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What do you love: Google’s multi-search search engine

April 23, 2012Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3894 views

What it is: What do you love is a nifty little search space from Google that I ran across today. Apparently I’m late on this one, everyone was blogging about it a year ago! Ah well, can’t win ’em all. With What do you love, students can type in a search term and instantly get results grid-style from Google images, create an alert, find patents, look at trends, email someone about the topic, explore the search in 3d with SketchUp, find books, watch videos, translate into 57 languages, organize a debate, find blog posts, maps, call someone, start a discussion group, plan an event, view it in Google Earth, create a instant bookmark to the search, or make the search mobile. This is a super way to help students organize and view information and options for sharing from one place.

How to integrate What do you love into the classroom: What do you love is a great tool for helping students learn about how searches work. Students can instantly see a variety of search options and can begin comparing/contrasting results from the different streams. Ask students to consider which types of searches lend themselves to each type of search (images, video, web, blogs, maps, etc.). It is nice to have a one-stop shop of search results all within one page like this. Students can quickly look at the top items from each available stream and decide from that one point which option best fits their search needs.

As a teacher, this search option is incredibly valuable for the time it saves. Working on a new thematic unit or unit of inquiry? Type it into the search terms and immediately find related books, videos, and other resources to help you maximize your time and effort.

I think that the trends are fascinating to look at and speculate about. Are your students studying current events or an event in history (Titanic anyone)? It is really interesting to see how the trend of the search topic changes over time. Ask students to speculate and think critically about the rise and fall of certain topics.

Did you know that Google will help you organize and start a debate with moderation? Me either. It is a pretty neat little service that gives everyone a voice and lets students gather input from a large audience. This could be a great way for students to get help with brainstorming, collecting public opinion or in preparation for a presentation they are giving. This is an option I would only use at the high school level (it is for 13 and above). I haven’t played with it long enough to receive inappropriate responses, but I’m sure they slip through. This is also a great way for students to get more opinions or input about a topic they love. Right now the top topic on the Moderator site is about Minecraft. This is HUGE with our students right now, they cannot get enough!

What do you love would be a great site to bookmark on your projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard so that students can do searches about topics they are interested in as a class. Using What do you love this way gives you the opportunity to help students wade through results and practice discernment in what is accurate and good information for the topic being searched. I don’t know about you, but YouTube is the first place my students head when they are going to learn something new. I think this is because the video medium is preferred over the text results where they have to wade through information to find what they are looking for. Most students tell me they go to YouTube first because it is easy to know within a few seconds whether a video is going to give them the information that they want (forget deciding if it is a credible source). YouTube IS a wonderful place to learn something new, I often go there myself, but it is nice for them to see other results along side the video. As educators it is our job to teach students how to be discerning about the information they collect and how to use that information appropriately as it relates to the task they have been given.

Tips: Fair warning, this is a search engine. You can’t always guarantee that what a student searches will come up with appropriate results. I often remind students that if they come across anything that makes them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused they should tell a trusted adult so that we can sit down and help them work through what they found and offer recommendations for a better search.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using What do you love in your classroom!

1-to-1 iPad ePortfolio solution

October 11, 2011October 11, 2011Kelly Tenkely12 Comments3661 views

Today @j_allen asked how we handled eportfolio’s at Anastasis Academy. The 140 characters of Twitter felt a little too limiting to explain the hows and whys of what we do…bring on the blog post!

Anastasis has a one-to-one iPad program. Our students own their iPads in a modified BYOD (bring your own device) setup. I say modified because we requested what device they brought. The iPad was the ONLY supply on our supply list. Anastasis supplies all other materials (pencils, papers, crayons, markers, paint, glue, etc.). This has been a fantastic setup for us. Families are in charge of keeping the iPads in working order, synced with the student iTunes account and charged for class. We made the decision not to own the iPads as a school to keep costs low for technical support, replacement of broken or out-dated devices and so that our students could take ownership over their own devices. Students can add any apps to the iPad at home using their own iTunes account. As a school, we purchase curricular and productivity apps for students. Students download these apps using redeem codes so that they can stay signed into their own iTunes account.

Anastasis has 60 students in 1st through 8th grade. At the beginning of the school year, we sent home a list of recommended restrictions for parents to set up on student iPads. We taught families how to enable parent restrictions on the Internet, movie/app/song ratings, and how to block in app purchases. We asked all parents to restrict student access to Safari. At school, we downloaded the MobiCip app to every iPad so that we could filter the Internet. MobiCip allows us to set up broad category filters based on age. A premium MobiCip account lets us filter exactly what we want to and allow those sites we want to. (For those who are wondering our students do have access to YouTube.) 🙂

I digress…the question was about ePortfolios.

We use a combination of Evernote, Edu 2.0 and Edublogs to keep and share our work. Evernote has been a fantastic app for our students. Students can record text, images, and audio directly in Evernote. Each note can be emailed to teachers and parents. A link can also be generated for each note making them easy to share on blogs. Better yet? There are SO many apps that have the ability to share with Evernote. Very handy. Students do quite a bit of writing directly in Evernote. This is a good place for all of student writing (even those pieces they don’t want to, or aren’t ready to, share). Evernote makes it easy to organize all of their notes into notebooks (the learning curve here is teaching students to use some organization). The ability to record audio and take pictures of their work in Evernote is great. This means that students can capture learning that isn’t natively digital-digitally. All of those awesome inquiry projects that they construct and build can be captured and reflected on in Evernote. Another HUGE benefit to the Evernote/iPad combo: it goes with them everywhere. Recording learning on a field trip? Check. Recording learning at home? Check. Recording learning on the fly? Check. Teachers often send students a PDF instructions for an assignment or a picture to the student’s Evernote account. Parents can login to their child’s Evernote account from any computer or iDevice to see what they are working on.

Edu 2.0 is our education portal. In Edu 2.0 we can share things as a school community. Edu 2.0 has a built in e-portfolio (we don’t often use this), a blog, a post feed, calendar, and message system. Edu 2.0 makes it easy for us to stay connected as a school community. Because we teach young students, this “walled” community is a safe place for students to share any, and all, of their work and thoughts. Students often write blog posts in Edu 2.0 about their learning. Other students, parents and teachers can comment on the Edu 2.0 blog posts. Teachers use Edu 2.0 to send students assignments, make class announcements and communicate quickly with parents in their classroom. Students can link any content from their Evernote account to their blog in Edu 2.0 to share it with other students, parents or teachers. The school calendar is updated with all birthdays, learning excursions and school events so that students, parents and teachers are always up-to-date. The live post feed makes it easy for teachers and administration to make school-wide announcements. This feed shows up on the home page of every student, parent and teacher.

Each of our teachers has a class Edublog. This is where the teachers write blog posts about the happenings in their classrooms. Students can also contribute to the class blogs to get input and comments from a global audience. The Edublog is the place for interaction and collaboration with the world.

We have a school YouTube account where students can upload videos and stop motion animations. The school account has become a nice central place for students to share their work with the world. I act as administrator on the YouTube channel so that I can moderate comments and videos. Students can easily link to, or embed, videos they have created in Evernote, on their Edu 2.0 blog or on Edublogs.

This combination of tools has worked well as an ePortfolio for student work. I love that at the end of the school year students have ALL of their work with them. Because they own their iPads, the Evernote content goes with them. Even without the iPad, students can access their Evernote account from anywhere and continue using it.

Do you have a one to one program? I would love to hear your solutions for an ePortfolio!

Friday Recap: Geeking over new apps, celebrating week 5

September 23, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2925 views

Whew, it has been a while since I have done a Friday recap. Mostly because these days I’m just so happy to have made it through another week that I am celebrating other ways…like by taking a nap.

Anastasis Academy has just completed week number five. Can I say how incredibly cool it is to see something that you pour yourself into come to fruition? We have students! We end every week with a field trip learning excursion. Awesome.

If you are interested in following our journey, you can follow our blogs (yes plural, we each have at least one, some overachievers have two…or more). I’ve created a bundle that you can subscribe to in Google Reader. Subscribing to a bundle means that you will never miss a beat…it will almost be as good as being here with us. This is just the collection of teacher blogs. Each of our students blogs as well, we can’t share those publicly because we use full student names. Occasionally I may let you have a peek at some of our student writing by republishing the post anonymously. For now you will have to take my word for it, these kids are amazing.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and YouTube. You can be a super fan and like us on Facebook. If you are ever in town, stop by and let us show you around!

This week I found some super cool apps. I’m talking classroom changing here. I couldn’t wait to blog my favorite find which is Demibooks Composer. A BIG thank you to @ianchia for making me aware of its existence. I can’t wait to see what our students come up with! Demibooks Composer puts the power of interactive e-book publishing into the hands of every student. I am geeking out here. It is seriously cool. Hurry up and download it while it is FREE. I would have paid big money for this app. Big.

Tiki-Toki: Create gorgeous multimedia timelines

April 26, 2011Kelly Tenkely8 Comments5806 views

What it is: Tiki-Toki is an absolutely GORGEOUS multimedia timeline creator. The results are truly a work of art-no joke! Tiki-Toki is very easy to use, after registering for an account, students are guided step-by-step through creating an interactive timeline. Students can add text, images (Flickr) and video (YouTube or Vimeo) to a timeline. Images can be uploaded from a student computer or found through a search on Flickr. Throughout the creation process, tool tips pop-up to guide students through creation. Students can share saved timelines with a unique URL.

How to integrate Tiki-Toki into the classroom: Tiki-Toki is a fabulous new way for your students to create and share online. Timelines are an obvious choice for history projects but can be used throughout the year for a variety of subjects and learning focuses. Students can reflect on and share learning using a Tiki-Toki timeline. Students can begin a timeline at the beginning of the year sharing videos, links, pictures and reflections each unit, week, month, or semester until the end of the school year. This is a nice way to encourage students to reflect on learning while providing them with a record of what has been accomplished throughout the year.

Students can create timelines based on books or literature they are reading. Young students can create a timeline with information about beginning, middle and end while older students can add supporting details, action, climax and concluding thoughts. A timeline book report is a welcome change for your logical/analytical thinkers- seriously, offer it as an option!

Timelines can also be used as KWL charts (Know, Want to Know, Learned). At the beginning of any learning, students can list the facts that they know about the topic. Next, they can brainstorm and write about what they want to know about a topic. At the end of the unit or semester, students can detail what they have learned including any relevant videos or images.

In science, students can use Tiki-Toki to detail an experiment or scientific method process they go through in a lab.

Tiki-Toki is probably too advanced a tool for primary elementary to use independently, but it can be used with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer to create a timeline as a class. This is a good way to teach students about timelines while recording learning.

Create an account on Tiki-Toki and record a few pictures of your classroom along with a description of the learning that happened each day. At the end of the week the timeline can be sent to parents and administration to share what you are working on in your classroom. This is a fun change from the traditional newsletter and, because it is added to a little at a time, it will give you a break from the Thursday mad-dash-to-finish-Friday-newsletter thing you have going (oh, is that just me?). 😉

Tips: The basic Tiki-Toki account is completely free and contains enough features to keep kids creating with no problem. The paid accounts include features like shared timeline creation which would also be useful in the classroom. I’m hoping that Tiki-Toki catches on to the uses for education and comes up with an education version just for us!

A minimum age for use of Tiki-Toki is not specified in the terms of service. If you work with students who do not have an email address to share, consider using a tempinbox account or mailinator.

A BIG THANK YOU to @anderscj for mentioning Tiki-Toki on Twitter, I have a new favorite timeline creator!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Tiki-Toki in your classroom!

SnipSnip.It: Share the best parts of online video

April 25, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3591 views

What it is: I don’t know about you, but I am constantly finding great videos online to share with my students. The problem: I usually only want a small portion of the whole video. I use SnipSnip.It to crop the video down to only the parts I want to share with students. SnipSnip.It is easy to use, just copy and paste a YouTube url, choose the start and end point and click “snip”. Easy! After snipping your video you can embed the shortened video on a website or blog or share the shortened video with a link. The other benefit: all of the YouTube extras (a.k.a. distractions) are eliminated in the SnipSnip.It version. Not. Too. Shabby.

How to integrate SnipSnip.It into the classroom: If you happen to be in a school or district that has not blocked YouTube, you are going to find SnipSnip.It very handy! This is a great way to crop videos to share with students either by URL or embedding the shortened video into a class blog or website. Even if your school doesn’t have access to YouTube, this may be a great way to try out the Fisch Flip and encourage your students to watch the snipped videos at home in preparation for class the next day.

Tips: This service is so easy that I have no fancy schmancy tips; I’ll just leave you with this: stay classy!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using SnipSnip.It in your classroom!

Video Search in 3D and Create Playlists in 1 Click!

April 25, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2523 views

What it is: Video Search in 3D is a neat way to search for, and find, videos. Search videos by keyword and instantly get a 3D “globe” of video results. With the click of a button you can create a playlist of videos to be watched.

How to integrate Video Search in 3D into the classroom: Video Search in 3D would be a great way to search for and create playlists of videos for students and teachers. Create playlists for students to access on classroom computers as a digital-media learning center. These can be videos centered around a science concept, phonics rules, a period of history, math, foreign language or anything else that students are studying. For example, for language arts you might search “School House Rock”. During your writing block, students can visit the media learning center (your classroom computers) to learn more about grammar and parts of speech.

You can also use Video Search in 3D to create play lists for professional development opportunities. There are SO many outstanding educational videos available. Search videos by keyword or speaker and create an instant playlist. I started a Webspiration Wednesday lunch group at my school where I played inspirational videos in the library during lunch. I invited all the staff to bring their lunches to the library where we would watch and discuss inspirational educational videos. Mid-week video inspiration is just what the doctor ordered to put some pep back into your step!

Tips: Because this is a search engine, I wouldn’t let young students loose to search whatever they want until a teacher has previewed it.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Video Search in 3D in your classroom!

YouTube saves the day: Busting Conspiracy Theories

February 18, 2011February 18, 2011Kelly Tenkely5 Comments3048 views

As you may remember, I am currently working to bring a school from zero technology integration to full technology integration in a one to one laptop setting. I am working alongside a WONDERFUL teacher who is eager to learn with her students. The school initially asked me if I would just teach this group of middle school students technology as a separate subject. I explained why I would rather work alongside the teacher so that both students and teacher could learn technology together and we could integrate it into the learning that was already happening in the classroom. They agreed and I am now working with the teacher to weave technology into the learning that is already happening in the classroom. On Fridays, I model how to use technology within the learning they are doing. Today the learning focus was astronomy. I had the students start out in Capzles where they are building an interactive timeline of the astronomy events that they are learning. Each time they learn about a new discovery, historical figure, or space mission, they add images, reflections, and information to their timeline. I have to say, the Capzles interface is turning out to be the perfect place for them to collect all of their learning and creations in one place!

Throughout the week, students are keeping a night sky observation journal on Capzles. Not only are they studying about historical figures who made astronomical discoveries, they are adding their own discoveries to the timeline. Capzles lets students add blog posts right within the timeline. Students are taking pictures, and writing about their observations, reflections, and questions as a nightly blog post. In addition to adding their pictures to Capzles, students will also be uploading their photos to Planet FOSS where they have the opportunity to view other students night sky observations and add their own.

Today I taught the students how to add a YouTube video to their timeline. I have to admit, this isn’t the one-step process I would hope for (either the ability to use the YouTube embed code or just copy/paste the link to embed). Students first searched for videos about the moon using NeoK12. Then they click on the YouTube link within the video so that they can view the video in YouTube. In front of the YouTube URL the students typed “kick” so that they could download the video to their computers. From here, they can upload the video to their Capzles. You can view my step-by-step instructions for that process here. Even though it isn’t a simple one-step process, it still isn’t difficult and it gave students the opportunity to practice downloading and uploading files- bonus tech skills that are built-in is always a good thing!

After students learned how to embed video, we headed over to the site We Choose the Moon. If you haven’t seen this site, it is a MUST. It has been around for a few years and is absolutely incredible. It drops students right into the Apollo 11 mission and gives them the chance to “re-live” that experience. The students were totally engaged and excited to look through the pictures, video, comment on the fashion of the day, how much technology has changed, etc. The dialogue as they explored and completed the interactive was incredible. This interactive let students travel back in time and made them feel as if they were witnessing history first hand. Incredible. Reading a text-account just can’t do an event like this justice. During the interactive one of the students casually mentioned that he didn’t believe that we had ever really been to the moon, he thought it was a conspiracy theory and started pulling up websites supporting his claim. This led to a lively class debate.

I remembered seeing a Myth Busters episode where they busted those moon landing conspiracy theories. I pulled up the YouTube video on my iPad for students and we watched as the Myth Busters busted each one of the conspiracies that the boy had found online support for. It was an AWESOME learning experience for all of the students as they learned about perspective, atmosphere, vacuums, and light.

You know what I love about technology? It spurs and enables learning experiences. Without technology in that classroom today, the conspiracy theory student might have mentioned the theories he had heard. Kids would have chuckled and rolled their eyes and that would have been the end of it. Because we had access to technology, the conspiracy theorist was immediately able to pull up evidence to support his claim. He even had some students who were initially rolling their eyes believing that the theories might be true. Other students immediately jumped in to support the opposing view, that Americans had indeed landed on the moon. This is authentic learning at its best. Students practiced searching, taking a position, forming a persuasive argument, debating, and going through the scientific process of hypothesis, experimentation, and conclusion. None of this was in our learning plans for the day… it was SO much better than anything I could have planned. We were able to immediately pull up a Myth Busters episode on YouTube (yet another example of why filtering policies need to be re-thought!). The class ended with students making plans to re-create some of the Myth Buster experiments so that they could see the outcomes first hand.

Today reminded me of why I am passionate about technology in education. It also reminded me of why I love learning.

Best quote of the day from a student: “This is cool, I thought we would just learn about technology, I didn’t know we were actually going to get to use it.”

What a novel thought, using technology as a tool to learn.

Science Fix: Video demos and experiments

February 16, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3288 views

What it is: Science Fix is a fantastic video blog that I learned about from my friend and PLN colleague Kyle Pace. The videos are all recorded science experiments and demos from middle school science teacher Darren Fix. The majority of the videos are chemistry related but there is also some good physics videos in there as well. The videos are hosted on YouTube so if you don’t have access, you may have to use one of those tricky ways to download and save from home. (See Tips below for ways to do that.)

How to integrate Science Fix into the classroom: Science Fix is a great place to find demos and science experiment videos to share with your students. These videos will help your students better visualize and understand the concepts that they are learning in your class. We don’t all have robust resource budgets, sometimes we have to pick and choose what we will be able to demo for our class live. These videos are a big help in bringing those experiments to our classrooms when budgets don’t allow us to do it live. There are great descriptions and additional links and resources along with each video.

Tips: For those of you who don’t have access to YouTube in your building, you can still use these awesome videos in your classrooms with a little bit of pre-planning. Download and save YouTube videos so that you can show them at school without accessing the YouTube site. UseKeepVid, YouTube DownloaderHD, Kick YouTube, SaveVid, or Zamzar. Some of these tools will even let you download at school if you know the YouTube url. The downloaded video should have no trouble playing at school!

You can follow ScienceFix on Twitter here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Science Fix in your classroom!

History for Music Lovers: Brilliance

February 8, 2011February 8, 2011Kelly Tenkely7 Comments6077 views

What it is: Thanks to a tip from Jan, an iLearn Technology reader, I learned about the History for Music Lover’s YouTube channel yesterday. Oh. My. Goodness. Instant love. Seriously, if I had learned history this way, I would have rocked it! As it turns out, I actually met @amyburvall, the genius history teacher behind History for Music Lover’s at ISTE 10 in Denver and didn’t make the connection (feeling like a jerk for not figuring that out!). I starred in a video with one of the stars of the MansaMusa video “Magnus” the fashion police guy at ISTE. Small world. You MUST check out this YouTube channel, even if YouTube is blocked in your building. (As a side note…someone remind me WHY we block students from learning opportunities??)

History for Music Lovers is a collection of music videos (high quality I tell ya!) centered around events and people in history set to popular songs. Amy Burvall, IB high school history teacher, is the creator and star of the videos. Coolest history teacher ever. My high school history teacher sang one song to us: I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. True story. It was not engaging, inspiring, or helpful in my learning of history.

On the History for Music Lovers YouTube channel you’ll find:

I think it is awesome that the 80’s is so well represented in this list 🙂 that Amy Burvall is one talented girl!

How to integrate History for Music Lovers into the classroom: This is my new favorite way to introduce a history topic. If this doesn’t grab student attention and leave them wanting to learn more, I don’t know what will. The collection of videos is a fantastic place to start learning. The lyrics give students just enough information that when they begin fleshing out the period or figure in history with additional reading or research they will have a solid base to build from. The lyrics are catchy, students will forever associate William the Conqueror with Sexyback.

Students can embed these videos in their own history Web 2.0 creations and presentations. I’m currently using Capzles with a group of 8th graders and imagine them embedding these videos in their timelines along with images, and their blogged reflections.

Are your students as inspired by music as Ms. Burvall is? Encourage students to tackle a figure or historical time that hasn’t been done yet and create their own historical song parody.

Tips: For those of you who don’t have access to YouTube in your building (again I have to ask why?) you can still use these awesome videos in your classrooms with a little bit of pre-planning. Download and save YouTube videos so that you can show them at school without accessing the YouTube site. Use KeepVid, YouTube DownloaderHD, Kick YouTube, SaveVid, or Zamzar. Some of these tools will even let you download at school if you know the YouTube url. The downloaded video should have no trouble playing at school!

Follow History For Music Lovers, historyteacherz on Facebook and Twitter.

Also, did you know you can become a fan of iLearn Technology on Facebook? It’s true! I don’t have a fancy dancy Twitter account especially for iLearn Tech but feel free to follow me on Twitter. I like talking education, technology, and am in general a geek 🙂

** This is the LONGEST it has ever taken me to write a blog post, I got sucked right in and watched each and every video. On the bright side my knowledge of history has increased substantially today.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using History for Music Lovers videos in your classroom!

Project Global Inform

December 3, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments3425 views

What it is: Project Global Inform is an incredible movement bringing together education and a mission to do something about human rights. Project Global Inform “is an in-school project where students use media to spread awareness about human rights violations. PGI came out of the idea that we too often “teach” our students about genocide and human rights violations, but never “do” anything about it. This project’s main objective is to create awareness about current human rights violations in our schools, communities, and abroad. Through the use of media and technology students have the power to make a difference.” This is education and learning at it’s finest, it is a call to action and an invitation for students to do something important. The project is made up of eight steps. First, students learn about human rights issues through media and literature. Next students form groups based on the humans rights issue they are passionate about. Each group learns about the history of the human rights issue they chose including the current political stance, media, etc. Students come up with an action plan for creating awareness. Students use the action plan as the base for their project where they will choose a media outlet to spread awareness about the issue. At the end of the campaign, students will collect data on the effectiveness of the campaign (based on website hits, video views, “likes” on Facebook, etc.). Each team writes up a report detailing and reflecting on the project, success, and failures. Each student creates a video or slideshow (a kind of documentary) of their project. This is an opportunity for your students to learn about humans rights issues and to get involved in an authentic way that has the potential to directly impact those suffering from human rights issues.

How to integrate Project Global Inform into your curriculum: Project Global Inform is an incredible resource and movement that get students involved in impacting their world in real and meaningful ways. As a result of this project, your students will be more informed about humans rights issues, have a better understanding of social networking and how to virally spread a message, how to use media as a communication tool, how to track web 2.0 data and statistics, collaboration, and reflection. This would make a great project for an ethics class, but could be used as a transdiciplinary project including literature, math, and technology (to name a few). Project Global Inform literally meets every single level of Blooms Taxonomy from knowledge and understanding to creating, apply, analyzing, and evaluating.

While the project appears to be focused on the middle school or high school age group, I think that it could be tailored to the elementary classroom. For example, I had my students use Free Rice as the basis for a similar project. They learned about hunger, created a video slideshow that we uploaded to YouTube and played on Free Rice to earn grains of rice. If using Project Global Inform with younger students, choose a humans rights issue to study as a class. Make sure the information you gather is age appropriate. Students can create posters or pictures for a local coffee shop, create slideshow videos that they upload to YouTube, or hold an information day for the local community. These are they type of projects that will make an impact on your students and the world.

If you decide to take part in Project Global Inform, make sure you let your local news organizations know about it. They love covering stories of children impacting the world and it helps spread the message. Here is our Free Rice story in the local paper. I can’t tell you how this project transformed these two boys featured in the article. They became “celebrities” in the school and were so proud of their hard work. Two average students became two of my top students after this project. Give your students something important and meaningful to do, it makes a huge impact on them.

Tips: Even if you don’t have time for the full project, make sure to take the “Plus Two Pledge”. As your students are learning about human rights violations have them sign the pledge to tell at least two people about what they have learned. I told my two…hopefully more are reading this…who are you going to tell?

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Project Global Inform in your classroom!