Wednesday, March 31, 2010



This blog speaks for itself. A truly inspirational blog!



Thanks to David LeBlanc for sharing this site along with a FUN SITE you and your students may enjoy!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

22 ways to use Comic Life in the classroom ...
Comic Life as a Classroom Tool

""


How many times have you been asked how do you use that tool or resource? Are there interesting ways to use that app in the classroom or lab?
"My Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development. I say “My” in the loosest sense of ownership really, as with all of the presentations they belong to us all. I just kickstart them and point them off in the right direction.
They have been a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been great fun connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea. It is remarkable what can be achieved and created together if you give people the right way to do it. Thanks for all the help so far."



"Every site featured here is student friendly, easy to navigate, and absolutely free! I've limited the suggestions to those I've personally used, but I absolutely welcome recommendations for others. Enjoy these tools, and let me know how you've used them! If you're looking for some online reading sites to accompany these writing sites, be sure to check out my Interactive Reading Sites lens"

Friday, March 19, 2010



For example take a look at these apps used by many educators and their students:
Getting Myself Organized
iGoogle
Google Suite of Apps - Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Blogger and more.......
Keep and Share
CuePrompter


Time/Timers/Stopwatches
Official U.S. Time
On-Line Stopwatch
E.ggtimer.com
What Time Is It There?
Next Up -Keep Your Meeting On Time!!!

Collaboration Tools
Google Docs
Skype
Babelwith.me
Yaplet
Solodox
ZoHo Show
Tokbox
Dabbleboard
NotePub



"Howie’s presentation (one of many he presented at FETC) focused on great projects and web tools to connect students, teachers, and classrooms across the country –“Global Collaboration Projects.” The PowerPoint presentation he used, jam-packed with tons of great resources, is found on his website (drhowie.com) and I highly recommend taking a peak. Howie gives a plethora of different projects and tools (that’s why you should check out the PowerPoint), but here were some I particularly liked:"

EdHeads
FlatClassrooms
Digital History
My Hero



KERA, in You will find five 10-minute, closed caption video programs for grades 4 through 8 in Mathematics, broadcast on Wisconsin's public TV. For example students can explore an episode which follows Laura as she uses math to test computer programs and juggle the reservations of train riders across the country. In other words the site transports students into the heart of mathematics by combining real-world experiences with curriculum related materials.

Educators can cross reference the site with K-12 Instruction and Teacher Guides

Thursday, March 18, 2010



Some of the Ipod Touch Apps you can consider using with youngsters in the classroom

Coming soon! eBook Reader or Blio which is a FREE eReader software that presents eBooks in Kindle format but with more pizzaz! “The new ereader software comes with full color & photos. Blio is partnering with Baker & Taylor to provide over 1 milion titles for PCs and most smart phones. The FREE Blio eReader software is billed as the new touchstone for the presentation of electronic books & materials.



Technology can play a huge role if it's in the hands of competent teachers who know how to use it as a tool and not as a replacement of the teacher!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium
"Freemium is a business model that works by offering basic Web services, or a basic downloadable digital product, for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features. The word "freemium" is a portmanteau created by combining the two aspects of the business model: "free" and "premium". The business model has gained popularity with Web 2.0 companies."

Gleaned from WEMTA ..sketchy Notes

etherpad .. online open source word pad; fully interactive ... no sign up ietherpad.com ... create a public pad..
can have numerous ietherpads http://etherpad.com/ now acquired by Google
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/storykit/id329374595?mt=8 Storykit
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

Google forms and google docs and spreadsheets ..great for surveys and collaboration between classes

tinyurl ..shortens all long addresses
NINGning is a do itself facebook environment ..ie Classroom 2.0 webinars every saturday..math groups

Jing is a screencasting program. Jing makes screencasting ultra simple. Do a Jing of a NING
http://www.classroom20.com/
Jing videos are great for tutorials and students can acces a link of the Jing.

Conference links being posted here http://wemta2010resources.pbworks.com

A great blog to follow http://msfranzen.blogspot.com/

http://newsmap.jp/

Are you as a classroom teacher going to use Skype in the classroom? GO global and invite an author into classroom via Skype. \Skype an Author
How many of us are using Skype at home but not in the classroom? Skype an Author is perfect project for librarians, tech people, and classroom teachers to collaborate.



Thanks to Kathy Schrock for suggest::

Sites of the School Days
a weekly update to
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators on Discovery Education
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/
Site 30

Standards of Learning: Technology Integration
http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/resources/elementary/soltechintegration.htm

...although tied to the VA SOL and some items specific to this district, there are tons of online resources (see # 1 on the list) tied to curriculum standards found on this site; in addition, it is a great model that we all should be working on locally!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Some quite interesting ideas for tech integration

Use flickr images to illustrate song lyrics

Document images of what is going on in the classroom with iPhoto. Use the “Places” feature to stamp where the photo was taken. An iPhone will do this automatically or you can stamp the pictures in iPhoto.
Wonderful to use with “Flat Stanley” projects or http://www.rockourworld.org/

Uses google forms to get students to reflect on what they have learned on a given topic
in iphoto to automatically create a slideshow with a folder of photos.

More concrete tech integration Ideas from Macul2010

A hearty thank you to K Bosch



I always like to plan a poetry unit at this time of year. It seems to lift us out of the doldrums. Use this as your inspiration to get started.

Related sites:
World Poetry Day March 20th
Giggle Poetry
20 Days of Poetry
Poetry Online Studentent Interactive Tools
Poems for teachers
Character Trait Poems
Collaborative Poetry
Parts of Speech Poetry
Teaching Aids and PDF Blackline
Poetry Exploration Portal from Eduscapes

How to build strong web communities
Social Media & Open Education
Alec Couros offers an online grade course open to everyone.

Math Word Problems
The site has ten sheets acompanied by answers. If you wish to print them look just below left of the sheet on the screen et voila there is a link to Print sheet in PDF!

Prompt feedback spurs better performance

Expecting rapid feedback lowers hopes, raises performance



Great blog! If I was stiill teaching grade one this blog by Mrs. Cassidy would be my inspiration. Thanks Cathy!

Saturday, March 13, 2010



Whiteboards are becoming more the norm as I visit classrooms as as a substitute teacher. My next step is a formal workshop; although the students are a HUGE help with the tips and tricks for everyday use!!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Friday comments gleaned from my twitter network

• Kids designed tutorials during their lunches to help teachers learn technology - ON THEIR OWN! They used Jing
• Start bringing 2 students with every teacher to Professional Development
• Alan November recommends bringing kid s to PD, talk about changing (non)professional attitudes of our colleagues & empowering kids
• information & relationship planning is more important than technology planning
Alan November tells an awesome story about the power of screencasting w/middle school students!

References
Larry's Thoughts
Jing Project

Thursday, March 11, 2010



Science (and more) to Music
...take a look at this innovative way to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom with standards-based songs; tips, ideas, lyrics, and sound files are all here
Courtesy: Kathy Schrock ..Sites of the School Days ..S.O.S.: Help for Busy Teachers

Monday, March 08, 2010



The "International Children’s Digital Library" from the University of Maryland is an international collection of children’s books, with a “focus on identifying materials that will help children understand the world around them and the global society in which they live.” The books are in many languages and include a wide assortment of authors.
Using ICDL Books in the Classroom

The following ideas have been submitted to the site by teachers~
"ICDL ACTIVITIES
Read for Pleasure: The simplest way to use the ICDL is to just read a book. Pick one of the featured books from the home page, search books using Simple Search – or the Advanced Search or Location Search at the bottom of the Simple Search page. Then read away – for free and anonymously. Or you can create an account to keep a bookshelf of books you like and set various personal preferences.

Digital Story Time: If you have a standard computer projector, then try using it the next time you read a book to children (whether in a library's story time hour, in school, or at home). Simply hook up the projector to your computer, find a book in the ICDL and read with the large projected display. This has the advantage of making illustrations (and words) large enough for everyone to see – and the technical nature of the display is often engaging. To make it work as well as possible, be sure to maximize your browser window (on Windows, try View->Full Screen). And once you get to the book pages within ICDL, click on the icon which will reduce the size of the navigation icons – making more room for the page image.

Scavenger Hunt: It can be fun to learn how to navigate the ICDL and search for books if you are looking for something in particular. So, if you want to teach people how to use it – consider finding a few favorite books, pull out some particular tidbits from those stories – and then ask kids you are teaching to try and find those books based on those tidbits. Or ask more basic questions such as how many books there are in the ICDL from Africa, or even simpler, find a picture book that is short and has a blue cover and report the title and author. See more details for this activity in our teacher training manual.

Complete the Story: Use the first half of any book to inspire children to complete the story. Read the first portion of the book together – then ask children to envision how the story ends by drawing pictures and illustrating them. See more details for this activity in our teacher training manual.

Creative Writing: If you really want to push your creativity, try looking at a picture book in a language you don't understand at all. Then write a story to go along with the pictures.

Learning Languages: Many of the books in the ICDL are available in more than one language. Use these books to study a language you don't know. Use the Advanced Search screen to search for books in two or more languages. Then try reading in the language you are studying. If you aren't sure you understand the page completely, switch that page to the language you do know with the popup menu underneath the page. For example, The Blue Sky is available in English, Croatian, and Italian.

Class Translation: We are hard at work translating the ICDL books. Our goal is to get every book translated (that we have translation rights for) into at least 100 languages – and we need your help for this. If you are an expert translator, please volunteer to translate or review the translation of a book. Or if you are a language teacher, consider assigning a translation to your class. Some teachers have done this by splitting their class in two. Then each half translates one book as a group effort, and when they are done, they review the translation of the other group. Then when you are done, we can publish the translated books, and we have more for everyone to read. Be sure to coordinate with our translator volunteer coordinator before you start this so we can get you books that we are ready to have translated."

Sunday, March 07, 2010



It feels like Spring. Time to spruce up and replace those cold winter, bulletin boards. An inspiration for teaching with bulletin boards! Involve your students in your bulletin board creations.

Friday, March 05, 2010



Big 6- Teaching Kids Research Techniques.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Sites of the Day ..gleaned from my PLN

Youblisher
Prezi
Sumo Paint
meehive
Sylvan Technology Leadership Blog
Alternative to will tell youwhat application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations
Got Brainy
Visuwords
Support Details.
tin Eye

Tuesday, March 02, 2010



So you want each of your students to have their own blog! And you don't quite know where to go. I would recommend Kidblog after listening to Palm Breeze Cafe's Take on KidBlog. Kidblog's simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community.
Listen to Katie and Lee talking about Kidblog and Blogging at the Palm Breeze Cafe
Other references to blogging and Kidblog can be found here:
Mrs. Kolbert’s Class Blog
Tuesdays with Karen
Kidblog.org – simplest, bestest elementary blog site ever?
Great example of a 2nd grade class using Kidblog -
Nice Review of KidBlog

Noteworthy web sites..gleaned from tonight's imath tappedin.org session
World Math Day, March 3
Math Playground
Math Apprentice
CLIME CLIME is the Council for Technology in Mathematics Education - an affiliate of NCTM since 1988.
Primary School Lesson Plans from Australia
NEOK12 - Educational Videos, Lessons and Games for K to 12 Kids

Monday, March 01, 2010



A facilitator's guide to Book Clubs--



Winter Olympics wrap up survey for students and adults alike!!