Final Reflection Report

At the completion of this learning journey, I have a few favorite discoveries and exercises. Before taking this course, I was not as knowledgeable about Web 2.0 and the many different resources and tools that could be used in the classroom.
My favorite tool that I learned about is a blog. I knew that blogs exist especially through following my best friend's blog when she was in Australia, but I didn't look at it quite the same as a useful tool in the classroom. In my future classroom, I plan to have my own blog as the classroom teacher so that I can communicate with parents more effectively. I will have other ways of communicating with my parents, such as an agenda, written notes sent home, and e-mail, but I feel a blog could help everyone be up to date about what is going on in their child's classroom. A blog could also be useful for parents to ask questions and have other parents see the answers to those questions in case they may have the same question. A blog is a very useful tool for the classroom!
Through this journey I discovered a way to use a social networking site, facebook, as an educational tool in the classroom. Having a class mascot or class pet on facebook would unite classmates and allow them to use technology is an educational way.
Creating my own delicious website is one of the most useful tools I learned about through this course. Before learning about delicious.com, I would bookmark websites but not be able to access them other than on my own computer. My delicious website helps me not only access those sites from other computers but it also categorizes my websites so when I'm searching for a specific topic, I will be able to search my own sites that I have bookmarked.
The last tool that I especially learned from is how to create a webquest on wetpaint.com. The more familiar I am with that website, the more creative webquests I will be able to create. It is relatively easy and it helped to have my group members to help learn how to make a webquest.
Before taking this course, I would have only been familiar with the Smartboard. After taking this class, it has allowed me to become familiar with many different Web 2.0 tools I can use in my future classroom. When I have my own classroom I know I will be using many of these tools to make my teaching more effective and up t0 date.
This course didn't come with any take-aways or fallbacks. This is my first online class and I feel the amount of work I was asked to complete was fair and relevant. It helped to communicate with other classmates through our discussion board and see the ideas from a different point of view. Something that did surprise me was the amount of technology that is out there to be used in the classroom that I didn't know about.
The only thing I would recommend to change with this course is with the last module. There were some links that were hard to access because I needed an account to watch the videos. I have never had a problem until I tried to access some of the youtube videos on the "Introducing Other Web 2.0 Tools" module. The links I needed to sign up for an account for are "Online Photo Sharing in Plain English" and "Podcasting in Plain English." I had no trouble watching "Social Networking in Plain English" video. Other than that, all of the websites and links were very useful throughout the course. Like I mentioned before, the course work was relevant and useful.
If there was another course similar to this one I would most definitely choose to take the course. It was easy to follow, the professor was very helpful and available for any questions. The best benefit is not having to drive 45 minutes to campus and participate in a lecture style class. I was able to log online and complete the class at my own pace on my own time (within the project deadlines).

Poetry Interactives Just for Kids

http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/cc/poetry/poetrykids.htm

This website has links for kids to use to listen and read poetry. It has links for kids to learn about the different types of poems and another sections for kids to write their own poems. The interactive section that allows kids to write their own poems, gives the kids prompts and the kids have to fill in the blanks to create their own poem.

I would recommend this website for students to use to read and listen to poetry, and create their own poems. This would be a great resource for teachers to use if they are looking for ideas to supplement their poetry instruction.

Recommended Poetry Websites

http://www.squidoo.com/k12interactivepoetry

This website lists many different interactive websites. There are also videos and links that will bring you to the recommended websites for poetry.

I would recommend this website for teachers to use as a guide for allowing their students to go on an interactive website for poetry. Some of the websites I have included on this blog but some are great resources for teaching poetry.

Interactive Poetry Tools

http://www.southjerseyacademy.com/academy/interactive_poetry_tools_and_les.htm

Here is a website that has links for students to go to which allows them to navigate through an interactive website learning more about poetry. One of the best links from this page is the "Line Break Explorer." This website gives a minilesson on when to use line breaks in a poem.

I would recommend this website for teachers to use as resources but also as a guide for students to go to one of the links and navigate through it themselves. I wouldn't recommend some of the links on this website due to them not leading to anything significant. The links I would recommend are: Line Break Explorer, Magnetic Poetry Board, Student Riddle Interactive, Letter Poem Creator, and Magnetic Poetry.

Do not use the following links: Muse Poetry Generator, Poetry Tiles, KidZone Poetry Creator, Haiku Contest, Poetry Forms.

Teaching Poetry

http://www.slideshare.net/mungo13/teaching-poetry

Ever wonder how to teach the different types of poems; acrostic, simile, metaphor, color, figurative language, shape, rap, limerick? This website includes a slide show with descriptions and examples on how to teach the different poems listed above.

I would recommend this website for teachers to use as an example for teaching any of the poems listed above. There are great examples and directions for each type of poem.

Teaching Poetry through Riddles

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/what-teaching-poetry-through-169.html?tab=1#tabs

This website has a lesson plan to help educators teach poetry through riddles. It includes a link that shows standards met for each state in the U.S. as well as the instructional plan, resources and preparation, and related links.

I would highly recommend this lesson to teachers who need a lesson idea for teaching poetry. This lesson is broken into four parts and the final product is a class riddle poem anthology.

Poetry Teachers

http://www.poetryteachers.com/

Similar to the giggle poetry website, this website has links on how to teach poetry as well as access to a variety of poems. There are fun activities for students to learn more about poetry.

I would recommend this website for teachers to learn more about poetry. I would suggest that teachers look through the website and give students specific instructions on what links they are allowed to use. There isn't anything on this website that would be "bad" for students to see but to save time it would be best for teachers to give students specific instructions.

Poetry Foundation

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/videolanding.html

This website has links to find poets, poems, watch podcasts and listen to poems.

I would recommend this website for teachers only. I feel it is a little difficult to navigate around but teachers might find this website useful to find poetry to use in their instruction. I also feel the podcasts and listening section for poetry would be a great tool for teaching poetry.

Poetry 4 Kids

http://www.poetry4kids.com/

Poetry4Kids is a great website with many interactive links. Kids can listen to poems on their MP3 players, read through a variety of poems, learn to write funny poems, learn more about the creator of this website; Kenn Nesbitt, and many more fun activities!

I would recommend this website for both teachers and students. There are many links that students can explore poetry. I would advise that teachers give specific directions to students about what links they are allowed to explore and announce their goal for their exploration. For teachers, there are great links for other poetry websites, see when Kenn Nesbitt will be coming to town, explore the newsletter as well as writing contests for students to enter. This website has many helpful links.

Haiku Creation

http://www.pbs.org/parents/creativity/ideas/haiku.html

Are you looking for a website that allows you to create your own haiku? If so, this is the website for you! There are many words scrambled at the top with lines at underneath for kids to create their own haiku. When you are done, there is a button for you to print out your haiku!

I would recommend this website for both kids and teachers. At first the website seems like a straightforward haiku word scramble activity but there is much more to this website. To the right of the word scramble, there is an interact, understand and expand link. All of these links explain why the link is valuable for kids in the classroom. There are also book references, online activities ideas and offline activity ideas.

Magnetic Poetry

http://www.magpo.com/kidspoetry/

Here is a fun website for kids to arrange and rearrange words to create different phrases. Kids can choose different backgrounds for their poems. Other kids have posted their work on this website for others to view.

I would recommend this website for kids to use as a fun activity. I wouldn't recommend this to be used as an instructional tool but it could be available for kids to use during free time.

Janet S. Wong

http://www.janetwong.com/index.cfm

Janet S. Wong is a famous writer who is also a poet. She has written many books and some are books about poetry. Janet Wong has an approach to poetry which she shares on her website and there are links for students and teachers to listen to Janet Wong read her poems.

I would recommend this website for teachers to use during instruction time for students. This would be a great website for teachers to use so that students would have a chance to listen to a poet read their poems out loud. It would also be a great resource to use for teachers to learn about Janet Wong's approach to poetry.

Kidz Page

http://www.gardenofsong.com/kidzpage/

Here is a website for kids of all ages! If you are looking for a variety of poems, this is the website for you! This website lists many links to many different poem anthologies.

I would recommend this website for students to go to, to read poems of their choice. There are poems that have topics for each letter of the alphabet as well as many other poems with different topics. Instead of having a paper copy of an anthology of poems, students could choose their own anthology of poems to study. Using the computer and internet as a resource, students can use this website to study their favorite poems.

Giggle Poetry

http://gigglepoetry.com/

This fun website has many links for teachers and students to learn how to write "giggle poetry," read and rate poetry, read autobiographies of poets, book references, and games. There are example poems students can read and a featured poem on the front page of the website.

I would recommend this website for both students and teachers. This is a fun website students can navigate around with their teachers direction. Because there are so many links, the teacher would have to give students specific directions. There are also lesson ideas for teachers on how to teach poetry.

Instant Poetry Forms

http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/newpoem.htm

This website has many great links and applications that lead the student or teacher to ways to create a poem. There are links where students can click and add in their own words next to the prompted topics. If you are looking for a specific type of poem, there is a link to the left that allows you to search for a poetry form then do the same; fill in the spaces with words and create your own poem. For teachers there are lesson plan ideas as well as a place to post your comments about the website along with read what others teachers have to say about the website.

I would recommend the lesson plan ideas from this website for teachers. I would recommend the links where students can input their own words to create a specific poem form for an extra activity. I feel that the teacher would need to teach each poem form before having students go on this website and create their own.