Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

Here is an example of a Concept Map.

One Way that a concept can be used within the classroom setting is as an organizer or "brainstorm" for writing an essay. For example if you wanted students to write a paper detailing the field trip to the city zoo, it would help for the students to map out all of their ideas before jumping into writing the paper.

Another way that concept mapping would be productive in a classroom is used as an introduction to a lesson or topic. For example if you are beginning a lesson on the solar system, you could have the students help create a concept map about all of the things that they already know about the solar system. This is an excellent assessment tool to help you as the teacher understand what the students know and what they don't know.

One more way that a concept map could be used within the classroom is to create a grading rubric with the students. For example if you had the students write an essay on your class feild trip to the zoo, you could create a concept map detailing what areas you will be grading the students on. You could start in the middle with "essay grading rubric" with branches for things like spelling and grammar, writing conventions, or essay organization. This would create an excellent visual example of what you are looking for in the essay.

I think that concept mapping will really help all students by giving them a strategy for easy organization. Concept mapping is an easy tool that students can use for brainstorming for any project or paper for any subject. I also think that using concept mapping will be very beneficial for visual learners. This tool will also benefit student learning when a teacher uses it as an assessment tool to understand where the students are at in their learning. It allows the teacher to make sure their instruction is better suited to the students' needs.

When deciding whether or not concept mapping activities would be part of a lesson for my students I would look at what the lesson entails and if an organizational tool would benefit them in putting it together. I would consider whether or not we were starting a new unit where drawing out and sharing students' prior knowledge would be beneficial.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

1.) One interesting educational blog that I found was one in which the teacher posts up different art projects that have been tried in classrooms. She offers directions and helpful hints on how to do the project with the children. She also posts pictures of finished art projects that her students have done. She posts new projects every day. I also found a lot of educational blogs that are geared more towards college students. These blogs provide advice on different issues that college students deal with (strategies for test taking, resume writing, getting financial aid, etc.). A third blog that I found to be very useful is a website that provides information about the whole school. It provides upcoming events, breakfast and lunch menus, teacher’s notes, etc. This would be extremely useful for parents to really see what is going on in the school.

2.) An RSS reader is something that you can subscribe to from a specific website and these provide you with updates from that website. An aggregator is a program that you use to read the RSS reader files. You could find websites with interesting topics and subscribe so that students can keep up on the latest information about that subject.

3.) One advantage of using a blog or a wiki is that parents have the full advantage of being able to see what their children are working on or what is going on within the classroom or school setting. Another advantage of using something interactive is that students are able to work together and collaborate on projects, and they are able to access it in locations other than school. One downfall of using a blog or wiki is that not all students and parents have access to the Internet all the time. Another bad thing is that if you are using something like a wiki page for informational purposes, you need to make sure that you constantly update it and delete old information.

Teacher Web Project Critique

I think that using a teacher or class website within the classroom would be very beneficial for students and for parents alike. I think that it could encourage children's learning and exploration. If you post websites for the children to visit it gives them the opportunity to explore and learn in a fun way. As far as communication with parents go, a teacher/class website would be very helpful so that assignments and notices would not be lost in transit. Also it would make it very easy for a parent to check what homework is due and what other things are going on within the classroom.
I think that one of the biggest advantages of using teacher web within your classroom would be that you would have easy communication with parents. It would be really easy for parents to log on and see what events are coming up and what other things are going on within the classroom. It also gives the parent the option of emailing the teacher with questions or concerns. Another advantage of using teacher web with your students would be that they have so much information and interesting links at their fingertips that they could easily access. If they are working on a project, they can refer to the links that have been posted for their use as opposed to if you just told them to find information online. They might have trouble finding the information they are looking for or finding reliable websites. Placing links to the sites you want them to visit it makes it easier and more reliable.
The one disadvantage of using a class website such as teacher web is that not every student will have a computer in their home or have access to a computer. This would make it so that the parent would not be able to communicate with the teacher or receive any written communications that are posted on the website. Also it would give the children who don't own computers a disadvantage when it came to assignments with required reading or research on posted websites. This is the biggest disadvantage to using teacher web that I see. As a teacher you would have to make sure that while you post things on the teacher website, you are also sending home written copies so that parents without access to a computer are still receiving all necessary information. It would also be a good idea to allow children time in class to explore websites for research so they do not miss out.