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Zen.do: Efficient Learning

What it is: Zen.do is a site created by students with a mission to help make learning more efficient.  Zen.do seeks to provide a solution for managing the overwhelming amount of information that students are asked to learn.  It does so by helping students study what they need, when they need to.  Students begin using Zen.do by taking notes.  As they are taking notes, they add a hyphen between terms (concepts, names, important dates, etc.) and definition.  Students can then study their notes as flashcards, indicating what they know and how important it the information is to them.  Zen.do does the rest, it helps students spend less time studying by reviewing only what matters and what is likely to be forgotten.  In the long-term, Zen.do helps students keep important information at the ready.  The best part of Zen.do: students don’t really have to do anything differently than they are already doing it.  They create notes as they always do and Zen.do takes care of the rest. How to integrate the Zen.do into the classroom: If you are like me, you remember spending HOURS reading through class notes, creating flash cards, re-reading notes to make sure you hadn’t missed anything important, and then cramming as much as you could prior to a test.  I like that Zen.do takes the focus off the cramming for the test bit and focuses on really learning the material.  Zen.do helps students think about their learning process by making them call out what is important and how likely they are to forget it. Zen.do is a great solution for students who struggle with studying and finding a way to manage the barrage of information they face.  It breaks down notes into manageable, digestible pieces and keeps them moving forward in their learning. Zen.do is ideal in a 1 to 1 classroom setting where each student has access to a computer.  If you don’t have access to a computer for each student, consider using a classroom computer for note taking.   Make record keeping a rotating classroom “job”.  As the class recorder, a student would take notes for the class in a word processor (Google Docs would be ideal).  These notes can be accessed by students at home and copy/pasted into each student’s Zen.do account for studying. Tips: Students can sign in to Zen.do using an email address, Google connect, or Facebook. Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zen.do in your classroom!  

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Free Reading

Posted by admin | Posted in Language Arts, Open Source, Phonics, Primary Elementary, Teacher Resources, Websites | Posted on 06-11-2008

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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.

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