Science Sim

Today in class we learned about avatar animation. He first showed us the website of Science Sim and had us set up an account. It took quite a while for it to download but once downloaded you were given an avatar that you could manipulate and move wherever you wanted it to move. One of the things that fascinated me was that the avatars actually had breathing patterns and moved with their breathing. The avatars could do many things. They could fly, walk, run, and even communicate with other avatars. At first, I couldn't see the point of this exercise or see how this would possibly even help within the classroom but after some thinking I thought that maybe it could just be source of entertainment for the children and be used as a reward. Maybe... when students are finished with a task early they could have the chance to go to the computer is set up in the classroom and they could create their own avatar and experiment with it. Either way some children will really love this activity and others not so much but no one can deny that the technological advances we have made to create something like this is amazing. Well...have a great day! :)

This is the link to my awesome survey! Go and take it! :)
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFBSY1ktNmtRbDBXZDVNRS1QaEdqZFE6MA

I really enjoyed class today. I not only enjoyed making a survey and coming up with questions but I also enjoyed taking my peers surveys. I laughed at some of the questions and I was actually able to stay with the class as well. :) Hooray! I know that this skill (of making a survey) could be very helpful as a teacher in the future. I think by knowing how to post a survey online I could gain a great perspective on people and gather much information on the people I send my survey to. I think that I might even be able to make a test or quiz out of it for my future students someday. I think something that would be fun for my future classroom would be to have my students take a survey about themselves to get to know them better and learn how I can better teach them. I think that this school will be so very useful. Thank you! Loved class today. :)

Creating a Gradebook on Excel Sheets

Today we learned how to create a grade book on Excel. For some reason today I got very frustrated and behind. I gave up on trying to stay with the class and began to just plug and chug the information into the chart instead of trying to catch back up. I wasn't able to follow along because I just got so far behind. I can definitely see how knowing how to do this will be very helpful in the future as a teacher for my grade book. Unfortunately, I will have to relearn it all over again because my brain was not able to function at all today. I wish that I could have stayed along with the class and been able to understand the formula to find out the percentage and everything. I think that skill will save a teacher so much time.
Something that I really enjoyed learning in class was the poll website. I really enjoyed being able to text in class and then see its effect on the screen as my vote was counted. I think that this may be quite useful or helpful for secondary teachers but not so much with my major of ELED because I doubt that any of my elementary schoolers will have cell phones. You never know with time though! Maybe by the time I am teaching even children will have cell phones! Either way, I found the cite interesting and something I know I would enjoy using as a teacher if I were to teach high school. Well...lets hope I get more sleep next Monday and am able to keep up with the class next week! Adios! Go to go study for a reading quiz now. :)