Journal Week 3.

As weeks go by, I feel I am learning very valuable material and information that will be very useful for when I am teaching. The programs that Greg is introducing our class to are fabulous and extremely interesting tools that I believe my students will enjoy. The programs I have learnt about thus far will assist in creating an interactive classroom.

We began this weeks class with the 'FROG' exercise. The aim of the activity is to make the frog jump by using all the materials given to us and to not skip any steps in the process. The materials used in the activity were scissors, sticky tape, rubber band, frog (picture of a frog) and cardboard. The concept of this exercise is to enable students to investigate and design the possibilities of how to make the frog jump by using all the materials (rubber band, cardboard etc). Produce the design, problem which needs to be solved, resources used and to analyse and evaluate the processes taken. It is vital students fill out all components of the 'Frog' activity sheet. The overall purpose of the activity is to drive students to extend their way of thinking, and become familiar with the notion of information and systems.

My partner for the frog exercise was Liz, and we had to design a way by using the materials mentioned above to get the frog to jump. We both confessed to each other we were not skilled at building things. However, after a few attempts we achieved  our goal. We designed a concept which could be compared to a sling shot. It is also imperative to remember the little things when students are involved with a task such as the 'frog' exercise. Safety comes first in the classroom, and I must remember to always explain how to hold and use scissors to my students so accidents can be prevented.

The second activity in ICT was becoming familiar with designing educational games online. I was elated and amazed at how simple and fun it was to be designing educational quizzes and games based around a unit of work being taught in the classroom. The quiz I had designed can be found on the website www.quia.com/web.  The URL address is www.quia.com/quiz/2542610.html. The quiz was based on the topic of zoo animals and it was a 'who am i?' guessing game. My class trialled each others games and enjoyed participating and answering the quizzes. Well I did, I thought everyone had done a fantastic job.

Finally the last task was to design an educational game. Once again I was amazed how simple games such as hangman can be used with students in classrooms, and can be used to base around a topic students are learning about.  I decided to design my game which was hangman with balloons, on the topic of 'items you can find in a garden'. You can find my hangman game on www.quia.com/hm/671914.html. 

I look forward to next weeks class. I wonder what engaging activities I will be engrossed in?!