Avatar- Science Slim

Okay, so this is pretty sweet. Today in class, we logged onto Science Slim, a virtual environment. It was pretty crazy. I made an account and I made an "avatar" of myself. It kind of reminded me of the old computer game, The Sims. I could transport my Avatar to different locations and actually talk to other Avatars. It was pretty nuts.

I was thinking about this and I was trying to think of how I could incorporate this in my classroom. Obviously it is fun, but how could I make this educational?

Well I gave this a lot of thought, and honestly I'm still working on it. I did come up with a few ideas though. I was thinking that the older students (6th grade) could help design and make different locations in Science Slim. Not sure if this is even possible, but that would be cool.

For a little bit younger students... I was thinking that I could have the students have to ask different "Avatars" questions. They would have to find out certain information- kind of like a scavenger hunt. That would be kind of fun and it would be a great way to use technology to get to know the other students in the class.

I'm still learning about this, but I hope that over the next few weeks I'll learn more about Science Slim and how to incorporate it into my classroom!

My Survey

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Today in my technology class I learned how to use a survey in docs.google. The more I learn about google docs, the more I love it! It really is the coolest tool. I already using google docs in my life. My friends and I are making a summer list that we can all add too. It is fabulous. I also plan on using this in my classroom. It would be really easy to have parents or students take a survey about my class. It would save on paper.. GO GREEN, and it would be convenient for parents. This would also help the students use technology. I also think it would be fun to teach older kids how to make a survey. I remember learning how to graph in the upper grades in Elementary school. This would be a fun way to use technology to help the students get information to graph. Great idea huh? I thought so. :) Well this is all for me. Have a great week. You won't hear from me for a while.. class is canceled for the next two weeks! Spring Break!!! Wahoo! :)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dERuYkdvbFAxQ3V2T1VpcDNkS3FRMGc6MA

Here is a link to my awesome survey! It was a lot of fun. Check it out. Fill free to take it. It will only take a second!

Cell Phones for Learning?!?

Today we learned how to create a gradebook on an Excel sheet. We learned basic functions. I learned how to type in certain formulas to calculate the students grade. I'm sure this will save me hours so I can use my time watching 24, doing P90X, and chilling with my friends. Can you say awesome? Yup, I like it. I also learned how to convert documents from read-only to read and write. This is SO helpful. I wish I would have learned this earlier. This will be nice to use when my teachers post documents on blackboard and I can download them and change the file. Thanks technology.
We did the coolest thing in class today. We did a class poll online at polleverywhere.com. If any of you have used this website, you know how awesome it is. We did a poll on the weather and everyone in our class texted in our results. It was pretty awesome. Too bad my 1st graders probably won't have cell phones.. bummer. That would make a cool lesson. Hey who knows though. Maybe in 10 years they will all have cell phones. Never know. It was a cool experiment though. I wish my teachers would have used our cell phones for learning, than trying to patrol kids using them. Lets be honest, everyone uses them anyways. Instead of paying for i-clickers, professors should just use cell phones. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome.