Laura+Clements

https://www.careerzone.ny.gov/ Career Zone is a interactive website provided by the New York state government that helps students explore different career paths. I would use this website during the Career Development unit. One the first page of the website students are given an opportunity to view a synopsis of the six major career zones: Arts and Humanities, Business and Information Systems, Engineering and Technology, Health Services,Natural and Agricultural Sciences,Human and Public Services. There is an option for a quick test to help the student best decide which area they are most interested in. There is a list of jobs available that correspond to each career zone to help students become aware of the career options available to them. http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/games/boss/ PBS Kids “Its My Life” website is an excellent tool for the classroom. This website is geared towards assisting teachers (and parents) work with students on several different topics. There is a link for topics on: Friends, Family, School, Body, Emotions and Money. For example under the “Friends” link there is content that deals with bullies, crushes and gossip. Another option I personally used for a lesson plan was an option that allowed students to “Be Their Own Boss: and make decisions based situations that occur when starting up a business. There is also videos dealing with all types of topics such as time management, gossip and rumors, sibling rivalry, dealing with anger. All the students in the videos are in their early teen or tween age. There is also a link for handouts and games. I could use this site for several different units; one example would be the Human Development unit. http://www.e-learningforkids.org/index.html This website covers all subjects but specifically geared towards FACS it covers environmental skills, life skills and health. There are several interactive games that students can play which provide large amounts of information on several topics. Examples of a few are: bullying, depression, stress, family, relationships, and choosing the right career. These games can be played individually, with another classmate or as an interactive class activity. This may also be a good website for students who may finish a project in a computer lab early. They can play the games on this website while the other students complete their work. The units that you could use with this website would be community connections, career development, human development, interpersonal relationships and nutrition and wellness. Microsoft Word Publisher Microsoft word publisher is a software that is almost always standard on PC and Apple computers. This software allows students and teachers to create a creative layout using tools that manipulate letters and pictures. Students can search the internet for pictures and transfer them onto their project using publisher. They can use publisher to create flyers or posters. This software can be used for almost any content area. An example might be using it to create a flyer about a specific cause a student might be  interested in such as animal cruelty or domestic abuse. This type of lesson would fall into the category of the community connections unit, however the software could be used in any content area. http://www.mypyramid.gov /   This website is hosted by the government. This website provides students with information about nutrition. It allows students to track and understand their own dietary information. It also provides information about healthy and nutritional choices in relation to fitness information. This website also covers information about nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It provides a child cost calculator. It has printed materials and videos that can be shown to students. This website is an excellent tool for several different types of lesson plans. Lesson plans can be created for: Family and Parenting units, Financial Management unit, Nutrition and Wellness and Personal environmental management units. www.orangekids.com This link is actually a website that provides a free software you can download called Planet Orange. Planet Orange is an interactive software for students that provides lesson plans, hand outs, quizzes and online activities for students to explore personal financial management. It covers grade levels 1-6 so it can be used in the first year of middle school. It explores topics such as what money is, how people acquire money and what they do with it. It helps students create budgets and managing money. It shows students how to save and explores the benefits of long term saving. It also includes a section about investing exploring the risks and benefits. This software could be used in the financial management unit. http://www.bassettfurniture.com/tools/room-planner.asp The Bassett furniture website provides a room planner that allows students to design their a room using a model that shows real dimensions A lesson can be created to allow students to design their dream room. They can explain what makes a dream room to them and then learn to recreate it by using this tool. This project can be done completely online (which will save paper and the environment) because the student can email the completed room design to the teacher as opposed to printing it out. This website can be used during the personal environment management unit. www.youtube.com and http://www.zamzar.com/url/ Youtube is a video website source and zamzar is a software that acts as a converter for these videos. Some schools block youtube.com because there is questionable content on it, however there are thousands of videos that can be used to assist with lessons throughout the curriculum. Zamzar converts the videos to several different formats and example of one is MP3. You Tube has videos that show demonstrations and informational video clips for all different topics. You could find a video for all content areas. An example of how you might use the videos with a specific content area would be with the Clothing Management Unit. You could use a demonstration of a specific type of stitch you may want to teach your class. Example: (Backstitch Demonstration) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n04lLVqOEjA Smart Board A smart board is an interactive white board system. It is projection computer board that allows a teacher to utilize websites and computerized lessons on files to display them to their students. White boards have touch recognition capabilities. Using touch recognition you can write, erase, move objects and control applications by touching or writing on the whiteboard. You can also write with a pen, erase with your palm and move objects with your finger without having to press buttons, access on-screen menus. This technology can be used with all of our content topics. http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech234.shtml The Best Tech Tools For Teachers This article explores technology that teachers use throughout K-12 and asks teachers which technology they believe is most useful in their classrooms. This article explains each technology and gives a background about what the technology brings to the classroom. It explores the benefits of a smart board in elementary classes; and how coupled with relevant software it can be beneficial to students. It discusses how SKYPE can allow a teacher to keep current with the latest educational trends by allowing teachers through out the country to collaborate in virtual educational conversations. It explores the benefits of Wickispaces as a way to sort information better by using topic as a method of keeping track of work as opposed to date. In the middle school grades the basic tools of computer technology can be coupled with interactive software to assist students in being able to gain real world perspectives on future financial issues as  well as learning how to utilize excel which is a basic yet necessary program to  understand. Finally, it recognizes the everyday uses of software such as creating PowerPoint presentations for lesson or using Microsoft word to create and edit classroom materials. It also covers how email is a necessity to link educators to their students, facility and parents in a efficient way. This article was very helpful because all the technology that was touched upon could be used within my classroom even though it covered elementary school was relevant to my content area.