Category: Resource type

My Mobile Witness

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on My Mobile Witness2368 views

 

I am on Fall Break this week (hallelujiah!) so I am thinking of things non-school related and found a must view for all of you gals out there- guys check it out for the loved ones in your life.  My Mobile Witness is a completely FREE program that turns your cell phone into a personal safety device.  Basically, any time you feel uncomfortable about a situation (weird guy following you at Target, blind date, first time meeting an eHarmony match, etc.) you take a picture and text it to your My Mobile Witness account.  My Mobile Witness stores the picture with a time stamp in the digital vault.  Should anything happen, My Mobile Witness works with law enforcement…now you always have a witness!   So, you can use My Mobile Witness when you meet a blind date for the first time, enjoying yourself on spring break, your car breaks down and someone stops to help, a new repair man comes into your home, a friend leaves a party with someone she just met, you worry about an obsessive ex, a guy eyes your shopping bags on the subway, you spot a suspicious van in the parking lot, you go for a jog in the park after dark, a driver gets hostile with you on the road, you go on a trip away from home, or you go hiking in the back country.  This is truly an incredible service, check it out, sign up, and then send it to everyone you love.

Glogster EDU!

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Glogster EDU!4628 views

 

What it is:  I wrote a post last week about a site called Glogster, since that post Glogster has introduced Glogster EDU!  Glogster for Education is a site that lets students combine graphics, photos, videos, music, and text into a great web 2.0 online poster.  Glogs are an outstanding way to enhance learning, wikis, and blogs.  Glogster EDU offers support and help with creating school accounts and keeping Glogs private.  

 

How to integrate Glogster EDU into the classroom:    As I mentioned last week, Glogster is a creative way for your students to display knowledge.  Students can create Glogs for absolutely any subject.  Glogster is wonderful for book reports, history, math concepts, science, and literature.  The ability to embed Glogs into wikis and blogs is outstanding and makes Glogs even more versatile.

 

Tips: Send Glogster EDU feedback about features you would like to see specifically for education…they have committed to updates based on your feedback!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Glogster EDU in your classroom.

Toy Maker

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Toy Maker3215 views

 

What it is: Toy Maker is a website full of free paper toy downloads.  While it isn’t directly using technology in the classroom, this is a great site to visit for the free downloads.  Toy Maker has everything from paper animals (origami type), to awesome math and learning toys, to toys that move, and gift boxes.  This site offers really amazing downloads and teaches students how to follow step by step instructions to create their toy. 

 

How to integrate Toy Maker into the classroom:   The math and learning toys on the Toy Maker site are perfect for integrating into your existing curriculum.  Living in Colorado means a lot of indoor recess days in the winter months, these toys offer excellent activities for those indoor days!  The gift boxes are perfect for holiday gifts home (Christmas, Mother’s day, Father’s day, etc.) or for exchanging with learning buddies.   Younger students will enjoy creating one of the animals and writing a story to accompany it.

 

Tips: Share this site with parents, they will love these printables for rainy days at home!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Toy Maker  in your classroom.

Primary Access

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What it is:   Primary Access is a tool I learned about today while attending one of the K12 Online conference sessions.  This incredible site has a web-based tool that offers students and teachers simple access to digital images and materials that provides them the opportunity to create personal narratives.  The idea behind the site is that if students are offered primary source documents, they develop better historical thinking skills.  I highly recommend you watch the presentation on k12 Online, to see just how accurate this belief was in a case study of the site.  Students use Primary Access to create digital movies (historical narratives) that help add to meaningful learning experiences.  The site is very simple to use, intuitive enough that even a student (or teacher) who has never created a digital movie would be successful.  

 

How to integrate Primary Access into the classroom:   Use Primary Access as a tool to bring history to life for your students.  Using the site, students can create a short digital movie that explores some event in history.  The digital movie will only be 1-3 minutes in length and can contain images, text, movies, and narration recorded in the students own voice.  Students have a place to write, research, narrate, view, and search a time line and idea map right in Primary Access.  The finished product is educational and entertaining for the creator and viewers.  The results with this site are truly amazing!  It really does bring history to life.

 

Tips: It isn’t obvious how to create a teacher account on Primary Access, to create an account go to http://primaryaccess.org/teacher.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Primary Access  in your classroom.

Math Arcade

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Math Arcade2642 views

 

What it is:  Math Arcade is a branch of the Fun Brain Website.  Students in first through eighth grades can practice math facts and math skills through fun, interactive games.  When students go to Math Arcade, they will see a board game board.  They have to successfully complete each game before they can move their game piece to another spot on the game board.  Each spot on the game board represents an appropriate age level game.  Students can write down a special password to save and return to their saved game at another time.  There are 25 games at each grade level to play.  

 

How to integrate Math Arcade into the classroom:   Math Arcade is a great website to help students practice math facts and skills.  There is enough variety on the site to keep kids interested.  The game board atmosphere gives students a goal to complete, they have to successfully play all 25 games to reach the end.  This site would be a great one to use as a math center, or in a computer lab setting as a math treat once a week.  Students can progress through the site based on their math ability.  

 

Tips: Bookmark this page on your classroom computers for students to access throughout the school day or during free time.

 

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

Apple Field Trips

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Apple Field Trips2283 views

 

What it is:  The Apple Store is offering field trips to k-12 students and schools!  Students can create something amazing on their field trip to the Apple store, or bring in a finished project that they have created and turn the store into a theater to share their work.  Parents, teachers, and friends can attend the event to celebrate student achievement.  Each event can accommodate up to 25 students.  A field trip lasts one hour but more time can be scheduled on an individual basis.  Right now, schools can request up to 3 date options for a field trip at a time.  When you schedule a field trip, Apple takes care of invitations to send home with students, and assigns a contact person to plan the field trip for your school.  Additionally, the teacher who sets up the event receives one year of complementary One to One membership.  Every participating student receives a special Apple t-shirt.  

 

How to integrate an Apple Field Trip into the classroom:   If you have access to Apple computers at your school the create and share field trip option is for you.  Students can work on a project (multimedia is probably best) and use the Apple Field Trip as a place to showcase and share their accomplishments.  If you don’t have access to an Apple lab or don’t have regular access to computers at all, use the field trip as a time for your students to learn and create using the computer.  This is a really amazing FREE opportunity, be sure to take advantage of this offer from Apple!

 

Tips: Right now field trips are only being offered through November 21st. Even if you can’t fit in a field trip before the deadline, be sure to let Apple know what a fabulous idea these field trips are and encourage them to offer future field trip options.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how your Apple Field Trip went.

K12 Online Conference 2008

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The K12 Online Conference 2008 officially kicks off today!  This is a great FREE online conference to attend.   Not only is it convenient for your schedule (you can attend sessions at your convenience online), but you will learn and be inspired by the speakers and presenters.  I highly recommend attending as much of this conference as you can!  You can get involved in the conference in several different ways, as a viewer of each strand, with the blog, wiki, interactive fireside chats, Twitter, Google maps, and an Elluminate event called When Night Falls.  Topics include the ReadWriteWeb Revolution, Free tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy, Assessment, Google, Delicious, Primary Access, History, Tech Integration, Reading Revolution, Video Conferencing,  Blogging, Photostory, Games in Education, Emerging Technologies, Wikis, Video Podcasters, and much more.  The conference runs from today, October 20, to Next Saturday, November 1.   Even if you can’t fit it all in during the next two weeks, you can come back later and visit the sessions that are of most interest to you.  There is professional development and credit options available for attending this conference so be sure to look into that as well.

What sessions are of most interest to you?  What have you learned as a result of the K12 Online Conference?

“See” you there! 🙂

Grammar Games

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Grammar Games2637 views

 

What it is:  The British Council has created an A-Z website of 69 Grammar
Games to help students learn and practice English grammar rules.  I wouldn’t characterize many of the activities “games” but instead interactive practice.  The Grammar Game website provides students with a quality explanation of each grammar rule and then gives them an activity where they can practice applying those rules.  I think you will be hard pressed to find a grammar rule that was left off this site.  As I was browsing through the Grammar Games site, I found many rules that I don’t recall being taught but knowing them would have been (is) helpful!

 

How to integrate Grammar Games into the classroom:   Use the Grammar Game website as a place for your students to practice grammar rules they are learning in the classroom.  You could also assign each student in your class a different grammar rule.  Students can use Grammar Games to learn about the rule, practice the rule, and then teach the rule to other students.  This is a great place for students to explore and interact with.  Use a projector to introduce a new grammar rule to your students each day or at the beginning of each week.  Students can practice the grammar rule with the activity that accompanies that rule on the classroom computers throughout the week.  

 

Tips: Bookmark this page on your classroom and library computers so students can use it as reference during writing.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Grammar Games  in your classroom.

Glogster

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Glogster4459 views

What it is:   Glogster is a great creativity site who’s tag line is “poster yourself”.  A ‘glog’ is basically an online poster web page.  Students can combine text, pictures, graphics, video, and audio to create an interactive online poster.  Glogster has a very simple to use interface.  The final glog can be hosted by Glogster or you can embed it into a wiki, blog, or class web site.  

 

How to integrate Glogster into the classroom:  Glogster is an awesome way for your students to display knowledge.  Instead of creating a poster for a presentation, students can create an interactive glog to display information.  Glogster can be used for history, math, language arts, book reports, science, social studies, and for public service announcements.  In fact, I am having a hard time coming up with a subject that couldn’t use Glogster in some capacity.  Students can create these online posters to display any knowledge or learning.  You really have to see this site, the creativity that it allows for will get your wheels spinning.  Once you start using Glogster with your students, you are going to think of all kinds of new applications.  Because Glogster has the ability to handle audio, students can create podcasts (using Audacity, Garageband, G-Cast or Gabcast) and upload the content into their glog.  So cool!  I really love that students can share their school work and accomplishments online with classmates, family, and friends.  Give your students an authentic audience and their work will dazzle you!

 

Tips: You can check out a quick sample glog that I created here about Internet Safety.

 

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

Zotero

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Zotero2932 views

 

What it is:   Gosh, some days I really wish for a time machine where I could go back to school armed with the tools that students have access to now.  I totally would have ruled the school!  Zotero is one of the tools I would bring back with me.  Zotero is a Firefox (Internet web browser) extension that helps students collect, cite, and manage their Internet research right from the web browser itself.  No hopping back and forth between websites.  Zotero automatically captures all citing information from the website, stores pdfs, images, and whole webpages, has flexible note taking options, has an easy to search library, saves and records in multiple languages, has integration with Microsoft Word and Open Office, and best of all…free!  Man our students are lucky!

 

How to integrate Zotero into the classroom:  Download the Zotero extension for every computer in your school (at the very least make sure this is on the library and classroom computers.)  Teach your students how to use Zotero as they are researching and teach them how to download Zotero to their home computers.  Don’t bend on your citation requirements…they have no more excuses! 🙂

 

Tips: If you don’t currently use Firefox as a web browser, I highly recommend its download.  I have been more than happy with Firefox, it meets all of my needs and requirements for a good browser and once again…free!

 

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