Category: Middle/High School
iLearn ezine debut
Well, I had planned to have this issue of iLearn completed months ago….better late than never! This issue has articles about 21st century literacy, iPods in education, technology lesson plans, 100+ of the best FREE educational apps for the iPod, and tips for managing a computer lab.
Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math
What it is: Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math is a gold mine of interactive activities for the math classroom. The site has over 100 interactive math activities for teaching and practicing math in kindergarten through twelfth grades. These are high quality games, interactives, and simulations for the math classroom. You are sure to find something to use in your math class that will increase understanding!
How to integrate Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math into the classroom: This site is ideal for use with an interactive whiteboard in the math classroom. The activities help students understand concepts that can be difficult by inviting them to interact with the concept. If you don’t have access to an interactive whiteboard, you can demonstrate math concepts from a teacher computer connected to a projector. Students can practice and interact with concepts on classroom computers set up as a math center or individually in the computer lab setting.
Tips: To narrow the list of activities, choose a grade level to narrow activity results.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math in your classroom.
Geo Greeting
What it is: Geo Greeting is a fun little site that lets you type in a message and send it to a friend or preview the message in a separate window. When the message is opened it is spelled out one letter at a time through pictures embedded on a map of the world. The pictures are of buildings around the world that are the shape of letters in the alphabet. The effect is really neat! Each picture is accompanied by the name of the location and the name of the building.
How to integrate Geo Greeting into the classroom: Geo Greeting would be a fun way to display a morning message to your students using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Just type in your message and copy the URL into a browser to play the message for students. This site is also a fun place for students to practice their spelling words. They can type in their words and then click on the preview button to watch the word being spelled for them. Geo Greeting is a great way to interest students in geography, type in a message and discuss the places that pop up as a result.
Tips: These greetings can be embedded as an e-card, sent as an email, or just copy and paste the link in a browser.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Geo Greeting in your classroom.
Newseum
What it is: Newseum is a neat way for students to see the news from around the country. Front pages of newspapers from around the US are displayed on a map. Scroll over the map and the front page of the newspaper pops up. Click on a different country to display newspapers from around the world.
How to integrate Newseum into the classroom: Newseum is a great site to visit for current events. This is a great way to find out what is happening state to state or around the world that is news worthy. Have students compare and contrast front page events around the country or around the world. Is there a particularly news worthy subject that seems to pop up in multiple states, multiple countries? Newseum could be a great discussion starter about newspapers, should they be saved or will they eventually be totally replaced by the Internet? Use Newseum each morning to get an update of current events using an interactive whiteboard. Have students choose 3 or 4 states or countries each day to check on (also great geography practice). This site is like a virtual field trip around the world for newspapers.
Tips: Because these are actual front pages from around the country, some material may not be appropriate fo your students. Always preview before you let your students loose!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Newseum in your classroom.
Xtranormal Text-to-Movie
What it is: Xtranormal Text-to-Movie is another outstanding site that I learned about from @danreeve on Twitter. This site lets students create and direct their own animated movies. Students can choose a set, actors, and music for their videos. Xtranormal allows students a huge amount of control of exactly how their movie will look, they can choose camera angles, animations, expressions, looks, points, and sounds. The site is very intuative and user friendly for students in third grade (with a little guidance) and up. I was able to create a movie without reading any instructions in about 5 min.
How to integrate Xtranormal into the classroom: Xtranormal is a great way for students to express what they know creatively. Students can use Xtranormal to create mocumentaries on any subject, students could interview historical figures, report on geographical occurances, or create public service announcements. Xtranormal would be an excellent alternative to the traditional book report. Students could interview one or several characters from the book or create a little review show about the book. The Xtranormal interface is intuative enough that the focus will be on the learning, not on the tool.
Tips: Xtranormal is a great way for students to create movies. Many times schools are restricted from putting videos featuring students online, this is a great way for students to put their creations online without their actual picture being out there.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Xtranormal in your classroom.
Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime
What it is: Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime is an incredible look into the life of Benjamin Franklin. I learned about this awesome site from @kylepace on Twitter (a great educator to follow if you aren’t already). Students can play, listen, watch, observe and have fun learning about Benjamin Franklin’s life and legacy. Students can explore Franklin’s life by different themes such as Franklin’s character, B. Franklin Printer, Franklin at Home, Doing Good, Franklin at Home, and World Stage. This feature breaks Franklin’s life down into manageable pieces for students and provides a well rounded understanding of who Franklin was and why he is an important figure in American history. As students explore the timeline, they will find quotes, stories, videos, and audio about Benjamin Franklin. I wish there was an interactive timeline of every historical figure like this one! History would have been so much easier for me to understand.
How to integrate Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime into the classroom: This interactive timeline would be great for use with a whole class and Interactive whiteboard. Students could take turns visiting the whiteboard to ‘discover’ a new fact about Benjamin Franklin. Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime could be set up on classroom computers for students to visit as a center during a unit on Franklin. In a computer lab setting, students could be assigned a theme or time period of Benjamin Franklin’s life to explore and share later with the class. Make it even more fun by creating a time machine atmosphere where students can travel back in time to learn about Franklin…stamp their time travelling passports as they ‘journey’ from one period of Franklin’s life to another. This site is an outstanding way to capture students interest in Franklin and American history.
Tips: Show students the help/tips section for a key to understanding the different symbols on Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime in your classroom.
Artopia
What it is: Artopia is an interactive website that lets students learn more about and interact with different mediums of art virtually. “Students can closely examine important works of art and take part in activities that teach about styles, principles and processes of each art form. They can write about the artworks online, collect art cards in a virtual portfolio and view videos of professional artists at work. Teachers may exhibit their students’ artwork in a virtual gallery and both students and teachers can communicate with other artists in an online message board.” Artopia teaches students about dance, media arts, music, painting, sculpture, and theater. This is an outstanding addition to an art classroom!
How to integrate Artopia into the classroom: Artopia is a nice addition to any classroom. The site can be used to develop a greater appreciation for the arts. Students can be recognized and encouraged in their own art in the sites online art gallery. Artopia introduces students to important works of art and teaches them how to think about art. This site would be wonderful for working on critical thinking skills, creativity, and innovation.
Tips: Check out the Teacher Resources for lesson plans using Artopia in your classroom. Pass this site on to an art teacher, they will be thankful you did!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Artopia in your classroom.
The Hobby Shop
What it is: The Hobby Shop is an amazing interactive site where students can learn about science. Students can learn about a compound microscope, dissecting microscope, catapults, chemistry, and rockets. Each section of the hobby shop is completely interactive and has students discovering learning through virtual experimentation. Students can look through microscopes, each step of the way they are taught how to do things like prepare petri dishes, and clean up properly afterward. In the chemistry lab students can create an ingredient found in chalk, make a chemical used in photography, make liquids change colors, or test chemicals for electrical conductivity. Students are led through each step of an experiment just as they would do it in an actual lab. There is an interactive periodic table of elements that students can use to learn about different elements. Students can create their own rocket in the rocket lab choosing the body, nose cone, and fins of a rocket and then test it out. Students can also test out catapults with water balloons.
How to integrate Hobby Shop into the classroom: Hobby Shop is a wonderful place for students to experiment and interact with science in preparation for doing the experiment in class. It is interactive enough to take the place of experiments where the science budget doesn’t allow for a class set of materials. I am SO impressed with the way that this site leads students through each step of the process to complete an experiment. Use this site with the whole class using an interactive whiteboard, invite students to come up to the board and conduct the experiment. This site is also perfect for use as a science center in the one or two computer classroom or for individual use in a computer lab environment.
Tips: Check out the Teacher Resources for standard alingment, correlating worksheets, and other pdf files.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Hobby Shop in your classroom.
School Tool
What it is: School Tool is a collection of free administrative software for schools. This is a student information system that includes demographics, gradebook, attendance, calendaring and reporting for primary and secondary schools. It also provides a framework for building customized applications and configurations to meet the needs of your school.
How to integrate School Tool into the classroom: School Tool is an excellent alternative to expensive information systems. This open source solution is a great way to save some educational technology dollars to spend on additional hardware or infrastructure. If your school is looking at implementing a new comprehensive information system, definitely take a look at School Tool.
Tips: School Tool has documentation to help with installation and setup, an administrators handbook, a developers handbook, and a glossary of usage. These documents should have you up and running in no time!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using School Tool in your classroom.