Category: Secondary Elementary

Top 10 Technology Tips for New Teachers

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Top 10 Technology Tips for New Teachers3291 views

Yet another article that I wrote for http://theapple.com This article has been a popular one, it had the most views EVER on TheApple in one day! I wrote these tips for new teachers but the tips are valid for those of us who have been teaching for years as well. Enjoy!

Kelly Tenkely | TheApple.com

Being a first year teacher can be overwhelming to say the least. There is new curriculum to learn, unfamiliar school policies, classroom management challenges, and new teammates. Technology can help to ease some of these first year growing pains.

1. Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter.

Twitter is an excellent place for new teachers to connect, collaborate, share ideas, and struggles with educators around the world. When joining Twitter, make sure to fill out your profile with information related to education. This will help others in education find you. Visit http://twitter.com to create an account. Visit http://twitter4teachers.pbworks.com to find other educators that teach in the same content area(s). Be sure to add your Twitter name to the appropriate list so that other educators can find you.

2. Keep students engaged.

Always have engaging activities on hand to keep your students on task and learning. Students will misbehave if they have nothing to do, don’t give them the opportunity to be bored. Technology is a great way to fill those extra minutes with critical thinking and problem solving activities. Keep a list or bookmark folder full of great online logic puzzle and problem solving websites for students to refer to when they have extra minutes. List ideas on 3×5 notecards that are kept next to the classroom computers. Students can select a card for an engaging activity any time they have a few extra minutes. Here are some suggestions for great engaging websites:

Fantastic Contraption- http://fantasticcontraption.com/

Super Thinkers- http://www.enlightenme.com/enlightenme/superthinkers/pages/index.html

Toy Theater- http://www.toytheater.com/index.php

Science Museum Launch Ball- http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/

I Know That Thinking Games- http://iknowthat.com

Zoops Games that make you think- http://www.zoopz.com/zoopz/zoopz2.html

Light Up Your Brain- http://lightupyourbrain.com/

3. Take charge of professional development.

Just because you have a degree doesn’t mean that you are finished learning. A good teacher is continually learning. Technology makes it easy to extend your learning by offering professional development on demand. Professional development will keep your teaching fresh, current, and will remind you of what it is like to learn something new. Teachers who are continually learning make empathetic teachers, they understand how frustrating it can be to learn something for the first time. These are great places to continue your learning:

Learner.org – http://learner.org

Thinkfinity- http://thinkfinity.org

Tapped in- http://tappedin.com/tappedin

Teacher Tap- http://eduscapes.com/tap

Edutopia Instructional Modules- http://www.edutopia.org/instructional-modules

4. Involve parents by creating a link between home and school.

It is essential to build a strong connection between what happens at school with what happens at home. Students shouldn’t stop learning when they leave your classroom. Keep parents informed so they can be advocates for their kids education at home. There are a few ways to keep parents involved and informed:

  • Build a simple website to share classroom policies, unit overviews, homework, newsletters, calendars, and links to helpful websites. These websites are as easy as 1-2-3 to create and will keep your parents in the know. Check out the following free website creators:

Wix www.wix.com

Weebly www.weebly.com

Bloust www.bloust.com

Yola www.yola.com

Lunar Pages http://wiki.lunarpages.com/Free_Education_Account

Create a classroom Twitter account (http://twitter.com) and invite parents to follow the class on Twitter.

Throughout the class day invite students to post short updates about learning on the classroom Twitter account. Examples would be: “Yikes, about to take a pop math quiz!” or “Reading chapter 3 of Wayside School, can’t wait to hear what happens next.” This keeps parents updated with exactly what is happening in your classroom throughout the school day. When students get home parents can ask about specific activities that happened throughout the school day instead of getting the standard “nothing” answer when they ask what they did that day. This is also a great place to post homework. It is fast and gets students and teachers thinking about and reflecting on the learning of the day.

5. Keep yourself organized.

During the first year of teaching you will find a lot of new great resources, keep track of all these great finds in one easy to manage location. Delicious.com is a bookmarking website that allows you to bookmark and organize websites and webtools as you find them. Bookmarks can be collected and shared with others educators through Delicious. Be sure to install the Internet browser plugin so that you can easily bookmark a site with the click of a button.

6. Find educational blogs to discover new ideas, encouragement, and educational news.

I have found some educational blogs written by other educators that make me laugh, keep me current, and encourage me on tough days of teaching. Below are some of my favorite blogs, you can find other great blogs by clicking on the links in each bloggers ‘blog roll’. These are the blogs that the blogger is reading.

NCS-Tech- http://www.ncs-tech.org

Three Old Farts- http://threeoldfarts.com/

Cal Teacher Blog- http://calteacherblog.blogspot.com/

Always Learning- http://mscofino.edublogs.org/

Once Upon a Teacher- http://onceuponateacher.blogspot.com/

Regurgitated Alpha Bits- http://regurgitatedalphabits.blogspot.com/

Smart Education 1 to 1- http://smart1to1.blogspot.com/

The Cornerstone Blog- http://thecornerstoneforteachers.blogspot.com/

The Strength of Weak Ties- http://strengthofweakties.org/

Bestest PE- http://bestestpe.blogspot.com/

Confident Teacher- http://confidentteacher.blogspot.com/

iLearn Technology- http://ilearntechnology.com

7. Get to know your students.

Nothing means more to a child than getting to know them individually. Find out about their likes, dislikes, family, pets, friends, and hobbies. Technology can make it easier to get to know your students. Sign up for a classroom http://think.com account. Each student will get a protected web space. Here they can create school related web pages, and interact with you and other students in the form of debates, votes, blog posts, and online collaborative projects. Pose questions on your think.com space for students to answer. In my experience, even shy students are willing to share with you in this type of environment.

8. Work smarter not harder.

Use websites like Scholastic’s Book Wizard that will help you work smart and maximize your time. Scholastic Book Wizard helps you to find just the right books for your students. Level your books, find booktalks, author information and lesson plans. Search books by level, author, title or keywords, or find similar books at the reading level you need. http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do?ESP=TBW/ib/20081222/eng/tbw_logo///thlp/img////

9. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

There are a number of free lesson plans available online for every topic and grade level. These can be excellent, creative supplements for school curriculum.

Scholastic Lesson Plans- http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplans.jsp

LessonPlanz- http://www.lessonplanz.com/

Hot Chalk’s Lesson Plans Page- http://www.lessonplanspage.com/

Teachers.net – http://teachers.net/lessons/

Lesson Plan Central – http://lessonplancentral.com/

teach-nology- http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/

A to Z Teacher Stuff- http://atozteacherstuff.com

10. Always be prepared.

Plan out lessons, and keep them organized. Discovery School has a great online lesson planner where you can create and store your lesson plans. Lesson Planner lets you edit, print or download your lesson plans while linking to puzzles, worksheets, and quizzes that you have created with the teacher tools on DiscoverySchool.com. http://school.discoveryeducation.com/teachingtools/lessonplanner/index.html

Creaza

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Creaza5717 views

 

What it is: Creaza is a suite of web-based creativity tools.  There are four tools in the Creaza toolbox that will help your students organize knowledge and tell stories in new creative ways.  Mindomo is the mind mapping tool.  Students can use this tool to organize thoughts, ideas, links, and other information visually.  Mindomo is the perfect tool for exploring new material, looking at connections, and organizing thoughts for further development.  The mind map topics can contain media files, links, and text.  Cartoonist is a cartooning tool that students can use to create multimedia stories.  Cartoonist can be used to create comic strips or more personal digital narratives.  The finished product can be viewed online or printed out.  (Check out the video demo to learn how to use this tool.)  Movie Editor helps students produce their own movies based on Creaza’s thematic universes, video, images, and sound clips.  Students can use the Movie Editor to edit a short film, create a news cast, a commercial, a film trailer, etc.  Movie Editor can import film clips, sound clips and images to tell a story.  Audio Editor is the final tool in Creaza’s creative suite.  Audio Editor is a tool that allows your students to produce audio clips.  Students can use Audio Editor to splice together their own newscasts, radio commercials, radio interlude, etc.

How to integrate Creaza into the classroom:  Creaza is a great suite of online tools that allow students to display learning creatively.  The Media and Audio editors follow established conventions for sound and media editing complete with timelines.  Using this online software will be a nice introduction to more robust media and audio editors.  Mindomo is a great way for students connect new and existing knowledge.  It is also a nice place for students to plan out a story.  Cartoonist and Movie Editor are great tools that provide students with a creative outlet for telling a story.  Allow students to show their understanding of a period in history by creating a cartoon about it.  Display a new science concept in Movie Editor complete with voice over.  Students could create a short video or radio type commercial for a book that they read in place of a traditional book report.  The uses for are limitless, you will think of many ways for your students to use this creative suite to display knowledge.

 

Tips:  Cartoonist is the only tool that has a video demo, this is a great way to teach your students how to teach themselves.  Encourage students to learn how to use this tool by watching the video demo first and working with the tool.  Movie Editor does take a little bit of playing with to figure out how to use it, give your students a day to play with the tools so that they get a handle on how it all works.  

 

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

Spell Quizzer

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Spell Quizzer3265 views

What it is:  Spell Quizzer is software that helps students practice their spelling words each week.  Input spelling words into Spell Quizzer and use the software to study spelling words.  Spell Quizzer plays back audio of the spelling word you record and waits for the student to type in the word.  Students get immediate feedback about how they did.  The software re-quizzes students on spelling words that were missed after the first run through.  This software costs $29.95 but the creator has generously offered iLearn Technology readers a free copy of the software for one classroom computer.  Parents can get a free trial of Spell Quizzer to find out how it works for their family.  To get your free copy of Spell Quizzer fill out the contact form here: http://www.SpellQuizzer.com/Contact.htm.  Be sure to mention that you are an iLearn Technology educator and use an email address associated with an education institution when requesting a free license.

How to integrate Spell Quizzer into the classroom:  Spell Quizzer is excellent software for your classroom computer, record spelling words at the beginning of each week.  Give students multiple opportunities to visit the spelling center to practice their words.  We all know that not all parents help their kids study spelling, this is a great way to ensure that all students get some practice in.  

 

Tips:  Be sure to share this software idea with parents. Busy parents will appreciate the help with spelling practice!  *Spell Quizzer is a PC only software currently…hopefully there will be a Mac version in the future.

 

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

Ekoloko

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Ekoloko3276 views

What it is: Ekoloko is a virtual world for kids.  In Ekoloko students discover the world, both real and virtual, through fun games and quests.  As they play in Ekoloko, students learn and build values, character qualities, knowledge and skills that help them become more responsible and involved individuals.  Students learn to respect each other and the environment in the safe online community.  While students are in Ekoloko, they are faced with dealing with other characters that are interested in exploring the resources of the world for their own personal benefit.

How to integrate Ekoloko into the classroom:  This safe virtual world is a great place for students to practice their netiquette in a controlled environment.  In Ekoloko, character qualities are valued, leadership and responsiblity are encouraged.  This is a great way for students to learn how to be good online (and offline) citizens.  Along the way, students can also practice being good stewards of the environment.  Ekoloko reminds me of  and would be another great site to introduce to students in preparation for Earth Day.  I really appreciate the character values encouraged by this site.

 

Tips:  To view the site in English, select English as the language in the bottom right corner of the site.

 

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

Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math4906 views

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

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Geo Greeting3220 views

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

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Newseum3921 views

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

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Xtranormal Text-to-Movie5727 views

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

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime3079 views

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.