free – Page 7 – iLearn Technology

2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book

January 20, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1831 views

What it is: Curriclick is a site that I have mentioned before that provides free and low cost curriculum for download and use in your classroom. Today they released a 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book for download. After the speech today it would be great to download and use some of the reading and activities in your classroom.

How to integrate 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book into the classroom: I don’t know about you but I found that many of my students still didn’t “get” president Obama’s Inauguration speech even after viewing it. Use this free lap book download to help your students understand the history behind the Inauguration speech. Watch the speech again as a class or read the transcript of the speech. Help your students understand this historic occasion with the help of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book. I wish that they had released this one sooner!

Tips: This is a 40+ page guide. Download the pdf version and only print out the pages you are going to use in your classroom. NOTE! I tried to access this site just a few min. ago and could not get to it, probably because of the flood of traffic. Try back later today if the links in this post don’t seem to be working.

Leave a comment and tell us how your students responded to the speech.

Myths and Legends

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3971 views

What it is: Myths and Legends is an awesome, free, online digital story telling website. I heard about the website through @kjarrett. The story creator lets students combine pictures that they compose with clip art or images that they upload, sound, and words to create a digital story. The stories can be saved, printed, and shared. Students can record themselves reading the story aloud and even add video! The website is pretty comprehensive as far as online digital storytelling tools go, I am impressed!

How to integrate Myths and Legends into the classroom: Myths and Legends is a great way to get your students interested and eager to write. The digital story telling format gives students a unique opportunity to express themselves creatively. Many of your reluctant writers will jump at the chance to create a story in this manner because it doesn’t “feel” like writing. They don’t get stuck looking at that blank piece of paper and feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of them. I have found that students write more, and the quality of work is better when they create digital stories that are shared later with the whole class. In the one or two computer classroom you can set up a digital storytelling writing center that students can work at, in the lab setting whole classes can create at the same time, and as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector, the entire class can create a story together.

Tips: Each student should sign up and register for a free account so that they can save their work. As a teacher you can also sign up for a school account where you can login and review all of your students work online.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Myths and Legends in your classroom.

Readicide

January 13, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2615 views

What it is: Readicide is a new ebook from Kelly Gallagher about how schools are killing the love of reading. It is being made available here Jan. 13 and 14 as a free download. I downloaded Readicide earlier today and am loving it. The ebook reminds me of what made me love reading, the times when I hated reading, and how my students feel about reading. It is inspiring and may just give you the jolt you need to shake up your reading program and make your classroom the place where students fall in love with reading again (or the very first time).

How to integrate Readicide into the classroom: Download Readicide ASAP! Then send to your administration and fellow teaching staff to read. Open up communication about your reading program at the next staff meeting, be critical. Lets start a reading revolution!!

Tips: Download today while the ebook is free 🙂 I vote “readicide” to be considered as a new word for Webster to add to the dictionary.

Leave a comment and tell us what you think of Readicide and your ideas for bring a love of reading into your classroom.

FETC Virtual Conference ’09

January 13, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments7547 views

What it is: Save the date! FETC is having a free virtual conference on April 23, 2009. The virtual conference is ideal for k-12 educators and technology staff exploring the most important issues related to 21st century skills. Topics will include career and technical education, the Obama administration’s global workforce development agenda, and digital teaching methods and tools. You will learn about the latest in 21st century skills from engaging speakers. FETC Virtual Conference is offering a virtual networking lounge to expand your network of k-12 educators and technology experts, access to other participants through instant messaging, and free content downloads and presentation to go. You will also be able to virtually attend technology product and service demonstrations and Q&A sessions with technology experts! This is a completely FREE event, you can go as a staff!

How to integrate FETC Virtual Conference ’09 into the classroom: FETC is one of the leading technology conferences in the country. With budget cuts this year, you may not have the option to attend the full FETC conference. This free virtual conference is an outstanding opportunity, be sure to take advantage of it! You will learn from some of the best educators and are sure to get practical technology integration tips, tools, and ideas. See you there!

Tips: Register today at http://virtual.fetc.org.

Leave a comment and tell us if you will be attending FETC Virtual Conference.

Prezi

January 12, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2990 views

What it is: Prezi is a unique online presentation builder that seems to be popping up a lot lately all over the web. It is getting so much attention because of its new approach to online slide shows. Prezi has some unique features like zooming presentations that grab and hold viewers attention. Prezi lets you create a sort of walking path through your presentation. The finished product is engaging and impressive looking. The tools in Prezi are different from other online presentation builders but are easy to use and figure out. The tutorial will have you and your students creating in minutes.

How to integrate Prezi into the classroom: Because of Prezi’s unique zooming feature, it would be a good tool for students to use for vocabulary. Students can type in the word to be defined and then zoom in on the definition. Building vocabulary presentations would be good for review and study. Prezi would also be a neat way to explore and display information from history (display a date, place, or person in history and then zoom into facts and details that are related), timeline information (create paths from different dates in Prezi), literature (create a sort of interactive character map of any literary character), science projects (use Prezi’s path to lead through the scientific method), foreign language (type a word in another language and zoom to translate), geography (zoom into details around a map), math, and much more.

Tips: Be sure to check out the tutorial on Prezi, it will have you up and creating in no time! Check out the inspiration to see the amazing things that others have used Prezi to create.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Prezi in your classroom.

Picasa

January 7, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments2191 views

What it is: Picasa is a free download from Google that helps you organize, edit, share, and create using photos. The edit feature allows you to fix red-eye, crop, and fix any blemishes or scratches. Picasa lets students create turning photos into movies, collages, and slideshows. Picasa also makes it easy to upload albums to the web to share. Picasa has been around for a while as a Google tool but the big news this week is the release of the beta version of Picasa for Macs. The neat thing about the Mac Picasa release is its integration with iPhoto. The features are pretty neat and definitely worth a look for either platform but with the announcement of iPhoto ’09 yesterday, they aren’t as impressive. HOWEVER, Picasa is completely free while iPhoto ’09 is not.

How to integrate Picasa into the classroom: Picasa is a great way to organize photos you are taking of your classroom in action. Create a web album, parents always like to see the great things their kids are learning. Students can use Picasa to organize images they find online or pictures they take on a field trip. These pictures can then be used to create a movie, collage, or slideshow directly in the Picasa software. Students could create a class story in pictures, create a movie out of it and share it with other grades. Students can also collect historical images, scientific images, etc and easily create a movie or slideshow displaying their knowledge.

Tips: Picasa is available for Macs in beta version and Windows and Linux based in alpha.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Picasa in your classroom.

Speakaboos

December 12, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3895 views

What it is: Some websites are so impressive that I immediately spam all teachers in my address book with them. Speakaboos is one of these sites for me. I learned about the site from the Free Technology for Teachers blog (I highly recommend it for middle and high school teachers). Speakaboos is a collection of online children stories read by celebrities (although this is not what impresses me). Each story is read aloud with flash illustrations and the words on each page for read-along. The stories are captivating and include popular titles like Arthur and Curious George. This highly engaging website has some other features that make this one of my favorite website finds of the year. When you sign up for a free membership, Speakaboos offers a free story download. The download is a swf (flash) file but can be converted with a site like Zamzar to make it iPod ready (aka mobile learning!). They plan to add more free downloads throughout the year. Parents can also purchase individual stories iTunes style for $0.99. Speakaboos has a feature coming for parents, students, grandparents, teachers, etc. to record their own stories! Speakaboos offers several activities for students including a diary to write in, a place to create their own story, games, ecards, and printable coloring pages from their favorite stories. Speakaboos is in beta version right now so some of the above features are not yet active.

How to integrate Speakaboos into the classroom: Speakaboos stories and activities are a fun and engaging way to develop students reading, writing, and speaking abilities while learning basic computer skills. The Record your own Story feature is a wonderful way for students to practice fluency, it is also a great feature for struggling readers who can listen for mistakes that they make during reading. Older students could make recordings for their younger reading buddies to enjoy. The ability to download select stories for free is amazing for an iPod reading lab. Speakaboos is a great reading or writing center for students to visit in the one or two computer classroom. It would also make a nice whole class read along using a projector. Speakaboos offers free story guides for teachers to help lead discussions on each story. The guides come complete with themes to help reinforce the story message and offer questions to check general comprehension, discussion, and personal extension. There are also printables that you can use with your class in conjunction with the Speakaboos site.

Tips: Membership on Speakaboos is free and provides access to the free downloads.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Speakaboos in your classroom.

Wikipedia School

December 11, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment13303 views

What it is: Wikipedia is often the first place students head when faced with a research project. While Wikipedia can be an excellent resource, content can be vandalized and is not always student appropriate. Wikipedia School is a free, hand checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia. It has about 5500 articles and is the volume of a twenty volume encyclopedia. It will fit on a DVD and can be downloaded for free thanks to the SOS Children’s Villages website. Topics were chosen that would be of interest to students and in accordance with the UK National Curriculum (but are appropriate for any English speaking country).

How to integrate Wikipedia School into the classroom: Wikipedia School is a nice alternative to using the Wikipedia website in a school environment. The ability to download Wikipedia School to DVD means that it can be used on computers that don’t have Internet access. Students can search freely and you will have the peace of mind knowing that with Wikipedia School, students won’t stumble on inappropriate content. Subjects for search include: art, business studies, citizenship, countries, design and technology, every day life, geography, history, information technology, language and literature, mathematics, music, people, portals, religion, and science. There is an outstanding selection of articles and pictures for each subject!

Tips: Wikipedia School can be accessed online or offline when downloaded.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Wikipedia School in your classroom.

Woopid Video Tutorials

December 8, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2864 views

What it is: Woopid is one of the best sites I have seen for technology training video tutorials. You can find a video about nearly every gadget or computer question you may have. The videos are very easy to search by category or keyword. Video categories include Hardware, Internet, Mac, and Windows. Each category has a number of sub categories, I am amazed at the number and quality of videos here! Don’t see the tutorial you need? Send in a request and Woopid may choose your suggestion for the next training video.

How to integrate Woopid into the classroom: I can’t tell you how much I learn through online tutorials like these. The computer skills that I have did not come from a classroom, I generally learn from interacting with video and written tutorials. I love these videos because they are easy to follow and understand. I think teaching students how to teach themselves is a valuable skill and Woopid helps you do that. Give students a few resource sites like Woopid, then give them a task. Don’t teach them how to complete the task, let them use the resources to find the information they need and teach themselves. You will be amazed at what your students can accomplish when they learn how to learn! Woopid is also a great site to pass onto colleagues!

Tips: Parents may benefit from Woopid at home, many times parents don’t know how to set up filters and parental controls on their personal Internet, Woopid can help out!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Woopid in your classroom.

Tools for Educators

December 5, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2536 views

What it is: Tools for Educators is an awesome site, so awesome that I am surprised I haven’t run across it sooner! Tools for educators offers templates for teachers to create their own board games, word searches, dice, cross word maker, bingo cards, domino maker, spelling and reading worksheets, handwriting worksheets, certificate maker, vocabulary handouts, listening test worksheets, and word bank worksheet. All templates are extremely customizable, fast and easy to use. And did I mention it is all free?!

How to integrate Tools for Educators into the classroom: Tools for Educators is obviously a great site to use to customize worksheets, games, etc. based on your classroom curriculum. Even though the site is geared toward educator use, I have had students use it last week to create their own custom board games, dice, and dominoes. The students loved creating games, rules, and question cards for their games (they made these with a Pages template I created). We have a parent day where families can come and play the games the students have created. So much fun! Definitely check out this site, I know you will be inspired to create something wonderful!

Tips: There are a lot of Google ads along the right side of the screen. When using with students, use the opportunity to teach them about web advertisements.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Tools for Educators in your classroom.