Category: Geography

Ed.VoiceThread

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Ed.VoiceThread4666 views


What it is: I have posted about Voice Thread in the past, but Voice Thread has added a new education community that has some pretty incredible features. Ed.VoiceThread is a secure collaborative network designed specifically for the k-12 school environment. Teachers and students can collaborate around almost any type of media including voice, text, webcam, and drawing commentary in a secure environment. Access is restricted to k-12 educators, students, and administrators to ensure safe classroom collaboration. Ed.VoiceThread is an accountable environment, which means that all users are responsible for their content and behavior. Some added features that you will find on Ed.VoiceThread are, students have individual accounts that are easily viewable to educators, students can create, edit, and manage their own portfolio, students cannot add contacts or send invitations to any users outside of the Ed.Voice Thread community, and they cannot view any content that is not created by an Ed.Voice Thread member. Teachers can quickly view and access all students’ Voice Threads. Voice Threads can be made private or public depending on the assignment and requirements. Ed.VoiceThread comes in two packages one free and the other, called Pro, for $60/year. Free users can only create 3 VoiceThreads, have 75 MB of storage, no uploading of MP3 comments, 30 min of webcam commenting, advertising will be present, single file size limit of 25 MB, and no downloads of the media. In the Pro version, students can create an unlimited number of Voice Threads, get 10GB of storage, can upload MP3 comments, have unlimited webcam commenting, 30 archival movie exports, no advertising, single file size limit of 100MB and allows downloads of media.

How to integrate Ed.VoiceThread into the classroom: Ed.VoiceThread is the ideal place for students and teachers to collaborate and interact with digital media. The added functionality for schools with Ed.VoiceThread is very useful. Students can use Ed.VoiceThread to create digital stories, documentaries, practice and document language skills, explore geography and culture, solve math problems, and much more. As a teacher, I like VoiceThread as a place to teach. Because everything is web-based, you can upload a days lessons to Ed.VoiceThread for students to refer to and collaborate with while doing homework. I well remember the days when I would sit in math class learning the days equations. Everything made perfect sense to me while I was sitting in the classroom watching problems being worked. But at home, with no guide homework seemed impossible. Ed.VoiceThread makes you your students personal tutor. The self paced learning is amazing! I love giving students tools that allow them to be in charge of their own learning. Is there any better lesson in life than knowing how to learn?

Tips: Try out the free Ed.VoiceThread account and see how it could work for your classroom. If you are like me, it becomes addicting and 3 VoiceThreads won’t be enough!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Ed.VoiceThread in your classroom.

Mapness

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Mapness1436 views

What it is: Mapness is a site, still in beta, that students can use to make interactive, virtual travel journals.  First students add points of interest to a map, then they can add descriptions, photos, and videos right on top of the map.  As virtual travelers visit the map, they are led on a virtual tour depicted on the map.  This is really neat!  

How to integrate Mapness into the classroom: Mapness is perfect for integrating into the geography classroom.  As students study different parts of the world, they can create their own virtual tour of that place by collecting photos and videos during their online research and embedding them into maps.  Split students into several groups, each group can be assigned a different place to create a tour for.  When the tours are finished, hold a vacation day where students can visit each other’s assigned places.  This would be an ideal day to reserve the computer lab!  Students can also create literary tours.  As they read a book or learn about an author or genre, they can pinpoint places on the map and add descriptions and pictures.  This would also be a wonderful opportunity to map out historical events.  Bring events to life for your students and weave in some map reading skills while you are at it!  Mapness sure beats the maps I completed as a kid, labeling places on a 8 1/2 x 11 photo copy that always looked sloppy after trying to fit in all of the requirements.

Tips: After students create an account, they can add several map tours to their account making it a nice place to save up work throughout the year.  Mapness does require a working email address to activate the account.  If your students don’t have an email address they can create a temporary email address at a site like Mailinator.  (As a side note, if you regularly give out your email address on websites a Mailinator account would save you from a lifetime of spam.)  

Check out my Mapness map of my recent vacation to California.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Mapness in your classroom.

Updated Websites

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Updated Websites2888 views

Over the past week I have been re-vamping my websites.  Tenkely.org is a site that I created for my students to use.  I have pages for first through fifth grade with links to all of the sites that we use in class throughout the year.  I also have a page for parents about how my classroom runs and tips for keeping kids safe online.   The teacher site for tenkely.org  has also been completely re-done.  I added TONS of new goodies for teachers.  Obviously, I created these sites with my students and colleagues in mind but I hope that they are a source of inspiration for you too!  I am already keeping tally of links that aren’t working right so if you run across any, leave a comment so I can get them fixed up.

Websites with a Cause

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Websites with a Cause4326 views


What it is: I have posted before about a website called Free Rice.  This vocabulary game has the added benefit of donating rice to help end world hunger.  For each correct answer, Free Rice donates 20 grains of rice on your behalf.  This isn’t the only website with a cause.  Aid to Children is a vocabulary game like Free Rice, for every correct answer $.25 are donated to children in need through World Vision.  Free Poverty is a world geography game.  See how many cups of water you can donate by testing your knowledge about the world.  Each correct answer means that 10 cups of clean water have been donated on your behalf.  Free Corn is another vocabulary game like Free Rice, for every 25 visits to the website, 1 kernel of corn is donated.  Free Kibble is a trivia game.  Every day your students play Bow Wow Trivia 20 pieces of kibble are donated to Animal shelters to help feed their hungry dogs.  Free Kibble Kat also donates 20 pieces of kibble per player each day…this time students are raising kibble for cats.  

How to integrate Websites with a cause into the classroom: Each of the above websites offers a wonderful opportunity to teach students to look outside their own needs to the needs of others.  Use these websites to teach your students compassion, about other cultures, and about helping those less fortunate.  The websites will also be a great way for your students to practice vocabulary or geography.  Encourage your students to play these games from home when they are “bored” or just for fun.  See how much rice, money, corn, water, or kibble you can raise as a class.  Use these figures to teach graphing and charting.  You can also use the sites to teach persuasive writing.  Students can create a “commercial” for the site, a poster advertising the site, etc.  (I found a commercial that I made as an example for my students on Free Corn…small world!)  Using these websites with my class taught me just how compassionate and concerned my students are.  It was wonderful to see my students come together around a common goal. Using these websites with a cause in your classroom is a real life character education lesson!

Tips: Bookmark these sites on classroom computers, kids who finish their work early can sit and play one of the games while they wait for the next activity.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Websites with a cause in your classroom.

Knowtes

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Knowtes5713 views


What it is: Knowtes is a flashcard based learning community (still in beta) that allows kids to build flashcard decks and study online. When students add a card to a Knowtes deck, it becomes due at optimized interval. The Knowtes Adaptive Learning Engine adjusts how frequently cards should be studied based on how well students know them. They can even watch their cards move from short to long term memory as they study. Knowtes decks can be shared between teachers, students, etc. Each student gets their own study room where they can organize their decks and study their cards. The study rooms have great tips on studying and tutorials on using Knowtes. Cards can be made plain, rich, or with images right now but will have audio and video capabilities coming. This is such a cool idea! Studying has never been this much fun 🙂

How to integrate Knowtes into the classroom: Knowtes is a great tool to introduce your students to. Even if you don’t have time to use it on a regular basis in the classroom, spending some time teaching your students to use the program would be worth while. Students can create Knowtes flashcards to study any subject. For younger students, you can create decks for your students to study from. Students can also create decks to share with you or other classmates. If you have an interactive whiteboard (or even just a projector) students can study cards as a whole class. You could easily use Knowtes for a whole class study session/game. Be sure to let parents know about Knowtes too, many times studying is a struggle for families and this can make life easier for everyone.

Tips: Since Knowtes is still in its beta version, click on the signup button and send a request to be a beta tester. The Knowtes team is willing to take suggestions on improving Knowtes so you should send a suggestion for any feature you would like to see available. Happy studying!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Knowtes in your classroom.

Computer Lab Favorites

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Computer Lab Favorites2813 views

What it is: Computer Lab Favorites is a collection of 50 one stop learning activities created
by Scholastic. The activities are self contained and interactive.
Students can play Dude the Dog, Scientific Labeling, Human Body Math
Hunt, Around the World, Mapman challenge, Puzzled States, Classify
This, Moon Olympics, Pick the Perfect Word, Choose a Word, and many
more. Students can spin a virtual game wheel to play a game. The site
is broken down by subject and also by grade levels k-2 and 3-5.

How to integrate Computer Lab Favorites into the classroom:
As the school year winds down, allow your students to review all they
have learned over the course of the year by playing these great
interactive activities. Students can spin the game spinner and have a
game selected for them or choose a specific subject or topic of play.
Save this site for next year, it is the perfect way to introduce a
topic or put some life back into reviews! The games are content rich
and a lot of fun to play!

Tips: This would be a good site to set as the home page on your classroom
computers. It has enough games and content to keep you coming back all
year long!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Computer Lab Favorites in your classroom.

iCue

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on iCue2202 views


What it is: iCue is NBC’s newest venture into the realm of education. The sites aim is to create a collaborative 2.0 learning community that “incorporates gaming, discussion, and video resources in a safe, student-friendly online environment.” This is an excellent resource for getting your students interested in the world they live in through relevant news, videos, and a place to discuss them. The iCue video player is very robust and has the ability to take notes, leave comments, and create links for the video. The “Cue cards” can be saved in a student area for future reference. This site is a truly inventive way to teach with current events!

How to integrate iCue into the classroom: iCue is a great way to keep your students interested and engaged with current events. The site will be excellent to use on a daily basis during this election year. Students can watch videos, start discussions and debates based on current events. This site has great potential for really making students use critical thinking and higher order thinking skills. The related games are entertaining and will help reinforce what students are learning.

Tips: This site will eat up bandwidth. Make sure that your network can handle it before assigning the whole class to be on iCue at once! Learn more about what NBC is offering for the classroom at www.hotchalk.com.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using iCue in your classroom.

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Novel Games-Flash

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Novel Games-Flash3967 views

What it is: Novel Games provides free Flash games that can be embedded on any website. There is a long list of games that you can embed from World capitals game, typing games, to Sudoku and other great math games. Search the list of games, you are sure to find many that fit your needs. Because you can embed the games on your website, students can easily access the games from school and home.

How to integrate Novel Games into your curriculum: There is such a variety of high quality, FUN, educational games that integrating them into your curriculum will be varied as well. An example of how I am using the Novel Games in my classroom can be found at www.typing.weebly.com. My students are learning how to keyboard. Because I don’t want to spend my year teaching only keyboarding I offered my students a challenge. Practice typing at home and come participate in a Typing Olympics (where only touch typing is allowed) and you won’t have to spend your computer time learning to touch type. I am at a private school so the best prize that can be offered is a break dress code day. The fastest touch typer’s in each class will get to break dress code on a day when no one else does. Students can practice typing using these practice games I have provided. The games are perfect as part of the Typing Olympics because they give a final score…easy to tell who the winners are! Most of the games are perfect for practicing a skill and will inevitability get kids doing homework voluntarily because they are so much fun to play.

Tips: Don’t have your own website to embed the flash games? Create a free one today using a site like www.weebly.com. To embed a player simply highlight and copy the code from Novel games and paste in an HTML editor in a site like Weebly. Make sure that your students have the latest Flash player installed or the games won’t work properly.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Novel Games in your classroom.

Picturing America

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Picturing America3699 views

What it is: Picturing America takes hold of the notion that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ and applies it to teaching American history. The National Endowment for the Humanities is providing American art masterpieces into classrooms and libraries. The idea behind Picturing America is that bringing our nation’s artistic heritage into the classroom gives students unique insights into the character, ideals, and aspirations of our country. The Picturing America program is completely free for schools and libraries and provides them with 40 high-quality masterpieces, a teacher resources book, and the program website.

How to integrate Picturing America into your curriculum: What better way to teach your students American history than actually bringing history into the classroom and providing students with real ties to the past? I wish that I had the opportunity to learn history this way! Picturing America is going to bring authentic conversation into your classroom about American history. It would be the perfect use of web 2.0 collaborative tools where students can discuss the history and the art in Picturing America. Picturing America masterpieces would also be easily integrated into the art classroom or in literacy as writing inspiration. The teacher resource book is going to provide you with wonderful tie ins to your current curriculum. This is an amazing program, I encourage you to take part in it!

Tips: Apply for the Picturing America program today.

A big thank you to my friend Jill who shared this site with me!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Picturing America in your classroom.