What is a Webquest?

A few classes back... I had to learn all about webquests. It was for my Social Studies course but we explored how this can be used in other subject areas as well. So... since the grades are in... I can now share!

What is a webquest? 

Well... its like an online unit. When you create a lesson plans for a unit in your class.... you find resources, create activities, provide direct instruction, ..... The same thing with a webquest EXCEPT the entire unit is online and will be read by your students. It is also designed in such a way that another teacher can use it as well. 

Pros

This is a great way to provide additional resources on a top to your student. Especially primary resources. It is an excellent way to tie in technology to your lesson plans and to share this with both colleagues, your PLN, and your students. 

It is also a great way to add content and information as homework freeing up your time in class and the pressure to get it all in. You can always change things at any time to take away something that didn't work or add something new. 

Cons

It takes a lot of time to build a webquest. You do all the research for your students in advance. They just go where you tell them too. While this does protect them from veering off into uncharted territory and perhaps stumbling across something you would rather they didn't... it also takes away from learning a valuable skill. 

In addition, I found some of the required pages redundant. You create a welcome page AND an introduction page. You build a task page AND a page for each of those tasks. 

Fundamental Components

To be a webquest... you have to have certain pages in certain order on your site. Here is the list in case you are unfamiliar with this concept.  (1) Welcome (2) Introduction (3) Task (4) Process (5) Evaluation (6) Conclusion and (7) Credits/Teachers Page. Between the Process and Evaluation Pages is where you build the individual task pages. 

Where to go? 

Zunal is the site recommended by my university. You can build a free quest to try it out but it limits you on the options or you can purchase a membership for 2 years for $20 and get unlimited options and the ability to create as many webquests as you want. You can also create a classroom full of web quests and add in members so only certain people can access it. 

With Zunal your options for customization are limited. I finally figured out how to change the background color and the color of the buttons. You do not really have a say in how it goes on the page as everything is done by template and the size that appears is the size ya get. 

The other recommendation was Quest Garden. Now this site looks like it has many more options for customization. However, I couldn't get it to work when I needed it. I sent a message to tech-support and they manually set up an account for me but by then the assignment was due so I passed. 

Examples

The first quest I made was for the first week of Social Studies in 8th Grade. It is a fun introduction that also introduces students to three different types of technology we would be using throughout the school year. 

Welcome to Social Studies!

The second one I created was on the Holocaust. Now I will warn you... this is a weird twist on the traditional method of teaching and I do actually know both guest speakers personally. So for me, this is actually a possibility.... if I taught eight grade social studies. I am going to  add another disclaimer. The purpose of this question is for the student to develop his or her perspective NOT to share my own perspective on this situation.

Holocaust: Nightmare or Necessity

I got my first "beyond exceptional" grade on the Holocaust webquest. Never seen that grade before but I know for some this quest is a hard one to teach. 

How do you use webquests in your classroom? What is your favorite quest?

National Geographic

So my last class was all about Social Studies and Geography. It is finals week so I can finally share with all of you some of the great resources I discovered during the course.

Did you know National Geographic has an Education Website? 

It Does!

This site covers current events! It has lessons plans, videos, a map creator, pictures, student resources, access to standards, and so much more! I have added it to the resource section of my own classroom website for my students to use. 

This is a brand new resource and still in BETA format. So if there are any suggestions of changes, things you want to see, etc...just let them know. 

ENJOY!

Count Down to the Election!

I have shared a lot of my favorite resources but I wanted to share a few more of my favorites as tomorrow is the big day. I am taking a poll in my classroom, we are voting to decide if we will have a new president or retain our current one. How would your students vote?

I love this site! A homeschool friend of mine sent it to me. Everything is free and the students will create a lapbook all about the election. I love this idea and could pair it with my interactive notebook pages easily!

I really like how this teacher remembered to include a voter registration card and taught her students how to register to vote! I need to remember this for the next presidential election!!

This is one of my favorite sites. In fact, I asked my students to use this site to help them find the answers to the INS pages in my Election Packet. This site has a lot of other great information as well.

Who does not love BrainPOP? I may have a BrainPOP addiction IF that is at all possible!

Fact Monster is also a favorite place for information! This one has great information on the candidates so you can compare and contrast and/or help your students make an informed decision about who they want to vote for!

And as always... Ben has some information to share with us as well.  Poor Ben he has always been an afterthought for me. For some reason, he just does not appeal to me.

What are your favorite sites for this year's election?

2012 Presidential Election FREEBIE - Linky Party

I thought and thought and thought until I felt like the old Pooh bear I was so fond of as a child.

It kinda looked like this. Only I'm human and my Piggy is a puppy!

Yet I kept coming back to the same idea. My inspiration comes from all of you and the things you do everyday in classrooms around the country (and world)! You all come up with so many freebies that I know you have to have some for the election somewhere!

Sooooo..... LINK up! 

I can't wait to see all of the amazing freebies you have to share.  

Feel free to grab my button and share this linky party with your followers. As the election draws closer, we are all starting to plan what to do for November 6!

2012 Presidential Election - FREEBIE

As the Presidential Election draws closer my son's have begun to ask more and more questions. While their teachers are trying their best, the information available on how to teach about the Presidential Election is limited.

Soooo... I set out last week to create a packet that could used for both of their classrooms.

This packet has 40 pages of activities! It includes a complete lesson via Interactive Student Notebook pages on democracy, voting, the president, political parties, and more. There are 2 different types of student notebook pages. One is more of a "worksheet" that my kids still put into their notebooks. The other page is my actual lesson. I am planning on creating a PowerPoint to go with it just no time to do so yet!

In addition there are writing prompts, word work, sight words, graphic organizers, and even materials to hold your own polls either as a classroom or a school.

I have had a few people ask if my items are aligned to the Common Core. I forget to state this but yes... every item I created is aligned to standards. That is how I was trained in Grad School so it is automatic to me. All items have to also be related to the real world.

So... I wanted a few other items as well but I wanted to get this in stores for all of you. However, I am nearing 700 followers (YIPPEEE!) And thought it was time for some fun!

Are you ready for today's freebie?? One of my most popular products are my series of Picture Prompts. These are great for early finishers, guest teachers, and literacy centers. I have also been known to use them with my ladybug as morning work.

I created this set just for the election. It is free until I remember to change it and then it will be available for sale for $2. So get it while ya can! =)

Check-in tomorrow for more great election-themed freebies! If you have an election freebie you would like me to share this week, please leave me a comment with you email address below.

Here comes October!

I am so excited... October is almost here. A few more weeks of 100 degree temperatures and we will finally hit the 90s. By Halloween... we should be in the 80s and if we have any kinda luck by Thanksgiving we will be in the 70s. That's fall in Arizona peeps!

I remember a story several years back from my youngest son. He came home crying from Kindergarten because he thought his teacher lied to him. When I asked what she lied about he said she kept telling him about all these seasons where leaves change and snow falls but that only happens in the movies. After I stopped laughing, I had to explain where we live is different then planned a trip to a nicer climate to prove his teacher didn't lie afterall.

From that moment on, the child never really like his kindergarten teacher or trusted her despite getting proof that she told the truth. It is one of my favorite memories of fall....

Since I am always HOPING for fall to arrive, I always end up in full decorating mode. You should see the amount of decorations stored in my garage or maybe you shouldn't..... This has carried over to the classroom. I have files and files and files of Holiday STUFF!

But I admit, I forget the digital files exist. I need something all in one. Click... print... go! That theory is what prompted my new line of products. Each month, I will be introducing a new packet with lots and lots of resources.

So this guy here has everything that I need in it for the month of  October. I will probably add to it later but for now it is 39 pages and has everything I need as a teacher to prepare for the month ahead!

Calendar numbers (in both formats!) and letters for my classroom boggle board. Boggle is one of my early finishers options for the month. I have a wide variety of things they can do if they finish early but they are all grade-level common-core aligned activities.

Interactive notebook pages. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my interactive student notebooks... known as Brainy Matters in my classroom. It keeps both me and my students organized, it doubles as a portfolio and review tool. You will notice that a lot of my products are now including these pages as it is what I need and use.

There are also writing prompts that cover retelling, inferencing, and creative writing, 2 sight word lists with words that pertain to the month of October, and 2 word hunts.

Math review worksheets. Again, these are core-aligned and skills that all students need to know. My fourth grader was using this one tonight as he needs a refresher on basic math facts. I use these for my students who finish early during math. This way I know they are still getting those instruction math minutes!

There are also 2 roll and cover math game boards. I use this in multiple ways... matching numbers, creating a problem equal to that number (have students record in math journals), and use that number in a problem and have you buddy solve it (mental math). 

Now while all of the above stuff is awesome... Teachers need things too! So I created a 2 newsletter (1 Halloween & 1 Columbus), labels for this months centers, 2 letters home, and 4 pages of books to read (picture books and chapter books!) for the month.

There are also 3 October calendars which I use in my classroom. I have a plain calendar for behavior and a math calendar that we use with our circle time. None of the calendars are dated as I have my students do this to help reinforce counting skills. On the math one... the right the digital date as part of our calendar time on their math calendar.

The one pictured here is the reading log. Students record minutes on the calendar and books to the right. The rubric is on the bottom. No daily minimums are listed on this calendar so you can use it as you wish. This goes home in our file folders which stay inside out binders. The left side has the instructions and the right the calendar.

We worked on this bundle for 3 days solid and I wanted to get it to you before this weekend so you would have time to use it for the upcoming month. In future packets, I am planning on adding the Family Zebra Quest Challenge and our monthly book project. I just ran out of time and steam this month.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this project. This includes clip art from 5 of Melonheadz Illustrating sets as well as exclusive pieces made just for TWT. Each month's kit will be created in a similar fashion and cover two different topics. This kit covers Halloween and Columbus Day. I will do Fall next month when it kinda feels like it here.

Leave me a comment and I will randomly select a winner!

September 11 & The Story of Us

Today is always a hard day for me. I can still remember the phone call that morning. Watching the news, holding the phone, and praying for answers.

My uncle was flying to New York that day. He was heading to a meeting at the World Trade Center. Where was he?  We waited for hours. Crying. We heard from friends who lost loved ones. We cried with them grasping for answers. Then we waited for days.

Finally we heard. He was fine. He was in hospital, he had a heart attack on his way to the meeting. With all that happened and was happening, they forgot to call his family. We understood just thankful that he was found.

We were lucky that we scrapped by with just a scare but the impact that day still ripples through our culture. It has forever changed the way we look at things. I remember growing up and not understanding Pearl Harbor. What was the big deal? Why are people still sad?

Now I get it.

I did several things to help my kids better understand. We created a scrapbook and added to it. Each year the kids ask to take it to school and share. Pictures, feelings, thoughts of the day all there in black and white. For my boys, history is important.

It saddens me that as we move into implementing the Common Core State Standards that history is not a priority. Understand the story of our culture, our past, and why we are who we are has been pushed to the side in an effort to prioritize the needs of the future. But how can we have a future if we do not understand our past?

I found some other resources that I wanted to share with all of you as well as my own students and children.


Don't forget the power of videos! Many kids need to see and hear it while for others it may be to frightening. I like focusing more on how to rebuild the future while honoring our past and so have chosen this film for my kids.

Be sensitive to those in your class as well. Before you start sharing, make sure it is something everyone is comfortable with!

One of my children's favorite movies is America: The Story of US. We used this with our history curriculum when we homeschooled and the kids still love it. In fact, this is another thing they take to school to share along with their timelines.

Today, the History Channel is offering the books to go along with the movie for free. I just got them for the Kindle on my iPad. I know there will be a fight later today on who gets to read them first. Just click on the picture to go to the History Channel to find out more or head over to Amazon to pick up your free copy of all 3 books.

Tombstone, Arizona

Each summer, I like to play tourist and also educate my boys in something new. I took them to Rawhide awhile back and posted about our adventures. Since my boys are still into the "Wild West" - we decided to take them on a trip to a real Wild West Town.

Tombstone was founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin who had several silver minds down there. This was prior to Arizona even being a state and Tombstone was hoping to be the capital (that honor went to Prescott). It was one of the largest cities in the nation at during the late 1800s. Hard to believe isn't it?

This old town should have died off a long time ago but thanks to the infamous Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday... it remains a tourist attraction and town today. It is also the site of many western towns you see in movies.

Anywho...

Doc Holiday's Gunfight Palace

My little cowboys were blood thirsty so we stopped at the first place to offer a gun fight. Let me tell ya now... Tombstone is an expensive place to take a family!!! It cost us $26ish (hubby was in charge of the money) to see this indoor gun fight. If you go, skip it. The place is the size of your classroom, it is hard to see and just not worth the money. My kids missed it all. Hubby took this by raising his hand, pushing the button and hoping for the best.

We went during Memorial Day weekend not realizing it was Wyatt Earp Days. It was crowded but not overly so and we had the bonus of there being free gun fight shows in the street.

The boys had a blast with all of the gun fights... and they even got in on the action.

This is the main event and why people visit Tombstone. The OK Corral where the infamous gun battle happened. This was EXPENSIVE! When you purchase these tickets, you also get admittance into two other sites (Historama and the Epitaph Museums). It was a 45 minute show and the boys loved this.

I was particularly impressed with the Good Enough Mine Tour. First, they offer a discount to teachers, military, and anyone who services the community ($8 off) and anyone under 10 is free. It was the favorite thing we did perhaps even better than the gun fights. My middle son "stole" (the prospector told him to) the prospectors gun and held him up AND it was a real gun (loaded with blanks!).

So here are the stars going down, down, down into the mine. There are not any monsters or ghosts that live in this mine but according to my littlest one there are zombies.

No worries... he has his cap gun and his daddy!

See all that gray stuff on the walls... THAT'S SILVER! We learned a lot about minerals, mining, the way one used to see in the dark, lead and food poisoning.... hmmm... what else!

This is a pile of silver before it is made into pretty shiny things.

The last thing we did (after I shredded my knee in a blonde moment) was to visit Boot Hill. What an interesting cemetery.  Just look at this gravestone. Where else would you see something like this? Almost all of the graves said how they died.

Traditionally on Memorial Day weekend, we attend a service remembering our fallen soldiers but I felt like my children were missing the history behind why our country and our state is so important. This trip allowed them to learn more about our freedoms, the birth of our state and country, and to understand why it is important to protect it. If you plan on going for the day, plan on spending $100 per person.

Thank you to all of those who serve our country! We will be thinking of you, your families, and your sacrifices as without you, we wouldn't be able to enjoy moments like this.

Happy 100th Birthday, Arizona!

In 1853, the land that would eventually become Arizona was part of the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico. On February 14, 1862, Arizona was considered a separate territory from New Mexico for the first time as they joined the Confederates in the Civil War. This was the first time Arizona had its own name and it claimed half of the New Mexico territory. On February 14, 1912, Arizona became the last of the continuous 48 states to join the nation... it is also the 48th state!

Arizona is a melting pot of Hispanic and Native American influences. It is a strange land with a mixture of deserts, red rocks, and deep green forests. It is home of the Grand Canyon. It has extreme temperatures that can reach to below zero in Northern Arizona in the winter and then heat up to 120 degrees in the desert during the hottest parts of the summer. The sun shines about 300 days out of the year; rain in the desert is minimal. However, we have snow in the Northern areas of the state. The area is free primarily from natural disasters with the exception of micro-bursts and ha-boobs. It is a destination for tourists and winter visitors. There are days when we forget the Wild West is dead and try to resurrect it. Sadly we are ranked 49 in education... we make the rest of the states look good!

Today as we celebration Valentine's day... we will also be celebrating the birthday of Arizona. We will be focusing on what makes Arizona unique and special.



State Flower: Saguaro Cactus Blossom

State Tree: Paloverde Tree 

State Bird: Cactus Wren

State Seal

State Motto

We will be writing about our favorite places and memories. The vast variety of landscapes and adventures to be had are wide. How will we ever be able to choose a favorite? What is yours?

Sedona

Jerome

Lava Tubes

Havasu Falls

Meteor Crater

Snow Bowl

Desert Sunsets

UPDATE: Check out my TpT for state history fun!