Web+Site+Evaluations

=**Web Site Evaluations**=

The website evaluation assignments are extremely helpful not only in finding content area specific pages, but also websites dedicated to assisting teachers. Therefore, the first set of website evaluations were particularly useful to me. As an intern teacher, teaching websites that help with organization and lesson planning will be particularly helpful in the next year. The website evaluations were also useful because they allowed users to distinguish between those websites that were beneficial from those who contained fluff and advertisements.

I think that the assignment was very helpful. I have found so many websites that I had no idea existed. I think that this will give me new creative ideas for student teaching, and for teaching in general. I look forward to the next set so I can learn about other ideas. I think the assignment to review web sites is very useful, especially when you use them with resources such as Portaportal. I have started my own Portaportal page and have started a nice collection of sites not only I have reviewed, but that some of my classmates have reviewed as well. It was good that we used each of our different strengths and areas of interest to find a greater variety of web sites than we would have found on our own. This enhances our instruction and our students' resources. It is also important for a student to investigate sites that are somewhat outside of his or her obvious interests. There are a number of sites on all kinds of different topics that can be very useful.

Another benefit to the web site evaluation assignment is that it helps you learn how to identify a reliable site. This is very important due to the large volume of misinformation on the web. Portaportals are very convenient when you are needing information from a website you have previously used and found benefits from. It stores all of your websites and they can be categorized for your different needs.

Web site evaluations also allow for all of us who are in the process of becoming professional educators to start obtaining web sites that we feel may benefit our eventual classroom instruction. If we are able to start building a solid foundation of web sites that we feel could be utilized in our classroom, we are that much more prepared for when we actually do teach a lesson in which the web sites can be incorporated. However, we should use this skill to continue assessing websites and not become complacent with the list we have. The websites we have may cease to be effectively updated while new sites are becoming available all the time. Also, having our students perform web site evaluations on a given list of teacher-approved websites would allow them to discover the benefits of the web sites we chose, as well of information they could possibly use to benefit their everday lives.

I found the website evaluations to be very useful. I was able to locate many websites with valuable information that I will be able to incorporate into my classroom. There were so many helpful lesson plans I found that I am confident I will never run out of ideas and the students will never be bored. The website evaluation sites can also be added to your home website as references for students and viewers.

The website evaulation project was not only useful for supplying us with resources, it also gave us more experience with group work. My content area group had several people in it, so we really had to stay organized in order to complete this project. We found that communicating through e-mail and sending each other updated checklists really helped us stay on task. By dividing the workload, we were able to save time and energy which is a skill all future teachers need to have.

When searching for websites for the first evaluation assignment, I came across a LOT that were not useful at all. That helped me to really pay attention to sites that I would go to for other information. When I was teaching my Block III Lesson, I made notes of numerous websites I used for various assignments I gave to my students. I also made notes on sites I used when doing the Scavenger Hunt assignment for SE300. I am going to add those sites to my PortaPortal and hopefully, the website evaluation assignment that is coming up will go a little more smoothly than the one before. It did definitely help with learning how to identify a reliable site, as an above post mentioned, but it was still a little difficult being at the beginning of the semester and not quite knowing what Dr. Talbut was wanting at that point. The second website evaluation assignment should be a little better--hopefully!!

I don't think the point value that is placed on the website evaluations is motivating enough to complete. The rest of the assignments are at least 30 points up to 200 points, and although I see the benefits of doing the website evaluations, when you weigh it according to the other assignments, it is a very minimal point value considering the time it takes to complete. I would consider adding more points to this assignment, or integrating it into another assignment so it becomes more motivating to complete, especially at the end of the semester.

I agree with suggesting that the amount of points be updated. In light of 100 and 200 point assignments at the end of the semester, students with tight schedules tend to put focus on what will carry their grade farthest. Nevertheless, I think having to look through websites, even when I wasn’t that focused on the assignment, allowed me to find some good resources for teaching. I definitely see the value of this assignment, enough to see it as equal to the other 30 point assignments. Perhaps just one set of website evaluations instead of two. But, hey, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time.

I think that website evaluations are good to have because you are able to see/find websites that are helpful. I think that the importance in this class on the website evaluations is low. It's worth the lowest points than all the other assignments. I think I could use this with my students in my class because I can become aware of new and better websites through my students' work. My students and myself can become more knowledgeable with the use of technology and the information it has to offer. If I used this assignment for my class, I may add more points to it. That way my students will put more effort towards the assignments.

Educators have an extremely important role in society. Teachers are educating the generations which will lead our country in the future. Therefore, it is vital to present reliable and accurate information to students. It is important for teachers to truly sit down and evaluation the source they obtain their information from. Because I feel so strongly about providing students with accurate and updated material, these website evaluations were extremely beneficial for me to complete. Although they were time consuming, I understand the importance. In addition, this assignment allowed me to explore countless websites which I will remember when I am a teacher. I am overwhelmed with the unbelievable amount of creative lesson plans presented throughout various websites. There are countless lesson plans and activities which I have already stored to memory and am excited to teach them in my future classroom. Furthermore, the other information presented will greatly benefit me as a future educator.

I think that the website evaluations assignment will end up being very useful for future teachers. I learned about multiple websites that I had never heard of before. Doing the evaluations on each of them helped me become familiar with each site, and it helped me determine which ones were useful and which ones probably would not assist me in my classroom. I think the idea of a portaportal is also good to store these particular helpful websites on so they can be accessed at anytime and any place. - Amanda Pegg

The website evaluation encouraged me to start my own portaportal. This has become a very useful tool for me. I can access all of my favorite sites and also let students have access to them so if they are in need of useful sites for research they have a list of several good ones.

Since the very first website evaluation assignment was due, I have been adding to my portaportal. I think the assignment has been very effective and will help students for when they are teachers. I know I will be using my portaportal once I am a teacher. I have already started sharing my resources I have found and put on my portaportal. I showed my Block III cooperating teacher how she could get on my portaportal and she has already used some of the resources I have found or got from other people. I love the portaportal because it is a more organized and easily accessed way to have your internet resources.

I think that this assignment opens our eyes to the fact that there are websites that are out there that pertain to our subject areas and can help us teach. You just have to look at the right spots. I enjoyed searching for them but I did run across some not so good sites. Everything that we do in that class is helpful to my content area. Music is a hard subject to find ways to teach. There are plenty of sites that can help teachers teach students music.

This assignment allowed for me to see all of the possible resources that are available to me as a Social Studies teacher. My goal is to help students become better decision-makers and the websites that I have found can contribute to students achieving that goal. There are many websites that I had found that can help bring technology to my classroom to help students comprehend certain topics that are difficult to view through a textbook. It was tough to view all of the possible resources for Social Studies teachers on the internet but, it helps me narrow down which ones are going to be useful for me in my classroom.

I enjoyed the website evaluation assignment. At the end of the day it made me appreciate my favorite FACS website even more. MyPyramid.gov is the gold mine for nutrition education. It's very easy to navigate, straightforward in it's information, and fun. Tracking your diet has never been easier. THe site will calculate all the calories for you and then create a nutrition evaluation of your diet. When I explored other similar sites I as aghast at the complexity of them. Some had so many ads that finding the body of the site was near impossible. Others had very limited options on food so providing an accurate representation of your diet was near impossible. One I found, I was 90% sure was inaccurate. When it comes to diet tracking I will always stick to MyPryamid.gov. Thanks to the website evaluations assignment, I know to never look for more because MyPyramid really is the best.

Let's not forget the web sites that are most important to us while planning a lesson--those from which we get our standards. I really liked navigating these websites and exploring all they have to offer us as teachers. Not only can we go onto DESE's webpage and read the curriculum plans and GLEs for our own content area, but we can also view those for other classes that we should be collaborating with. Reviewing all of these standards and such can help us with cross-curricular studies.

Evaluating websites is a good assignment for students high school and above. People, especially young people are drawn to the Internet these days. They spend more time surfing the internet than they do watching TV. Students can learn, through this assignment how to identify a good website from a bad one, how to examine content, and what sites are a reliable source for them to use. Recognizing these things can also help them to one day create their own successful website full of usable information. Also, as they decide which career paths they would like to take, they can see which websites are going to be best for them to use as a resource and which ones they should stay away from. For teachers, they can steer their students to and away from sites that will help or hinder their learning experiences.

This assignment seemed like a waste of time initially, but after we were forced to search around for websites that were created to help Spanish teachers and students, I realized that this would benefit me tremendously. By looking through these websites I have learned new lessons, ways of teaching, things to teach, exercises, activities, etc. Using the internet and websites to help you come up with activities or exercises is a great way to creatively incorporate new things into the classroom.

Website evaluations are one of the coolest assignments. Students can find sites that they never would have found by being directed to look under certain conditions. I have found sites through the particular assignment in the technology class that otherwise I probably would have never come across. Also, by evaluating sites students get the feel of what a good site has to offer. There are so many sites that pop up when searching, that it is important for students to know which ones are reliable.

//* Be sure to save some of these resources to your portaportal for Block IV and beyond ENGLISH: //
 * Examples of Websites from the Web evaluations:**


 * http://www.rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
 * [|http://www.readwritethink.org]
 * http://wordle.net/
 * http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/default.aspx
 * [|http://litplans.com]
 * [|http://http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/]
 * http://www.bartleby.com/
 * http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/articles1.htm
 * [|http://www.writingfix.com]


 * SOCIAL STUDIES:**
 * [|America's Library (Library of Congress)]
 * [|free social studies videos]
 * [|Geography Action]
 * [|History Channel Classroom]
 * [|History News Network]
 * [|My Wonderful World]
 * [|New York Times Learning Network]
 * [|PBS Social Studies]
 * [|Smithsonian History and Culture]
 * [|Social Studies Help]
 * [|UN Cyber Bus]
 * http://teachinghistory.org/


 * GENERAL:**
 * [|http://www.teachertube.com]
 * [|http://www.dese.mo.gov]
 * [|http://www.ncte.org]
 * http://www.google.com/educators
 * http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm
 * [|http://www.teacher2b.com]
 * http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Website evaluations is great for Facts because there are so many websites for different kinds of recipes. This would be a great way to get the students involved and have them find a variety of sites with recipes and then as a class we can make our own cookbook. Consumer economics would be great for web site evaluations because I can have them research different web sites with the stock market and see if all the students are understanding what they should watch out for in the stock market when they begin their finical planning.

Like others have mentioned, I think that the web evaluations are a lot of work. They are definitely of some worth, but I personally would be more motivated to search for great websites and critique them more in depth if there were more points attached. I found some really great stuff that I wanted to talk about but I had other assignments that needed attention, like the TWS, that was "worth" much, much more.