Category: Teacher Resources

Moon Zoo: Contributing to science with lunar mapping

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Moon Zoo: Contributing to science with lunar mapping2164 views

What it is: The Endeavour Shuttle launch has been delayed but don’t let that keep your students from exploring space, there are some incredible interactive sites that will make your students feel like they get to suit up as astronauts.  Moon Zoo gives students the chance to study the lunar surface while contributing to real science.  Students can get an up close and personal view of the moon viewing images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.  Moon Zoo’s mission is to provide detailed crater counts for as much of the moon’s surface as possible.  Your students can take part in actually helping to count and map out craters and features of the lunar surface.  Students can identify craters with boulders around the rim to help map the regolith across the surface of the moon.  To take part in Moon Zoo, students are shown an image of the lunar surface, the first task is identifying craters in the surface.  Students can click on the “Crater” button and click the center of each crater they see.  Next, students adjust the ellipse to stretch and move their marks so that they are the same size as the crater.  Students search for boulders around the craters, if there are any boulders students can note that by selecting “blocky crater” and marking the most appropriate description.  When finished, students can submit their work to the Moon Zoo database.

How to integrate Moon Zoo into the classroom: I love that Moon Zoo actually lets your students take part in science.  They are contributing to actual lunar research in real and meaningful ways while learning about the moon.  Moon Zoo would be a great activity to complete as a whole class in the elementary classroom.  Tell your students that they are going to be astronauts and complete a “launch” to the moon.  If you have time, students can create official astronaut badges to wear for the big launch.  Using a projector-connected computer or an interactive whiteboard, launch one of the shuttles here.  When you “land” on the moon, let students explore the surface together by hunting for craters in Moon Zoo.  Help students mark craters, look for boulders and map the lunar surface.  Each student should have a chance to make a discovery.  While students wait for their turn, they can track the crater/boulder count on a table to create a graph.  Categories can be small, medium, and large craters found and number of boulders.

Older students can sign up for their own Moon Zoo account, each studying and identifying craters on their own images.  Older students can dig into the science behind mapping craters and learn about how craters can be used to date the moon.

Want to involve your students in more contributing science?  Check out Galaxy Zoo (the hunt for supernovas), Galaxy Zoo Hubble, Planet Hunters, or the Milky Way Project.  This is such a neat way for students to contribute to the scientific community while learning more about space and the universe.

Tips: Registration for Moon Zoo does require an email address.  If your students don’t have an email address of their own, they can use a mailinator or tempinbox address.

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

Learning A-Z Teacher Appreciation week open house

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Learning A-Z Teacher Appreciation week open house2396 views

What it is: Every year, Learning A-Z celebrates Teacher Appreciation week with an open house where teachers can explore all that Learning A-Z has to offer for FREE!!  Each day you can access another portion of the Learning A-Z tools.  This is one of those sites that I have paid for and used since I started teaching.  I love Reading A-Z because it has books that my students can print off and take home with them for every reading and interest level.

All week: Raz-Kids is a student-centric site where kids can practice reading online anytime and anywhere.

May 2, 2011- Reaing A-Z is a fantastic collection of printable and projectable books and resources that spans 27 reading levels.

May 3, 2011- Vocabulary A-Z has 12,000+ words that are organized by categories and give teachers the ability to create customized vocabulary lists.

May 4th, 2011- Science A-Z has science curriculum resources spanning more than 60 units, all are written to three reading levels.

May 5th, 2011- Writing A-Z has many of the resources you need to teach writing in your classroom.

May 6th, 2011- Reading tutors provides more than 400 reading resource packets that can be used for one-on-one tutoring.

How to integrate Learning A-Z into the classroom: If you teach in an elementary classroom, you should take advantage of these resources during the free open house week.  Find new resources for your classroom and explore what Learning A-Z has to offer your students.  I think you will be impressed by the resources available here!

As a new teacher, I relied heavily on Reading A-Z to help bulk up my classroom library.  Students loved being able to color in and take home the Reading A-Z books.

Set up your classroom computers with Raz Kids for the week, students can have fun practicing those reading skills in a fresh new way all week long!

Hunt down your science units and download resources that teach important concepts while being accessible to students of all reading levels.

Tips: Don’t forget to visit and explore each day this week!  Everyone who registers for the open house will be eligible to win a free classroom license of Learning A-Z, 5 teachers will be selected each day!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using  Learning A-Z  in your classroom!

 

Tiki-Toki: Create gorgeous multimedia timelines

Kelly Tenkely8 Comments on Tiki-Toki: Create gorgeous multimedia timelines5836 views

What it is: Tiki-Toki is an absolutely GORGEOUS multimedia timeline creator.  The results are truly a work of art-no joke!  Tiki-Toki is very easy to use, after registering for an account, students are guided step-by-step through creating an interactive timeline.  Students can add text, images (Flickr) and video (YouTube or Vimeo) to a timeline.  Images can be uploaded from a student computer or found through a search on Flickr.  Throughout the creation process, tool tips pop-up to guide students through creation.  Students can share saved timelines with a unique URL.

How to integrate Tiki-Toki into the classroom: Tiki-Toki is a fabulous new way for your students to create and share online.  Timelines are an obvious choice for history projects but can be used throughout the year for a variety of subjects and learning focuses.  Students can reflect on and share learning using a Tiki-Toki timeline.  Students can begin a timeline at the beginning of the year sharing videos, links, pictures and reflections each unit, week, month, or semester until the end of the school year.  This is a nice way to encourage students to reflect on learning while providing them with a record of what has been accomplished throughout the year.

Students can create timelines based on books or literature they are reading.  Young students can create a timeline with information about beginning, middle and end while older students can add supporting details, action, climax and concluding thoughts.  A timeline book report is a welcome change for your logical/analytical thinkers- seriously, offer it as an option!

Timelines can also be used as KWL charts (Know, Want to Know, Learned).  At the beginning of any learning, students can list the facts that they know about the topic. Next, they can brainstorm and write about what they want to know about a topic.  At the end of the unit or semester, students can detail what they have learned including any relevant videos or images.

In science, students can use Tiki-Toki to detail an experiment or scientific method process they go through in a lab.

Tiki-Toki is probably too advanced a tool for primary elementary to use independently, but it can be used with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer to create a timeline as a class.  This is a good way to teach students about timelines while recording learning.

Create an account on Tiki-Toki and record a few pictures of your classroom along with a description of the learning that happened each day.  At the end of the week the timeline can be sent to parents and administration to share what you are working on in your classroom.  This is a fun change from the traditional newsletter and, because it is added to a little at a time, it will give you a break from the Thursday mad-dash-to-finish-Friday-newsletter thing you have going (oh, is that just me?). 😉

Tips: The basic Tiki-Toki account is completely free and contains enough features to keep kids creating with no problem.  The paid accounts include features like shared timeline creation which would also be useful in the classroom.  I’m hoping that Tiki-Toki catches on to the uses for education and comes up with an education version just for us!

A minimum age for use of Tiki-Toki is not specified in the terms of service.  If you work with students who do not have an email address to share, consider using a tempinbox account or mailinator.

A BIG THANK YOU to @anderscj for mentioning Tiki-Toki on Twitter, I have a new favorite timeline creator!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Tiki-Toki  in your classroom!

SnipSnip.It: Share the best parts of online video

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on SnipSnip.It: Share the best parts of online video3625 views

What it is: I don’t know about you, but I am constantly finding great videos online to share with my students.  The problem: I usually only want a small portion of the whole video.  I use SnipSnip.It to crop the video down to only the parts I want to share with students.  SnipSnip.It is easy to use, just copy and paste a YouTube url, choose the start and end point and click “snip”.  Easy! After snipping your video you can embed the shortened video on a website or blog or share the shortened video with a link.  The other benefit: all of the YouTube extras (a.k.a. distractions) are eliminated in the SnipSnip.It version.  Not. Too. Shabby.

How to integrate SnipSnip.It into the classroom: If you happen to be in a school or district that has not blocked YouTube, you are going to find SnipSnip.It very handy!  This is a great way to crop videos to share with students either by URL or embedding the shortened video into a class blog or website.  Even if your school doesn’t have access to YouTube, this may be a great way to try out the Fisch Flip and encourage your students to watch the snipped videos at home in preparation for class the next day.

Tips: This service is so easy that I have no fancy schmancy tips; I’ll just leave you with this: stay classy!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using SnipSnip.It in your classroom!

Video Search in 3D and Create Playlists in 1 Click!

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Video Search in 3D and Create Playlists in 1 Click!2552 views

What it is: Video Search in 3D is a neat way to search for, and find, videos.  Search videos by keyword and instantly get a 3D “globe” of video results.  With the click of a button you can create a playlist of videos to be watched.

How to integrate Video Search in 3D into the classroom: Video Search in 3D would be a great way to search for and create playlists of videos for students and teachers.  Create playlists for students to access on classroom computers as a digital-media learning center.  These can be videos centered around a science concept, phonics rules, a period of history, math, foreign language or anything else that students are studying.  For example, for language arts you might search “School House Rock”.  During your writing block, students can visit the media learning center (your classroom computers) to learn more about grammar and parts of speech.

You can also use Video Search in 3D to create play lists for professional development opportunities.  There are SO many outstanding educational videos available.  Search videos by keyword or speaker and create an instant playlist.  I started a Webspiration Wednesday lunch group at my school where I played inspirational videos in the library during lunch.  I invited all the staff to bring their lunches to the library where we would watch and discuss inspirational educational videos.  Mid-week video inspiration is just what the doctor ordered to put some pep back into your step!

Tips: Because this is a search engine, I wouldn’t let young students loose to search whatever they want until a teacher has previewed it.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Video Search in 3D in your classroom!

Storify: Turn social media into a story

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Storify: Turn social media into a story2452 views

What it is: Storify has just been released to the public!  I have been playing with this site for a few months and am excited that I finally get to share it with all of you.  🙂  Storify lets you create stories based on Tweets, photos and videos.  You can search multiple social networks from one place, and drag elements into your story.  Re-order elements and add text as needed.  Storify lets you take those little bits of information shared over time and turn them into a story.

How to integrate Storify into the classroom: If you are using social media in the classroom, Storify is a fantastic addition.  Use Storify to create weekly stories of tweets, pictures and videos from your classroom that can be sent home to parents.  Create a story of learning based on a collaboration between classrooms as a way to chronicle and reflect on the collaboration.  Build a semester or year-long story as a sort of online scrapbook that can be shared with families.   Invite other classrooms to take part in writing a collaborative story 140 characters at a time using Twitter.  At the end of the project, each class can use Storify to create an original story from the tweets. Send out links, book recommendations, and other resources used throughout the week using Twitter.  At the end of the week, create a resource Storify for students to access.

Storify makes it simple to create and share social media stories.  Storify stories can be shared with a unique link, emailed or embedded in a blog or website.  Very cool!

Unsure about how to use Twitter in the classroom?  Check out my posts on it here, here and here.

Tips: Because Storify is based on social media, anyone can add to your stories!

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

Virtual book club: Readicide

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Virtual book club: Readicide2898 views

 

What: The Michigan Reading Association is hosting an interactive virtual book club for anyone to join via Facebook.   This is an opportunity to network with educators around the world and take charge of your own professional development.  The first book is Readicide by Kelly Gallagher (who will be hosting the book club with the Michigan Reading Association).  If you aren’t familiar with this book, you can read a post I wrote when the book was first released here.  The idea behind the virtual book club is to give educators a place to connect with others, share ideas, reflect and improve your classroom.

Where: It is easy to join just click to view the Facebook invitation and select “I’m Attending.”

When: The book club will meet during the month of May.  Login whenever you are available to browse posts and conversations and add your own thoughts.  Each week there will be a post that outlines a general road map that chunks chapters so we are reading and reflecting at a similar pace.

How: Purchase Readicide, view Kelly’s website and follow him on Twitter, “attend” the facebook invitation, let the fun begin!

I really enjoyed reading Readicide and look forward to reading it again-this time with friends to reflect with!  Who else will be joining us?

Thank you to Erin for inviting me!

Solar System Scope: See the solar system in 3D

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Solar System Scope: See the solar system in 3D4136 views

What it is: Well, yesterday set me off on a space kick.  Today I spent time with the Solar System Scope site, talk about a COOL way to view the solar system!  Solar System Scope (SSS) is a 3D real-time look at celestial positions with planets and constellations in the night sky.  Students can adjust planet and moon settings, star and constellation settings, earth observatory settings and time settings.  View the solar system from a heliocentric, geocentric or panoramic view.

How to integrate Solar System Scope into the classroom: Who would have guessed the day would come when we could take our students on a realistic field trip through space?  That is exactly what the Solar System Scope makes possible.  For young students, it would be fun to plan a class space mission.  Prepare your students as astronauts, load into your classroom spaceship (which may just be chairs and desks specially configured for the day) and prepare for launch.  “Fly” through the universe and solar system using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.  This is almost like having a planetarium right in your classroom. Pretty cool!

Of course after traveling through space as a class, students will want to explore more on their own.  They can do this at a classroom computer center or individually in a computer lab setting.

Older students can get more in-depth using the built-in distance meter to measure the distance between planets.  Each star reveals information about how many light years away it is from earth.  Students can adjust the settings to learn more about constellations.  Time and date can be adjusted to view the solar system on a given day. When students click the play button, they will see a 3D animation of the solar system based on the view they chose.  Very neat!

In addition to using Solar System Scope for science, use it as a launching point for a creative writing activity.  Students can write a fictional story about their travels through space, or even pretend to colonize a planet using factual information about the struggles they would have to overcome.

This site is a great one to use in connection with the NASA 50th Anniversary site I shared yesterday!

Tips: Solar System Scope isn’t finished yet, they are still working on some cool features.  Be sure to watch for a planetary journey for kids complete with an animated talking guide named Zyx, desktop clocks that show all planet positions at the moment, a space-flight simulator screen saver (perfect for the interactive whiteboard!) and a space forum.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Solar System Scope in your classroom!

 

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature-best website ever!

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature-best website ever!4096 views

Have I mentioned lately that I have the most AWESOME readers?  No?  Well it is true, you all are awesome and you keep me going even when I am running on low.  Thank you for that!  I’m currently working on starting a school (actually 3) in the next 2 years.  This is proving to be an exciting and, oh yeah, exhausting task.  Then I get encouraging emails and site suggestions from you all and it puts some major pep back in my step.  Thank you!  This website is one such recommendation.  You know you are a true geek when getting a cool website in your inbox revives you 🙂  Thank you Ryan!

What it is: NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash feature is a website that is absolutely not to be missed.  Seriously, it won’t even hurt my feelings if you skip reading my post and just head right on over to dig in and check it out yourselves!  This interactive timeline highlights each decade in our space program from 1950 to 2000.  Until we get time travel sorted out, this is a pretty good substitute! The site encourages exploration and discovery as students move decade by decade through the site.  I love that this site goes so far beyond just space exploration.  While students explore, they will hear music representing each decade, see animations, listen to virtual radio broadcasts of actual news headlines (including NASA news and other news from the decade), original video, listen to speeches of the decade and even launch rockets.  I can’t tell you how happy it made me to hear Johnny Cash mixed in as I was playing on this site (in the upper left corner of the site you will be able to change songs on the jukebox, record, tape, CD or mp3 player).  First thing I heard when I clicked on the 80’s “Tonight on Dallas find out who shot J.R.”. *LOVE THIS SITE!*  This blog post took me about 2 hours because I got sucked right into exploring and playing.  The site reminds me of Epcot’s Tomorrow Land, complete with robot guide.  This is what online learning should look like, when I close my eyes and dream, this is the experience I imagine for kids.  Can you imagine if there was a site like this for history? How cool would that be?!

How to integrate NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature into the classroom: This is one of those sites that you could let kids loose on just for exploration.  Without any guidance from you they will learn plenty!  Ideally kids would explore this site in partners or on their own in a one to one computer lab setting.  If each student has a computer, headphones will be a necessity.  If individual exploration just isn’t in the cards, visit the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computers.  Invite students up to the computer (whiteboard) to take turns guiding the class.  The site has plenty of interactive content to give each student a chance at the computer (whiteboard).  Unless you have a good chunk of time dedicated to the site, this is one that I would stretch out over a week.  Each day students can explore a new decade.

The space exploration component of this site is amazing and could keep everyone plenty busy with learning.  With older students, discuss what the music of the decade reveals about that time in history.  What does the music tell them about people, community, values, events of the day?  Take it one step further and ask students to dig into other historical events in each decade, discussing their impact on space exploration, culture and where we are today.  One thing that I missed out on in history was all of the stories that make it so rich.  For me, history was reduced to names, dates and places.  Give your students the opportunity to put themselves into history and learn about how the events influenced each other.

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature would be a great one to use in connection with We Choose the Moon.  If your students are like mine, they can’t get enough of this stuff!  Obviously I can’t get enough of it either.  Full disclosure, I have always loved space exploration.  When I was a kid I spent many summers at Black Rock Desert at LDRS (Large Dangerous Rockets) with my dad.  My dad built wooden model rockets- first wooden rocket on record to break sound barrier!  In answer to your next question: yes, I have always been a complete and total nerd. 😛

Tips: What? Your still here? Go on, visit the site! (channeling my inner Ferris Bueller today).

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature thesauruses in your classroom!

Twitter Tools

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Twitter Tools3018 views

This morning I am meeting with a school that I am helping with a social media campaign.  They want to use Twitter and Facebook as a way to reach the community, create bonds between classrooms and give parents a peak into the school day.  I started with a Paper Tweetup, you can read more about that here.  Today I am meeting with the school communication manager.  She runs the school Twitter account.  This account is used to share school news and to retweet (RT) things that the classrooms are tweeting about.

Here are the tools I am sharing:

  • Group Tweet– This turns a standard Twitter account into a group communication hub where members can post updates to everyone in the group using direct messages.  When the group receives a direct message from a group member, Group tweet converts it to a tweet everyone in the group can see.  This is a great way for classrooms within a school to communicate and share.  It is also a nice way to organize classrooms from other districts, teacher teams, or parents.
  • http://paper.li Turns Twitter and Facebook into a daily newspaper.  The Newspaper can pull from a Twitter account, a hash tag (#), or from a list.
  • Twibs– This helps you find local businesses on Twitter.  This is a helpful way for schools to connect with the local business community.
  • Twuffer– is a service that lets you schedule future tweets.  This is great when you are using Twitter to promote school events, remind students of assignments or to send out messages during the summer or holiday months.
  • Social Oomph– Another service that lets you schedule tweets.  You can  also create auto direct messages, auto follow and track keywords.
  • Tweet Beep– This service is like a Google Alert, get Twitter alerts when people mention you (or a keyword).
  • Mr Tweet– This is a way to begin networking on Twitter by finding others who share similar interests.
  • Tweet Stats– This is a service that lets you graph your tweets, it is useful at-a-glance information to check out your Twitter use.
  • Just Tweet It– is a service to help you find people on Twitter.

I hope that is helpful!  What Twitter tools can you not live without?