Thing 6

I was overwhelmed at first when I started searching for a website to explore for this post.  When I went on go2web20.net, I was surprised to find so many options.  There were so many tags and I had never heard of most of them.  I was relieved to find that there was a search option.  Since I want to teach elementary school, I searched kids which led me to www.gameclassroom.com.

This website provides students with interactive games to practice various skills in math and language arts.  The skills and activities are divided into grade levels k-6.  Each grade level has interactive games to practice level-appropriate skills.  This website was created by educators and teachers, so the activities found and presented on this website have been approved by educators.  I explored the third grade math section.  I looked specifically at multiplication facts.  In this section, there was an explanation, links to other websites students could explore to gain more practice, and practice problems for students to complete.  This website touts itself as being a tool for students to use in homework help.  This website seems easy to use and appears to have a great deal of resources.  

The one thing I do not like about this website is that it links you to other websites for the actual games.  When I first found this website, I thought that the games were actually on this website, but this website is merely a platform from which to launch onto other websites for the interactive games.  There are, however, worksheets and explanations available on this website which may be great tools for parents and students alike.  The explanations provided may explain things to students in a way that is different than how the teacher presented information, which may help a student understand something that was previously confusing.  I also like the availability of practice problems for math.  The more you practice a skill, like multiplication, the better you will be at that skill. 

As for classroom use, I could see using this in a classroom to provide students with the opportunity to practice more with new skills.  A teacher could also assign activities from this website for students to complete at home for extra practice.  Students could print out the activities they complete to turn in for a grade, which would allow the teacher to monitor their progress in certain skills.