Tag: learning

Picture a Story: Digital Storytelling

Kelly Tenkely9 Comments on Picture a Story: Digital Storytelling5123 views

What it is: As I mentioned a few days ago, I am starting a virtual classroom/club for digital storytelling.  I have been on the lookout for great resources, I listed my favorites here, and now I am remembering a lot of tools I left off of my original list (like Toon Doo!).  Today as I was going through my Google Reader, I learned about this gem from Richard Byrne’s Free Tech for Teachers.  The Delaware Art Museum has provided a great website dedicated to storytelling.  The tagline is “bringing visual art to life through stories”.  On the site, students can picture a story, experience a story, or tell a story.  The Picture a Story was the most intriguing portion for me, as it provides a great tool for telling a digital story.  First, students choose a genre of story that they want to tell, next they choose a famous painting background for their story, students add characters (also from famous works of art), props, and then tell the story.  In the tell the story section, students type out the story.  If a microphone is available, students can even record the story in their own voice.  When students have completed their story, it can be shared via email.

How to integrate Picture a Story into your curriculum: Stories are powerful.  I love the way that Picture a Story weaves together famous works of art with story.  It teaches students to reflect on the art that they encounter and think about the stories that it represents. Picture a Story is a great way to discuss genre, characters, and parts of a story.  It is also a fantastic way to bring a little art history into your classroom.  It would be a neat class experiment to have students choose all the same genre, background, characters, and props and, without talking to others, write their story.  After students are finished they can share their stories with the class.  Students will learn about perspective, creativity, and voice as they listen to all the different stories that originated from the same picture.  If you don’t have access to a computer lab, this activity could be done with an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer and students writing on paper.  Let your students experiment with story and share their finished pieces with each other.  Picture a story is ideal in a lab setting where each student has access to their own computer.  If that isn’t a possibility, you could also have students visit Picture a Story on classroom computers as a storytelling center.  The site is quick to navigate through and students can tell a story in a sentence or a few paragraphs making it a good center.  If students don’t have access to email or can’t email the finished product to you, have them take a screenshot of the story to save in a digital portfolio or to print out.

Tips: The teacher section of this site has some great lesson ideas for every grade level.

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

K12 Online Conference 2010: Free professional development!

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on K12 Online Conference 2010: Free professional development!4465 views

What it is: K12 Online Conference is a completely FREE online conference for educators around the world.  The conference focuses on innovative ways that web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning.  The conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone.  This year the theme of the conference is “Cultivating the Future”.  Yesterday was the kick off to the conference with a pre-conference keynote by Dean Shareski.  In the next two weeks (October 18 and October 25), 40 presentations will be posted online for participants to view, download and discuss.  Live events happen in the form of “Fireside Chats”, there are three live events this year.  The first Fireside Chat is scheduled for October 15 and will be hosted by Dean Shareski.  I have attended the k12 Online Conference every year since it started (2006) and each year I am inspired, and fueled with new ideas.  I am excited to see so many student voices and presenters this year, there is just nothing like hearing about education from the student perspective!  I am also excited to see so many familiar names from my PLN…there just isn’t anyone I would rather learn from!

How to integrate K12 Online Conference 2010 into your classroom: Check out the 2010 Schedule now and choose some sessions that you are most interested in.  Commit to viewing 2 or 3 (or if you are OCD like me, all of them!).  Take charge of your professional development and be inspired by fellow educators and students.  Make it fun and invite a friend to view some sessions with you.  Play sessions in the teacher’s lounge during lunch, take over a classroom with a projector and provide snacks, or invite a colleague over for PD and cocktails (for the record, that is the option I would choose!). Don’t keep all of this great learning to yourself!    In the past, I have found the student presentations to be inspiring not only for me, but also for my students.  Last year there was a presentation about applications called Wizard of Apps or Will they have an app for that or What we are loading (and learning) along the road presented by Joyce Kasman Valenza and students.  The presentation was a fun Wizard of Oz type play about different web 2.0 applications that they were using and learning with.  My students loved the idea of students putting together a play and teaching teachers.  If you are an administrator, be sure to let your staff know about this truly amazing professional development opportunity.  The line up of presenters is fantastic!  Then, encourage your staff to start building up a PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter.  They can start with the k12 Online presenters!

Tips: You can view the archives of past k12 Online Conferences for 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using k12 online conference 2010 in your classroom!

Sumdog: Fun Math Practice Games

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Sumdog: Fun Math Practice Games6197 views

What it is: Sumdog math is a site with an outstanding collection of math games covering over 100 numeracy topics and split into 10 levels.  The games are free to play for home and school math practice.  Sumdog games can be used as an engaging anticipatory set for mental math, or to reinforce a specific math topic.  The games can be played individually or in multi-player mode.  Teachers can create school accounts and upload classes to the program.  For a low-cost school subscription you can also have detailed class and student reports, set up class competitions, and set a minimum level for a class.  The free features of this site are more than enough to get your class having fun interacting with math.  With 100 numeracy topics, you are bound to find games to help your students practice exactly the skill they are working on.  Topics range from ordering numbers, addition, subtraction, doubling, rounding, multiplication, and division, to positive and negative numbers, advanced number sequences, prime numbers, and adding and subtracting negative numbers.  Each game asks targeted questions based on the level chosen, provides immediate feedback to students based on their answers, allows students to review any questions they got wrong and lasts about a minute.  Multi-player games let students compete against their class or students online worldwide, and provide an option for playing solo or against the computer.  Students can play athletics where they sprint against players worldwide to get the most questions correct; Street Racer where they are head to head in a car race against other players to cross the finish line first, Alien Invaders where students compete against another player to see who can survive the longest against alien invasion; Penalty Shootout where students compete against another player in a soccer penalty shootout of math questions; Tennis Tie-break where students trade volleys with a real opponent; Talent Show where they answer questions correctly to please judges in a talent show (think American Idol); or Canal Clear Up where students clean up trash from a canal by matching questions to answers.

How to integrate Sumdog into your curriculum: Sumdog is a fun way for your students to practice mental math.  The 60 second time limit of each game makes it a great math center activity.  If you have one or two computers in your classroom, students can sign into their account, choose their level and practice mental math for 60 seconds; when they are finished with the game, the next student can rotate into the center.  In a computer lab or 1-to-1 classroom setting, students can save and track their progress as they practice with a variety of games.  Sumdog is a welcome break from timed worksheet exercises and flash cards.  It lets students compete with kids around the world in a safe environment while helping them with faster number recall.

Tips: Don’t forget to tell parents about Sumdog, they are always looking for new ways to help their kids with math fact practice.

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

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October Issue of Project PLN

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on October Issue of Project PLN3292 views

It is October, which means the second issue of Project PLN!  In this issue, we asked educators to share their best practices for the start of the school year.  We got some great ideas, challenges, and suggestions from PLN members.  Take a look at the newest issue here or view the embedded version below.  I encourage you to get to know the contributing members of this month’s project PLN.  Connect with them via Twitter or through their blogs.   In the next issue we want to hear from administrators, what do you wish teachers knew about administration?  What suggestions do you have for teachers, parents, administration?  Give us an inside look at the world of the administrator.


projectpln10 – Project PLN Issue 2

Create Your OpenZine

Friday Recap

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Friday Recap4734 views

It is a beautiful Friday in Colorado, the beginning crispness of fall is just breaking through the summer heat.  I hope you all had a wonderful week.

Here is a recap of what I have been up to when I’m not blogging here:

Today’s Document: History through cartoons

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Today’s Document: History through cartoons3786 views

What it is: Today’s Document is an awesome daily history site that I learned about from the Instructify blog written by Bill Ferris.  Today’s Document is based on the RSS feed from the National Archives. Jon White takes these daily documents from history and turns them into cartoons that illustrate the history.  Cartoons and drawings offer such an incredible and striking visual to accompany history.  They help flesh out what was happening and give students a way to connect to and characterize history.

How to integrate Today’s Document into your curriculum: This is, simply stated, an AWESOME site.  I have mentioned before that history was not my strength in school.  I struggled with finding the story in history.  For me it was a lot of facts, dates, names, and places that I couldn’t seem to get a handle on.  A site like Today’s Document would have done wonders for my understanding of history.  The visuals clearly connect the facts with a larger story.  Even better, White publishes the story behind each cartoon along side it.  Today’s Document makes an incredible e-textbook complete with daily updates, links to videos, articles, primary sources, and additional opportunities to learn more about each topic.  Today’s Document would make a fantastic discussion starter in any classroom.  It’s natural fit would be in the history or civics class but could really be used in many disciplines including literature, writing, and even science.  Because Today’s Document uses cartoons to tell history, the site can be used with a wide range of age groups.  Even young students can look at the cartoons and follow the story each day.  Each drawing is linked to the original primary source document on National Archives with an invitation to dig deeper.  Within the preamble describing the cartoon, White often includes links to outside videos and articles that reinforce the daily document.

Tips: I encourage you to take a look at White’s previous cartoons, you can do so by using the “previous” button or searching the archives by date.  He started this project in January 2010.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Today’s Document in your classroom!

EdTech UNconference- Win a year of professional development!

Kelly Tenkely22 Comments on EdTech UNconference- Win a year of professional development!18075 views

What it is: Recently I received a free year long pass to the EdTech UNconference from Simple K12 to review.  Not only did they offer me a free pass, they offered me a free pass to give away to a lucky reader, very generous!  After spending a few days learning and playing around in the EdTech UNconference, I am impressed!  The EdTech UN conference is a year long, 100% online all-inclusive resource to help educators learn about and use technology in an “UNintimidating” way.  It is professional development that works the way you need it to.  Teachers are some of the busiest people I know.  We constantly work, think about our students, and strive to make ourselves and our classrooms better.  The problem: because we are so busy, professional development can be an after thought or put off all together.  It isn’t convenient to leave your family and travel across the country for a 4 day conference…not to mention the expense.  The EdTech UNConference has a low admission fee $199.99 (or free for a lucky iLearn Technology reader), lasts 365 days, has a recording of ALL sessions, is online and on demand which means no travel, no sub plans, and no rearranging your schedule.  In addition to the great sessions, EdTech UnConference will send regular email updates, twitter updates, offers a private social networking site, 500+ hours of learning programs, and online support.  That is a lot of professional development for your school $$.  Learn about Internet safety, technology integration through podcasting, wikis, interactive whiteboards, Microsoft Office (for both Mac and Windows), iMovie, monthly live edtech sessions, live follow-up Q&A, ongoing collaboration with other educators from around the world, your own blog (so easy it is already set up!), 2 min. edtech talks (professional development in those spare 2 min!), and printable reports of training time that you can share with your supervisor.  And that is just the beginning 🙂  Presentations come from some of the best in education including Steven Anderson, Kyle Pace, Richard Byrne, Shervette Miller, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, Kim Munoz, Steven Katz and more!  If some of those names seem familiar, they probably are, a few are members of the iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance.  The kickoff session for the conference starts today, October 1.  Online Professional development is amazing, it is there when you need it, available any time, and in a manner that works for your schedule.  What can you learn in 365 days?

How to integrate EdTech UNconference into your classroom: The EdTech UNconference is sure to launch your classroom into the 21st century  with practical professional development that you can implement into your classroom right away.  One of the difficulties of a regular conference, is hearing a new idea, getting excited about it, only to have it fizzle out when you try to implement it because there is no one to talk to, no ongoing support when you hit a roadblock.  Not so with the EdTech UNconference.  This is professional development that you can really use.  The recorded sessions mean that you can review a topic as many times as you need to.  Still need some help, head over to the forum and get on demand help from other educators from around the world.  How cool is that?!

How to register to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference pass: There are two ways to enter to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference year-long pass.  1.  Tweet about why you need free professional development using the hash tag #iltUNcon or 2. Leave a comment below about how much you would love some free professional development.  You have until Oct. 4, 2010.  On Monday, I will put all of the entries into a Google Doc and use a random number generator to choose the winner.  Good luck!

Please leave a comment to enter the EdTech UNconference contest!

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Technology & Character Education: A Lesson in Empathy

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Technology & Character Education: A Lesson in Empathy19780 views

Empathy is an important cornerstone in character education; developing empathy can help prevent negative social behaviors such as bullying, spitefulness, and alienation.  It is a key social emotion and when developed brings an awareness of ones own emotions as well as those of others.  Using Apple’s Photo Booth and Pages (or Seenly and Microsoft Word), students can make a “How are you feeling?” poster of emotions.  These posters teach students to recognize what their own emotions look like and help them to recognize them in others. If you don’t have access to built in cameras or web cams, digital cameras can be used in their place.  The completed posters can be used for various character education lessons throughout the year and make for a nice year-long bulletin board in the classroom. The posters are also useful when discussing literary characters and their feelings/emotions, as well as an aid in conflict resolution for younger students.  The Feelings posters are a helpful tool for autistic children as they help them recognize facial expressions and emotions in themselves and others.

The lessons in empathy is perfect for kindergarten through sixth grade.  Three templates are included in the lesson k-1 grade, 2-3 grade, and 4-6 grade.  As a computer teacher, I completed this lesson with my students every year from kindergarten-fifth grade.  By the fifth grade, students had a collection of 6 feelings posters that showcased each year of school.  Parents saved these posters as a keepsake.

This collection includes a lesson plan, templates, an emotions card game, and suggestions for sharing the template with student computers.  There are two options for download, one for use with Apple’s Pages and PhotoBooth (or digital camera) and one for use with Microsoft Word and Seenly (or digital camera).  The Pages option is for use with Macintosh only.  The Microsoft Word option is for use with Mac or PC. In this lesson students will practice using text boxes, drag and drop, mouse manipulation, inserting images, and resizing.  Click here to find the Feelings Poster Lesson in Empathy in the iLearn Technology store.

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Progressive Phonics

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on Progressive Phonics6997 views

What it is: Progressive Phonics is a fantastic, free all-in-one reading program that I learned about from @rmbyrne on his blog Free Tech for Teachers (honestly, some days I wonder why I bother with a resource sharing blog…he is amazing!)  This site is totally FREE, as in every single download is available for $0, all that is required is registration.  Progressive Phonics provides books that can be read on-screen or printed out.  Books include alphabet books, beginner phonics, intermediate phonics, advanced phonics, and handwriting.  In addition to phonics rules, Progressive Phonics teaches essential sight-words (phonics rule-breakers).  Each book includes a PDF version of the book, and accompanying activity sheets such as handwriting worksheets, a word search puzzle, flash cards, and a five-minute memory game.  If you have access to iPads or iPod’s for your classroom, these FREE phonics books can be downloaded and put into the iBook bookshelf for reading.

How to integrate Progressive Phonics into your curriculum: Phonics is one of those things that a reading program either excels at, or falls flat with.  Using the Treasures reading curriculum, I was always disappointed by the lack of real phonics work and often supplemented with sites like Starfall.  Progressive Phonics is another resource that would make a fantastic supplement.  If you use a standard reading curriculum, take a look at the Progressive Phonics books and align them with your current curriculum.  For example if your current curriculum has students practicing short vowel “a”, find the corresponding phonics rule in Progressive Phonics.  Because these books are free to download, they are excellent for printing out and sending home with students for extra reading practice.  The accompanying printable games, flashcards, and puzzles will keep your students practicing that skill in and out of the classroom.  Books can be printed out and assembled as a traditional book, read on the classroom or lab computers, or transferred onto a mobile device such as the iPad or iPod Touch.  This collection of phonics resources is a must see!

Tips: One thing I really appreciate about this site is that each book comes with a page count and an approximate time to print.  I remember spending hours printing Starfall books on an old school printer, wondering if I would ever finish.  The approximate printing time lets you know what you are in for before you hit print.  Each book is offered in two formats, one is a print friendly version that has been designed to use as little ink as possible.  So smart!

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

Join Me

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Join Me3747 views

What it is: Join Me is an incredibly simple way to share your computer screen with others.  It works on both Windows and Mac allowing you to share your screen (and whatever is on it instantly).  The simplicity of this site is brilliant.  If you have even a sparkle of being a “techie” among family, colleagues, or friends, you most likely get regular phone calls asking for your help with something.  The problem: those asking the question don’t usually know enough to accurately articulate what their hang up is.  Join Me is a simple solution, it lets you share screens so that you can see what the problem is and walk them step by step through the solution.  Join Me is also great for the classroom, it lets students and teachers quickly share their screens for instant collaboration, feedback, or virtual meetings.

How to integrate Join Me into your curriculum: In my computer lab, I often wanted to share my screen with a student so that I could share a process with them, or provide them with feedback.  I usually used Apple’s Remote Desktop for this, the only problem was that students couldn’t initiate the shared screen.  Another problem I ran into was Remote Desktop dropping connections or crashing.  Join Me would have made an excellent backup!  With the increased use of technology, Join Me would be a great tool to help students collaborate on homework projects, enabling them to easily share screens and work as if they were in the same room.  Join Me provides a unique URL for the screen share, enables a conference call phone number, an on-screen chat, and the ability to choose a presenter and switch control of the mouse.  Join Me would be an easy way to extend the learning day for your students, or allow a student who is absent to be included in a live lesson (this could be students who are sick, students with a long-term illness, students who are traveling, or students who know they will be attending your classroom after a move).

Tips: When you use Join me, a package is downloaded to your computer to allow it to run.  If you want to use this tool with students, make sure that they have privileges to download and run packages.

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