Jessica Hernandez
Florida International University
FL

Technology Tools Collection

Sat, Dec 01, 2012 11:52 AM
Technology

Keeping up with technology is important as a teacher. Technology is always changing and coming up with new resources for educators. How can teachers keep up with all the new information? How can teachers introduce new resources in the classroom? The collection I reviewed is done by Allison LaRosa, and it is titled Technology Tools. The collection includes information about exploravision, book chapters, and videos. This collection is great for elementary school teachers who want to understand more about technology, and ways to integrate it in the classroom. The resources in the collection are pretty recent, so it’s updated for teachers. I really enjoyed reading these articles because it teaches you how to use basic internet in the classroom for research, add technology to your lesson plans, and basing projects using technology. There are going to be students in the classroom that are already familiar with the latest technology, but there will also be students that won’t. It’s important as a teacher to be able to provide those resources and teach the students how to use them. Teachers should also attend any technology workshops that they can to learn new strategies. I think Allison did a great job at picking and putting these articles and videos together. It was very interesting and informing for me. I plan to use some of these strategies in my future classroom and keep updated with all the last technology.

Life Science Collection

Tue, Nov 27, 2012 12:54 PM
Life Science Review

After looking through all the resources provided in this Life Science collection I have decided to add some to my library. This collection is great for elementary or middle school students who are learning about life science. The collection includes life cycles, ecosystems, nutrition, and cycles of stars. I really like the fact that the collection includes a resource on nutrition for students. A lot of students don't learn about nutrition at home so it's left to the physical education teacher to teach it. Many times the physical education teacher does not get into the class text and focuses on physical activities. Science class is another opportunity for students to learn about their health and ways eat more nutritious meals. I would use the collection when teaching about life cycles, stars, health, food cycles, rain forest, animals, wild life careers, before a field trip to the zoo, or introducing ecosystems. I think Alisha has done a great job by adding a variety of topics in life science in this collection. There are not only book chapters, but journal articles, science objects, and external resources.