Mummy 2.0

This is a great web tool for a unit on Ancient Egypt and studying the Egyptians beliefs on the afterlife. This is an interactive online tool that allows you to create your own mummy. Viewers may click on words that are unfamiliar to them and the site will give you the definition. For example, Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummification.

The site begins by telling you why Egyptians would mummify the deceased. You first have to embalm the body. The site first has you remove the brain, then you remove the internal organs. Once the organs are removed and are explained which containers they go into and who watches over them, the body is stuffed with natron, and then covered in natron. The natron is removed, and explained that it would be removed after 40 days. The body is then stuffed with linen, and also wrapped in linen. Then, amulets are placed on the body and a final wrapping takes place. A mummy mask is put on the Seneb's face, placed into the mummy case, and finally place into the sarcophagus.

This site gives student's a chance to see and try exactly how the Egyptians would prepare their bodies for the afterlife. It is a fun and interactive site for students, parents and teachers to try!

My only complaint is that some of the objects you have to click on are difficult to click. It takes a few clicks to correctly pick up the objects. Other than that, it is a great website to use in the classroom!

Mummy!

Emily' Personal Learning Network (PLN)

I thought while creating my PLN, I would have difficulty creating one. But, once I got started, I realized how many connections I have to expand my learning as an educator. Whether a professor from BGSU or using the Bookmark site, Delicious, I have found that I have a large variety of ways to gain knowledge in a variety of areas, as well as share my ideas with others!

My PLN

Learning Unit #3 Reflections

For my third learning unit, I created a unit for language arts, grade four. I created my unit based on the "Research" indicator. Students created a presentation using Google Presentations on a U.S. President. Once they were completed with that, they made their own comic strip based on their President. The last part of the project, students found a political cartoon on their President and posted it to Voicethread.

I also liked this project. The Google Presentation is a great tool for students to learn how to summarize information that they learn. The comic strip has students apply what they know about their President, and become creative with it. Something I would do different with my Voicethread is have students either create their own political cartoon using Pixton, and post that to Voicethread where classmates can respond or I would have students post their comics to Voicethread and have their classmates comment on their comics. If I would use something like a political cartoon, we would want to as a class look at political cartoons before the project so that students understand how to critique a cartoon and relate it to an event in politics or the news, etc.

Learning Unit #2 Reflections

I really enjoyed creating my Social Studies unit. For my Learning Unit #2, students were to create a glog about a world religion. Also on their glog they needed to include a video as well. Once that was completed, they used Google Earth to show where the religion originated and where it is most popular in the world today.
I absolutely loved using Glogster. Such a cool website. You would be able to use this site in any subject area. Same with using videos in the classroom.
I also think that Google Earth is a great tool. Students today (and a lot of adults too!) do not know their geography. Having a site that is as interactive as Google Earth would provide them with an opportunity to really understand other parts of the world.

Learning Unit #1 Reflections

My first learning unit was used with sixth grade math, studying transformations (i.e. rotations, translations and reflections). When I first started this unit, I thought that I would have the most difficulty with the screen casting. I wasn't sure how I was going to utilize that tool with my project. Once I started playing with the tool, I had the idea of using a website that is used as an introduction to transformations. The site allows users to create examples of each type of transformation. I thought this would be a great way for students to use screen casting. They are able to practice what a transformation is, while showing me if they have mastered the concept with screen casting. I really like this tool. I can use it as a form of assessment with students.

Using Scratch for this unit I also liked. This is also a form of assessment I can use to see if my students understand what a rotation, translation and reflection are.

I also liked the Quizstar website. I really loved that I was able to import pictures that showed different transformations. I used the Paint program to create the pictures, and uploaded them to the quiz. That is defiantly a quiz I would give to my students. Also, I like that I can have my students create quizzes. Again, they are applying and demonstrating to me what they know and understand about transformations.