Nearing the End

Wow, this semester is flying by. Dr. Wang announced tonight that we only have 3 classes left. This has been a good class. I hope I can remember many of the tips and tricks she has shown us throughout the semester.
Tonight I turned in my Student Support materials. I created a vocabulary word map which seemed like a fun assignment. Kids like using templates and this one combines writing with drawing.
Next week we turn in our teacher support. I am not sure now what I will be creating for that assignment. I am leaning toward a PowerPoint presentation for my unit, Colonial American.

Web Project Hindsight

My initial vision for the web project assignment was a bit too grand. I wanted to create an interactive crossword puzzle that would allow the students' website visitors to interactively complete the puzzle and receive feedback when an answer was correct. As each new visitor entered the site the crossword puzzle would be reset to a blank puzzle.

I created the puzzle in Excel and used nested IF statements to evaluate the letters entered into the puzzle and return a message of "KEEP TRYING" or "GOOD JOB". I also set up data validation in Excel to let users know they could only type one letter per box. I created the puzzle itself by using a site called Crosswordpuzzlegames. The resulting file worked well and covered the historical subject matter quite well. I was very pleased with the puzzle.

Then, I attempted to link the Excel file into the students' site and that is when I found out that the file was no longer interactive. Dr. Wang told me that to accomplish what I had in mind would require programming language. I ended up adding the puzzle and instructing the user to print it.

Although I was disappointed that my initial plan was not successful, I was pleased with the final result of my students' website. Fun assignment!

More work to do

I just reviewed Dr. Wang's comments on our last assignment - the unit introduction and unit powerpoint. Looks like I have more work to do on my unit objectives. I need to revise the objectives for technology and language arts. I am a little confused over what Dr. Wang meant when she said the objectives are not exclusive to each other. Maybe I can get a better idea of how to revise the objectives tonight at class.

I also need to rewrite the unit summary. Not sure if the content is ok and I just need to reivse the format from bullet points to paragraph. I'll check on that tonight at class as well.

I am disappointed in the results of this assignment. I had no idea I had missed the boat so far on this one. The one bright spot is that Dr. Wang said we would revise the unit many times during this course so I guess this will be one in a long line of revisions!