WebQuest 1--It's Amazing!

WebQuest: Learning will Happen
WebQuest is a way for students to work on projects that will make them use their cognitive thinking skills. The project that I am creating for my students is a poetry assignment. Students will be required to research poetry and authors and write several Found poems. (Creating a poem with the information they found) Through this WebQuest they will be able to access almost all the materials they need to accomplish their goal. Not to mention they will learn about so many poets and become to respect them if not love them. I hope that this project will help those that don’t enjoy poetry and enable them to see that poetry can be a lot of fun. One of the most important things that I hope for my students to take from this project is the idea of genres. Most of the poets they research will be Modern American poets and my desire is for them to gain a better understanding of this time period. Also for those students who love music they will be able to identify with slam poetry because it is lyrically based. All students will finish this assignment knowing more than one thing than they did before they began. After collaborating and creating a WebQuest I have decided that I will be using this internet device in my classroom. It is one more beneficial technique for students to learn. In the future I see myself creating cultural, historical, and literature based WebQuests. I can’t wait to create a WebQuest about a classical book my class is reading. In everything that we do as teachers we have to remember to always have a purpose and WebQuest keeps this idea in check.

Video: Three Steps
The video brought up many important points about the student’s teachers will be teaching. Things have changed significantly enough that we should notice a change in our classrooms from even when we were in school. In the video it says, “Why do so many classrooms still resemble those from the 1960’s?” As teachers our classrooms should be a space for creative learning to take place. There should be several options in different routines that create learning opportunities. After watching this video I was enlightened to the points of teaching student’s competition, cooperation and collaboration. I see myself using group projects in my classroom to teach my students all three of these important ideas. In the work place students will really benefit from learning these skills. Almost everything you do anymore is a collaborated and needs cooperation. My students will learn by working together with others students because learning is social. I will create a safe environment for my students where they can, “talk, build, create, and collaborate.”