classroom – Page 7 – iLearn Technology

Bookcasting

April 10, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4865 views

What it is: Bookcasting is actually a term I made up. It is essentially a podcast about a book. My third grade students just finished their first round of Bookcast recordings that we uploaded to a Wetpaint Wiki. A Bookcast is a movie trailer-like review of a book that students create and share with one another. My students used GarageBand to record their podcasts (you could also use a free tool like Audacity) and add sound effects, then they published the Bookcast on our class G-cast account, and finally embedded the media player onto our WetPaint wiki.

How to integrate Bookcasting into your curriculum: Bookcasting is a fun alternative to the standard book report. It allows kids to be creative and gives them a great sense of audience. Bookcasting also has the added benefit of acting as a book review for other students to listen to. Bookcasting makes story retell a lot of fun! My plan is to have a link to our WetPaint wiki in the library so that students can listen to a peer review of a book before they check it out.

Tips: I had all of my students create a Bookcast on the same book before reviewing on their own. This gave them an easy starting place but still provided room for creativity. Click on the Easy Reader link on our wiki to hear the Bookcasts the students created.

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

Super Why!

April 9, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2524 views

What it is: Super Why is a great new website created by PBS. Super Why is perfect for kindergarten through first grade and for remedial readers. The site focuses on helping kids gain important foundational reading skills such as alphabet, word families, spelling, comprehension, and vocabulary. The Super Why team is a group of super hero’s made up of four cartoon characters who solve problems with their reading skills, this is based on the Super Why TV show on PBS. Although the site is intended to be used in conjunction with the Super Why TV show, it is valuable as an independent reading skill tool as well. The site, games, and activities are fun and will hold the attention of your students while teaching them important basic reading skills that are needed as the foundation of literacy.

How to integrate Super Why into your curriculum: Super Why is one of those websites that is very flexible in its uses and applications. The Super Why site can be used as a center in the 1 or 2 computer classroom, independently in the computer lab setting, and as a whole class with a projector. (This is also a fun one for interactive white boards!) The online games can be played as part of your regular reading curriculum or you can print out ready made lesson plans that use the site. The lesson plans are very through and fun.

Tips: Check out the teacher section of the Super Why site for printable lesson plans, worksheets, and a great list of resources both web based and books.

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

Book Flix

April 3, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1798 views

What it is: Book Flix is a new offering by Scholastic that instills students with a love of reading and learning with paired fiction and nonfiction online. Book Flix is a subscription based service that is delivered over the Internet for teachers, librarians and parents. Right now you can try Book Flix in your classroom for free with a trial. The basic trial offers one pair of books about rain but a full free 30 day trial of all 80 Book Flix offerings is also available for schools. Book Flix offers a neat experience pairing fiction and nonfiction books. Students can watch and listen to the books read to them, read them independently, meet the author, play accompanying games, and view related kid friendly web links. There are quality lesson plans for teachers for each Book Flix. Check out the freebies and see how Book Flix might benefit your class, if you never order Book Flix the freebie is worth using!

How to integrate Book Flix into your curriculum: Use Book Flix that match up with your current curriculum, the fiction and nonfiction books and websites will greatly enhance what you already have in place. The quality of interactive books really is impressive and will give students a greater appreciation of both fiction and nonfiction literature.

Tips: Try out the basic Book Flix freebie first with the topic of rain, if you like the concept you can sign up for the free 30 day full trial with access to all 80 Book Flix. The freebie should carry you through the end of the school year (or pretty close). Test it out on your students and see how they like it 🙂

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

Science Buddies

April 1, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2515 views

What it is: This is one of those websites that makes me wish I was still a student! Science Buddies is revolutionizing the science fair project by helping kids discover their secret science passions. Students fill out a survey/questionnaire and based on their answers, Science Buddies gives them some topics that might be of interest to that student. Students can select the topic that most resonates with them and see a collection of related science fair project ideas and experiments. Very neat!

How to integrate Science Buddies into your curriculum: This is an awesome site that will help students discover that they do indeed like science. The questionnaire is the perfect way to help your students discover the science topics that will hold their interest. Use science buddies at the beginning of the school year to discover what your students science interests are…this may help direct your science studies for the year! Students can use Science Buddies to help them prepare for a school or class science fair.

Tips: Make sure to visit the teacher section of Science Buddies for some great downloads. Print out scientific method posters, guides on how to run a successful science fair and much more. This really is a must visit site!

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

Simply the Best Free Fonts

March 26, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2380 views

What it is: Sometimes all you need is a fresh new font to brighten your day. When they are fabulous and free the day gets even sunnier! Simply the Best Free Fonts is exactly what you would guess, free fonts on the web that are the best. There are fonts for every mood, season, flavor, grade, theme, etc., etc., etc. They are easily categorized and an easy download. I ask you, does it get any better than this?

How to integrate Simply the Best Free Fonts into your curriculum: Aside from making your newsletters, worksheets, and instructions more fun, Simply the Best Free Fonts can be a great motivator for students. Do you have a student who hates to write? Publishing their writing with a fun font may be just the motivation you need. Come on, admit it…don’t we all enjoy writing more when there are great fonts to pep up our words? Kids feel the same! Download a font a week for your kiddos and have them looking forward to typing everything from spelling words to reports.

Tips: Set up some time to explore…if you are like me you lose hours looking at new fonts without realizing that time is passing!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Simply the Best Free Fonts in your classroom.

Qlubb

March 20, 2008Kelly Tenkely4 Comments14530 views

What it is: Qlubb will change the way you communicate and interact with parents and families. Qlubb includes features perfect for the classroom such as: event calendaring, sign-up sheets, to-do lists, automatic event and task reminders, photo sharing, member rosters, and bulletin boards. Everything on Qlubb is intuitive and extremely simple. Parents and teachers will have no problem jumping in and using Qlubb to enhance home/school communication. This is social networking at its finest for schools!

How to integrate Qlubb into your curriculum: Start off the 2008/2009 year off right by creating a Qlubb network for your classroom. There is plenty of time for you to try it out before then, I have to say that it is truly so intuitive that you won’t need that much time to get it up and going. Use Qlubb as a place to post class pictures, class information, daily homework, and as a place where parents can sign up to help in the classroom or for field trips. This is a great solution for parent/school communication. Qlubb would also be great for after school clubs or sports organization.

Tips: Sign up today and familiarize yourself with Qlubb…you and your parents are going to love it!

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

Virtual Author Series

March 13, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2124 views

What it is: Simon and Schuster Publishing is offering a new unique experience to schools, a virtual author series. The electronic author visit brings bestselling and award-winning authors and makes them easily accessible to students and teachers. S&S creates a website specifically for each author visit that provides teachers with background information that will help prepare students for the author visit and provides interactive material that relates to the subject discussed in the author’s book. The program also includes a series of classroom activities and curriculum binders. The live web broadcast is the culmination of the virtual author experience. The 45 minute segment will include a presentation from the author, a reading from the book, and a question and answer session in which the author answers questions from the students.

How to integrate Virtual Author Series into the classroom: Bring popular author Andrew Clements (Frindle) into your classroom by signing up at the My Visit website http://www.bsu.edu/myvisit/ You need to sign up your class ASAP if you would like to participate in the first in the Virtual Author Series which takes place on March 18th. This is an outstanding opportunity for classrooms, libraries, and schools. Bring reading to life for your students with a virtual author visit. If you, like me, are on spring break during the first author in the Virtual Author Series be sure to check back for future Virtual Author events.

Tips: Check back for future Virtual Authors. The next Virtual Author will be D.J. MacHale (PENDRAGON) on April 29, 2008. This is an awesome way to bridge literacy and technology!

Please leave a comment and tell us how the Virtual Author Series went in your class. Specifically, I want to hear all about it since I won’t be able to participate!

Math Magician

March 12, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2303 views

What it is: After playing against other students on the World Math Day site my students were asking where else they could play similar games when World Math Day was over (students asking to play math games…gotta love that!) I did a basic Google search to see if I could find something similar and came across Math Magician. My students loved racing against the clock on this very basic math fact site. The students can choose from two levels and choose to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication or a mix. They had a great time racing against each other in class to see who could finish each set of facts the fastest. This is a good basic site to practice those math facts.

How to integrate Math Magician into your curriculum: Math Magician can be set up as a math practice center in the one or two classroom or played individually in the computer lab setting. We set up a Math Olympics where the students had some practice time and then raced against each other for the gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Tips: Let parents know about the Math Magician site, they are always eager for an alternative to practicing with the traditional flash cards!

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

Cyber Smart

March 10, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1897 views

What it is: Cyber Smart is free technology curriculum for use in a technology classroom or as part of the regular classroom curriculum. The SMART in Cyber Smart stands for Safety and security, Manners bullying and ethics, Advertising and policy, Research and information fluency, and Technology. The curriculum is very complete and easy to follow. Best of all it is completely FREE! In addition to the comprehensive curriculum, Cyber Smart also offers a free tool bar (seriously handy) as well as professional development.

How to integrate Cyber Smart into your curriculum: The Cyber Smart curriculum is perfect for the technology classroom, media center, and even your regular classroom as part of other subjects such as character education or when teaching research.

Tips: Make sure the sites recommended by the Cyber Smart curriculum work in your classroom before working it into your day…some of the sites get blocked by filters.

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

PalBee

March 4, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2547 views

What it is: PalBee is a free online video conferencing/recording tool. When you become a registered member of PalBee you have the ability to create an unlimited number of video conferencing sessions, each can be an hour long, with up to 5 attendees. PalBee also allows for visual collaboration on the online whiteboard. The Whiteboard allows you to upload images and write or draw on top of it.

How to integrate PalBee into your curriculum: PalBee could be useful in the classroom in several different ways. The first is for its intended purpose, video conferencing. If you have a pen pal or buddy classroom, set up times throughout the year for your students to video conference. All that you need is a web cam and Internet connection. Your students will really enjoy conferencing with students in another state or across the world. After you have conferenced with your buddy classroom, consider collaborating on a project together. PalBee provides a great workspace for students to share ideas. PalBee can also be used as a place to record tutorials for your students. You can individualize instruction and record several lessons that can be saved by PalBee and used from year to year. If you have students who are having trouble reading, extend their learning day and “go home” with them using PalBee. A struggle in many schools is getting parents to read with or help their child study at home. If a parent isn’t available or doesn’t make it a priority, students can get onto your saved PalBee recordings and learn with you at their own pace. This may have the added benefit of modeling reading and studying to parents. Have a parent who can’t make a parent teacher conference? Set up a PalBee meeting with them that better fits into the schedule.

Tips: Set up a classroom account for PalBee where all of your recordings can be saved for quick access.

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