Category: Teacher Resources

Lightning Bug

Kelly Tenkely9 Comments on Lightning Bug12274 views

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What it is: Lightning Bug is a fantastic resource for the writing classroom.  The tag-line of Lightning Bug is, “Your writing partner, helping you write a story from beginning to THE END”.  That is exactly what it does.  For each stage of the writing process, students have access to excellent guides and resources to aid the process.  Students can get help finding a story idea, developing the idea, and finishing the story.  Students can even have a look at what kind of writer they might be based on their personalities.  Lightning Bug has a great collection of writing resources.  Students can explore author blogs, search for character names, get some exercises in creativity, get help with grammar and spelling, and even get help for publishing their written work.  The teacher resources are equally helpful for teaching writing.

How to integrate Lightening Bug into the classroom: Lightning Bug is a great resource to have going on your classroom computers as a writing/publishing center.  Students can visit the site to get help with every stage of writing.  This is an excellent site to send home and alert parents to, it would be enormously helpful for at-home writing projects.  If you have access to a computer lab or 1 to 1 setting, allow your students to walk through this website as they work on any piece of writing.  The site is organized really well and easy to navigate independently.  Be sure to take a look at the teacher resources.

A few of the recommendations for the writing process include worksheets such as mind maps.  Instead of using a worksheet for students to map their ideas, consider using online tools that will let students organize their thoughts and collaborate with others as they write.  Try using online mind mapping tools such as Creza’s Mindomo or  Comapping.  Students can use tools such as Zoho, Google Docs, or Kerpoof to collaborate as they write.

Tips: Many of the ideas and resources found on Lightning Bug are useful for digital storytelling.

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

Game for Science

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Game for Science4784 views

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What it is: Game for Science has to be one of the coolest virtual worlds for kids.  This virtual world is dedicated to getting kids excited about science and technology.  Students can explore various virtual islands where they will learn about health, aeronautics, genomics, environment, engineering and more.  Students can learn more about science careers, what scientists do, play games, learn interesting facts, and explore science photos and videos.  Students can play the Game for Science as a tourist without registering, or they can register for an account (this requires an email address with confirmation).  This is an outstanding way for kids to get excited about science and technology.  As students travel through the virtual world, they can collect neurons (smart stars) by answering questions and playing games.  The neurons can be used to purchase items for their avatar.

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How to integrate Game for Science into the classroom: Game for Science is a great way to introduce new science topics or areas of science.  The virtual world will capture interest and keep students wanting to learn more about each topic.  If you teach younger students (without email addresses), visit the virtual world as a class on the interactive whiteboard or the projector.  Give each student a turn to direct the journey through Game for Science.  The rest of the class can jot down observations in a science notebook that can be used in later learning and experiments.  Students who can read independently can visit the site individually on classroom computers as a science center or in a computer lab setting.  Older students can register for an account and earn neuron points for their characters.  This is a fun site for students just to explore and interact with; however, for use in the classroom, you can direct students to specific islands to study.  For example, as you begin a unit on the environment, students can visit the corresponding island.  Game for Science makes for a great jumping off point that will grab students attention and interest in the subject they will be learning about.

Tips: There is a chat feature on the registered version of Game for Science, this allows students to interact as they discover new islands and talk science.

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

ePub Bud: ePublish Yourself

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on ePub Bud: ePublish Yourself31007 views

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What it is: ePub Bud is the YouTube of Children’s eBooks.  The site is YouTube-like in that anyone can create and share their own children’s ebooks.  The goal of this not-for-profit website is to provide an easy way to find, share, and self-publish children’s ebooks.  ePub Bud lets you create an ebook for a small audience, or for the whole world, digitize a real book by mailing in a physical children’s book and having it “digitized” for the iPad, upload an ebook file that you can read on the iPad, or download an eBook (classics and books others have shared).  Best of all, everything you do on ePub Bud is completely free!

How to integrate ePub Bud into the classroom: ePublishing is quickly becoming popular and more eReader devices are showing up in the classroom.  While there is nothing like holding a paper back book in your hand, their is also nothing like holding a good ebook in your hands.  Whatever we can do as teachers to get students reading, I say use it!  Use ePub Bud in your classroom to “publish” student stories.  The books can be shared with other students, parents, and schools.  Publishing an eBook of their own is highly motivating, and will have your students eager to write.  With ePub Bud, your students could construct their own text books.  Have them create ebooks about what they are learning to share with others.

If you have access to the iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, consider sending in some of the books from your classroom libary to be digitized.  Many sites have free ebooks for kids, make them iPad, iPod, or iPhone friendly by uploading them to ePub Bud.  You can also search the extensive collection of classic children’s eBooks that are on ePub Bud and download those for students to read.  You will find children’s favorites from Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carrol, A.A. Milne, Frances Margaret Fox, Milton Goldsmith, and many, many more.

This is such a neat website and it is really and truly free.  You won’t even find advertisements on this site!

Tips: If you send in a book to be digitized, ePub Bud cannot send the original back for copyright purposes.

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

Webspiration Wednesday: Sleedo

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Webspiration Wednesday: Sleedo4708 views

Today, I am doing something a little different for Webspiration Wednesday.  As a staff, we still gathered for Webspiration Wednesday finishing the Guy Doud video from last week.  Since I have already summed that up in this post, I thought I would write about a webspirational website instead.  Sleedo is a great Webspiration Wednesday website.

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What it is: Sleedo is a search engine that I learned about from @cspiezio today on Twitter.  This is a search engine with a mission to better the world with each and every search.  Every time you search using Sleedo, 10 grains of rice will be donated to help feed the poor.  Sleedo is a Google powered search engine.  Sleedo makes money through advertisements and donates that money to the World Food Programme, feeding those in need.  So, for every search you do, you are helping improve the lives of people around the world.  Pretty cool right?

How to integrate Sleedo into the classroom: Set up Sleedo as your homepage on classroom computers.  When students perform searches, they can be doing double duty: searching and helping the hungry around the world.  Sites like Sleedo are wonderful vehicles for teaching students about empathy, world issues, and compassion.  Have your students dig in and learn more about how the World Food Programme operates or take a closer look at how website advertising works.

Tips: I have found that students are passionate about websites with a cause (Free Rice, Free Corn, Aid to Children, Free Kibble, Free Kibblekat). Often students feel helpless to do something important that makes an impact on this world.  Sites like Sleedo help students enact real change that they can feel proud of.

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

Webspiration Wednesday

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Webspiration Wednesday4404 views

I learned about Guy Doud in one of my education courses in college.  We listened to a tape of a keynote speech he gave and read his book as part of the course.  Guy Doud was the Teacher of the Year in 1986.  He is an inspiration in education, even today.  I had the privileged of presenting at a conference where Guy was the Keynote speaker.  He is still an incredible voice in education.

Unfortunately I can’t offer you a full view of Guy’s speech (I have it on DVD only), but this clip should give you a look into this teacher of the year, and will, perhaps, encourage you to pick up his book: Guy Doud Molder of Dreams.

Guy Doud speaks about the focus of education: children.  When we get right down to it, isn’t that what we are all in this for?  He talks about the challenges that children face before they even step foot in a classroom.  He speaks to fostering the heart of children before we try to foster learning.  A child who is being abused, is hungry, is grieving the loss of a parent, has failed at life, really isn’t interested on your perfectly tuned lessons on superlative adjectives.  Whether we like it or not, we are in the heart business.  Teachers are called to be all things to the hurting kids who walk through our door.  Sometimes we play nurse, other times counselor, and sometimes even social worker.  Guy has an incredible rapport with his students and each of them leave his classroom knowing that they are important, that they matter, that they aren’t failures.  Watching Guy renews my spirit and gives me the inspiration to love those students who are hard to love.  To remember to get down on their level.  Many of our students have already been convinced that they are failures.  It is up to us to be their cheerleaders and let them know that they are uniquely gifted for a special purpose.  Our job is not just to teach and grow learners, our job is to assure students that they matter.

What’s Your News?

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on What’s Your News?3122 views

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What it is: What’s Your News is an online newsroom staffed by ants.  Complete with anchormen and a studio, What’s Your News is a “news show” aimed at 4-7 year old students that introduces them to the wider world.  The news covered is kids news, and it comes right from their homes (or classrooms).  News stories could be anything from the arrival of a new pet, to a lost tooth, or being able to play a new tune on the piano.  Students can submit their own Breaking News with the help of a teacher or a parent.  There are fun games to play that teach students about how news gets reported.  Learn about all of the characters by visiting them backstage.  Watch fun clips from the What’s Your News Nick Jr. TV show.  Print some fun activities including a make your own newspaper, build a What’s Your News studio, or download a special reporter pack that helps your students become roving reporters.  

How to integrate What’s Your News into the classroom: This site is just so cute, you can’t help but fall in love with it (and the characters).  What’s Your News is perfect for a communities/neighbors unit.  Students will learn about what is happening from news reports created by other kids.  I love the way this site involves kids in sharing news.  It would be fun to share classroom news on What’s Your News each week.  Download the special reporter pack for your students and have them put on their own weekly news show for your classroom.  Introduce your students to the wider world through this kid-friendly news show.

Tips: Before you post student pictures online, please make sure that you have school and parent permission to do so.  If you can’t post students pictures online, consider taking pictures and reporting on special class projects, a class pet, or a science experiment.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using What’s Your News in your classroom.

Magic Tree House

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Magic Tree House3882 views

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What it is: The Magic Tree House is a popular book series for kids that teaches them about history through fun adventures that take place with the help of a time traveling Tree House.  Now students can take their love of the Magic Tree House Books online with the Magic Tree House Website.  Here, students can enter the Tree House and collect stamps for their passport by answering questions about each of the books.  Students can learn more about the Magic Tree House books, even reading excerpts from the books.  There are fun online games and printable activities for students to play and screen savers and wallpapers to download.

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How to integrate Magic Tree House into the classroom: This is a great site for those students who are reading the Magic Tree House books.  The quizzes are a fun way for students to check comprehension and reflect on what they have read.  I love the passport that gets stamped each time they finish a book.  If you are reading the Magic Tree House books to your students, create a class passport for the year, your whole class can help answer the questions to earn the stamps.  The site is geared toward encouraging reading and a love of reading.  It just doesn’t get better than that!

Tips: Be sure to take a look at the Teacher Tree for some great reading suggestions and lesson plan ideas.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Magic Tree House in your classroom.

Google Search Stories Video Creator

Kelly Tenkely11 Comments on Google Search Stories Video Creator12228 views

What it is: Do you remember Google’s advertisement at the 2010 Superbowl?  It was called Google Search Stories and showed a story of Parsian Love  through a series of Google searches. Brilliant.  Now you and your students can create your very own Google Search story with Google Search Stories Video Creator.  There are three steps to creating your own Google Story: 1. Write the story, 2. Add Music, 3. Preview and Upload.  As you write your story,  you can choose to search by web, blog, images, maps, news, product search, and books.  

How to integrate Google Search Stories Video Creator into the classroom: Google Search story is an innovative way for students to display understanding or tell a story.  This tool teaches students to get to the heart of the story and tell it in a new, creative way.  Students can demonstrate their understanding of history, current events, a book that they have read, or a math sequence.

First, students come up with 7 events to search, paying close attention to story structure.  They should consider mixing web, images, maps, and blogs.  This will make the story more interesting.  Next, students choose music to fit the theme of their story.  It can be comedic, dramatic, romantic, country, horror, family, or sci-fi.  Finally, students can preview their story and share it with the world.

Think about sharing the life of a historical figure, or the story of Romeo and Juliet, or the scientific method in an experiment, or the story of their digital footprint,  or a fictional story that the student created.  Instead of writing out a traditional outline for a story, why not turn it into a Google Story?  The possibilities of this tool are nearly endless!  If you are introducing new information or learning to your class, consider doing it through a Google Story.  Watch the story as a class and find out what your students already know, what they need to learn, and what they want to know.  You could also create a Google Story as a class after new learning.  As you teach, ask students to jot down thoughts about what they could add to their search story to sum up the learning.  This will keep students engaged and thinking critically about the new material.  After the video has been completed, students can access it from home as an outline of what they learned in class.

Tips: Check out the Tips offered for starting a story, these tips will give you, and your students, a great jumping off point.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Google Search Stories in your classroom.

Ollie’s World

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Ollie’s World4292 views

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What it is: Earth Day is April 22nd, Ollie’s World is a fantastic place to begin the celebration early.  Here students will learn about the 4 R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink as they apply to the 5 action issues of waste, water, energy, air, and biodiversity.  The site is packed full of games, puzzles, information and projects.  Students can create web pages using a free (downloadable) version of WebEasy.  The information section has kid-friendly reading about the 4 R’s and 5 action issues.  In Ollie’s clubhouse, students can play games and work on puzzles.  Students can also watch the Mis-adventures of Ollie, 3 animated videos about Ollie and his friends, dealing with issues of sustainability (currently there is only 1 video available).  In the movie section, students can watch short flash movies about important environmental issues.  This site is loaded with information, games, and video.

How to integrate Ollie’s World into the classroom: Ollie’s World is a nice introduction for students learning about their ecological footprint.  Starting out in info, students can read about the 4 R’s and how they apply to the 5 action issues.  Students can watch videos and play games that reinforce the lessons they are learning.  You can use the videos as discussion starters in your classroom.   Download WebEasy to your classroom computers where students can build a webpage about their new learning.

Tips: Check out the educators section of Ollie’s World for professional development opportunities, lesson ideas, and project instructions.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Ollie’s World in your classroom.