Category: Teacher Resources

Big Ideas for Education

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What it is:   Big Ideas for Education is part of the Landmark Project created by David Warlick.  The purpose of the site is to collect “priority actions that might be taken by a new Department of Education that would promote shifts in education that are relevant to today’s students and their future.”  After ideas have been collected, the submitted statements will be linked according to topic to pare down all ideas into no more than 20 basic action statements.  The final action statements will be posted on Big Ideas for Education for educators to share insights about their favorite statements.  You will be able to order the action statements in order of importance to you.  

Head over to Big Ideas for Education and share your big idea.  It only takes a minute; but if we educators come together and start discussing some of these great ideas, we will start seeing a shift in education.

My big idea is to:  Shift teaching away from teacher as lecturer toward constructivism where students are constructing their own knowledge. (id 158)  Technology and 21st century learning skills naturally flow into the constructivist approach to teaching and learning.  Using technology within the context of the traditional classroom is always going to feel like you are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, it doesn’t flow naturally.  Make sure to copy and paste your big idea into the comment section here…we want to know what your big ideas are!

Daft Doggy

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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.

The Cool Teacher Podcast

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What it is:   The Cool Teacher Podcast is a podcast by educational technologist Chris Haskell who is an instructor for pre-service teachers in methods and applications of technology integration in the classroom (notice any similarities to iLearn Technology?).  The podcast “delivers cool tools, techniques, and tactics to transform your teaching.”  In episode #7 that came out yesterday, Chris gives a shout out to iLearn Technology’s post on Glogster (thank you Chris!!).  The podcasts are very entertaining to listen to and give great ideas for using technology in the classroom!

 

How to integrate The Cool Teacher Podcast into the classroom:    The Cool Teacher Podcast is a wonderful stop (in addition to iLearn Technology) for great ideas and tips for integrating technology into your classroom.  You can find the Cool Teacher Podcast at the links here as well as on iTunes in the iTunes store (it is free to subscribe to).  Listen to these great podcasts while you are grading, on the drive home, or while you are cleaning up your classroom for the day…just be sure to keep a pad and pencil handy to jot down the great ideas you are sure to hear!

 

Tips:  Chris also has a blog related to the podcasts, you can check that out here.  Thanks again Chris!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Cool Teacher Podcast in your classroom.

My Mobile Witness

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I am on Fall Break this week (hallelujiah!) so I am thinking of things non-school related and found a must view for all of you gals out there- guys check it out for the loved ones in your life.  My Mobile Witness is a completely FREE program that turns your cell phone into a personal safety device.  Basically, any time you feel uncomfortable about a situation (weird guy following you at Target, blind date, first time meeting an eHarmony match, etc.) you take a picture and text it to your My Mobile Witness account.  My Mobile Witness stores the picture with a time stamp in the digital vault.  Should anything happen, My Mobile Witness works with law enforcement…now you always have a witness!   So, you can use My Mobile Witness when you meet a blind date for the first time, enjoying yourself on spring break, your car breaks down and someone stops to help, a new repair man comes into your home, a friend leaves a party with someone she just met, you worry about an obsessive ex, a guy eyes your shopping bags on the subway, you spot a suspicious van in the parking lot, you go for a jog in the park after dark, a driver gets hostile with you on the road, you go on a trip away from home, or you go hiking in the back country.  This is truly an incredible service, check it out, sign up, and then send it to everyone you love.

Toy Maker

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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

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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.

Apple Field Trips

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What it is:  The Apple Store is offering field trips to k-12 students and schools!  Students can create something amazing on their field trip to the Apple store, or bring in a finished project that they have created and turn the store into a theater to share their work.  Parents, teachers, and friends can attend the event to celebrate student achievement.  Each event can accommodate up to 25 students.  A field trip lasts one hour but more time can be scheduled on an individual basis.  Right now, schools can request up to 3 date options for a field trip at a time.  When you schedule a field trip, Apple takes care of invitations to send home with students, and assigns a contact person to plan the field trip for your school.  Additionally, the teacher who sets up the event receives one year of complementary One to One membership.  Every participating student receives a special Apple t-shirt.  

 

How to integrate an Apple Field Trip into the classroom:   If you have access to Apple computers at your school the create and share field trip option is for you.  Students can work on a project (multimedia is probably best) and use the Apple Field Trip as a place to showcase and share their accomplishments.  If you don’t have access to an Apple lab or don’t have regular access to computers at all, use the field trip as a time for your students to learn and create using the computer.  This is a really amazing FREE opportunity, be sure to take advantage of this offer from Apple!

 

Tips: Right now field trips are only being offered through November 21st. Even if you can’t fit in a field trip before the deadline, be sure to let Apple know what a fabulous idea these field trips are and encourage them to offer future field trip options.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how your Apple Field Trip went.

K12 Online Conference 2008

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The K12 Online Conference 2008 officially kicks off today!  This is a great FREE online conference to attend.   Not only is it convenient for your schedule (you can attend sessions at your convenience online), but you will learn and be inspired by the speakers and presenters.  I highly recommend attending as much of this conference as you can!  You can get involved in the conference in several different ways, as a viewer of each strand, with the blog, wiki, interactive fireside chats, Twitter, Google maps, and an Elluminate event called When Night Falls.  Topics include the ReadWriteWeb Revolution, Free tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy, Assessment, Google, Delicious, Primary Access, History, Tech Integration, Reading Revolution, Video Conferencing,  Blogging, Photostory, Games in Education, Emerging Technologies, Wikis, Video Podcasters, and much more.  The conference runs from today, October 20, to Next Saturday, November 1.   Even if you can’t fit it all in during the next two weeks, you can come back later and visit the sessions that are of most interest to you.  There is professional development and credit options available for attending this conference so be sure to look into that as well.

What sessions are of most interest to you?  What have you learned as a result of the K12 Online Conference?

“See” you there! 🙂

Zotero

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What it is:   Gosh, some days I really wish for a time machine where I could go back to school armed with the tools that students have access to now.  I totally would have ruled the school!  Zotero is one of the tools I would bring back with me.  Zotero is a Firefox (Internet web browser) extension that helps students collect, cite, and manage their Internet research right from the web browser itself.  No hopping back and forth between websites.  Zotero automatically captures all citing information from the website, stores pdfs, images, and whole webpages, has flexible note taking options, has an easy to search library, saves and records in multiple languages, has integration with Microsoft Word and Open Office, and best of all…free!  Man our students are lucky!

 

How to integrate Zotero into the classroom:  Download the Zotero extension for every computer in your school (at the very least make sure this is on the library and classroom computers.)  Teach your students how to use Zotero as they are researching and teach them how to download Zotero to their home computers.  Don’t bend on your citation requirements…they have no more excuses! 🙂

 

Tips: If you don’t currently use Firefox as a web browser, I highly recommend its download.  I have been more than happy with Firefox, it meets all of my needs and requirements for a good browser and once again…free!

 

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