Grade Level – Page 91 – iLearn Technology

Math TV

October 7, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3661 views

What it is: Math TV is a series of video word problems for math. Each math problem comes with a step by step video solution, follow up problems, an online calculator, and sketch pad. Word problems include topics such as fractions, percentages, ratios, probability, geometry, averages, and algebra. I would have been a completely different kind of math student if I had tools like this one in school. I could solve a math problem without any trouble but a word problem was a different story all together. I think for the majority of students, word problems are a source of anxiety and frustration. Math TV is an incredible solution, it is perfect for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. You can’t go wrong!

How to integrate Math TV into the classroom: Math TV is the perfect way to teach your students the method for solving both simple and complex word problems. Use the videos for whole class instruction with a projector (an interactive whiteboard would also be great for the problem solving portion but is not necessary). The videos are also perfect for individual student practice. Set up Math TV on a classroom computer to reinforce the math skills being practiced in class. Each student (or group of students) can take turns at the Math TV center to solve the problem. Come back together as a class after each student has had a chance to solve, and go through the problem together. I love the interactivity of this tool and the ability to reach multiple learning styles which can be difficult in a math class. As an alternative to the traditional math homework, assign a Math TV episode for your students to watch and solve.

Tips: The Math TV videos are a part of a larger math site called Math Playground. Because the site is so comprehensive, I’ll be breaking it down into a few separate posts. Stay tuned for other math videos, math games, word problems, and more!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Math TV in your classroom.

Piki Kids Comic Creator

October 6, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments6913 views

What it is: Piki Kids Comic Creator is an online comic creator for students. Students can upload pictures from their computers, or search Flickr for images to use in their comic strip. The comics are very flexible so students can make them uniquely their own. Students can choose the number of panels, the look of the panels, color choices, and much more. When students are finished creating their online Piki Kids comic, they can save them to a gallery, or print out.

How to integrate Piki Kids Comic Creator into the classroom: Students love reading comics, there is something about the interaction with a comic that makes even struggling readers willing to try. I find that the same is true with writing. Many kids who struggle to write would dread writing out a story or series of events after reading a book. But, introduce a comic and suddenly those kids who don’t like writing are writing full stories. Piki Kids Comic Creator is the perfect way to get your students writing about anything. Studying dinosaurs? Have the kids find some clip art of dinosaurs that they can upload to Piki Kids and have them write about what they are learning comic book style. Learning about the Civil War? Have the students retell the story as a comic strip. You will see creativity that you didn’t know your students possessed! Comic strips are also an excellent place for students to “write” a book report after finishing a book. Comics can be used in science to show processes (like plant cycle…give those plants a voice!) Comics can be used in math for students to create word problems for fellow classmates to solve. Use comics in character education, after teaching a lesson, students can illustrate, comic-style, what that might look like. From the technology side of things, Piki Kids Comic Creator is a great place to teach kids skills like uploading to a website, searching flickr for pictures, changing font, size, and color.

Tips: Piki Kids Comic Creator is an excellent tool. Be aware that there are adwords on the website. I use these as an opportunity to help my student spot advertisements and talk about why sites include ads on websites. Everything can be a learning experience!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Piki Kids Comic Creator in your classroom.

Crick Web Literacy Resources

October 3, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3110 views

What it is: Crick Web Literacy Resource is an excellent collection of interactive games for language development and practice in students. The resources are excellent for individual student play, literacy group student play, or whole classroom play with an interactive white board. Games include hangman, alphabetical order, collective nouns, compound words, sticky letters, matching pairs, street scene labels, seaside postcard, spelling checker, story sequencer, instruction sequencer, verb links, word dice, spelling word tester and word selector. Yes, it is a treasure trove of literacy activities!

How to integrate Crick Web Literacy Resources into the classroom: The Crick Web Resources can be easily integrated into your current literacy curriculum as an enrichment. The activities fit right along side lessons you are already teaching but make them interactive for students. I really like the Word Dice activity because students (or teacher) can add their own words to the dice to roll them. The dice would be great for teaching nouns and adjectives (or any part of speech) on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector. The dice are also outstanding for playing games unique to your classroom (maybe one that you created!) The Sticky letters lets students create their own word wall or can be used with a projector for a class word wall. I was also very impressed with the Spelling Rule Tester which helps students learn the rule for making singular nouns plural. Students can input their own singular nouns and type what they think the plural is and then click on the tester to see if they are correct. Take a look at the activities and see how they fit into your curriculum… my guess is that you will find at least one keeper in the group!

Tips: If the Crick Web Literacy Resources look too difficult for your students, click on the Key Stage 1 tab at the top of the site for additional resources for younger students.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Crick Web Literacy Resources in your classroom.

Fold a US Candidate

September 24, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2559 views

What it is: Fold a US Candidate is a fun site that has paper foldable puppets of the US candidates for the 2008 election. (I am very entertained by this right now!) Both presidential nominees are featured as well as their wives. There is also an election day count down on the site to let your students know how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds they have to wait before the big day. This is a fun site to get your students interested in the upcoming election.

How to integrate Fold a US Candidate into the classroom: Students of all ages are sure to get more involved and interested in the election after visiting this site and making their own president puppet. These would be fun to use as you are discussing the upcoming election in your classroom. While the site is chock full of facts about the candidates, the paper puppets would add to learning about the election and the different candidates. Split your students into groups and assign each a candidate to study. They can find out what the candidates believe about some key issues in the upcoming election. Then they can have a mock debate using the puppets and the research they have gained.

Tips: Print out and fold your US Candidate today! 🙂

Leave a comment and share how you are using Fold a US Candidate in your classroom.

Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

September 24, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3605 views

What it is: Free Federal Resource for Educational Excellence (that is a mouthful, hence forth shall be known as FREE) is a excellent resource for finding teaching and learning resources from federal agencies. Resources are broken down in to subjects arts and music, health and physical education, history and social studies, language arts, math, and science. Subjects are further broken down in to sub categories making it simple to find exactly what you are looking for quickly. There is also a great section called U.S. Time periods where you can search US history resources by time period. New sites are added to FREE regularly, you can get the new resources delivered to you by subscribing to the FREE RSS feed. The teaching and learning resources linked to from the FREE site are valuable to your classroom and will save you loads of time in searching for quality resources.

How to integrate Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence into the classroom: Use FREE to find quality online resource for any subject that you are teaching. Some of the linked websites are specifically for teachers and some are activities and sites for students. Use this as a first stop when you are creating new lessons or enhancing the good old standby lessons. The FREEresources will enhance your lessons with rich content for your students.

Tips: Sign up for the FREE RSS feed for new resources delivered to you several times a week.

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

Shidonni

September 23, 2008September 23, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment7868 views

What it is: Shidonni is a really intriguing new web application for kids. Shidonni is an imaginary world that kids create. It provides a virtual universe where kids can create their own imaginary world, play, and share games and interact with each other in a safe environment online. Kids can create their own animals or characters online and make them interactive. Their characters actually move and interact with the kids (no programming required!). They can create a world for their character, feed their character, and play games using their character. Watch the video on the Shidonni website for a good idea of how the program works.

How to integrate Shidonni into the classroom: Shidonni is an amazing way for kids to express themselves creatively. They will LOVE the interaction that this site provides. I am really in awe of this site and its capabilities. The site is simple enough for kindergarten students to use but will keep even 5th grade students intrigued. For classroom use the site is a great way to let younger students practice interaction with the computer and mouse manipulation. It is also a great introduction to drawing programs. Students can use Shidonni as a place to start digital storytelling. They can use the site to illustrate stories that they are creating in writing class. Shidonni can also be used to create “living” dioramas for the classroom. This is a great place for students to learn by trial and error. I like to introduce programs like this and then let students teach themselves how to use new technology through exploration.

Tips: Shidonni requires that you download a plugin for your Internet browser. Be sure to do this on all computers before you roll it out for the first time in class. 🙂

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

Smile Box

September 22, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4214 views

What it is: Smile Box is a free application that I love. The scrapbooker in me loves Smile Box for all of the digital scrapbooking qualities. The teacher in me loves all of the classroom applications that Smile Box could be used for. Smile Box is a free software that lets students combine photos, videos, and music into one amazing multimedia presentation. Smile Box used to only be available for PC’s but now have a Mac version that is outstanding. The Mac version integrates seamlessly with iPhoto and iTunes without any additional plugins! Students can choose from over 700 design templates to use as a base to combine media. The final Smile Box project can be embedded in a blog, sent via email, or printed.

How to integrate Smile Box into the classroom: Smile Box has many classroom applications. The software is a great place for students to do some digital storytelling combining pictures, podcasts, and video. Students could create a weekly paper about the happenings in your classroom, a memory book for each student for the end of the year, etc. Smile Box is also a great place for students to make Mothers/Fathers day cards, Christmas cards, Happy Thanksgiving greeting, etc. Students can also use Smile Box to create rich content reports. For example, instead of writing a paragraph about what they learned while studying about Russia, students could create a media rich postcard about Russia.

Tips: Smile Box is simple to use and very intuitive. Students will love creating with

Smile Box!

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

Google Election Tools for Teachers

September 19, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2722 views

What it is: Google has an excellent tool resource center for teachers and the newest addition is the Elections tools for Teachers section. Google is partnering with the National Student/Parent Mock Election to get students of all ages excited about the coming election in November. The tools and activities help teach students about the candidates, issues, and about the election process in general. Tools include an electoral college map, journey maps, YouTube You choose videos, Election video search, Power Readers, letter to the next president, and more.

How to integrate Google Election Tools for Teachers into the classroom: Google offers amazing tools to educators and the Election Tools for Teachers don’t disappoint! Each tool on Googles site offers ideas for integration in the classroom and lesson plans. This years election seems to be different in so many ways than elections of the past…our future presidents are using technology like YouTube, Facebook, and blogging to influence voters. The Google Election Tools are a great way to examine this phenomenon more closely while teaching about the election process and about the candidates and issues. Enroll your class in a Mock Election that will take place on October 30, 2008 and before your students cast their vote, use the Google tools to engage students in learning more about the candidates and issues.

Tips: If you don’t have access to the election videos because YouTube is blocked at school, use a file conversion program like www.zamzar.com to download the video from home.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Google Election Tools for Teachers in your classroom.

Flowgram

September 18, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4286 views

What it is: Flowgram is a website that makes it easier to teach your students online. Flowgram has a simple platform that makes is easy for anyone to package and share anything on the web. Flowgram can combine slideshows, documents, pictures, screencasts, websites, audio, video etc. with your voice narration. This makes it simple to teach any concept using the web. Flowgram requires no download, it runs directly from your Internet browser. Recipients of the Flowgram can fully interact with anything that is on the Flowgram (webpage links, video, etc.). Flowgrams can be sent via email, linked to, or embedded in a blog or website for viewing.

How to integrate Flowgram into the classroom: Flowgram is a wonderful way to create interactive tutorials for students learning any technology concept. Beyond that, Flowgram makes it easy for you to take your students on virtual field trips on any subject. What I love about Flowgram, is that it meets individual student needs. Students can work at their own pace and interact with any part of the Flowgram as many times as they need. It would also be a great place to create reviews for tests, and perfect for students who have missed school. Teach your students to make Flowgrams and start your own library of student created tutorials on any subject. Students teaching students is powerful! Because you can narrate Flowgrams, they are wonderful to use with students who struggle with reading and navigating the Internet on their own…it is like having you sit right next to them, leading with your undivided attention.

Tips: I have started creating a weekly Flowgram for teachers at my school called Tenkely’s Tips. I will be creating a new page with a collection of the weekly Flowgrams. Feel free to check them out!

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

The Common Craft Show

September 17, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3833 views

What it is: I love the Common Craft Show. If you aren’t familiar with it, it takes complex ideas and breaks them down into something that is simple and manageable in video format. The videos are short and sweet but you always finish with a more clear understanding of whatever it is that is being presented. Videos on the Common Craft Show range from “Electing a President in Plain English” to “Wikis in Plain English”. Most of the videos are related to technology that could be used in the classroom such as twitter, social networking, blogging, wikis, and RSS feeds. The videos all have a common, fun to watch format. As I said, I LOVE the Common Craft Show!

How to integrate The Common Craft Show into the classroom: The Common Craft Show is a great way to introduce a complex technology tool like a wiki or blog to students. The videos quickly break everything down into easily managed parts so that students (teachers too) can understand what the tool is and how it works. The new “Electing a President in Plain English” video is extremely timely and will help your students understand how a president gets elected. Use the Common Craft Show as an example for students to create their own explanation videos. Students can work in groups to explain a concept like “Multiplication in Plain English” that the rest of the class can watch.

Tips: These videos aren’t just for students. Just heard about a technology tool you don’t quite understand? Head over to The Common Craft Show and see if they have simplified it for you! 🙂

Leave a comment and share how you are using The Common Craft Show in your classroom.