Middle/High School – Page 54 – iLearn Technology

Virtual Forest Challenge

April 28, 2009April 28, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2488 views

What it is: Scholastic and Nature’s Source have teamed up to create the Virtual Forest Challenge game to help students understand how their actions have real implications in local and global ecosystems. The game leads students through a variety of virtual environments and along the way asks them to make decisions about how they would act in the ecosystem they are in. If students answer correctly (make the correct decision) they continue in the game. If they answer incorrectly, they are offered the correct answer accompanied by an explanation.

How to integrate Virtual Forest Challenge into the classroom: Virtual Forest Challenge would be a good site to use in conjunction with Earth Day. However, since the principals of Earth Day are valid year round, it can be used any time throughout the year. This would be a great challenge to take on as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector. As students make decisions in the virtual world, discuss why one option is better for the ecosystem than another. Virtual Forest Challenge would also be a good challenge for students to take on solo in the computer lab setting.

Tips: Visit the Teacher Resource section for some great accompanying lesson plans and resources. Here you will find a Community Planting guide, a Community Planting poster, a lesson plan about the delicate balance between people and the ecosystems we are a part of, and a lesson about Our Community Past Present and Future.

Linux Comics

April 28, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment15216 views

What it is: The Linux open source operating system is gaining popularity in schools because of the enormous savings that open source can offer. Ubuntu is the most popular Linux operating system in schools, learn more about it here. Hackett and Bankwell Worldwide have created two comic books that are designed to teach readers about Linux. There are two free e-book downloads that take the reader on a journey with the iconic Linux penguin. The first e-book focuses specifically on Ubuntu.

How to integrate Linux Comics into the classroom: These comics are an outstanding resource to learn about Linux and the Linux operating system Ubuntu. I learned a lot myself reading through these! Use these comics to teach students, or read though them yourself to get a better understanding of Linux. Whether you use Linux at your school or not, it is important to expose students to the different operating systems available.

Tips: If you want a print copy of the Linux Comics, they can be purchased from the Hackett and Bankwell website as well.

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

My Award Maker

April 27, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2628 views

What it is: It is that time of year again, time for end of the year award ceremonies where we remind our students of how far they have come this year and celebrate their achievements. My Award Maker is a site I learned about from Kevin Jarrett’s blog NCS Tech. He found this site just in time for it to be useful for me so I thought I would pass it on so you could benefit as well! My Award Maker is a free, very easy to use award/certificate creator. Choose from one of hundreds of great awards, fill in the information that best fits your needs, and print. It couldn’t be easier and the results are fantastic! This is going to save me from going to Lakeshore or US Toy to hunt for awards for this year, they are as good if not better quality than those you can purchase.

How to integrate My Award Maker into the classroom: At my school, we have a formal end of the year award assembly where students are recogized and celebrated for their hard work throughout the year. This is the perfect place to find an award or certificate for any occasion. Don’t wait for a formal award ceremony, tell your students how proud you are of their achievements and effort year long with class awards and certificates.

Tips: My Award Maker has a special section of Tips and Tricks for making special occasions memorable. Check it out!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using My Award Maker in your classroom.

Educational Videos

April 24, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3511 views

What it is: Educational videos can be expensive, out of date, or hard to find. Happily there are a few sites working to make it easier to access educational videos for free. PBS has always been known for their great educational material. They have hosted videos on their site for some time but they were not located in one place where they could be easily sorted through. Now PBS has PBS video, all the great PBS material in one easy-to-search place. You can browse these videos by program, topic, or keyword search. All videos are on demand, I have been impressed with the quality! Another great website for on demand free videos is American History in Video by History Education. American History in Video has more than 5,000 titles in its collection! The videos allow students to analyze historical events, and look at the events over time through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. Students and teachers can search videos by year, historical event, people, places, subjects, and by keyword. This is an outstanding collection of free on demand history video!

How to integrate Educational Videos into the classroom: Video is an amazing medium for teaching. It brings textbooks to life and helps students to relate to history and science in new ways. Kids often find history boring and I believe one of the reasons is that they haven’t had enough life experiences to relate what they are learning to prior knowledge. Video helps them make connections that reading a textbook can’t do. Use these videos as an introduction to learning, as a reinforcement during learning, or embedded in lessons.

Tips: Always make sure you watch a video in its entirety before showing it to a class. Sometimes content may not be age appropriate or as on topic as you would have guessed.

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

APTE Curious Minds Click

April 23, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1991 views

What it is: The APTE Curious Minds Click website lets students and teachers create e-puzzles that can be sent and played online. You can create your own online Crosswords, Word Scrambles, Anagrams, and Secret Codes. These puzzles can then be played online and sent as an email.

How to integrate APTE Curious Minds Click into the classroom: Create your own online puzzles for students to play based on any curriculum or subject you are studying. Puzzles are a fun way for students to practice new vocabulary, spelling words, and new content. Students can create their own puzzles based on curriculum for classmates to solve. Students will love creating puzzles for their classmates and solving puzzles that have been created for them.

Tips: In addition to creating your own puzzles, you can solve puzzles that others have created.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using APTE Curious Minds Click in your classroom.

DoInk

April 22, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4822 views

What it is: DoInk is an outstanding free illustration and animation creator. The site has tools that are similar in feel and function to Adobe’s flash. DoInk creates custom animations right inside your Internet browser. There is an explore section where you and your students can get some inspiration for animations. DoInk provides tutorials for illustrating and animating making it easy to get started.

How to integrate DoInk into the classroom: Adobe products not in the budget? DoInk is a fantastic alternative to Flash. DoInk would be a great way to familiarize students with the basics of animation that will lead nicely into using more robust programs like Flash. Allow students to create mini animations to demonstrate science concepts (think life cycles, rock cycles, water cycle, etc.). Students can also create short animations to display an understanding of verbs. Since verbs are action words, an animation is a great way to show the action.

Tips: DoInk requires registration with a username and password. For elementary students, I find it helpful to create one class account where students can create. This keeps you from having to keep track of a class full of login information. It also makes it simple to keep track of student work.

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

The Greens

April 21, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment8982 views

What it is: Earth Day is tomorrow! The Greens is a great site to get your students thinking about the earth and going green. The Greens is a collection of 10 short flash movies that teach students important concepts for taking care of our planet. Episodes touch on topics such as: paper use, recycling, composting, conservation, consumption, pollution, and energy. The goal of The Greens is to instill environmental ethic in students. Teachers can download a Greens activity guide (pdf form). Students can use the carbon calculator to calculate their carbon footprint.

How to integrate The Greens into the classroom: This is an awesome site to generate conversation on Earth Day (or any day!). The Greens episodes are short enough to use several in class and can be used as discussion and idea starters for students. Watch the videos in class and discuss ways that students can be greener at school and home. Download the activity guide for some great extension activities. Set up a “green” center in your classroom where students can watch an episode and write down ideas of implementation in their own lives. Share these ideas at the end of the day.

Tips: The video episodes require a Flash Player (this is a free download if you don’t already have one).

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

Teacher Led Interactive Whiteboard

April 15, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2738 views

What it is: Teacher Led IWB is a collection of resources for use with an interactive whiteboard. This is an outstanding collection of 46 math tools and games, 3 geography maps and map makers, 6 English tools and games, and two multipurpose games. The collection is visually appealing and helps teach key concepts visually in each content area. There are too many great resources to go in depth here, I recommend heading over to Teacher Led IWB and taking a look right now!

How to integrate Teacher Led IWB into the classroom: This collection is VERY impressive. The tools and games are perfect for whole class instruction and practice in math, geography, language arts, and creating custom activities for other subjects. Most of the tools are designed for the elementary classroom but there are some that can be used in middle school as well.

Tips: If you have an interactive whiteboard, go to Teacher Led now and check out these awesome resources!

Leave a comment and tell us which of the Teacher Led resources you have used in your classroom.

RCampus

April 13, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2960 views

What it is: RCampus is a collaborative environment that is a one-stop shop for everything school related. RCampus utilizes Open Education Management system that makes it easy to build personal and group websites, manage courses, eportfolios, academic communities, build rubrics, connect students with tutors, and a book exchange. All of these tools are FREE for students and faculty. This would be a great place to organize your classroom life and keep your students organized. Everything is integrated making management very simple. Students stay well informed and communication opportunities grow with RCampus.

How to integrate RCampus into the classroom: This is an outstanding place to keep your classroom organized and easily managed. Eportfolios are a great way for students to showcase learning, RCampus makes it easy to communicate, assess, and assist througout the year as students build their portfolios. Set up courses where you can manage everything from one central location. Grade, communicate, and keep yourself organized with the RCampus integrated learning and course management. Rubrics are fast and easy to create and can be printed out or used with the RCampus click to grade system that lets you grade students from the gradebook with just a few clicks. Students can use RCampus to find an online tutor and teachers can sign up to be tutors on RCampus. Trade books with no fees using the RCampus book exchange. This is a great place to swap books with other teachers and students. RCampus has excellent tools for communicating with parents, students, grading, and organizing your classroom, check it out!

Tips: RCampus is free and open access, easy and quick, highly secure, collaborative, life long, cross campus, comprehensive, and user centric. It is the total package for classrooms and schools!

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

Telescopic Text

April 6, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3609 views

What it is: Telescopic Text is a very simple website that could be very handy in the language arts classroom. The site starts off with a very simple sentence: I made tea. Each time you click on a word, the sentence expands adding adjectives, adverbs, and makes the sentence more interesting.

How to integrate Telescopic Text into the classroom: Use Telescopic Text to teach your students about creative, descriptive writing and how to improve writing with descriptive words. Compare and contrast what students knew about the sentence “I made tea.” at the beginning and how each addition of words helped them understand more about the original statement. This can be done as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or a computer with a projector. Students can take turns clicking on words to expand the statement with discussion after each addition. This is a great exercise to use before writing. Have the students write their own simple sentence and expand it into a story with the addition of descriptive words.

Tips: The highlighted words are those that can be expanded by clicking.

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