iLearn Technology – Page 41 – Integrating technology in the classroom

Twitter Tools

April 19, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4001 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?

Better Late… Friday Recap

April 15, 2011Kelly Tenkely8 Comments1770 views

Hi all, I hope you have had a wonderful week! This is a late night Friday recap- better late than never 🙂 This has been a fantastic and exhausting week as I finish the website for the new school I am starting. For those who are interested, you can take a look at it here: Anastasis Academy (if you are interested in learning more about employment, send me a comment through the contact form on the admissions page).

A few weeks ago I ran a Survey2Go Contest and promised I would announce the winners today. Congratulations to those who won! You will be hearing from Survey2Go with instructions for redeeming your 100 Survey2Go credits.

Yvonne Lenard
Rebecca Woodcock
Tania Schutz
Lisa M
Christy Dugger
Ann Taylor

Congratulations to the winners and happy weekend to all of you!

The Bookshelf Muse: Emotion, Setting, Color/Shape/Texture, Symbolism Thesaurus

April 15, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3907 views

What it is: The Bookshelf Muse is a must add blog to any writing classroom toolbox. On The Bookshelf Muse, students will find several thesauruses: emotion, setting, color/shape/texture, weather, and symbolism. The emotion thesaurus offers alternatives for showing character emotion through physical action. The Setting Thesaurus offers sensory descriptions that can help paint the picture of a setting. The color/shape/texture thesaurus helps students include sensory information that helps convey images in specific ways. They symbolism thesaurus helps students utilize symbolism to leave a lasting impression on their readers. To use a thesaurus, scroll down and choose an emotion, setting, color/shape/texture, weather, or symbolism topic from the right side bar. Suggestions will appear as a blog post. Each thesaurus is regularly added to, there is something new each week!

How to integrate The Bookshelf Muse thesauruses into the classroom: The Bookshelf Muse thesauruses are a must add to a writer’s toolbox. All writers experience periods of writers block. The Bookshelf Muse thesauruses can help students break through that block. Bookmark the thesaurus on classroom computers for quick access during writing as a writing/publishing center. Students can access the center as needed to help fire up the creative writing process. This blog will have your students thinking carefully about word choice and how different parts of speech color writing.

Before students begin using the emotion or setting thesaurus, visit the blog as a class using an interactive whiteboard. Using the annotation feature, invite students to the board to highlight words based on the parts of speech. This will help students identify vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that add life to writing.

Consider creating a writer’s toolbox for your students using a tool like symbaloo or weblist.me. Add writing tools like rhyming dictionaries, The Bookshelf Muse Thesauruses, writing prompt generators, a Flickr picture dictionary , Color in Motion, Tag Galaxy, Lightning Bug, What if Questions for Stories, The Story Starter Jr., PinBall-bounce ideas around, Poetry Idea Machine and other writing resources. Create another Symbaloo page or weblist.me for web tools that students can use for writing (Little Bird Tales, Kerpoof, Figment, Picture a Story, pic lits, Story Bird, Zooburst, Myths and Legends, Glogster, Graphic Novel Creator, My Story Maker and Picture Book Maker).

Use the Bookshelf Muse thesauruses as a launching point to create a class thesaurus. This can be done for setting, emotion, senses, weather, etc. Make the thesaurus easily accessible by creating it as a blog or wiki.

Tips: The Bookshelf Muse has just started adding to a weather thesaurus, so far the only entry is blizzard but it should get your students thinking about how they can describe weather.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Bookshelf Muse Emotion thesauruses in your classroom!

NOVA: Design a Parachute

April 14, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3470 views

What it is: NOVA from PBS has an excellent interactive called Design a Parachute. In this activity, students take on the role of head engineer in charge of designing the Mars Explorer Rover parachute. The goal is to design a chute that will get the Mars Explorer Rover to the surface of Mars safely. The interactive challenges students to consider trade-offs in parachute stability, strength and volume as they design the perfect chute. As students begin the activity, they are briefed on system requirements that must be met. Students are also asked to consider cost as they design their parachute. Finally students design and test their chute.

How to integrate the NOVA Design a Parachute interactive into the classroom: In this activity, students assume the role of engineer as they design a parachute that will slow the Mars Explorer Rover as it lands on the surface of Mars. I like the authentic feel of this activity, students are led through the thinking process of an engineer as they consider all of the requirements the chute must meet before they begin designing.

Approach this interactive as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. As a class, get “briefed” on the requirements for the parachute design. Discuss how these requirements may impact the parachute design. Treat this like an actual briefing and encourage discussion (all ages like to pretend!). Before students access the interactive, ask them to sketch their thoughts about parachute design. This lets them think through the design apart from the pre-determined categories presented in the interactive.

Students can design and test their parachutes individually in a one to one computer lab setting or take turns designing and testing in a computer center lab on classroom computers.

Debrief after the interactive to discuss the parameters that were the most successful and what students learned about volume, drag, strength and stability.

Extend this activity by creating a mock-up of the parachute they designed online. Find a high place on the playground or in the building where students can test these parachutes. What did they have to adjust for an Earth bound parachute?

Tips: The NOVA page has a great introduction paragraph about how engineers approach a problem. Be sure to read it with your students! Encourage students to learn more about the Mars Explorer Rover before designing the chute. It may adjust their thinking!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NOVA Design a Parachute in your classroom!

Solar Car Racing: Try Engineering

April 13, 2011Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3444 views

What it is: Solar Car Racing is a great game and challenge from Try Engineering. On the Solar Car Racing games students will virtually design and race a solar car. Students begin by choosing the components for their car that will optimize the performance. Next they test out their car in a desert and on a racetrack environment to find out how it performs. Students can observe the performance and then modify their design based on feedback and race again.

How to integrate the Solar Car Racing game into the classroom: Try Engineering has some really fantastic interactive games for students. I like Solar Car Racing because it goes beyond just building and testing, and encourages students to learn from their mistakes to modify their design. Too often games created for students have a defined end point that doesn’t encourage students to continue tinkering and experimenting. Solar Car Racing would make a good “experiment” center on classroom computers. Students can stop by the “lab” area as they are learning about solar energy to test out the principles they are learning.

Ideally, students would each have access to the site. This would allow each student to create and test a solar car design. Let students discuss observations of what designs work best and why. Students can “sell” their solar car design to each other. Expand this activity by asking students to create a sales brochure for their solar car. Students can include researched information about solar cars, tout unique elements of their design and practice persuasive writing and design.

If students don’t have access to their own computers, make this a class activity using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Give each student the opportunity to tweak and test the design, discussing adjustments and possible outcomes as a class.

If you have the resources, perfect the solar car design using the Solar Car Racing game and follow-up by creating an actual working model size version.

Tips: Be sure to check out the fantastic list of related links at the bottom of the Try Engineering Solar Car Racing page.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Solar Car Racing in your classroom!

April Issue of #ProjectPLN: The Mistakes Issue

April 12, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2457 views

The April issue of #ProjectPLN is out today! In this issue we asked you to share lessons learned from mistakes made. We had some great contributors this month who generously shared mistakes made, and lessons learned. Thank you to all that contributed!

projectpln10 – The Mistake Issue

Create Your OpenZine

For the May Issue we would love to hear from all of the new teachers out there. You have had a long year and we would love for you to share your experience as a new teacher with everyone out there. Please email your stories to ProjectPLN10@Gmail.com or send us a tweet @ProjectPLN. Be sure to include your name as you would like it to appear, your Twitter ID (if you have one), and a link to your blog (if you have one). We look forward to hearing the joys and struggles from the perspective of a first year teachers!

-Nick (@thenerdyteacher) and Kelly (@ktenkely)

Story Time for Me: Digital Children’s Books

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011Kelly Tenkely5 Comments4935 views

What it is: Story Time for Me is a beautiful collection of digital children’s books for primary students in kindergarten through second grade. Each story includes charming illustrations, animation and professional narration with music and sound effects. Activities accompany every story that encourage imagination and creativity (these are coming soon!). The stories have been developed to teach important values through positive moral themes. Story Time for Me currently has a library of over 30 books and growing. Next Friday (April 22, 2011) Story Time for Me will be launching free personalized activity books where students can become the star of a book.

Students can choose to read each story with or without narration, with or without animation and choose to highlight the words as they are read.

I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this free digital story site. It expands your classroom library, encourages a focus on character development and invigorates children to read more.

How to integrate Story Time for Me into the classroom: Story Time for Me expands your classroom library with winsome digital stories that your students will love. Story Time for Me makes a great reading center on classroom computers. Because students have the option to read with narration or independently, it meets the needs of both strong and developing. Each story reinforces positive character education values often dealing with friendship. These stories are a wonderful way to begin class discussions about friendship and empathy with students. If you have an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer, the stories can be used as a whole-class “big book”.

When the personalized versions are available, give your students the opportunity to star in their own story. These personalized stories would make a fun beginning of the year activity as a way to welcome students to a new grade, or end the school year with a personalized story they can enjoy all summer.

Tips: I learned about Story Time for Me from @2sparkley’s blog, Bits and Pieces Place. If it isn’t a blog you subscribe to, it should be!

Story Time for Me is completely free, the more visitors they can attract the more stories they will be able to add to the library. You can help them by spreading the word to family and friends on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Story Time for Me in your classroom!

Zen.do: Efficient Learning

April 7, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3113 views

What it is: Zen.do is a site created by students with a mission to help make learning more efficient. Zen.do seeks to provide a solution for managing the overwhelming amount of information that students are asked to learn. It does so by helping students study what they need, when they need to. Students begin using Zen.do by taking notes. As they are taking notes, they add a hyphen between terms (concepts, names, important dates, etc.) and definition. Students can then study their notes as flashcards, indicating what they know and how important it the information is to them. Zen.do does the rest, it helps students spend less time studying by reviewing only what matters and what is likely to be forgotten. In the long-term, Zen.do helps students keep important information at the ready. The best part of Zen.do: students don’t really have to do anything differently than they are already doing it. They create notes as they always do and Zen.do takes care of the rest.

How to integrate the Zen.do into the classroom: If you are like me, you remember spending HOURS reading through class notes, creating flash cards, re-reading notes to make sure you hadn’t missed anything important, and then cramming as much as you could prior to a test. I like that Zen.do takes the focus off the cramming for the test bit and focuses on really learning the material. Zen.do helps students think about their learning process by making them call out what is important and how likely they are to forget it.

Zen.do is a great solution for students who struggle with studying and finding a way to manage the barrage of information they face. It breaks down notes into manageable, digestible pieces and keeps them moving forward in their learning.

Zen.do is ideal in a 1 to 1 classroom setting where each student has access to a computer. If you don’t have access to a computer for each student, consider using a classroom computer for note taking. Make record keeping a rotating classroom “job”. As the class recorder, a student would take notes for the class in a word processor (Google Docs would be ideal). These notes can be accessed by students at home and copy/pasted into each student’s Zen.do account for studying.

Tips: Students can sign in to Zen.do using an email address, Google connect, or Facebook.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zen.do in your classroom!

WICKED Science Interactives

April 6, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3481 views

What it is: I found WICKED Science interactive through a tweet from my friend @kathleen_morris. WICKED Science interactives help students understand the earth- what it looks like, what it is made of, and how it works. Students can explore the earth’s surface, examine features of the earth’s crust, explore the rock cycle, discover what the earth is made of in a lab, learn about heat and pressure, and look at different descriptions of the earth.

How to integrate the WICKED Science Interactives into the classroom: I like that these interactives invite students to explore and question. They don’t offer all of the answers and lead students mindlessly through a predetermined solution, but instead give students just enough information to ask more questions. Students observe and interact with the activities and have opportunities to think and problem solve their way to learning. For this reason, WICKED interactives would make a great introductory learning activity. Students can begin inquiring about the earth during the interactive and follow-up by digging into the concepts deeper elsewhere. These interactives would be great for whole class use on a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard or for small-group/partner use on classroom computers. Each interactive gives students more information about the earth and invites further investigation.

Tips: WICKED Science Interactives requires the Shockwave plugin to view the interactives. The plugin can be downloaded from the site if needed.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the WICKED Science Interactives in your classroom!

Call for Posts: April Issue of #ProjectPLN

April 6, 2011April 6, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment1790 views

Hello all! I am back in town which means that my to do list has grown a mile. That list includes putting together the April issue of Project PLN. The problem: we still need some posts! If you would like to be a contributor to the April issue of Project PLN, we would love to have you.

Topic for the April issue: Mistakes. We have all made them. Sometimes it is easy to forget about them and move on, but mistakes are an important part of what makes us a better educator. We tell students to learn from their mistakes because it will help them grow as a person. Educators are no different. We often share our successes with the world, but sometimes our slips can offer support and insight for other teachers out there. Share your learning with all of us by sending your posts (remember these can be re-posts you have already written) to projectpln10@gmail.com. Be sure to include a link to your blog or website (if you have one), your name as you would like it to appear in the issue, and your Twitter ID (if you have one).

You can take a look at past issues of Project PLN here.