Assignment #3

I used delicious to create a toolbox of different websites that I thought I might use as an educator. I included many websites that had resources for teachers and pre-made lesson plans. I also included some resources specifically for language arts teachers, and a few sites that I use a lot now and will probably continue to use as a teacher.

My toolbox

My toolbox is organized into tags. Almost all of the sites I added had a education and resource tag then they are further organized into calenders, grammar, lessons, English, art, activities, blog, collaboration and design. Mostly I choose these tags because they were suggested by delicious which means they are the most common associations with these sites.
I choose these sites because I thought they would be useful to me. Either the site offered some resources I could use in lesson planning, I used them frequently already, or they helped with classroom management. I tried to find some sites that specifically had resources for teaching Language Arts as well as general education. I also included one website dedicated to Christian teachers both in public and private schools because being a teacher is a minister as well as a vocation.

If I ever need a lesson plan, cannot figure out how to start a lesson, or need some quick information I will go to my delicious site and use one of the sites I have bookmarked. Also I can give my delicious site to fellow teachers in the schools I will be teaching so they can use these resources as well. I will probably share the calender sites and the web making sites with fellow teachers in order to help them better organize themselves and their students and I will probably use these sites as well. I will also use some of the creative sites by having students go on them and explore fun creative ways to create poetry and papers.

Three Sites I know I will use:

Spark Notes is a great resource for teachers and students alike. Although it does allow students to get away with not reading books, since it summaries each chapter, it is still a great resource. I love how easily it is organized with all the resources for the book you searched for right on the left. It provides character lists and descriptions, themes, chapter summaries and analysis, important quotes, key facts, etc. I could definitely use this resource in my future classroom. For instance if I am teaching The Great Gatsby. I can get onto Spark Notes and search for it then read over the plot overview, themes, key facts, etc. to familiarize myself with this information. each year instead of rereading the book every year. Plus I can have students fill out their own study guides then check their understand of the book against Spark Notes'. Also each study guide Spark Notes had also has a quiz. I could have my students take this quiz after reading the book to check their understand and to see if they actually completed their reading.

Guide to Grammar and Writing is a quick way to get your questions answered about grammar and writing. The website is very easy to use. Once you get to the site you can easily find what your looking for. For instance if say I need a refresher as to how to define a preposition I would simply click on word and sentence level scroll to prepositions and the site will take me to a page that has everything I could possibly ever want to know about prepositions. Also students could use this site to look at later at home if they cannot remember the what was taught in class and they need a reminder. The pages also have quizzes on the bottom, like the preposition one does, that I could have students take at the end of a preposition lesson to check for understanding.

K12 Lesson Plans is a site which allows teachers to easily create class websites. Making websites can be complicated as I learned the other day when we tried to make websites in class. Even with a website making tool it still can be complicated. However, k12 lesson plans makes it simple to create a class site. I had already wanted to create a website for my future classes but was intimidated to do so after our class on creating websites. It was frustrating and time consuming. Now I am sure that I can use K12 Lesson Plans to create a class website that my students will be able to access to see upcoming activities, assignments, etc. Also I can make this site available to parents so they can constantly stay involved in their child's learning.