Internet Safety with Professor Garfield

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What it is: Professor Garfield has offered an array of interactive games and activities for kids.  I learned from blog Educadores Digitales that he has now teamed up with the Virginia Department of Education and the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia to help students protect themselves online.  Internet Safety with Professor Garfield is offering lessons on online safety, cyberbullying, and coming soon: fact or opinion and forms of media.  Each lesson is composed of three parts, watch, try, and apply.  In the “watch” section, students watch a video starring Garfield and his friends.  The video teaches an important Internet safety lesson.  In the “try it” section, students are given a chance to play a game that checks for understanding and redirects thinking if students missed a concept.  In the “apply it” section, students help a character from the video to make wise Internet safety decisions.  

How to integrate Internet Safety with Professor Garfield into the classroom: This is an excellent place for elementary students to begin learning about how to keep themselves safe online.  I make it a point to visit Internet safety throughout the school year.  I always start out my year with a few weeks that are focused on and dedicated to Internet safety.  I make a big deal of the activities that take place during those weeks.  At the end of the Internet safety unit, my students take an interactive quiz (usually using our ActivVote system) so that I can gauge their understanding.  Each student must pass this quiz in order to receive their Internet drivers license for the year.  Professor Garfield’s Internet Safety is the perfect addition to the Internet safety week.  The videos and activities are fabulous!  Revisit the site throughout the year so that students are reminded of the safety rules they agreed to follow at the beginning of the year.  I find that mid-year students start to get critical of each other.  The name calling and bullying seems to start up every February.  This is a great time to reintroduce Cyberbullying, and the lesson on Professor Garfield is a great way to do this.

In the lab setting, each student can go through these lessons at their own pace. Students will receive immediate feedback from the activities if they have any misunderstandings.

If you are a classroom teacher without a regular computer lab time, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to watch the videos as a class.  During the try and apply, turn the questions into a class discussion and choose the answers together.

Tips: Internet Safety with Professor Garfield has lesson plans and unit quizzes, an Internet safety certificate that can be printed at the end of the unit, and a printable poster for your classroom to remind students how to stay safe online.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Internet Safety with Professor Garfield in your classroom.

Switcheroo Zoo

 

What it is:  Switcheroo Zoo is a site I learned about from Kevin Bibo on his outstanding blog Cal Teacher BlogSwitcheroo Zoo has fun interactive games and activities such as “Make New Animals” where students can create their own animal combinations, “Build an Online Habitat” where students choose animals and match them to the correct environment, “Switch Zoo Puzzles”, “Where do I Live” where students help return rescued animals to their homes, “Sound Match” where students match the animal song to the correct animal, “Meerkat Grab-a-Snack” where students help feed a Meerkat by catching food, and “Catch the Moment” where students take ‘pictures’ of wildlife.  Switcheroo Zoo also has short films, sound clips, and photographs about animals for students to watch and listen to.  Your students also have the opportunity to become a “Switch Zoo Guide” by completing the Switch Zoo Quest.  Students play nine fun animal related games and activities to become a guide.  When they finish, they will receive a Switch Zoo  certificate of merit, a guide badge, and are added to the list of offical guides.

How to integrate Switcheroo Zoo into the classroom:  Switcheroo Zoo is an awesome website for students to explore to learn more about animals and wildlife.  This would be a great site to visit when studying animals and their habitats.  There are three educational animal-themed games on the site that teach about animal characteristics and habitats.  Switcheroo Zoo has an educational section that includes lesson plans for art, science, creative writing, and persuasive writing.  In second grade at the school where I teach, students complete animal reports as an introduction to research.  Switcheroo Zoo has on-site research with 142 animal profiles, a US endangered species map, and stories about unusual animal feats on a Zookeeper’s blog.  This site is packed full of fun, useful activities, lessons, and resources!  In a computer lab setting, students can research and play games individual.  In the one or two classroom computer setting, students can visit Switcheroo Zoo as a science resource center.  With the projector or an interactive whiteboard, complete the activities as a whole class or show the animal videos to your whole class.  

 

Tips:  This site does have some Google ads.  I use these as an opportunity to teach my students how to spot ads on a website and discuss what the purpose of advertisements is.

 

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

Kids’ Science Challenge

 

What it is:  Kids’ Science Challenge is a nationwide competition for 3rd- 6th graders to submit experiment ideas and problems for real scientists and engineers to solve.  Teachers or after school science programs can enter their classes for this contest that will inspire students to find the fun in science.  The deadline for entry is January 31st, 2009 so get this one in before the holiday break!  The grand prize winner will win a visit with the scientist or engineer to work with them to solve the question or problem proposed, along with possible appearances in Kids’ Science Challenge videos and Pulse of the Planet radio programs.  Other prizes include: a tour of the flavor lab, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream party, science kits, Kids’ Science Encyclopedia and Science books, visit to the SETI institute, telescope, personal planetariums, celestial seeker, a visit to a skateboard engineering workshop, a visit to your school from a pro-skater, a week at camp Woodyard, a skateboard, a physics workshop, a research cruise, kayak, handheld digital microscope, and more!  If that isn’t incentive to give it a try, I don’t know what is!  The first 1000 entrants get a free science activity kit.  The Kids’ Science Challenge website is a great place to explore even if you won’t be able to participate in the challenge.  Students are introduced to real scientists through video, can play science games, and find additional activities including downloadable science projects.  

 

How to integrate Kids’ Science Challenge into the classroom:  Invite your students to explore the Kids’ Science Challenge website and then journal some original questions, problems, or experiment ideas that are related to one of the four fields of science including flavor science, water quality, skateboard engineering, and the search for life in outer space.  This is a great opportunity to use technology creatively to present the questions and problems that students have and want solved.  Think blogs, websites, video, or podcast.  

 

Tips:  Be sure to check out the great lesson plans for the k-12 classroom to use for each of the scientific fields explored on this site.  The lesson plans are aligned to National Science Education Standards.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Kids’ Science Challenge in your classroom.

Maggie’s Earth Adventures


What it is: Maggie’s Earth Adventures is an incredible site for teachers and students.  First the amazing tools for you… Every teacher has wished for a lesson that takes little time for teacher preparation or explanation, can be used as a center activity, is a filler for students who finish their work early, serves as extra credit, is a ready made homework assignment, or can be an emergency plan for a substitute teacher.  Maggie’s Earth Adventures Teachers Lounge is the place to go!  Sign up for free weekly activity packets in subjects such as math, reading, science, and social studies.  Weekly activity packets are sent based on age levels (emergent reader, primary, and intermediate) and a different subject area is sent each week.  These are high quality teaching materials!In addition to the free weekly activities, Maggie’s Earth Adventures also features an excellent lesson plan resource, you can get an entire theme unit or a few lessons.  Some lessons even have free PowerPoint presentations to accompany the lesson.  The site is available in English or in Spanish making it perfect for the ESL classroom. Maggie is not just for teachers, you will find outstanding interactive games for your students too!  Kids can watch cartoons that tie in directly with the lesson plans.  The cartoons are packed with teaching and are interactive.  In the postcard section students can choose a picture and then choose an activity to accompany the picture.  Students can create a story clock, news article, description web, or postcard.  In the games section students can choose from games to improve math, spelling, reading, geography skills, language skills, proofreading skills, and science. Students can also download free books (these download as a printable pdf).
How to integrate Maggie’s Earth Adventures into the classroom: These high quality lessons and activities are ideal for having on hand for students who finish work early and are looking for extension activities.  They are also ideal for extra credit, homework practice, or emergency substitute plans.  Use the games as practice for important skills students are working on in language arts (spelling and punctuation) and math.  This is a great place for students to hone a newly learned skill.  The postcard maker (which actually makes much more than postcards) is a great place to send students for story starters and creative writing assignments.  This is one of those sites you will want bookmarked on your classroom computers!

Tips: Sign up to receive weekly activities and lessons from Maggie.  I know you sign up for a million things throughout the year, this is one that you will really use!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Maggie’s Earth Adventures in your classroom.

Thinkfinity

What it is: This is a one stop shop for the beginning of your school year but will keep you coming back all year long. Thinkfinity is “the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation’s literacy, education, and technology initiatives.” The site is completely free to use and has outstanding content for educators, students, and parents. Find amazing lesson plans, interactive activities, and other quality online resources. Thinkfinity has over 55,000 standards-based k-12 lesson plans, student materials, interactive tools, and reference materials that are reviewed by the nation’s leading education organizations to ensure the highest quality content. You will find great primary source material, interactive student resources, and even grade specific research lists to tailor materials and searches to meet your needs. Thinkfinity also provides free training and professional development. Some professional development options are online, you can search for Thinkfinity professional development opportunities near you.

How to integrate Thinkfinity into the classroom: Thinkfinity is a one stop shop for standards based lesson plans, interactive games and resources for students, maps, activities, book lists, and much more. Use Thinkfinity to support any of your lessons, themes, or current curriculum. Search for materials by subject (arts, social studies, literacy, mathematics, reading and language arts, science, and geography), by theme, by grade, or resource type. There is also a wonderful keyword search. Start out your year with lessons based on the Olympics in Beijing. Students can learn about the history of the games, sports, athletes, and even the history of Asia. This is a great site for students to complete research on. The sources are accurate and reliable and it is organized well for searching.

Tips: Content partners for Thinkfinity inlcude other top educational sites including Arts Edge, Econ Edlink, Edsitement, Illuminations, Literacy Network, Read Write Think, Science Net Links, Simithsonian National Museum of American History, and National Geographic Xpeditions.

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

Bookcasting


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What it is: Bookcasting is actually a term I made up. It is essentially a podcast about a book. My third grade students just finished their first round of Bookcast recordings that we uploaded to a Wetpaint Wiki. A Bookcast is a movie trailer-like review of a book that students create and share with one another. My students used GarageBand to record their podcasts (you could also use a free tool like Audacity) and add sound effects, then they published the Bookcast on our class G-cast account, and finally embedded the media player onto our WetPaint wiki.

How to integrate Bookcasting into your curriculum: Bookcasting is a fun alternative to the standard book report. It allows kids to be creative and gives them a great sense of audience. Bookcasting also has the added benefit of acting as a book review for other students to listen to. Bookcasting makes story retell a lot of fun! My plan is to have a link to our WetPaint wiki in the library so that students can listen to a peer review of a book before they check it out.

Tips: I had all of my students create a Bookcast on the same book before reviewing on their own. This gave them an easy starting place but still provided room for creativity. Click on the Easy Reader link on our wiki to hear the Bookcasts the students created.

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

Book Flix

 

What it is: Book Flix is a new offering by Scholastic that instills students with a love of reading and learning with paired fiction and nonfiction online. Book Flix is a subscription based service that is delivered over the Internet for teachers, librarians and parents. Right now you can try Book Flix in your classroom for free with a trial. The basic trial offers one pair of books about rain but a full free 30 day trial of all 80 Book Flix offerings is also available for schools. Book Flix offers a neat experience pairing fiction and nonfiction books. Students can watch and listen to the books read to them, read them independently, meet the author, play accompanying games, and view related kid friendly web links. There are quality lesson plans for teachers for each Book Flix. Check out the freebies and see how Book Flix might benefit your class, if you never order Book Flix the freebie is worth using!

How to integrate Book Flix into your curriculum: Use Book Flix that match up with your current curriculum, the fiction and nonfiction books and websites will greatly enhance what you already have in place. The quality of interactive books really is impressive and will give students a greater appreciation of both fiction and nonfiction literature.

Tips: Try out the basic Book Flix freebie first with the topic of rain, if you like the concept you can sign up for the free 30 day full trial with access to all 80 Book Flix. The freebie should carry you through the end of the school year (or pretty close). Test it out on your students and see how they like it 🙂

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Book Flix in your classroom.

Planbook Software

What it is: Planbook Software is a Mac only software created for teachers (sorry PC users, yet another reason that you should be on a Mac!) You no longer have to do the old school paper and pencil lesson plan book. Now you can keep your lessons in digital form easily with Planbook. Planbook makes it simple to enter information about your lessons, attach files directly to the lesson, print great looking reports, publish lessons to the web, and search your lessons easily.

How to integrate Planbook Software into your curriculum: Make your life easier with Planbook Software…this will save you so much time and makes planning simple! The interface is very easy to use and intuitive. Planbook Software also allows you to easily keep other teachers, administrators, students and parents aware of your teaching. You can choose which parts, if any, of your Planbook are viewable to others.

Tips: Check out the fun themes that you can use to make your Planbook personal!

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

Tumble Books

What it is: Tumble Books is an incredible site that reads popular stories with kids in an interactive book. The Tumble Books site also has fun quizzes, puzzles, and games that correlate with the different books. Students can have the story read to them, read it on their own, and have individual words sounded out for them. When students are finished with the story they can take a quiz on the book to check for comprehension or write a book review.

How to integrate Tumble Books into the classroom: Tumble Books is wonderful for emergent readers, remedial reading students, and independent readers. Because the level of support is adjustable, the same Tumble Book can be used in your classroom with every student regardless of reading level. Set up a reading center in the one computer classroom or each student can work at their level in a computer lab setting. These interactive books are popular with students and increase student phonics, reading comprehension, and reading strategies. Encourage students to read with Tumble Books at home as well…a great way to extend the learning day! Students can take a quiz on the book when they are finished or write a book review for other students to read. Everything about this site is amazing! Instead of popping in a video on those indoor recess days, use a projector and have the kids read along with a Tumble Book. Split the class into teams to play the games, they can take turns coming to the computer during their turn.

Tips: I have linked to Tumble Books through the Toronto Library. Schools and libraries can subscribe to Tumble Books for a very reasonable yearly subscription. Tumble Books also has a free 30 day trial that you can sign up for before committing to a subscription.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Tumble Books in your classroom.

Into the Book

What it is: This is one of the most incredible reading websites I have come across. Into the Book “is a reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and teachers.” It focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing and Synthesizing. The site has a series of 15 min. videos for students teaching and amazing interactive web resources that can be saved! Teachers have access to great lesson plans, downloads, and videos. Check out this site, you will be wowed!

How to integrate Into the Book into the classroom: In the student section, students drag a picture representing one of the eight strategies onto the book. First they watch a short video describing the strategy and how it works, then they can try it themselves. The site is an excellent introduction to key reading strategies. Students can learn about and practice reading strategy here. The interactive environment is a fun and exciting, even your most reluctant readers will enjoy this site. If you have a projector you can use the videos on this site with the whole class. In the one to two computer classroom, use the site during center time. The site is ideal in the one to one or computer lab setting. This site is a must for remedial reading classrooms!

Tips: Make sure to check out the teacher section for great downloads, teacher videos, and lesson plans.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Into the Book in your classroom.