BP2_Heyzap

There are SO many free resources out there that I was SO unaware of. Just finding the time to go through them and find what would best suit my classroom is all that I need...but finding the time is what is the overwhelming part of life.

Originally I had explored GameClassroom http://www.gameclassroom.com/ web 2.0 tool because it seemed to be very easy to navigate and find the resources that students and parents could use from home. 

 

I also thought of this source to be useful because it covered a broad range of grade levels which seemed to be easy to navigate. I was thinking about sharing it to collaborate with my peers. 

But after trying to navigate through the games and information a pop-up came up asking for a subscription and payment.

I then had to re-navigate back to the 2.0 site to find a new tool to use.  

I then found the site called heyZap http://www.heyzap.com/publishers/documentation/api-reference. While reading through the information on this site I found that it allows you to post engaging games onto different types of websites.

 

In my research for this site I went through their FAQ tab and their documents and tutorials tab, which truthfully got me more confused then when I first entered their site. Then I found another tab that was “Get Started” that allowed me to acquire more information that I was seeking. The main source I was confused about was the pricing because some parts of the site made it sound like there was a charge for their services while other parts did not.

 

 After going through the simple sign up it navigated me to my personal homepage for Heyzap and then allowed me to search for games that were already made or it also allowed me to upload a game I had made. I went to the search engine and typed in 'math' and a whole page of math games arose. Below you can see a variety of the math games that came up.

 I clicked on a few of the games through this page but was essentially trying to find something with the basic usage of math facts. For the past 3 years of teaching, I have noticed a significant amount of students that do not know their math facts. I have been trying to find simple ways to help students be motivated to learn their math facts because the cornerstone of being successful at math is knowing your math facts. I found this game below called 'Math Attack'. I clicked into the game and followed the following screen shots.

 The screen after clicking into the game allowed me to check out the instructions, view high scores, download the game, find more online games, or even just simply play!

 After clicking play the objective of the game came up. Your job was to be a doctor and not allow the viruses and bacteria infect your patient. You need to keep these items away from your white blood cell. Not only do I just teach math in 5th grade but also science. In one of our science units we talk about healthy living and what helps our bodies stay healthy and having students understand what white blood cells do...allows this game to be cross curricular.

 Students are then able to choose their difficulty level.

 Finally...the students are able to play the game.

 Now on the teacher side of this game, we are able to take this simple game and embed it into your classroom website or blog with a few simple clicks! In the upper right hand corner of the Heyzap page of the game you will see this icon below:

 You can then choose what you want to do with the game and then upload or embed it into whatever page you want it to go on. If you want to embed the game you simply click embed on your site and the code will show up as follows:

Instead of embedding the code you can also simply add the game as a widget to your blog site as well.

 If you check out my blog you will see the game 'Math Attack' located on my main page that you can play that I uploaded through my Heyzap account.

PERSONAL REFLECTION....
Overall, I really enjoyed searching through Heyzap and was very excited to find this game and how simple it was to use. I have been trying to find a way to post games on my classroom webpage without using the links because link after link looks so unorganized and unappealing. Using these types of widgets and embed codes will make my website much neater and easier to navigate. At first I thought this was going to be overwhelming after not being successful my first try out but it turned out to be much more successful than I thought. I guess my next step in this process is to learn how to make my own games that are veered specifically to what my teaching objectives are and posting those onto my website by using Heyzap.

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT TO YOU...
I see this tool being useful for all educators because students do become more motivated and engaged when they get to do something that is interactive. Students are so engulfed in their gaming at home, I don't see a reason why NOT to include this into our teaching styles as well.
As educators we seem to easily loose track of the time we spend planning and seem to easily run out of time to do 'other things' that could help motivate our students in their learning even more... but Heyzap is such an easy and quick tool that can be used to make that extra step for our students to take advantage of their learning. 
I would highly encourage you all to take a few minutes out of your time to join this site and start posting up these engaging and free games to your personal websites to keep our students engaged in their learning! http://www.heyzap.com/

BP3_iGoogle Screen Shots

iGoogle is a easy resource to set up that will allow anyone access to their most important links in a few simple clicks. I will be using this site vividly to keep myself up to date with all the places I will be "traveling" to in this world wide web :) and it will also be used as my personal learning environment.

Here are some screen shots of what my iGoogle page looks like. Stay up to date with it because it will be getting new updates quite frequently.

Home Tab:
This page was mainly laid out in a previous course (MLR) I am taking for my Master's Program at Full Sail University. Located on this page you will find basic gadgets such as links to my 'professional' Facebook, Gmail, basic FSO bookmarks, Twitter, and also my to-do list.

FSO Tab:
In this tab you will find basic quick click links to many useful Full Sail links, to-do lists, bookmarks,  LinkedIn Link, and a clock with my time zone as well as Florida's!

CBR Tab:
In this tab you will find a few quick click links for my CBR references, a to-do list, and also a quick access Google calendar. 

ETC Tab:
In this tab, which is my newest and latest, you will find quick links for my ETC course resources, flicker link, blogger gadget, Google docs gadget, and also the Google reader gadget. 

 

 So much to do...with so little time!

BP1_Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog! It's been a while since the last time I had blogged about myself 

and my life so this should be quite interesting..so enjoy! 

Feel free to click on the link below labeled 'Helen Xiong Portfolio' to see what I have compiled thus far in my journey through my Full Sail University education. 

Helen Xiong Portfolio 

It's okay to be different...but always be yourself!

One day at a time...I CAN do it..and YOU can too!!