Assignment #2

One of my new favorite online resources is del.icio.us - a social bookmarking site. From the time we signed up as a class this website has been very useful in helping me organize great teaching resources as well as helping me keep track of sites I use for research projects.

A really great feature in this site is how you can bundle various websites in different ways. Some of the bundle I chose are...

Literature
In this bundle I have library websites, author information, and recommended booklists. A favorite website in this category is Great Schools - this site has booklists for each grade and a description of each book. All of the books that they mention on the site are recommended and popular with that grade.

Math
In this bundle I have some research resources and websites that explain and define math. I found the website Wolfram Mathworld very useful in explaining a variety of subjects in math. Eventhough this website is more advanced then elementary age students it is still a great resource for creating lessons and teaching.

Science
In this bundle I have many websites about photosynthesis because I was doing a project on that. This is one example of how delicious was helpful in keeping my school work organized. A favorite website of mine in this category is PBS.org - this entire website has great quality information on a variety of subjects as well as interactive classroom resources like the photosyntheis one that the link goes to.

Teaching Resources
In this bundle I have anything that would assist me with preparing lessons or give me inspiration and ideas for my classroom. Some of the items in this category also fall into others because they have specific qualities besides being a teaching resourse. A site that I find very useful is Scholastic - this site has interesting ways to integrate books into different subjects and has activity ideas.

Technology
In this bundle I have begun putting various websites that we metion in class or that I find that will help me later in the classroom. There are many interesting was to use techology in the classroom and I do not want to forget about them after the class is done. One of the most interesting websites in this category is Animoto - when I saw this website in class I thought that this resource was amazing. I have plans to use this now to promote events on my dorm floor and to share memories with friends. For later I think that this would be great for doing those same things in my classroom.

So far I love using delicious and I greatly intend on continuing to have it as a vital resource. Already with other education students that are not in the class I have recommended delicious. For how useful it is to share information and websites now, it will be even better later when I am in a community of educators. This will be very helpful if I meet different teachers at conference, through delicious we can still share information and help each other become better teachers. I can see that using delicious in a school would also furthur help all the teachers be in a tighter community where there is more sharing of ideas.