Grade Level – Page 71 – iLearn Technology

The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits

July 31, 2009July 31, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4209 views

What it is: The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a fun, interactive website where individuals or groups of students can learn about circuits. There are 5 sections to the Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits. Section 1 teaches students about what makes circuits work, section 2 teaches about conductors and insulators, section 3 teaches about switches, section 4 teaches about changing circuits, and section 5 teaches about circuit diagrams. Each section includes a teaching portion, an activity, and a quiz. If students answer all of the questions in the quiz correctly, they get a special bonus activity after they have completed each section. The “Blobz” characters explain each section with pictures, animations, and text.

How to integrate The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits into the classroom: The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a fun way to teach students about circuits, conductors, insulators, switches, and diagrams. Students could work on this website individually, in small groups as a center activity during an electric circuits unit, or as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard. The information section might be good to go through with the whole class for some guided practice and instruction. Students could complete the activities and quizzes individually or in small groups as a center after instruction.

Tips: This site is British so some of the vocabulary may be unfamiliar (for example a flashlight is called a torch).

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits in your classroom.

UDL Book Builder

July 29, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4134 views

What it is: UDL Book Builder is a site where you can create your own interactive digital stories. The books have built in coaches that can support diverse learning needs. The coaches direct student learning even when students are working independently. The digital books can include text, images, audio, glossary terms (that are linked within the story), and coaches that can provide hints, prompts, and modeling. The published books can be viewed online, downloaded to a computer, saved to a CD, or shared with others in the UDL library. Both teachers and students can use the UDL Book Builder to create interactive digital stories.

How to integrate UDL Book Builder into the classroom: Use the UDL Book Builder to create interactive stories for your students that meet their specific learning needs. Include students and familiar locations in your stories to boost reading motivation. Students love starring in their own stories. As you are creating a book in the Book Builder, be sure to devleop the coaches within the book. The coaches can offer reading hints, strategies, and model good reading. Start a school library of teacher created digital books. As the digital library is devleoped, be sure to note which reading skills are being emphasized so that other teachers can quickly sort through books that will match their students learning needs and interests. Students can also create digital books from their writing. The writing should be ready to publish (correct spelling, grammar, etc.). These stories can easily be shared online with other students in class, in the school, and with pen pals. UDL Book Builder would be a great tool for creating stories as a class using the interactive whiteboard.

Tips: The UDL Book Builder site has a great section with tips for authors and illustrators using the Builder. These tips are helpful for any adults creating a book, but are also worth sharing with students using the tool.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using UDL Book Builder in your classroom.

Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos

July 28, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2620 views

What it is: Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos has an amazing collection of animated videos that help increase student vocabulary. The extensive collection of videos can be used for study, SAT preparation, and increased word understanding. The Word Ahead study room provides students with a distraction free environment with vocabulary videos and flash cards. New vocabulary videos are uploaded regularly. Students can join Word Ahead for free and have a new vocabulary video sent to them each day (think word of the day 2.0). Want to inspire some creativity in your classroom? Students can create and upload their own vocabulary videos. Each video is reviewed before posting to ensure appropriateness.

How to integrate Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos into the classroom: Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos are an excellent way to expand and enrich student vocabulary. The video format will help solidify new words for students. Register to get a new video emailed to you each day. Share these videos with your students as a precursor to class. Make the vocabulary video word the word of the day. Challenge students to use the word throughout the day. Word Ahead is also a great site to use with English language learners. The videos are a fantastic way for students to visually increase vocabulary development. As an extension activity, take vocabulary from class curriculum and have students create their own vocabulary video to upload to Word Ahead.

Tips: Tell parents about Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos, they are always looking for great sites to help their kids study.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos in your classroom.

Discover the Forest

July 27, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2911 views

What it is: Last week I wrote about an amazing interactive forest called UPM Forest Life. I found a website today that would be a great site to couple with a UPM Forest Life virtual field trip. Discover the Forest is a site that has fun games and activities for students to complete online and a great booklet to print out full of activities to complete outside. After travelling through the UPM Virtual Forest, students can head over to the Discover the Forest website and listen to animal sounds, create leaf rubbings, learn how to use a compass, and match animal tracks.

How to integrate Discover the Forest into the classroom: Discover the Forest would be an excellent follow-up activity for a virtual field trip (or actual field trip) to a forest. Students can complete the short online activities as part of a science learning center, or on individual student computers. Encourage students to use the “Find a Forest or Park Near You” feature to find the nearest forest. Students can plan a trip to the closest forest complete with a supply checklist, a map, and a checklist of wildlife to look for. If you are fortunate enough to have a forest nearby, you can print out the “Book of Stuff to do Outside” for students to complete.

Tips: This site has an excellent interactive to teach students how to use a compass, be sure to check it out! Thank you to @larryferazzo for Tweeting about this fun site!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Discover the Forest in your classroom.

Image Chef

July 21, 2009July 23, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3861 views

What it is: Image Chef is a great little web tool that takes words and transforms them into a graphical image. Image Chef is similar in look to Wordle but works a little differently. In Wordle, the size of the word changes based on how frequently the word was used in the text. In Image Chef, the word size doesn’t change based on how frequently it is used in the text. Image Chef takes the words typed in a text box, and displays them in a word mosaic. Image Chef has a variety of shapes and symbols to choose from. Any text entered will be displayed in the shape selected. Registered users can also create their own shapes to display text graphically. Image Chef has the added bonus of graphically displaying text inside letters. The look of the image can be changed by adjusting font, text color, background color, and symbol or initial. Individual words can be highlighted by changing the color and clicking on a word in the mosaic. Word mosaics can be shared on blogs, emailed, printed, or saved on Image Chef.

How to integrate Image Chef into the classroom: Image Chef is a fun web tool for displaying words in new and interesting ways. My favorite feature of Image Chef is the ability to create word mosaics inside letters. This feature would be a good way for students to practice phonics. For example, students could create a letter “a” word mosaic filled with short a words (see my example above). Students could type blends inside of the blend letters, long and short vowel words, r-conrolled words, etc. These word mosaics could be printed out and bound into a phonics booklet for students, or displayed on a word wall. Image Chef mosaics would also be a great way for students to explore synonyms. Students can type synonyms into the text box and find or create an appropriate symbol to represent the words. Image Chef would make for a fun first week of school activity. Students could type in their initials as the shape for the word mosaic. In the text field, they can type in words that represent them. Print these out and display on a bulletin board next to student pictures. For older students, Image Chef could be used to create a large periodic table of elements. Choose the initials that represent the element on the periodic table and type the name of the element in the text box to fill the initials. Create a large periodic table for the classroom with the printed elements.

Tips: I learned about this awesome web tool from a tweet by @njtechteacher, definitely a teacher to follow this #teachertuesday! When you click on the Image Chef Link you will be taken to the Image Chef homepage (the site contains much more than just the word mosaic) To create a word mosaic click on “Word Mosaic” under “Create” in the left column of the website.

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

Moon in Google Earth

July 20, 2009July 20, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2817 views

What it is: Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission. I have been following the moon landing on We Choose the Moon. This is an incredible site that has allowed me to re-live (for the first time) the Apollo 11 mission as if it were happening today. In honor of this historic day, Google released Google Earth 5.0 complete with Moon view. With Moon in Google Earth you and your students can take tours of landing sites narrated by Apollo astronauts, view 3-D models of landed spacecraft, zoom into 360* photos of astronauts footprints, and watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions.

How to integrate Moon in Google Earth into the classroom: Now that the moon has made an appearance in Google Earth, your students can experience the moon and Apollo missions up close and personal. Space, astronauts, Apollo missions, and the moon were the stuff of legends before the space race took off. Moon in Google Earth brings back the excitement of the space race allowing students to explore and discover. This is an excellent virtual field trip to take your students on during any space or moon unit. Use an interactive whiteboard to discover as a class. Students can take turns being moon tour guides. Students could also explore independently keeping their discoveries in a space journal and reporting back to others what they discovered on their journey to the moon.

Tips: Google Earth is a download. If you need IT to perform downloads for you, be sure that Google Earth makes it on your list of must haves for the school year.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Moon in Google Earth in your classroom.Moon in Google Earth

The Secret in the Cellar

July 16, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2375 views

What it is: A few days ago I wrote about the awesome interactive Smithsonian Museum, today I found another great activity on the Smithsonian website called The Secret in the Cellar. The Secret in the Cellar is an interactive web comic that is based on an actual forensic case of a 17th century body that was recently discovered. Through graphics, photos, and activities, students begin to unravel a mystery of historical and scientific importance. Students can analyze artifacts, and examine the skeleton for clues to determine a cause of death. Because of the subject matter of this web comic, this activity is best suited for middle school or high school students.

How to integrate The Secret in the Cellar into the classroom: The Secret in the Cellar activities and web comic are a fantastic way to excite students about the history of Colonial life in America and the science behind archeology. This site takes students on a journey of discovery and critical thinking. Throughout the web comic, students will find links to additional articles about the actual forensic case and the display at the Smithsonian Museum. This activity would be best in a computer lab setting where each student can explore at their own pace. Along the way, encourage students to keep a record of their inferences about how the boy died. Before students complete the web-comic, discuss what conclusions students have come to based on the evidence.

Tips: Students can dig deeper into this site learning about bones, the lives of colonists, forensic anthropology, and learn more about the related exhibit at the Smithsonian.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Secret in the Cellar in your classroom.

UPM Forest Life

July 14, 2009July 15, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3283 views

virtual forest

What it is: UPM Forest Life is an excellent interactive site that lets students explore a forest virtually. This is the next best thing to actually being in a forest, I can almost smell the pine trees! UPM Forest Life aims to teach about forest sustainability through an outstanding ‘hike’ through the forest. Along the way, students can click on points that will reveal videos, pictures with information, and sounds. Students will learn about forest planning, harvesting, regeneration, respacing, thinning, transport, recreation, training, berry picking, bird watching, hunting, fishing, natural forests, valuable habitats, deadwood, forest structure, water, and native tree species. Students will also learn about the various animals that call a forest home. This is an outstanding way for students to learn about tree species, habitat, and animals because it is learning through exploration. UPM Forest Life will teach them in a way that no textbook can.

How to integrate UPM Forest Life into the classroom: Although I am sure we would love to take our students on a field trip to a forest to explore and learn first hand, it isn’t always practical or possible. UPM Forest Life is a fantastic virtual substitute. It is so realistic and well done that your students will feel as if they have taken a trip into a forest. This would be an excellent site to use with an interactive whiteboard. Allow students to take turns being ‘tour guides’ for the journey. They can click on the various videos, pictures, and information embedded in the forest. Create an observation journal where students can jot down observations of trees, animals, and sounds that they expereince while in the forest. This site would also be a great one for students to visit individually in a computer lab setting. Be sure that students are equipped with headphones so they can enjoy the full experience of the site. After students explore the forest, discuss what it means to have a sustainable forest and why it is important. This site is perfect for the science classroom or Earth Day but it would also work well in the language arts classroom. Students could use the UPM Forest Life as a writing prompt, after exploring the forest they could write a story with the forest as the setting, or use one of the animals in the forest as a character in the story. The scenery and sounds in the Forest are so peaceful and restorative, this may be a good site to have going in the background while students silent read…almost like reading above the trees in a tree house!

Tips: I have really enjoyed exploring this site and haven’t closed it since I opened it. I learned about the UPM Forest Life site from @atkauffman on Twitter, I highly recommend a follow! Andrew often has great resources for teachers and shares them on Twitter.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using UPM Forest Life in your classroom.

Comics in the Classroom 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers

July 10, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2061 views

A reader tipped me off to this great list of ways to use comics in the classroom. The list is extremelly comprehensive and includes sections on the benefits of using comics in the classroom, great resources for using comics in the classroom, suggested comics for reading in the classroom, tools for creating comics in the techie classroom, creative ways to use comics in the classroom, lessons plans using comics for elementary/middle/high school classrooms, manga and anime, and free comics for educators. With 100 tips, tools, ideas, and resources, this list should convince you of the why and how of using comics as teaching tools. Enjoy! Comics in the Classroom 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers

20 iTunes Feeds for the 2.0 Teacher

July 10, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4749 views

There are a lot of free podcasts that have been created with the teacher and tech nut in mind. Most of these podcasts are available free through iTunes. (If you don’t have iTunes, you can download it for free at Apple.com.) Here are 20 iTunes feeds that would be of interest to tech-savvy teachers:

Teachers Teaching Teachers – This teacher-friendly podcast is hosted by three public school teachers from NYC. Discussions include teaching and web 2.0 technologies.

Teacher 2.0 (Video) – A companion to the Clever Sheep site, this video podcast offers information about e-learning tools and web 2.0 technology.

Teacher 2.0 (Audio) – This Teacher 2.0 audio podcast covers many of the same topics as its video counterpart: e-learning tools, web 2.0 technology, etc.

Educational Technology Conference – The Educational Technology Conference addresses several education issues in this iTunes feed. Topics include ethics in the classroom, technology integration, and advancements in education.

Teach with Video – This iTunes feed explores how teachers can incorporate digital video projects in the classroom. Other topics include classroom management and lesson design.

Cool Tools for Library 2.0 – The Cool Tools for Library 2.0 podcast is dedicated to exploring how web 2.0 technologies can be used in education settings.

EdTechTalk: Women of Web 2.0 – Four women host this podcast for teachers who are finding ways to use Internet technology in their career and in the classroom. The hosts interview other women and share tech resources.

EdTech 101 – The Ed Tech 101 podcast is aimed at teachers who want to integrate technology in the k-12 classroom. Podcasts are short (three to five minutes) and include information about new software and hardware.

EdTechLive – Steve Hargadon interviews new guests and hosts panel discussions on educational technology in this audio podcast.

Teaching for the Future – Teaching for the Future is an audio podcast hosted by David LaMorte. Episodes center on media literacy and technology education.

Two Tech Chicks – This education technology podcast is hosted by two tech-savvy women from Texas who want to help teachers learn how to integrate technology into everyday curriculum.

The Tech Teachers – The Tech Teachers is an audio podcast that focuses on the ways in which education and technology overlap.
Technology Matters – This educational technology podcast for teachers shares 21st Century tools and discusses how blogs, wikis, and podcasts can be used to further technology in educational settings.

Moving at the Speed of Creativity – Wesley Fryer hosts this education podcast which focuses on technology integration, literacy, and education instruction.

Bit by Bit – This teacher podcast centers on the changing classroom environment. Podcast topics include technology in instruction and teacher responsibility.

KidCast – A companion podcast to the book of the same name, KidCast is entirely devoted to podcasting in the classroom.

The Teacher’s Podcast – Although this podcast isn’t geared specifically toward education technology, it does provide valuable training and professional information for teachers of all subjects.

GeekSpeak – This technology podcast is hosted by professional geeks who enjoying reviewing and sharing the hottest new tech products. A new podcast is recorded each week.

TWiT – This Week in Tech is an award-winning technology podcast hosted by a group of tech nuts who enjoy sharing new resources and talking about how technology can be used in various settings. A new podcast is released every Sunday.

Tekzilla – Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont host this popular tech podcast for people who have “tech hunger.” Each episode features reviews, tips, and information about high-tech apps and products.

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Karen also writes for the online college database on OnlineColleges.net.