Category: Subject

Build Your Wild Self

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Build Your Wild Self3995 views

 

What it is:  Build Your Wild Self is a website I heard about on A Geeky Momma’s blog (which I thoroughly enjoy!).  The site fits perfectly into my classroom this week as our Book Fair theme this year is “Safari”.   The site, created by the New York Zoos and Aquarium, lets students create a character called their “Wild Self”.  Students can choose a character and then add crazy hair, arms, legs, etc. to make them wild. There are even fun sound effects for the different backgrounds they add! 

 

How to integrate Build Your Wild Self into the classroom:   This would be a great site to use with students after reading a book like “Where the Wild Things Are”.  Students could create their own Wild Things and write themselves a Wild Things story featuring themselves.  This is also a great site to use with kindergarten and first grade students who are learning about different animals.  As they build their Wild Self they can name what animal the crazy part belongs to.  Older elementary students also enjoy working on this website, my students created a wild self for their safari passports for our book fair this week and really enjoyed it from kindergarten through fifth grade.

 

Tips:   The Wild Self can be printed out, sent to a friend, or saved as a desktop.  

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Build Your Wild Self in your classroom.

Middle Spot

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Middle Spot3647 views

 

What it is:   Middle Spot is a spectacular new search engine for teachers, librarians, and students performing research.  Middle Spot lets you see your results, you can pan and zoom individual website results.  Workpads allow you to save and annotate results and sort by collections.  Workpads can also be shared with others (colleagues, students, or professional learning communities).  What I love about Middle Spot is the blending of the traditional search results (listed along the left side of the screen) with the snapshot results where you can see the results.  When your cursor scrolls over a screen shot, the related traditional result and information is highlighted on the left making it very quick and easy to find exactly the results you are looking for.  Middle Spot allows you to search the web or search images, very handy!

 

How to integrate Middle Spot into the classroom:   Middle Spot is a great place for students to do research because of the ability to organize their finds and ideas right in the search engine with workpads.  If students are working on group projects, they can share their findings and workpads with others in their group.  Middle Spot is also ideal for teachers, collect your search results in one place based on topic or curriculum objectives and share with colleagues.  Create your own “webquest” with Middle Spot by creating and sharing a workspace with your students.  Make workpads for whole class lessons with an interactive whiteboard or projector to save yourself from typing in each url for the activity individually.

 

Tips:   Middle Spot is truly my new favorite search engine.  Your students will love the ability to take notes about websites and cite their sources as they go in the workpads.  It really is well designed for the classroom setting!

 

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

Daft Doggy

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Daft Doggy3447 views

 

What it is:   I found Daft Doggy several months ago and put it in my “explore more” folder.  The Daft Doggy site is in beta version and it isn’t obvious upon first visit what exactly it does.  Today I had a little bit of time to go and explore the site more and I am glad I did!  Daft Doggy is a free service that lets you record web browsing sessions, play them back, and share recorded sessions with others.  It is very simple to use (only 2 clicks to start recording!)  You type in the starting point URL and Daft Doggy keeps track of all subsequent URL’s along the way.  Daft Doggy doesn’t record everything you do, it only remembers each separate URL you visit in a sequence, it does this both within the site or a separate external site.  When students or teachers view the session, a blue bar at the top of the page shows the URL along with reverse and next navigation.  Each recorded session is assigned a unique link making it easy to share with students or other staff.  After you have recorded the sequence of sites, you have the option of labeling each site and even adding a voice recording that will play when that site is being viewed.  

 

How to integrate Daft Doggy into the classroom:   Daft Doggy is a great way to lead students through a series of activities on the web.  Younger students especially who would have trouble keeping track of and typing mulitiple URL’s would benefit from a lesson recorded with Daft Doggy.  Daft Doggy is also perfect for whole class instruction with a projector when mulitiple sites will be visited.  The recorded session will keep you on track and keep you from having to type in multiple URL’s while teaching.  As a computer teacher and technology integration specialist, I like Daft Doggy for the ability to make quick guides for students and teachers as well as tutorials.  The Daft Doggy recordings are quick and easy to create making them ideal for quickly answering web questions or leading colleagues/students through websites.  Make your own online virtual field trips or webquests for students using Daft Doggy.  Student projects can also be enhanced with Daft Doggy.  Students can create web presentations with site to share with peers.  This would also be a great site to use as students are researching.  Instead of trying to remember the exact search words and links they used to find a site, they can record their research so that they can re-trace their steps at a later time if needed.  So cool!

 

Tips:   This beta site definitely doesn’t have any frills, it is very basic but it gets the job done easily and quickly.  To get started just create a login and you are ready to go! 

 

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

Free Reading

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Free Reading3791 views

 

What it is:    Not all technology resources require students on a computer, some technology resources are specifically for you, the teacher, to enhance curriculum or for professional development.  Free Reading is one such site.  This incredible open source instructional program helps you teach early literacy.   Free Reading provides a 40 week scope and sequence of phonemic awareness and phonics activities.  The goals of Free Reading are to help you teach kids to read, to make quality research-based instruction for reading free, and to provide a community of educators with a common goal of reading intervention.  Free Reading is really, truly free… downloads, prints, teaching materials are all completely free!

 

How to integrate Free Reading into the classroom:    Free Reading is ideal for the reading intervention classroom, or for small guided reading groups.  The program is an excellent reading program for kindergarten through third grade and for pullout programs for struggling readers.  Even if you have a reading program in place, check out Free Reading.  You will find excellent tools and materials that can be integrated into the current curriculum.

 

Tips:   Free Reading has some great live sessions, be sure to check one out! (It is, of course, free!)

 

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

Kids and Cookies

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Kids and Cookies3104 views

 

What it is:   Kids and Cookies is an online flash game that teaches elementary students about fractions in a game setting.  Students choose characters to be their “friends” and then choose how many cookies they have.  They have to evenly share the cookies with their friends and can use different cutters to divide the cookies.  The site provides a great introduction to rational number fractions.

 

How to integrate Kids and Cookies into the classroom:    This is a great site for introducing your students to the concepts of fractions, especially those at the “sharing” and “fair” age because of the way that they have to share and split up the cookies fairly.  This would be a good whole class activity with an interactive whiteboard or a projector where students take turns sharing their cookies.  As they share the cookies, talk about the fractions of cookies (for example when they split the cookie in half or in thirds.)  This would also be a perfect site to use as a math center.  Students can visit the center in groups and discuss their findings as a whole class after every student has had the opportunity to interact with the site.

 

Tips:  You can find more advanced (much more advanced) flash math games and activities on the Center of Technology and Education site where the Kids and Cookies game is hosted. This is also a great game for those of you who don’t have Internet access in your classroom because their is a free downloadable version of the game for Macs and PC’s…cool!

 

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

Learning Clip

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Learning Clip3286 views

 

What it is:   Learning Clip is a wonderful FREE math site out of the UK that provides short learning clips to be used in primary math classes.  The short video clips are explanations of math concepts.  Each video clip is followed by a game or activity where students can practice the new concept.  The whole site is intended to be used in whole class instruction with an interactive whiteboard (although they could be used just as successfully with just a projector or computer/TV hookup).  Many of the activities have been integrated with the Active Vote system.  If you are lucky enough to have an Active Vote set in your school this is a must see site!  The videos and activities are appropriate for first through fifth grades.  You do have to register to use the resources on this site, but it is free to register and a very quick process.

 

How to integrate Learning Clip into the classroom:    Use this site to introduce your students to new math concepts.  Use an interactive whiteboard, projector, or TV to show the videos.  Let students take turns “controlling” the computer during the activity portion.  If you have an Active Vote system be sure to actively involve your students in math learning with the integrated activities.  This site would also be appropriate for the one or two computer classroom.  Set up Learning Clip as a math center for students to visit while they are working on new math concepts or practicing old concepts.

 

Tips:  This site was created in the UK so money and measurement clips may not work in your classroom.  The other concepts should blend with your curriculum seamlessly.  

 

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

Cyberbee Copyright Application

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Cyberbee Copyright Application4680 views

 

What it is:  Cyberbee Copyright is an online flash application to teach students about copyright laws.  Copyright laws can be difficult to teach and difficult for students to understand.  Cyberbee makes it simple.  The flash site features students raising their hands, each asking a different question about copyright issues.  When students “call” on the cyber student, they get the answer to the question.  The site uses language that is easy for students to understand.  

 

How to integrate Cyberbee Copyright Application into the classroom:    This is a great site to introduce your students to before any research project.  The interactive nature of the site makes it perfect for an interactive whiteboard and whole class participation.  The Cyberbee Copyright Application is a site to bookmark on your classroom, library, and computer lab computers.  Students can refer to the site often to refresh themselves on copyright laws.

 

Tips:  Take a look at the other offerings of Cyberbee for research projects.  You will find web evaluation resources, citing electronic sources, a quick site tool, and more!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Cyberbee Copyright Application in your classroom.

Glogster EDU!

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What it is:  I wrote a post last week about a site called Glogster, since that post Glogster has introduced Glogster EDU!  Glogster for Education is a site that lets students combine graphics, photos, videos, music, and text into a great web 2.0 online poster.  Glogs are an outstanding way to enhance learning, wikis, and blogs.  Glogster EDU offers support and help with creating school accounts and keeping Glogs private.  

 

How to integrate Glogster EDU into the classroom:    As I mentioned last week, Glogster is a creative way for your students to display knowledge.  Students can create Glogs for absolutely any subject.  Glogster is wonderful for book reports, history, math concepts, science, and literature.  The ability to embed Glogs into wikis and blogs is outstanding and makes Glogs even more versatile.

 

Tips: Send Glogster EDU feedback about features you would like to see specifically for education…they have committed to updates based on your feedback!

 

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

Toy Maker

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Toy Maker3286 views

 

What it is: Toy Maker is a website full of free paper toy downloads.  While it isn’t directly using technology in the classroom, this is a great site to visit for the free downloads.  Toy Maker has everything from paper animals (origami type), to awesome math and learning toys, to toys that move, and gift boxes.  This site offers really amazing downloads and teaches students how to follow step by step instructions to create their toy. 

 

How to integrate Toy Maker into the classroom:   The math and learning toys on the Toy Maker site are perfect for integrating into your existing curriculum.  Living in Colorado means a lot of indoor recess days in the winter months, these toys offer excellent activities for those indoor days!  The gift boxes are perfect for holiday gifts home (Christmas, Mother’s day, Father’s day, etc.) or for exchanging with learning buddies.   Younger students will enjoy creating one of the animals and writing a story to accompany it.

 

Tips: Share this site with parents, they will love these printables for rainy days at home!

 

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

Primary Access

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Primary Access2478 views

What it is:   Primary Access is a tool I learned about today while attending one of the K12 Online conference sessions.  This incredible site has a web-based tool that offers students and teachers simple access to digital images and materials that provides them the opportunity to create personal narratives.  The idea behind the site is that if students are offered primary source documents, they develop better historical thinking skills.  I highly recommend you watch the presentation on k12 Online, to see just how accurate this belief was in a case study of the site.  Students use Primary Access to create digital movies (historical narratives) that help add to meaningful learning experiences.  The site is very simple to use, intuitive enough that even a student (or teacher) who has never created a digital movie would be successful.  

 

How to integrate Primary Access into the classroom:   Use Primary Access as a tool to bring history to life for your students.  Using the site, students can create a short digital movie that explores some event in history.  The digital movie will only be 1-3 minutes in length and can contain images, text, movies, and narration recorded in the students own voice.  Students have a place to write, research, narrate, view, and search a time line and idea map right in Primary Access.  The finished product is educational and entertaining for the creator and viewers.  The results with this site are truly amazing!  It really does bring history to life.

 

Tips: It isn’t obvious how to create a teacher account on Primary Access, to create an account go to http://primaryaccess.org/teacher.

 

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