History – Page 18 – iLearn Technology

Primary Access

October 23, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1754 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.

Glogster

October 16, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3312 views

What it is: Glogster is a great creativity site who’s tag line is “poster yourself”. A ‘glog’ is basically an online poster web page. Students can combine text, pictures, graphics, video, and audio to create an interactive online poster. Glogster has a very simple to use interface. The final glog can be hosted by Glogster or you can embed it into a wiki, blog, or class web site.

How to integrate Glogster into the classroom: Glogster is an awesome way for your students to display knowledge. Instead of creating a poster for a presentation, students can create an interactive glog to display information. Glogster can be used for history, math, language arts, book reports, science, social studies, and for public service announcements. In fact, I am having a hard time coming up with a subject that couldn’t use Glogster in some capacity. Students can create these online posters to display any knowledge or learning. You really have to see this site, the creativity that it allows for will get your wheels spinning. Once you start using Glogster with your students, you are going to think of all kinds of new applications. Because Glogster has the ability to handle audio, students can create podcasts (using Audacity, Garageband, G-Cast or Gabcast) and upload the content into their glog. So cool! I really love that students can share their school work and accomplishments online with classmates, family, and friends. Give your students an authentic audience and their work will dazzle you!

Tips: You can check out a quick sample glog that I created here about Internet Safety.

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

Piki Kids Comic Creator

October 6, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments5297 views

What it is: Piki Kids Comic Creator is an online comic creator for students. Students can upload pictures from their computers, or search Flickr for images to use in their comic strip. The comics are very flexible so students can make them uniquely their own. Students can choose the number of panels, the look of the panels, color choices, and much more. When students are finished creating their online Piki Kids comic, they can save them to a gallery, or print out.

How to integrate Piki Kids Comic Creator into the classroom: Students love reading comics, there is something about the interaction with a comic that makes even struggling readers willing to try. I find that the same is true with writing. Many kids who struggle to write would dread writing out a story or series of events after reading a book. But, introduce a comic and suddenly those kids who don’t like writing are writing full stories. Piki Kids Comic Creator is the perfect way to get your students writing about anything. Studying dinosaurs? Have the kids find some clip art of dinosaurs that they can upload to Piki Kids and have them write about what they are learning comic book style. Learning about the Civil War? Have the students retell the story as a comic strip. You will see creativity that you didn’t know your students possessed! Comic strips are also an excellent place for students to “write” a book report after finishing a book. Comics can be used in science to show processes (like plant cycle…give those plants a voice!) Comics can be used in math for students to create word problems for fellow classmates to solve. Use comics in character education, after teaching a lesson, students can illustrate, comic-style, what that might look like. From the technology side of things, Piki Kids Comic Creator is a great place to teach kids skills like uploading to a website, searching flickr for pictures, changing font, size, and color.

Tips: Piki Kids Comic Creator is an excellent tool. Be aware that there are adwords on the website. I use these as an opportunity to help my student spot advertisements and talk about why sites include ads on websites. Everything can be a learning experience!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Piki Kids Comic Creator in your classroom.

Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

September 24, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2310 views

What it is: Free Federal Resource for Educational Excellence (that is a mouthful, hence forth shall be known as FREE) is a excellent resource for finding teaching and learning resources from federal agencies. Resources are broken down in to subjects arts and music, health and physical education, history and social studies, language arts, math, and science. Subjects are further broken down in to sub categories making it simple to find exactly what you are looking for quickly. There is also a great section called U.S. Time periods where you can search US history resources by time period. New sites are added to FREE regularly, you can get the new resources delivered to you by subscribing to the FREE RSS feed. The teaching and learning resources linked to from the FREE site are valuable to your classroom and will save you loads of time in searching for quality resources.

How to integrate Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence into the classroom: Use FREE to find quality online resource for any subject that you are teaching. Some of the linked websites are specifically for teachers and some are activities and sites for students. Use this as a first stop when you are creating new lessons or enhancing the good old standby lessons. The FREEresources will enhance your lessons with rich content for your students.

Tips: Sign up for the FREE RSS feed for new resources delivered to you several times a week.

Leave a comment and share how you are using FREE in your classroom.

Flowgram

September 18, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3077 views

What it is: Flowgram is a website that makes it easier to teach your students online. Flowgram has a simple platform that makes is easy for anyone to package and share anything on the web. Flowgram can combine slideshows, documents, pictures, screencasts, websites, audio, video etc. with your voice narration. This makes it simple to teach any concept using the web. Flowgram requires no download, it runs directly from your Internet browser. Recipients of the Flowgram can fully interact with anything that is on the Flowgram (webpage links, video, etc.). Flowgrams can be sent via email, linked to, or embedded in a blog or website for viewing.

How to integrate Flowgram into the classroom: Flowgram is a wonderful way to create interactive tutorials for students learning any technology concept. Beyond that, Flowgram makes it easy for you to take your students on virtual field trips on any subject. What I love about Flowgram, is that it meets individual student needs. Students can work at their own pace and interact with any part of the Flowgram as many times as they need. It would also be a great place to create reviews for tests, and perfect for students who have missed school. Teach your students to make Flowgrams and start your own library of student created tutorials on any subject. Students teaching students is powerful! Because you can narrate Flowgrams, they are wonderful to use with students who struggle with reading and navigating the Internet on their own…it is like having you sit right next to them, leading with your undivided attention.

Tips: I have started creating a weekly Flowgram for teachers at my school called Tenkely’s Tips. I will be creating a new page with a collection of the weekly Flowgrams. Feel free to check them out!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Flowgram in your classroom.

Studio4Learning

September 12, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment9833 views

What it is: Studio4Learning is a great site for students in fifth through twelfth grades. It provides students and teachers with free, high-quality videos that can be watched online. There are ten categories of videos to choose from Math, Sciences, English, Languages, Social Sciences, Business, Arts, Test Prep, Find a Job, and Tutor Corps. Each category is broken down into several sub categories. Videos are engaging and teach key skills and concepts in a fun way. Students can also use the sites search feature to search for a specific topic.

How to integrate Studio4Learning into the classroom: Students can use Studio4Learning as a place to stop for homework help and to learn or review concepts learned in class. Teachers can use Studio4Learning as a center, with a projector, or on individual student computers to illustrate new teaching or as a place where students can review information. Studio4Learning is free to use, if students register (also free) they can bookmark videos. Teachers can upload class topic videos to Studio4Learning, again free. (Are you seeing a theme here? It is all free!) As an added bonus, if you have a class website or blog, you can embed videos directly into your site for students to watch on any subject you are studying in class.

Tips: Browse through a couple of videos on the site, I know you will be hooked!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Studio4Learning in your classroom.

Picturing America Part 2

September 10, 2008September 10, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1523 views

What it is: I have posted about Picturing America before (March 18th) but I just received my Picturing America kit yesterday and had to post again and make sure everyone was taking advantage of this amazing resource. I knew that the kit was going to be good but I truly had no idea how AMAZED I would be. The quality of materials is amazing (there really isn’t another word for it!) I’ll post pictures of my actual kit so you can get an idea for just what you get in this kit. Did I mention it was FREE?! The Picturing America program is completely free for schools and libraries and provides them with 40 high-quality masterpieces, a teacher resources book, and the program website. The National Endowment for the Humanities gives a grant making this all possible. As the recipient your only task is to write up a one page report about your experience. They give almost a calendar year for you to do this.

How to integrate Picturing America into your curriculum: What better way to teach your students American history than actually bringing history into the classroom and providing students with real ties to the past? I wish that I had the opportunity to learn history this way!Picturing America is going to bring authentic conversation into your classroom about American history. It would be the perfect use of web 2.0 collaborative tools where students can discuss the history and the art in Picturing America. Picturing America masterpieces would also be easily integrated into the art classroom or in literacy as writing inspiration. The teacher resource book is going to provide you with wonderful tie ins to your current curriculum. This is an amazing program, I encourage you to take part in it! These masterpieces will beautify your walls and provide teaching opportunities year round regardless of the age of students you teach.

Tips: Apply for the Picturing America program today. I can’t tell you how completely blown away I am by this program!!!

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

Creative Park

September 4, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2412 views

What it is: Creative Park is a great free creative resource library for teachers and students. Creativity is such an important part of child development but also an important aspect of 21st century learning and thinking. Creative Park offers teachers and students awesome resources for putting that creativity to use. The website offers ideas and templates that can be coupled with your lesson plans. Projects range from 3-D paper crafts (like airplanes, the Great Pyramids, a globe, dinosaurs, and the Leaning Tower of Piza, etc.) There are great special collections including an Architecture museum, circus land, and science museum. Creative Park also features calendars, art crafts, a digital photo gallery, and scrapbook area.

How to integrate Creative Park into the classroom: Lets face it, teachers don’t have the largest budgets in the world to buy manipulatives and learning displays. Creative Park can help ease some of this burden by giving you free high quality paper crafts that your students can assemble. I love that this taps into following directions and creativity for students. Students can use these materials to make class dioramas or displays. This is also a great stop for those indoor recess days. Keep your kids busy creating when they have to be cooped up inside. Use the scrapbook pages to create custom class memory books. Each student can create their own as a keepsake for the end of the year (my students LOVE their memory books each year). The greeting section is wonderful for elementary teachers who are in charge of covering every holiday and making sure that mom and dad get a card from their child. Many of the materials available on this site would be perfect for bulletin boards. The creative activities would also liven up classroom parties. This is a fun site to sit and explore!

Tips: Stock your printer up with paper and ink for these projects.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Creative Park for your classroom.

WizIQ

August 26, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1928 views

What it is: WizIQ is a virtual classroom platform where you can teach and learn. You can teach for free or earn money teaching. The WizIQ is free to use, has no downloads (it runs in your web browser), and works on Macs, Windows, and Linux. WizIQ provides a place to find, share, or upload PowerPoints on educational subjects and topics. The sessions are intuitive to use and can be scheduled for individal students or a group. The virtual classroom provides a place to teach and learn live online. Everything launches in a few clicks with…NO downloads! With WizIQ you can network with students or teachers, send a personalized invite to your contacts right from WizIQ. Share educational content in the form of slideshows, pdf, and online. When you start a session with students, you have access to a shared whiteboard space, live audio, video, or both, flash file sharing, and text messaging. Sessions can be recorded and saved for students to view again and again.

How to integrate WizIQ into the classroom: WizIQ is a great place to start experimenting with virtual classrooms. It has a simple to use interface, requires no downloads, and is free. Record lessons that you are doing with your class so that they can go back and review the lesson online at their lesiure. This puts students in control of their own learing. Interact with students during live virtual sessions. WizIQ is also perfect for students who were absent, have a long term illness that prevents them from being at school, or students who know they will be attending your school for half of the year.

Tips: You can make money by setting up and teaching in a virtual classroom (and lets face it, we could all use a little more of that!) Your classroom will be visable by search engines and open to students from accross the world. Don’t let the technology scare you, this is simple to use (even my fellow elementary teachers can get in on this one!)

Leave a comment and share how you are using WizIQ in your classroom.

Jigsaw Planet

August 20, 2008August 21, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment15491 views

What it is: Well, it is the first week of school which for me means that it is rules week. Every teacher has to go over the rules at some point and it is usually met by major groans from students. This year I approached rules week differently. I used an awesome site called Jigsaw Planet to turn my rules into jigsaw puzzles. Jigsaw Planet is a site that makes it simple to create custom jigsaw puzzles. Just upload a jpeg image to the site, choose how many pieces you want, what shape you want the pieces to be and Jigsaw Planet does the rest. You instantly have a custom interactive puzzle for your students to play! The puzzles can be saved for your own account, shared with students via a url, or embedded into your classroom website for easy access.

How to integrate Jigsaw Planet into the classroom: Jigsaw Planet puzzles are AMAZING to use with an interactive whiteboard! Each puzzle is timed as you put it together, split students into teams to see which team can complete the puzzle the fastest. Instead of the typical PowerPoint type presentation to teach students facts, create a puzzle for them to put together and have them read the fact once the puzzle has been completed. Turn your classroom rules into a series of jigsaw puzzles for students to put together. Honor your star student of the week by creating a puzzle of that student, just take a picture of the student and upload to Jigsaw Planet. Put the puzzle of the student on your classroom website to honor them. Students can use Jigsaw Planet to create their own puzzles. This is a great place for them to study, they can upload spelling words, math facts, maps, etc. Students will love creating their own jigsaw puzzles, if they have their own blog or website they can embed the puzzles right into their online space. If you have a projector or an interactive whiteboard, have students create a puzzle all about them. They can create a collage of things they like in a presentation program, take a screen shot of it, and upload the puzzle to Jigsaw Planet. Students can put together each other’s puzzles and guess who the student is based on the pictures. This would be a great getting to know you activity!

Tips: I split students into two teams. Each team would complete a puzzle using our new Mimio interactive whiteboard, the fastest time was the winner of that round. When the puzzle was completed, students would read the rule and we would discuss in depth. This made rule day fun for the kids and much more enjoyable for me!

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Leave a comment and share how you are using Jigsaw Planet in your classroom.