What it is:Critical Past is a website I learned about today from Tom Boito’s great blog EDge 21 in his Catch of the Day. The resource is too good not to share again here! Critical Past is a collection of more than 57,000 historical videos and more than 7 million historical photos. All of the photos and videos are royalty free, archival stock footage. Most of the footage comes from U.S. Government Agency sources. All of the videos and photos can be viewed for free online and shared with others via url, Twitter, or Facebook. The videos and photos are also available to purchase for download.
How to integrate Critical Past into your curriculum:Critical Past is an incredible collection of historical videos and pictures. The site is easy to search either by decade and topic or keyword. The clips and photos on Critical Past will bring historical events alive for your students. Use photos or videos on Critical Past to help illustrate what students are learning in history. Ask students to be “eyewitnesses” of history and watch a video before they have context for it. Students can write or blog about what they think they are witnessing, afterward they can research the event more in-depth and write a follow-up reflection on what was actually happening in the clip.
Tips: Along the right side bar of Critical Past, you will find “related videos.” Students can watch a clip and the related videos and reflect on how the clips are related. Sometimes it is a similar time period, sometimes a related event, other times it is a related location.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Critical Past in your classroom!
In the last year I started two edubloggers alliances (you can learn about them here and here). I have had wonderful teachers from around the world join me on this journey of blogging, commenting, and supporting fellow educational bloggers. As it stands, there are nearly 200 educators who have committed to reading, commenting, and encouraging other bloggers. I am still truly amazed at the results of this “crazy” idea I had. Many have asked me when I am going to start another alliance or when I will open it up for more to join. My answer, I have NO idea. You see, when I started the edublogger alliance, I committed to commenting on each and every post that members of the alliance posted. I did really well with this until the end of the school year hit. I am still commenting, but I can’t seem to get through the 400+ edublogger posts in my Google Reader. It made me re-think the reason I started the alliance in the first place.
My initial goal was to encourage others in their blogging. It can be hard for those new to blogging to break into the “club” and stick with it long enough to gain readers. My thought was, if we could encourage each other from the beginning of the blogging journey, more would stick with it. The problem? There are teachers who are new to blogging every day! I can’t keep up with it on my own and yet I still have a desire to help those who are new to blogging. My solution? Create an edublogger alliance social network on Wack Wall. I know what some of you are thinking: “is she out of her mind? I already belong to 15 social networks, subscribe to countless numbers of blogs, follow people on Twitter, how in the world am I going to keep track of one more thing?!” This isn’t my intent. For those of you who feel overwhelmed by the prospect of joining ANOTHER social network, don’t. It won’t hurt my feelings. I get it…I feel the same way every time a new social network pops up. It is too much, I can’t keep track of it all. But, I also know that there are thousands of educators out there who would like to try their hand at blogging but need a support system. You need someone to encourage you, answer your newbie (or not so newbie) blog questions, help you figure out how to blog with your students, help you navigate the blogging platform choices, etc. You need a place to be plugged in with others who are working through all of this themselves. Don’t misunderstand, the Edublogger Alliance is for everyone; of course I would love to have all of you join! I just don’t want you to feel an obligation to sign up for one more thing if you are already overwhelmed.
Let me be clear, I am by NO means an expert of any sort on blogging, I just know that I wish that I had someone to guide me in my blogging journey. I wish I had someone to ask questions, and sort through WordPress and blogging etiquette with. My hope is that this will be a place where blogging educators can come together, share what is working and what isn’t, ask questions, and get answers. I want it to be a place where those who have been blogging for a little while can help those who are just dipping their toes in. I want it to be a place of discussion and encouragement.
If this social network isn’t for you, if you are already stretched in a million directions, that is fine…I truly do understand. I will ask you to keep your ears open and offer it as a suggestion for those new to blogging, or those looking for a place to connect with other educators.
Below are a few screen shots of the new iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance with some explanations about how it works and what you can expect to find there.
The dashboard is your On the blog tab you can write, share, or read a blog post.Add the link to your blog on the link tab.Join a group to find others using your same blog platform, or to share blogging tips, tricks, and ideas.Start or add to a discussion on the forum page.
If you are interested in joining me on this journey, you can sign up here. Don’t forget to pass this on to all those teachers who are deciding to try blogging for the first time this year. They are going to need help!
What it is: DragON Tape is a web application that lets you create video “mix tapes” (mashups) of YouTube Videos. DragoON Tape is really simple to use, just search for a video by YouTube URL or subject and drag it down to the timeline. Add as many videos to the timeline as you want and save it. DragON Tape makes it easy to give your students access to several videos with just one url.
How to integrate DragON Tape into your curriculum:DragON Tape is a simple way for you to create a mix of videos for your students to watch, collected under one url. DragON Tape is very easy to use and share, you can create a video mashup in no time. This is a great way to send video collections to students and colleagues. If you have access to YouTube at school, students could create their own DragON Tape mixes on any subject. Students can mix the best of the best videos on a subject to share with classmates. This year, I had my students make video commercials advertising Free Rice that we uploaded to YouTube. DragON Tape would be a fantastic way to collect all of the student videos in one url so that students and parents could watch the student creations in one place. DragON Tape is easy to fast forward and rewind through making it perfect for this type of class video collection. Want to see DragON Tape in action? Check out this phonics mix I made in under 2 min! Another thing that I like about DragON Tape is the way that it isolates YouTube videos against a black screen when it replays them. There are no distracting comments, advertisements, or related videos suggested. DragON is perfect for the projector-connected computer, interactive whiteboard, or on computer lab or classroom computers as part of a guided learning activity.
Tips:DragON Tape requires an email for registration. If students are creating mixes, consider creating and using a class email address as the login credentials or used a @tempinbox or @mailinator temporary inbox address.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using DragON Tape in your classroom!
I am not a fan of canned curriculum. It has some benefits and is relatively easy to teach, but there is a lack of differentiation for different learners and the activities for practice are often shallow. Treasures has some fun stories and themes but they are really lacking in their activities to practice the essential learning. The activities are often shallow and don’t change from first grade to fifth grade. The same copy from the dictionary activity is suggested for learning vocabulary for every unit in every grade level. I created the Treasures supplement as a way to help teachers provide students with multiple ways of practicing the essential learnings. I just finished the supplement for unit 1. This is the supplement for first through fifth grade.
What it is: Storybook Web is “based on popular children’s stories by authors Scoular Anderson, Debi Gliori, Mairi Hedderwick and Frank Rodgers.” There are a number of fun activities on this site including the ability to listen to the author’s reading excerpts from their stories and answering questions about how they came up with ideas for writing. Students can choose from one of eight stories, each story has a related game, word bank activity, and videos/audio for reading the story and interacting with the author.
How to integrate Storybook Web into your curriculum:Storybook Web is a fun way for students to interact with stories, making connections to the authors of the stories and the themes that they are reading about. This site helps students think like an author. It gives them an inside look at how authors think about writing. Use this site as an introduction to a writing activity. Students can watch the author videos and get an inside look at the process that a writer goes through. This can be done using a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Storybook Web would also make a nice addition to a writing center on classroom computers. When I taught second grade, I set up an “editing and publishing” center on my classroom computers. Here I gave students access to an online dictionary, thesaurus, word processor/publishing program, and Read Write Think. Storybook Web would be an excellent addition to a writing center. Students can go to be inspired, encouraged in the writing process, and given a place to practice their own writing. I like the word bank on Storybook Web, word choice is hard for beginning writers. By interacting with the word bank activity on Storybook Web, students will begin to think about their own word choice. You may want students to go through their own writing and pick out words that they would add to their word bank. I have found that activities like this make students think about the words they are using. Often, students will self-edit and find richer vocabulary to use in their writing.
Tips: This is an easy website for emergent readers and writers to navigate. Students can choose to have the site narrated for them or they can turn the audio off and read on their own.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Storybook Web in your classroom!
What it is: I learned about Answer Garden from an interactive post on Suzanne Whitlow’s excellent blog, Suzanne’s Blog. Answer Garden is a “new minimalistic feedback tool.” It can be used as an online answer collection tool or embedded on a website or blog. An Answer Garden is created as easily as entering a question and clicking create, no registration needed. Embed the Answer Garden on any blog, website, or social network page using the embed code provided. You can also give students a direct link to the Answer Garden. Students can post answers to your questions by entering their own answers or by clicking on and submitting existing answers. All of the answers are represented in the form of a word cloud. 25 answers are visible per garden but as students submit the same answer, that word will grow bigger. Creating an Answer Garden is SO simple. Just type in your question or brainstorm statement and click create.
How to integrate Answer Garden into the classroom:Answer Garden is a fun way for students to brainstorm, plan, and work together. Pose open-ended thinking questions on your classroom blog or website for students to answers. Use Answer Garden to host a classroom poll. Create a geography Answer Garden that gives students a place that they can describe a state or country they are learning about. Use Answer Garden during reading as a place for students to reflect on different characters, plots, settings, and themes. In history, give students a date range, event, or historical figure and let them add words to the Answer Garden that describe. In the primary classroom, type in a phoneme combination and have students submit words that fit the phoneme rule. Create an answer garden to recognize VIP students in your classroom where each child can answer with a character quality that they appreciate about that student. The possibilities are endless! This tool is SO easy to use, try it out in the Answer Garden below.
Tips: The default settings on Answer Garden only allows students to submit one answer. You can check the optional “Unlimited Answering” to give students multiple opportunities to submit answers.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Answer Garden in your classroom.
What it is:Energyville is a game sponsored by Chevron. In the game, students have to provide enough power to meet the energy demands of a city with a 5.9 million person population. As they play, they must keep the city prosperous, secure, and clean. The energy decisions that students make for the city in 2015 are based on current lifestyles and the projected energy demands and costs for developed countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. The Energyville game environment is a lot like SimCity in the way that students build and maintain the city. Students begin by dragging energy sources to the city to bring it to life. Students can choose from biomass, coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, petroleum, solar, and wind. As they add energy sources to the city, they can observe the impacts on the economy, environment, and security of the city. The goal is to keep the impact low. There is a comparison chart where students can view the impact of the different energy sources on the environment, economy, and security to aid them in their decision-making. As students move their mouse over the different energy sources, they can read about that energy source in the Energy Advisor panel.
How to integrate Energyville into the classroom:Energyville is an excellent simulation game that helps students to experiment with energy sources. They are able to see the way that their decisions directly affect people and the environment. Students can see how some energy sources may have a low impact on the environment but are high in cost or impact security. This is a great way for students to weigh decisions and defend their choices. Set students up in a computer lab setting where each student has their own computer. Give students a set amount of time and see which students can get the highest score (lowest impact) on their city in that time. Afterward, discuss the best and worst energy sources, and have the highest score walk the class through their strategy. If you don’t have access to a lab, you can send students to Energyville in small groups as a center activity on the classroom computers. You could also play as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.
Tips: There are two levels of game play. In the first level, students make decisions to meet the city’s energy demands in 2015. In the second level, they must make additional decisions to prepare for the energy demands of 2030.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Energyville in your classroom.
What it is: Can Do Street is a website that has games, lessons, and videos focused on character development for young students. The site is membership based but does have some free content. Hector’s Being Selfish is a free video on the site that teaches students what it means to be selfish. The cartoon is easy to understand and helps kids recognize selfishness and what it means to be a good friend. Throughout the video, students are given the chance to interact by answering questions.
How to integrate Hector’s Being Selfish into the classroom: Selfishness is one of those characteristics that young kids find difficult to understand. It is hard to separate wants from being a good friend and expressing empathy! This videos helps children recognize selfishness and offers ways that they can be a good friend. Character education needs to be taught, we can’t expect that all children will naturally pick it up. Kids come from different backgrounds and differing expectations at home. Hector’s Being Selfish is a good video to begin the school year with, and would be a great reminder mid-year. Watch the video as a whole class and invite students to vote on their answers throughout the video.
Tips: Each section of the Can Do Street website has a preview so you can get a feel for the types of activities they offer. If you decide on a membership, plans are very affordable from $4.95/month to $24.95 for the year.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Hector’s Being Selfish in your classroom.
