Month: September 2008

Inspiration

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Inspiration2234 views

 Some school years start out much bumpier than others.  This year has definitely been a bumpy one for me.  Nothing seems to be working the way it should, the kids are disappointed that in the first 4 weeks of school they have not had computers available in computer class.  I am feeling frustrated at the lost teaching time (so many things to fit into a 35 min. once a week class!)  This weekend one of my professors from my college (Colorado Christian University) days spoke at church.   Sid Buzzel was/is one of the most influential educators in my life and one the I deeply respect.  He came to teach about education.  It was exactly what I needed, I loved hearing his passion for education and his explanation to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, children why he is an educator.  He reminded me of why I am an educator.  I miss being taught on a regular basis by Sid.  The church recorded Sid’s inspirationalwords.  I highly recommend this podcast.   I’m sure it won’t take long to figure out why this man made such an impact on me and my teaching career.  I’m ready to press on through the problems and teach my students…with or without computers! 🙂  Take a break, put your feet up and get renewed.  Let me know what you think and tell us about the influential educators in your world.   

Picturing America Part 2

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Picturing America Part 21512 views

  

What it is: I have posted about Picturing America before (March 18th) but I just received my Picturing America kit yesterday and had to post again and make sure everyone was taking advantage of this amazing resource.  I knew that the kit was going to be good but I truly had no idea how AMAZED I would be.  The quality of materials is amazing (there really isn’t another word for it!)  I’ll post pictures of my actual kit so you can get an idea for just what you get in this kit.  Did I mention it was FREE?!  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.  The National Endowment for the Humanities gives a grant making this all possible.  As the recipient your only task is to write up a one page report about your experience.  They give almost a calendar year for you to do this.  

 

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!  These masterpieces will beautify your walls and provide teaching opportunities year round regardless of the age of students you teach.  

 

Tips: Apply for the Picturing America program today. I can’t tell you how completely blown away I am by this program!!!

 

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

Scholastic Listen & Read

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Scholastic Listen & Read2946 views

 

What it is: The Scholastic website is full of truly amazing resources.  Today I ran across one that I hadn’t used before called Scholastic Listen & Read, I heard about it on Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day.  Scholastics Listen and Read is for students in first and second grade.   The site does exactly what it’s name implies, it lets students listen to non-fiction stories and read along.  There are 11 non-fiction stories for first grade social studies including The Path of the President, What Does the President Do, and a Celebration of Earth Day.  There are 15 non-fiction stories focused on animals and food for first grade students.  Second grade students have access to 10 non-fiction stories focused on social studies including Constitution Day and Welcome to a Pilgrim Village.  There are also 11 short non-fiction stories for second grade students focused on animals and food.  Social Studies is a hard subject to teach first and second grade students from a text book because the vocabulary and reading can be especially challenging.  Scholastic Listen and Read solves this problem wonderfully with short, easy to read non-fiction stories that are read aloud to your students.  As an added bonus, each story includes the Scholastic Word Wizard.  This tool floats right on top of the web page.  At any point, students can click on a word in the story and the Scholastic Word Wizard will give them an easy to read definition of the word.  Students can also type a word into the Word Wizard to look it up.  

 

How to integrate Scholastic Listen & Read into the classroom:  Scholastic Listen & Read is ideal for any classroom or computer setting.  The non-fiction stories could be read together as a class with a projector and speaker setup, individually in a computer lab setting, or in small groups as a center in the one or two computer classroom.  The stories are easy to understand and the ability to look up words right from the story makes it a great place for students to learn key social studies and animals and food concepts.  

 

Tips:  Scholastic Listen & Read is a great place for ESL and ELL kids to go for English practice and vocabulary!

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Scholastic Listen & Read in your classroom.

 

Book Punch

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Book Punch1984 views

 

What it is: Book Punch is a new site dedicated to helping students in grades 3-9 become stronger readers.  The site takes the most popular books read by schools in grades 3 through 9 and provides guided reading prompts about the reading improving overall reading comprehension.  Book Punch encourages critical thinking skills and teaches students how to be in control of their own learning (this to me is the purpose of education).  Students are led through the writing and thinking process as they read books with Book Punch.  Interactive prompts help students to focus their thinking about a particular book.  There are hundreds of built in tips and support that help students to gather ideas, organize thoughts, revise, edit, etc. in response to the literature they are reading.  The site walks them in a very concise manner through the reading/thinking process.  Students each get a login to the Book Punch site and can work at their own pace, making it easy for you to differentiate instruction in your classroom.  As a teacher, you can assign a book to your whole class or to individual students making it easy to meet every student at their current reading level.   The site offers teachers lesson plans, activities, classroom management ideas, tips and strategies, and classroom aids.  Book Punch is not a free service, but they offer a free demo writing activity for every book as well as a free pilot program to use with students for 30 days (any two books of your choice.)  Even if you can’t fit it into the budget for this year, Book Punch is definitely worth the visit if you teaching reading and writing for 3rd-9th grade.  The free demos are wonderful and will give you a great jumping off point for your reading curriculum.  

How to integrate Book Punch into the classroom:  I LOVE sites that teach students how to think critically.  For me, that is what education is all about.  If I know how to gather information, how to follow directions, how to write, and how to think critically about what I find…I am going to do just fine in the real world!  Book Punch leads students through the reading/thinking process.  It meets students where they are at and the helps meet individual needs.  The site gives you the opportunity to find out where gaps are occurring in student reading and comprehension so that you can work with students more effectively.  Book Punch is intended to be an individual student program that would be best in a computer lab or mobile lab setting.  However, depending on how your time is set up, I think that Book Punch could be used effectively in the one or two computer classroom as a center that students visit during reading time.  The demo questions would be perfect for use with a projector and whole class discussion or writing.  Book Punch works right into your current curriculum and literature, making it simple to implement.  The ability for students to login to Book Punch at school or from home makes it an even sweeter deal!


Tips:  Try out Book Punch for free and be sure to get it on the budget for next year if you can’t fit it in this year, it is very reasonably priced and well worth it! 

 

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

 


 

Creative Park

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Creative Park2397 views

 

What it is: Creative Park is a great free creative resource library for teachers and students.  Creativity is such an important part of child development but also an important aspect of 21st century learning and thinking.  Creative Park offers teachers and students awesome resources for putting that creativity to use.  The website offers ideas and templates that can be coupled with your lesson plans.  Projects range from 3-D paper crafts (like airplanes, the Great Pyramids, a globe, dinosaurs, and the Leaning Tower of Piza, etc.)  There are great special collections including an Architecture museum, circus land, and science museum.  Creative Park also features calendars, art crafts, a digital photo gallery, and scrapbook area.

How to integrate Creative Park into the classroom:  Lets face it, teachers don’t have the largest budgets in the world to buy manipulatives and learning displays.  Creative Park can help ease some of this burden by giving you free high quality paper crafts that your students can assemble.  I love that this taps into following directions and creativity for students.  Students can use these materials to make class dioramas or displays.  This is also a great stop for those indoor recess days.  Keep your kids busy creating when they have to be cooped up inside.  Use the scrapbook pages to create custom class memory books.  Each student can create their own as a keepsake for the end of the year (my students LOVE their memory books each year).  The greeting section is wonderful for elementary teachers who are in charge of covering every holiday and making sure that mom and dad get a card from their child.  Many of the materials available on this site would be perfect for bulletin boards.  The creative activities would also liven up classroom parties.  This is a fun site to sit and explore!


Tips:  Stock your printer up with paper and ink for these projects.  

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Creative Park for your classroom.   

 

Lite-Brite

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Lite-Brite3661 views

 

What it is: Some websites just make you smile. Lite-Brite is one of those sites for me, I am a child of the 80’s so the Lite-Brite holds a special place in my heart! The site is exactly what you would expect, an online version of Lite-Brite. No fancy moving flash animations, sound effects, etc. Just 9 different color pegs to choose from and a Lite-Brite board.

 

How to integrate Lite-Brite into the classroom: Lite Brite may not appear to have much educational value upon first inspection, but being that I love Lite-Brite, I knew there had to be a way to use it in the classroom. In the primary and secondary classroom, the Lite-Brite would be a great place for students to practice “writing” their spelling words using the colored pegs. Any time you can give students a new medium for practicing spelling words or math facts, it is a good thing. Write out math problems using the Lite-Brite and students can take turns solving the facts. Create a class picture using an interactive whiteboard. Keep points on the Lite-Brite when playing a class game. I think even older kids could appreciate the Lite-Brite from an art perspective. It just gives one more medium for students to express themselves. I have yet to find a kid who uses the Lite-Brite site and doesn’t leave with a smile 🙂 Kindergarten students can practice “writing” the alphabet by forming letters with the colored pegs.


Tips: The Lite-Brite site doesn’t have a save option so make sure that for the true creations, you have a printer hooked up to memorialize them.


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

iKeep Safe

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on iKeep Safe5678 views

What it is:   iKeep Safe is a website and program I have used every year since I started teaching technology.  As I was writing up lesson plans for the upcoming week, I realized that I haven’t ever posted about this outstanding resource.  iKeep Safe is a kid friendly Internet safety program.  It features a cat named Faux Paw who has adventures on the Internet.  There are videos, downloadable and printable books, and games for kids.  All are centered on teaching kids to be safe online.  There are free guided discussion sheets for you to go through with your students, quizzes, coloring pages, etc.  This program is the perfect way to introduce Internet safety in your elementary classroom without worrying that the content is too mature for your audience.  The online books and videos teach kids Internet safety basics, how to handle cyber bullying, balancing real life with screen time, and the risks and dangers of downloading.   Students learn about these concepts with fun cartoon characters and engaging stories.

How to integrate iKeep Safe into the classroom:  iKeep Safe is a great place to start Internet safety.  I would recommend making Internet safety a top priority the first month of school before kids are online for class.  In my classroom, students are introduced to Faux Paw at the beginning of the school year.  We watch and discuss the Faux Paw cartoon, read and discuss the books, and finish by taking the free downloadable quiz.  Students must pass this quiz with an eighty percent or better in order to get their “Internet Drivers Licenses”.  I talk a lot about how using the Internet is a privilege, not a right.  This is just like driving a car.  So in order to be online for other subjects, students have to demonstrate that they know the rules of the Internet by passing the quiz.  They can lose their Internet drivers licenses at any time by mis-using the Internet or not following the rules.  I also have the kids create a rules poster for them to hang next to their home computers.  Students also get an assignment to go home and tell their parents the Internet rules.  This has to be signed off on in order to use the Internet.  I find that we can do a pretty good job of keeping kids safe at school, but at home parents aren’t doing enough to make sure that their kids are safe.  Whether or not you are the computer teacher, make sure that your kids know how to keep themselves safe online.  Be an adult they trust who they can come to with any cyberbullying problems, if they see inappropriate content, or if someone is trying to contact them inappropriately.  

Tips:  Never been trained in Internet safety?  Be sure to visit the educator page of iKeepSafe, the training materials are wonderful!

 

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

Statetris

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Statetris2517 views

 

What it is:  Statetris brings one of my all time favorite Nintendo games into the education realm.  Statetris mixes aspects of the game Tetris and geography.  Instead of positioning typical Tetris blocks, students position states or countries to their proper location.  There are 3 levels to play Statetris.  The easiest level gives students the shape and name of the state or country.  The medium level gives the students the state or country that rotates with the name of the state or country.  The hardest level gives students the sate or country rotating without a label.  The medium and hard levels can be very difficult because you get a state or country that isn’t straight up and down but may be rotated. Students can play Statetris with a map of the United States, Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, and UK.  

How to integrate Statetris into the classroom:  Statetris is a great place for students to learn and practice geography.  The familiar game platform is popular with students and will be a fun way to memorize geography locations.  This is the perfect place for students to study before a geography test.  

Tips:  Save this site in your bookmark bar for easy access.  This is a great site for kids to visit when they complete work early and are looking for extension activities. 

 

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