Understand (describe, explain) – Page 11

Do Lectures: Ideas + Energy = Change

July 5, 2012Kelly Tenkely2 Comments9870 views

What it is: Summer is a great time to be inspired, laugh and gather ideas. TED has been my go-to place for video inspiration, but recently I found a new source: Do Lectures. Do Lectures are like TED Talk videos, they are inspiring talks from people who are changing the world. The talks are broken down into talks about Big Ideas, Challenging talks, Funny talks, Informative talks, Inspiring talks, and Soulful talks. You can also search by topic (business, creativity, environment, food, sport, technology, or well being) or by speaker.

Do Lectures started out of West Wales and is moving to the good old USA in 2012. They call themselves a mash-up, a village of ideas. They take great talks, yummy local food, great un-signed bands, workshops and bring them together in one place. They switch the Internet off so that people talk (in real life) because ideas need conversation. The idea is to create an eco-system for ideas to be born, shared and acted on. The next event is happening in California September 20-13.

How to integrate Do Lectures into the classroom: Do Lectures don’t focus on education specifically. I kind of love that they don’t. I find that my BEST ideas for the classroom and education come from outside of education. Often, we become an echo chamber within education. Hearing ideas from any field sparks ideas and creative approaches to teaching/learning for me. Do Lectures are a great place to find inspiration and new ideas for your classroom.

Do Lectures can also be the perfect supplement or launching point for units of study in your classroom. You may find a video that supports the learning happening in your classroom.

Tips: Be sure to share those great videos you stumble on with the rest of us!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Do Lectures in your classroom!

Qwiki Creator: Create the textbook of the future with a few clicks

June 28, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3726 views

Play the Qwiki: Anastasis Academy

What it is: I first wrote about Qwiki in 2010 when they launched their search service. I just got word that you (and your students) can now create your very own Qwiki. When students search using Qwiki, instead of coming up with a list of links to websites, images, and videos, a slide show of images and videos begins complete with computer voice narration. It is truly an incredible experience.

With Qwiki Creator, it is easy to create your own Qwiki to share. Creating a Qwiki is really easy and intuitive. First, you find the content and media you want to add to your Qwiki. This could be web content, video, images, maps, content from your computer, text or even a tweet. Next you add narration and set your timing. Finally you can preview your Qwiki and publish it. I created the Qwiki above in about 5 min.

If you are looking for the original Qwiki, you can get to it at http://qwiki.com/reference.

How to integrate Qwiki Creator into the classroom: Qwiki Creator is a fantastic way for students to create impressive presentations about their learning. Students can quickly create mashups of web content and record or type narration to demonstrate understanding of material. Qwiki Creator is also a great tool for teachers, create customized content for your students. This is textbook 2.0 for sure! It can be tailored to the exact needs of your curriculum and can become an additional way for your to “flip” your classroom.

I love the idea of students creating their own digital textbooks as they learn about a subject. Throughout their learning and research, students can keep a table of contents of items they want to be sure to include in their Qwiki. Students can create a Qwiki about the information they have learned, add text/voice/video narration to help describe the learning and publish it for classmates to learn from. The Qwiki can be shared easily or embeded on a student blog or website.

Create your own series of Qwiki’s for your classroom blog or website where students can further their learning. They can access any of the websites or resources you include in your Qwiki for a majorly upgraded version of a webquest.

Qwiki Creator could be used for digital storytelling. Students can find images, videos and maps that help them tell their story and narrate the creative story for others to enjoy.

In a foreign language class, students can give a web tour where they narrate in the language they are learning. This would also be neat to do in a geography or history class.

If you teach students who are younger than 13, consider creating Qwiki’s as a class using an interactive whiteboard and teacher account. Students can help put the Qwiki together and the finalized Qwiki can be put on a class blog or website for students to learn from any time.

Tips: Students must be 13 years old or older to use Qwiki Creator according to the Terms of Service.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Qwiki Creator in your classroom!

Buzz Math: Middle school math practice for proficiency

June 18, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment12579 views

What it is: Buzz Math is not a completely free to use tool, but they do have a free option that makes it worth checking out! Right now, you can subscribe one class for free for the school edition of Buzz Math. Buzz Math is intended for students in Middle School math. All of the activities are directly tied to Common Core Standards. You can assign activities based on a specific standard for the whole class, or just assign the activity to individual students. You get feedback immediately as students complete an activity so that you can plan instruction accordingly. These are not your typical math site activities (online multiple choice). Instead, each activity is a little different, highly engaging, and provides students with great feedback.

Students can choose to do an activity of interest or complete the specific activities assigned by their teacher. When students complete a set number of activities within a topic, a special mission is unlocked that is related to math history. Students are challenged to help mathematicians to recover “lost” knowledge. Students also have access to Buzzlab which connects the theme of the missions to the storyline.

Each activity is made up of 10 pages of practice question that cover a specific concept to help students practice and improve their skills. Activities include both direct practice and interactive components. Students must complete an activity with 100% accuracy (mastery) before they can unlock a mission. The mission that follows is a more challenging problem solving activity. Students can get example problems with each activity to help them solve problems.

I am really impressed with Buzz Math. The entire program is really well thought out, great for students and teachers. This is one I would pay for additional students/classes.

How to integrate Buzz Math into the classroom: Buzz Math is ideal in a one to one or computer lab setting. I love that you can tailor Buzz Math for an individual student. Instead of just giving a whole class an activity/assignment (which you can also do), Buzz Math lets you choose which students to assign a standards based activity to. Duh! I can’t believe more programs aren’t set up this way. It makes sense to use technology to customize learning to the student this way. There is no reason not to!

Buzz Math would be great for in-class practice or for additional home practice. Students can login to their individual account anywhere for anytime learning.

Buzz Math could be used in the one or two computer classroom as a learning center. Students can filter through the computer one at a time throughout the week so that each week each student gets the opportunity to login to their account.

Tips: The teacher portal has a great breakdown of student progress including student session lengths, you can see exactly how long students practiced. Detailed reports can be printed out for parents.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Buzz Math in your classroom!

iCivics- teaching students civics through games

June 11, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2662 views

What it is: iCivics is a great way for students to learn about civics in the United States. The site features 16 educational video games that help students understand our government. In addition to the great games, iCivics has great standards-aligned civics curriculum available for free to teachers! Games include topics like: Citizenship and Participation, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, Budgeting, Foreign Policy and National Defense, Separation of Powers, the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. The games are fantastic, and put students right in the middle of the action and story.

Activate- Students campaign for an issue of their choice.
Cast Your Vote- Students choose the questions in a debate, rate the candidates responses, and cast a vote.
Immigration Nation- Students help newcomers along their path to citizenship.
Responsibility Launcher- Students help others with civic common sense.
Argument Wars- Students argue a real Supreme Court case using persuasive abilities.
Do I Have a Right- Student run their own law firm that specializes in constitutional law.
Counties Work- Students make decisions about community programs and services.
People’s Pie- Student control the budget of the federal government.
Crisis of Nations- Student work to solve international problems.
Branches of Power- Students control all three branches of government.
Executive Command- Student get to be president.
Win the White House- Students get to manage their own presidential campaign including raising funds and polling voters.
Supreme Decision- Students help cast the deciding vote.
Court Quest- Student help others navigate the US court system.

Students can join iCivics for free. When they do, they can take part in the Impact Competition where they play games, earn points, spend points on a iCivics real life project of their choice.

As a teacher, you can sign up for an iCivics account where you can add classes and students.

How to integrate iCivics into the classroom: iCivics is a great way to help students better understand the US government. The games are engaging, relatively quick to play (one class period), and teach everything that students need to know to play the game. Students with little or no understanding of the topic will be introduced to everything they need to know within the game.

The games are a great way to learn about civics because they put students right in the middle of the action, the games remind me a little of the SIMS games that I played as a kid. Students will enjoy being the decision maker in the game-this isn’t a power point presentation disguised as a game (you know you have seen those!).

iCivics is best played on individual computers in a one-to-one or lab setting. If you don’t have access to a lab where your students can play, students could play as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. Make sure that every students gets a chance to participate and weigh in on decisions that are made.

Tips: The lesson plans in the teacher section are truly well done. These are worth using in your classroom! Games are now available in the app store as well!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using iCivics in your classroom!

Google World Wonders Project

June 4, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3323 views

What it is: Google has a way-cool new project called the World Wonders Project. Thanks to Google, you can now wander the Earth with your students virtually to discover some of the most famous sites on earth. The site makes a great addition to the history and geography classroom and opens your classroom to the wider world. Not only are wonders of the modern world available, students can also explore wonders of the ancient world. Using the street-view technology from Google maps, Google has made wonders of the world available to all of us at any time. Themes include archaeological sites, architecture, cities and towns, historic sites, monuments and memorials, palaces and castles, parks and gardens, places of worship, regions and landscapes, and wonders of nature. When you explore a site, you get Google’s street view of the site, information about the site, YouTube videos related to the site and Getty images of the site. The result is a truly rich experience that will make your students feel like they have jet-setted around the world.

How to integrate Google World Wonders Project into the classroom: Google World Wonders Project is a fantastic way to help make your students more globally aware. The World Wonders Project lets students really explore and discover the world from the comfort of their classroom. Aside from actually getting to visit these places in person with your students, this is the next best thing! Understanding the world and features of the world that we live in is the first step in becoming more globally minded. Seeing different architecture and landmarks from around the world helps students to better understand the cultures and people who call those places home.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Google World Wonders Project is worth a hundred times more. Students can envision geography and history because they have a picture (that they can interact with), video, a story and a slideshow of Getty images. History comes to life when students can “put themselves” in the shoes of those who lived it. Geography is so much more tangible when it isn’t just a label on a map.

Building up global citizens is crucial. Below are three steps that can’t be skipped if students are truly to be globally minded:

Step 1: Encourage students to be global minded

Educational globe trotting is impossible without this important step. Students have to understand the overlaps in humanity. They have to be willing and open to learn not only about their own cultures, but also the perspectives, values, traditions and cultures of others.
Being global minded means that students know how to show empathy and compassion for others. It means that they know how to respect others ideas. Building global mindedness can feel like a chicken and egg scenario. Connecting your students with others globally is a great way to build global mindedness.Global mindedness truly begins in your classroom. Build a culture of caring, compassion, empathy and respect and it is easier to transfer to the wider world. Reflect often with students about feelings and attitudes. When students recognized the shared humanity in their own classroom, it is easier to understand that shared humanity in light of a larger world.

Step 2: Encourage students to be inquirers

Students who are inquirers are curious, they are willing and open to discover new learning. Kids are naturally curious, unfortunately in school we tend to “undo” this natural curiosity. We allow students only one line of inquiry (the one they have been given). We keep kids from asking additional questions (we don’t have time for that). We teach kids that there is one right answer (the one the teacher has). Without an inquisitive nature, being global minded becomes just another assignment to do. Deep connections with others aren’t made.

Step 3: Teach students to communicate effectively

It baffles me that this isn’t a larger focus in our schools. Communication makes everything else we do in life possible. Students have to learn how to represent their ideas and learning clearly with confidence. They must learn how to work with others, pausing long enough to hear the ideas of others.
There are two extremes that I often see in communication: 1. The student doesn’t believe that their ideas are worthy of words. They are shy or afraid of how they will be received. 2. The student finally gets the floor and doesn’t want to give it up. They want to talk and will go around and around with their ideas without letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. There is a balance here.

Google World Wonders is one way to help students understand other cultures, ideas and times. It can be explored by students individually on classroom or computer lab computers, or explored as a class using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. If you teach young students, make this an experience. Set up your classroom like an airplane. Take tickets, have students “pack”, serve an inflight meal, watch an inflight video about the place being visited, create a Flight Day. When you land in your destination, students can explore the Google World Wonder assigned.

Google has some great teacher guides and educational packages to use with the World Wonders project. Check them out on the Education page!

Tips: I am leading a session in Adams 12 tomorrow about Global education. You can see the website I created with links I am sharing here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Google World Wonders Project in your classroom!

Quincy and the Magic Instruments

May 15, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4116 views

What it is: Next year we are adding a kindergarten to Anastasis (currently we are a 1st-8th grade school). In honor of this addition, I’ve been digging up some fun primary sites and resources. Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a great primary site to teach students about music and instruments. The site is enchanting with it’s interactive story/video platform. It invites students to take part in the story and introduces them to various “magic” instruments. As students learn, they get mouse practice (dragging dropping) for some fine motor skills; matching shapes, and identifying different types of instruments. Students also get exposed to a variety of types of music that instruments are used to create.

How to integrate Quincy and the Magic Instruments into the classroom: Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a great site to introduce students to some basic fine motor mouse skills. When I taught in the computer lab, I quickly learned that mouse manipulation doesn’t come as second nature for all students. They have to build up that fine motor skill to click, drag and drop. I can’t tell you how many times I had to show students that their mouse wasn’t actually “broken” – they just had it upside down. 🙂

Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a fun place for students to learn about different kinds of instruments and the sounds they make. As the instruments appear, you can help students identify what the name of each instrument is and even introduce them to the idea of major and minor notes. If you are using the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard, annotate over each instrument with the name of the instrument and what part it plays in a band.

To expand on this little online game, ask students to make up a story about how Quincy’s baton got lost and why the magic instruments turned into different animals and objects. How did the instruments come to be magic?

Tips: On any screen students can replay a song or jumble the instruments for an added challenge.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Quincy and the Magic Instruments in your classroom!

TED-Ed: Lessons (videos) worth sharing

April 26, 2012Kelly Tenkely2 Comments5456 views

What it is: I have long been a TED talk fan, so much so that I started a lunch group at my previous school called TED Talk Tuesdays where teachers could gather over lunch, watch TED Talks and discuss it’s implication on education. TED has a brand new education site that I am excited about. TED-ed is a collection of educational video lessons that have been animated. These lessons can be used as a supplement in any classroom. Each video on the TED-ed site has an associated lesson, a Quick Quiz with multiple choice comprehension questions, Think which asks questions to help students think more critically about what they have watched, and Dig Deeper which helps students to explore the topic further. In addition to the videos, TED-ed gives educators the ability to “flip” videos. You can use, tweak, or completely re-do any lesson that is featured on TED-Ed, or even create lessons from scratch based on any video from YouTube. You can re-title a lesson to fit your classroom, add context, questions and follow-up suggestions, and create a custom URL for your video lesson. You can even track your student’s progress to see who has viewed the assigned video, the number of questions they attempted, the answers they provided, and the answers they got correct.

How to integrate TED-Ed into the classroom: TED-Ed is a fantastic new resource for the classroom. The videos can be used for flip teaching. Flip teaching changes up the classroom model. Normally students come to school to get instruction and do their practice work at home as homework. In a flipped teaching model, the instruction is watched at home as “homework” and the practice happens in the classroom where students can receive teacher support. This means that the focus in the classroom is on higher-order thinking and learning skills instead of on instruction. How novel. 🙂 Student can come to class ready for deeper inquiry, critical thinking, discussion with classmates, collaboration and get more personalized attention from the teacher. You maximize classroom time by “going home” with the students.

Video is a great medium for learning because it allows students to learn at their own pace and gives them the ability to replay as many times as they need to. Visuals are always useful when learning something new, video is a great medium because of the way that it helps enhance understanding through the use of visuals.

Videos are searchable by those that have been featured, those that are part of a series or by subject. Students can learn about the arts, business/economics, design/engineering/technology, health, literature/language, math, psychology, science/technology, and social studies. The library will continue to grow as teachers flip the videos and TED-ed adds content from educators around the world.

The videos are great in a flipped classroom model but can also be used within the classroom. Videos can be watched and discussed as a whole-class or put on classroom computers as a learning center. When I taught second grade, I made sure that I had time individually with my students each week. In the mornings, my students worked on groups with “tub work” to make this time possible with individual students. These videos would make a great “second teacher” in a blended learning classroom where students could continue their learning while you work with students individually.

Tips: Remember, if you don’t find a video that meets your classroom needs, you can always flip any video you find on YouTube!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using TED-ed in your classroom!

What do you love: Google’s multi-search search engine

April 23, 2012Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3897 views

What it is: What do you love is a nifty little search space from Google that I ran across today. Apparently I’m late on this one, everyone was blogging about it a year ago! Ah well, can’t win ’em all. With What do you love, students can type in a search term and instantly get results grid-style from Google images, create an alert, find patents, look at trends, email someone about the topic, explore the search in 3d with SketchUp, find books, watch videos, translate into 57 languages, organize a debate, find blog posts, maps, call someone, start a discussion group, plan an event, view it in Google Earth, create a instant bookmark to the search, or make the search mobile. This is a super way to help students organize and view information and options for sharing from one place.

How to integrate What do you love into the classroom: What do you love is a great tool for helping students learn about how searches work. Students can instantly see a variety of search options and can begin comparing/contrasting results from the different streams. Ask students to consider which types of searches lend themselves to each type of search (images, video, web, blogs, maps, etc.). It is nice to have a one-stop shop of search results all within one page like this. Students can quickly look at the top items from each available stream and decide from that one point which option best fits their search needs.

As a teacher, this search option is incredibly valuable for the time it saves. Working on a new thematic unit or unit of inquiry? Type it into the search terms and immediately find related books, videos, and other resources to help you maximize your time and effort.

I think that the trends are fascinating to look at and speculate about. Are your students studying current events or an event in history (Titanic anyone)? It is really interesting to see how the trend of the search topic changes over time. Ask students to speculate and think critically about the rise and fall of certain topics.

Did you know that Google will help you organize and start a debate with moderation? Me either. It is a pretty neat little service that gives everyone a voice and lets students gather input from a large audience. This could be a great way for students to get help with brainstorming, collecting public opinion or in preparation for a presentation they are giving. This is an option I would only use at the high school level (it is for 13 and above). I haven’t played with it long enough to receive inappropriate responses, but I’m sure they slip through. This is also a great way for students to get more opinions or input about a topic they love. Right now the top topic on the Moderator site is about Minecraft. This is HUGE with our students right now, they cannot get enough!

What do you love would be a great site to bookmark on your projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard so that students can do searches about topics they are interested in as a class. Using What do you love this way gives you the opportunity to help students wade through results and practice discernment in what is accurate and good information for the topic being searched. I don’t know about you, but YouTube is the first place my students head when they are going to learn something new. I think this is because the video medium is preferred over the text results where they have to wade through information to find what they are looking for. Most students tell me they go to YouTube first because it is easy to know within a few seconds whether a video is going to give them the information that they want (forget deciding if it is a credible source). YouTube IS a wonderful place to learn something new, I often go there myself, but it is nice for them to see other results along side the video. As educators it is our job to teach students how to be discerning about the information they collect and how to use that information appropriately as it relates to the task they have been given.

Tips: Fair warning, this is a search engine. You can’t always guarantee that what a student searches will come up with appropriate results. I often remind students that if they come across anything that makes them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused they should tell a trusted adult so that we can sit down and help them work through what they found and offer recommendations for a better search.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using What do you love in your classroom!

The Scale of Life

April 19, 2012Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2785 views

What it is: The Scale of Life is a neat website that I learned about from a parent in @michellek107‘s class today. The Scale of Life is flash based, and shows the size of objects relative to other objects. Along the bottom of the site is a slider that lets students zoom in or out in size to see things relative to each other. Students can get as small as 0.0000000001 yoctometers to as large as size of the known universe.

How to integrate The Scale of Life into the classroom: The Scale of Life is a neat way for students to explore size, science and math. Students can examine the scale of objects compared to other objects and make observations about size and purpose of the object in the universe. This would be a fun site to explore as a class using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. As a class, students could adjust the scale and discuss size and purpose of the objects. Split students into teams to choose a different scale to learn about. Students can learn more about the items that are in the size range to share back with the class.

The Scale of Life could be a fantastic site for students learning about exponents and scientific notation. Visual students will appreciate that they can see what these big (and small) numbers are representing.

Tips: @michellek107 is digging the music on the site…she has it going in the background of her classroom right now ;). If you aren’t loving it, there is a music note in the upper right corner where you can turn it off.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Scale of Life in your classroom!

Be the Beat: Interactive heart and virtual CPR simulation

April 18, 2012April 18, 2012Kelly Tenkely2 Comments6777 views

What it is: The American Heart Association has a new set of heart interactives on their site, Be the Beat. On Be the Beat, students can explore the heart, view a healthy vs unhealthy heart and perform virtual CPR during a cardiac arrest. The interactives have extremely life-like graphics and can be manipulated to view the heart under a variety of circumstances. Students can speed up heart rate or adjust layers of the heart. The CPR simulation is excellent. It leads students through a scenario where a friend collapses. It is up to students to decide how to administer CPR and use an AED to help the friend.

How to integrate Be the Beat into the classroom: Be the Beat is very well done. I’m impressed with the level of information, the interactive graphics and the ability to manipulate how the heart is reacting. Be the Beat would be a great site for students to visit when learning about the heart. This could be as part of a science class, health or PE class.

On the interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer, students can take turns adjusting and manipulating what is happening to the heart. As they take their turn, they can play “scientist” and describe what is happening to the rest of the class with the help of the captions on Be the Beat. The CPR interactive would be a great whole-class activity. As a class, students can make decisions about what to do to help their friend who has gone into cardiac arrest. They can take turns calling for help, administering CPR and using the AED.

Be the Beat would make a fantastic hands-on center on classroom computers as students are learning about the heart. Students can stop by the center and explore the different areas of the heart. Assign each student to study a different area of the heart so that they can take turns explaining the functions to each other.

Tips: The American Heart Association has a whole new program where students can learn to save a life in the School Challenge. Learn more about it here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Be the Beat in your classroom!