Recommended Website

[Anonymous]

Hi Karen,

I just want to compliment you on your website. i thought everything was clear and the colors were especially vibrant. your site really inspired me to do something similar for my class.

question: how often (as far as you know) do your students log on to your website? Has it been useful to you? how has it helped your instruction so far?

dan

[Anonymous]

Hey there Dan,

Thanks for getting back to me! I turn the computers on everyday showing my web page. Do the kids look at the class information daily? No! They have been with me all semester so they know that stuff but it will help my new students in September. However, it is great for projects and has been especially useful this week because the students began their China projects. If they forget directions or they need to refocus on their topic question, the information is right there. Saved me time photocopying directions which they will lose. I have to tell you, it does look impressive when you first come into my classroom and see all the computers active. The kids tell me they like it and are more eager to go online to look at websites. Those who have computers at home have showed their parents what they are doing in the classroom. I haven't seen any downside yet. What is really cool is that when I start new projects (eg. the Japanese unit) all I have to do is change the topic questions. The directions and rubrics will stay the same. I am now working on a 8th grade project because it has been so successful. It is a very basic (yet colorful!) site but it's working for me!
Take care,

Karen[Edit by="kllewellyn on Jan 25, 6:59:02 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

You might like this site.

This is for those who like to start learning chinese on theirown.
Using this site I had alot of fun with my students. I showed them the word ETERNITY which has all the strokes for calighraphy. I also gave them the sheet with sounds and alphabets and asked them to try to write a simple sentence. They loved the caligraphy part. Did this such beatiful jobs. Maybe I'll take pictures of their handwritings and put them on line for you to see. I was amazed by their work.Here it is.

http://www.zein.se/patrick/chinen8p.html

[Anonymous]

Hey Felisa and Dan,

Checked out your website and was very impressed. The choose your own adventure style is really fun! I wanted to point something out that we also had trouble with when creating our site.

You gotta make sure that you have the same color for links as you do for visited links. Otherwise, every choice that leads to hell, is already clearly a different color once you've already been there once. Does that make sense?

Just a tip, you've probably already figured that out, but, wanted to help.

Linda

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tip! Actually, we hadn't even thought about the color. We tested the website in our classes on Wednesday and Thursday last week. We asked the kids their feedback and none said anything about the color change but when I walked around the room during the session I noticed kids using the "back" button a lot. Some were just clicking away and not reading but some were really getting into it. The best part was watching two girls paired up hesitating to make a choice and then squealing when they wound up in hell... so fun!

[Anonymous]

indeed, it was fun to send my students to hell. fantasy come true in some cases. but i did overhear one student say that each one of the blue links was the right answer. Jose Paniagua and i was trying to stop him from telling the rest of the class. Old Joe Bread n' Water was so proud of himself and laughing as I was telling him to not tell. Anyways, thanks for telling us and thanks for looking at our website. we posted the address a long time ago and weren't sure if anybody had looked at it.

Anyways, i'd like to review our website for one of my posts. I don't care if it doesn't count.

I think it was a decent idea and the way the site looks was cool until we didn't get premission for one of the mages and we decided we'd better take the rest off pending permission granted email. However, I think it was boring for each "wrong" answer to be death. In my next project I'll try to make the branches of options extend a little (then you'll die and go to hell).

Also, teaching DRWC (remedial readers) I found that we made the vocab too difficult for them. Isakson's honors kids had no problem with the reading (so they say). I would need to spend more time preteaching vocab and Confucian morality to make the lesson effective for DRWC.

I found that my students would fake the reading or not understand it well enough for the learning to take place and I really am not sure if the lesson's objective to teach the idea of cause and effect or that historical choices have conswequences really got thruough to them.

Anyways, i like the site and, after all this time and my lesson, hate the site now too. But that was the most fun I had writing anything in a long time. I enjoyed researching for a purpose. most of the stuff on the site is straight from the books clay gave us. that was rewarding. i am inspired to read and write more in this vein.

dan

[Anonymous]

I am looking at the Fall Seminar website to review my fellow classmates websites. GREAT job! The websites I plan to use in the upcoming Ancient China lesson are from Reza, Randall, Linda and Max (because I teach 6th History).

Reza, I don't know if you're tracking threads anymore but I really like your site as a good overview/ intro to the History book. It follows the summaries and lessons in order, but in a much more engaging way than worksheets.

My question is, is there anyway you can change the home page to not read "mainly for English learners"? I teach gifted honors and want to use the site but a funny thing happens when you give some gifted students "easy" assignments; they don't do as good a job. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about? Its all about perception with the kids.

Best Regards,
Felisa

[Anonymous]

I used the website from two classmates (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Zarou!). They are very extensive but I only used bits and pieces to create something a little different. Please feel free to comment.

[Anonymous]

The attachment didn't work on the last post, SORRY!

[Anonymous]

Trying to post China Project again!

[Author]

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