babysit play this game, so I know it is trusted by teachers in my school system. This site has many ways to get around it, but I could see how students would have a difficult time at the beginning because there are not clear labels. The site claims to have many ways to learn math, science, and reading, but in the time I spent there, it seemed like only the members were able to access the games that involved those. That made it so I was stonewalled enough times that I got bored with the site and gave up. I would consider using it in my classroom if there weren't

Lacey Boyles April 15, 2015 This website is for parents and children, there is a section for each. There is also a section for teachers. The website is easy to navigate. It focuses on children from ages birth to elementary grades. It seems that you can access this website on computers and also smart phones, iOS and androids for example. From what I looked through this would be a good site to not only visit again but also show to my children. Again this was a very well set up web site. It was easy to get around and they have the parent, children, and teacher sections separate. There are a few things I do not like about this site. There is a lot of adds for games that could draw attention to students if they were to get on here. When clicking on games you have to sign up and possibly pay to play. There is an index which gives you an idea of where you are going. The purpose of this site I would say is not 100% clear as there is information for parents, teachers, and children. The content on this page is really good. It has lots of ideas on activities, which it separates in to categories such as topic subject, age, and grade. There is a contact us page that you could go to if you needed help. I didn't need help so I am not sure how well or quick it works. Over all I did like this site and would go back again for ideas.

Content: This website includes a large amount of content about teaching English to students that speak a different language as their first language. The content is easy to determine based on the home page. There is adequate information about the author of this site including her credentials. However, it is unclear about when the information was last revised. The site includes a tremendous number of links that takes you to websites where preschool to grade eight students can practice their English through doing a number of interactive activities. The site also includes lesson plans as well as information on how to effectively teach English as a second language. This website would be a very effective teaching tool for teachers and even parents that are trying to teach their children English. Design: The design of the website allows people to navigate it easily. It also loads very quickly and efficiently. The homepage includes clear information immediately about where you are and what the contents of the site are. There is information about how to contact the author of the site. The links listed all contain descriptions of the site that they take you too. Most of the links work properly, however, there was a couple that could not be found. The site contains a very large amount of information that can be extremely helpful resources for ESL or any teachers. I was unable to find the currency of the information, however, at the bottom the date for how long the website has been up was listed. Overview: The intended audience of this website is ESL teachers and the links provided by the website are intended for students from preschool to 8th grade because it provides interactive learning activities for them. The purpose of the site is to provide teachers with resources and information on how to effectively teach their students the English language. The site provides an abundance of helpful activities that can effectively teach students. Based on the conten

This website talks about the middle east and the possible realignment of the Middle East. It discusses the possibility of the New Middle East and how that would happen.

Chelsea Brunski 10-08-12 Overview The purpose of this website is to help students with math, science, computer science, economics, and humanities. This website breaks down these subjects into more specific subjects so you can pick what topic you are struggling with most. Once you find the topic you are looking for you can watch videos on how to work these different problems out. The intended audience is for high school and college students because the subjects are at a higher level. All of the resources are different YouTube videos showing step by step instruction. I was really impressed by this website. It is very well organized and has a lot of great information. It provides plenty of help in the subject you are looking for. Content This website is full of different videos and a few games providing help. It is broken down into five different subjects that you would find in a college or high school setting. Every subject is broken down into different topics. This helps you narrow down the subject to exactly what you need help with. After you have picked your topic there is an abundance of videos that you can choose from. These videos break down different types of problems and teach you how to do them. Design This website is definitely more of a plain website but for the intended audience it is okay that it is plain. It is more of a straightforward approach instead of trying to catch your attention. It is a very well organized site which makes it enjoyable to work on. It is also really easy to navigate so you can find what you are looking for very quickly. Overall I think the design of this website is very nice for the intended audience.

Michelle Hill February 24, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this website is to serve as a resource for instruction for 1st grade internet activities. Therefore, the intended audience is teachers 1st graders and 1st grade teachers. Available on this website are English activities online involving skills such as story listening, letter recognition, literacy activities sight words, and sentence structure and grammar. Also included are Math activities such as number recognition, patterns/shapes, counting, adding/subtracting and much more! There is also unit themes available for teachers of all kinds. Content: The content of the website was rated as very useful for my information needs based on the fact that the total number of "yes" answers outnumbered the "no" answers. Some strengths of this website include the first look, how it was easy to determine the basic content of the site, the information quality, and the further information. The content of the site was well organized and easy to understand. Some weaknesses of this website are that information of the authors is not available, therefore I do not know if the authors are qualified to present information on the topic. Other weaknesses include that the content was not updated frequently, the last time being August 2007 and the fact that one link to another site was not working properly. Overall, there was an abundance of good content that will prove to be useful in 1st grade classrooms. Design: The design of the website was rated as very well designed and easy to use based on the fact that the total number of "yes" answers outnumbered the "no" answers. First, the homepage downloaded efficiently and the website was speedy, which was a good start to the design. Some strengths of the website include that it was well organized, the copyright date was easy to determine, the site is easy to move around, and the content was presented clearly. Some weaknesses include that there were no directions

Samantha Cook-10/11/2012 This site Materials for the study of Ancient Sparta is a very good sight. It is brief and to the point but also gives a range of information that is very useful in one place instead of looking at many different places. The information ranges from class notes to ancient texts like the Histories by Herodotus which is very high quality information. It gives good information for a scholarly student. For the site Materials for the study of Ancient Sparta it is very useful because it is more academic then a fun younger sight. The audience for this would then be upper level high school with more of an emphasis on college because of the use of sighting ancient texts. The resources available in this website range from ancient texts to basic known information to stories. MY overall impression of this right is it is very academic, not many pictures maybe one per page and not very colorful. It does not necessarily catch your eye what caught my eye was how for one organized it was; and two how much resourceful information was on there. This site gives you a very good brief overview of the Spartans without having to look a bunch of places. It would be very helpful to me

Overview: This website is directed toward preschool and childcare professionals. Its purpose is to teach these professionals more about play based learning and how to bring these elements into the classroom. Content: The content of this site is reliable and professional. The creator of the site posts her entire background of working in childcare facilities. Her seminars are posted for viewing and the information given has resources to back it. The site also provides different links to sites that use this play based learning approach, and you can browse their sites for more information on how they run their programs. Design: The design of this website is good. The pages load quickly and all the URLs are correctly linked and are available. The pictures used are relevant and tie to the material. Navigating this site is also very direct and easy to follow.

The purpose of this resource is to help intermediate Spanish learners to learn the irregular verbs ser and ir and how to conjugate them in the present tense. There is a slight introduction and it is a very short video with lots of information. This is a great video to learn or review how to conjugate these irregular verbs. The content is short but well used. The instructor isn't shown in the video but her voice is very clear and she speaks slow enough to understand. There is no English in the video which could be difficult for some but its good listening practice. There are different examples and it is a good video to make the students think. It is a great video for a high school classroom and it is very accurate with the forms of conjugating of the verbs she uses. The spelling is correct and all the examples are correct and well used. This video contains examples that are both written and explained orally giving the students opportunities to answer the questions on their own before the instructor gives the answers. The name of the instructor doesn't appear but it is clear to know that she is a native Spanish speaker.