Category: Grade Level

Search Me

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Search Me2226 views

What it is: I have been testing the Beta version of a new search engine called Search Me for the past few months and today the public beta was released for everyone. Search Me is really unique…it lets you search webpages the way that iTunes cover flow works. Their motto is “You’ll know it when you see it.” The engine is very easy to use and brings up great results with the ability to narrow down a search by category. For example, when I do a search on “dogs” It brings up the websites to browse through as well as icons to narrow down my search and gives me options of searching “dogs”, “pet stores”, “hunting”, “pet health”, “savings and bargains”. This is a great engine for teaching your kids how to search effectively for what they are looking for. The best part is the cover flow like feature that lets you flip through actual websites. Yellow squares appear on each site where your search word pops up and when you hover over a site, the site description pops up. There are safe settings so that adult content is automatically filtered out and you can flag a website as inappropriate right from the search results without actually traveling to that website.

How to integrate Search Me into the classroom: Search Me is a really great way for students to perform searches on any subject. They get instant feedback based on the sites that come up if their key words were too broad, narrow, etc. They can also preview sites right away and can often tell if it is what they are looking for without actually traveling to the website. The ability to narrow down a search by category is also a great option! Try Search Me out with your students, I know they will love it!

Tips: Search Me has a free tool bar that can be integrated into your web browser with the click of a button making it simple for kids to perform a search in one step.

Leave a comment and share how Search Me is working for your students.

School House Rock

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on School House Rock3110 views


What it is: Remember how outstanding School House Rock was? I know as soon as you read the title of this post Conjunction Junction popped into your head and all those great grammar rules came flooding back. Well now your kids can benefit from the School House Rock videos and lyrics. Sqool Tools has gathered links to all of the School House Rock videos on America, grammar, science, money, and multiplication in one place and posted the lyrics to accompany each video. How sweet is that?!

How to integrate School House Rock into the classroom: School House Rock is such a classic. My fifth grade students had a blast going through and watching these videos…I can still hear them singing them in the halls! These videos are a great way to introduce or reinforce a concept. You can also encourage students to create their own School House Rock type songs and videos. They will come up with some really great jingles to teach math and science concepts.

Tips: Now for the downside…these School House Rock videos are hosted on You Tube which is blocked by most schools. But, not to worry, I have a solution for you (it may require slightly more planning on your part): Check out Tech Crunch. Here you can type in a You Tube video URL and Tech Crunch will download it to your computer. Save to a flash drive or CD at home and use the video in class the next day.

Leave a comment and share how School House Rock is rocking your classroom.

Disk Inventory X

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Disk Inventory X2559 views


What it is: Summer is approaching and things are winding down on the school front. I don’t know about you but things are also slowing down on the computer front toward the end of the school year too. I always know when summer is approaching because my machine starts to run slower. I have downloaded hundreds of open source applications to try, pictures, fonts, and videos to my machine and I have created HUGE files of tutorials, videos, and lessons for my students. Normally I spend days sorting through all of the folders trying to find the culprits of my slow down and save them to disk or trash them all together. This week I learned about an awesome tool to help me speed things up from iJustine over at Tasty Blog Snack. Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X (sorry PC users, I am sure something similar exists) It shows the sizes of files and folders in “treemaps” (a graphical representation). Disk Inventory X helps solve the mystery of where all of your disk space has gone. Disk Inventory X gives detailed search results and you can delete files directly using the program…it updates live so you can see your disk space free up right before your eyes. The cost of this awesome little goody? Absolutely free!

How to integrate Disk Inventory X into the classroom:
Take a little time to free up your computer before the end of the school year. Clean your computers up for a fresh start in August. If you don’t have tech support that re-images your classroom computers, go ahead and run Disk Inventory X on them too. You are going to feel so speedy!

Tips: As a side note, if you are working to get your girls interested in technology introduce them to iJustine…she will have them amped on technology in no time! 🙂

Leave a comment and share how many Gigs you were able to free up with Disk Inventory X.

XOXO 2.0 Laptop

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on XOXO 2.0 Laptop2420 views

Normally I only post ideas that you can implement into your classroom today, but the newest version of the XO $100 laptop is too cool to pass on. Be forewarned, the new XOXO 2.0 laptop won’t be available until 2010. I have a feeling that when they are available, they will be popping up in classrooms all over the country and making one to one more of a reality. The new XOXO 2.0 will be controlled by the touch, with a very simple user interface. It looks like it is perfectly kid sized and is said to be very durable (it will have to be in a school setting!) You can read more about the XOXO 2.0 Laptop on TED. Now, if only we could install Leopard on it, it would be perfect! 😉

Send your name to the moon!

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Send your name to the moon!2533 views


What it is: Join NASA’s Return to the Moon by sending your name to the moon. Names are being collected online by NASA and will be placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its next mission to the moon. Students who sign up will receive a certificate showcasing their support of this historic mission back to the moon. The purpose of LRO is to map out safe landing sites, locate potential resources, collect data on the radiation environment, and to demonstrate new technologies.

How to integrate NASA’s Return to the Moon into the classroom: This project is a short and sweet one, it literally takes 10 seconds for students to sign up and receive their certificates. The project is sure to generate student interest in the LRO mission as well as space travel in general. Use NASA’s Return to the Moon as a jumping off point for further exploration of NASA and the space mission. The NASA kids site is a great place to continue exploration after your students have sent their names to the moon. The certificate of participation looks very important and official…students will love it!
Tips: The deadline for sending your name to the moon is June 27, 2008 so hop to it!
Please leave a comment and share how you are using NASA Kids in your classroom.

Shelfari

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Shelfari2882 views


What it is: Shelfari is a virtual bookshelf that you create to show off books that you have read and recommend. It is a Web 2.0 site that allows you to connect with students, other teachers, and parents around books. Shelfari is a great way to discover new titles, discuss books, start an online book club, and show others what you are reading. You can show off your Shelfari bookshelf on your blog, classroom website, or other social networking site of choice. Really cool!

How to integrate Shelfari into the classroom: As summer break approaches, we teachers start thinking about how far we have come during the school year with our students. We also dread that they will be on their own for the summer and may or may not be reading. Shelfari would be an excellent resource to create today and introduce your students and parents to before summer break. Build a bookshelf of age-appropriate reading for your students. Post the bookshelf on your classroom website and encourage students to continue reading with you over the summer. Because Shelfari allows for you to create online book clubs and discussions, students can keep their reading and comprehension skills in tip top shape with you! Shelfari is also an excellent resource for parents who may feel overwhelmed when they enter a library with their child. They often aren’t sure of their child’s reading level and age-appropriate books. With Shelfari, they can visit your shelf before the trip to the library for some great suggestions. Shelfari is also ideal throughout the school year as a place for you and your students to connect over reading…reading is so much more fun when you have someone to share and discuss what you are reading with! Students can create their own bookshelves to show off what they are reading. Teacher to teacher book clubs on Shelfari are also a lot of fun! Connect with other staff members over books that you are reading (they can be school related or not.) Maybe in place of the traditional book report, students start a discussion on Shelfari about their reading. Where have you been all my life Shelfari? 🙂

Tips: Use Shelfari in conjunction with Book Adventure for some real reading fun!

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

Kids in the House

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Kids in the House1708 views


What it is: Kids in the House is a great website for kids to learn about Congress, how laws are made, about the Clerk, and the history of the House of Representatives. This interactive site includes great links, definitions, explanations, and games. It also features a section called “Tools for Learning” where teachers can find educational resources and a lesson plan library.

How to integrate Kids in the House to the classroom: Take a break from the text book for this one. Kids in the House will help your students understand how Congress works, how laws are made, and the ins and outs of the House of Representatives. This is a good one to use before our election in November. Kids in the House uses kid-friendly language and cartoons that will really help your kids understand what can be a difficult subject to get a handle on. Use the site over several days as a sort of webquest. The Time Traveler section will teach them about the history of the House of Representatives, then take a virtual field trip of the Capitol Complex, the House Chamber, and the National Statuary Hall Collection, finish up the mini unit with games that reinforce what students have learned on Kids in the House. As a side note, this is way better than the way I learned (or didn’t) about the House of Representatives! This site could be used by the whole class in a lab setting or set up as a learning center in the one or two computer classroom.

Tips: The glossary on Kids in the House is a great one, as students are exploring the site, the glossary changes based on the key terms of the page. Students can look up words as they are working.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Kids in the House in your classroom.

Dipity

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Dipity6623 views


What it is: Dipity is a site that makes it simple for your students to create and share interactive timelines about any subject or topic. It allows students to embed You Tube videos, Twitter, RSS feeds, Blogger, flickr, Picasa, Last FM, and more right into their timelines. Dipity makes timelines relevant and fun for students and best of all, students are creating timelines in “their language” of Digital Native. You have to check this one out…look at a sample timeline to see how truly superior these timelines are to the traditional paper/pencil timeline! Okay seriously, have you ever seen something so cool?!

How to integrate Dipity into the classroom: Dipity is the perfect tool for creating a timeline for any subject in your classroom. Students can bring history to life by embedding relevant You Tube video into their timelines. Create a timeline of your day by combining Dipity with your classroom tweets from Twitter. Timelines can be created by students individually or as a class and posted on a class website as a study resource. Dipity makes your classroom interactive and engaging for students. This is where real learning takes place! To introduce Dipity to your students, invite them to create a timeline of their day or their lives using Dipity (if they have a family Flickr account they can embed pictures right into their timeline).

Tips: Students can look at the content they add to Dipity in four different views: Timeline, List View, Flipboook, and Map View (this only works if the timeline has been tagged with locations.)

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

Time Tube

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Time Tube2739 views

What it is: Time Tube is an awesome website for our You Tube addicted students. It is essentially a cross between a time line and You Tube. Students can type in a historical (or any) event and Time Tube will create a time line of related videos (the time line is based on when the video was added not on historical relevance). You have to see it to truly appreciate the cool factor of this tool. Your technology native students will “get” this site right away.

How to integrate Time Tube into the classroom: Use Time Tube in your classroom to introduce students to time lines, history subjects, current events, etc. Your students will appreciate the break from the traditional textbook time lines and learn more in the process. Before using Time Tube with your classroom, preview the topic to verify its school appropriateness (actually you should always do that!) This would also be a good place to teach students to question the reliability of the resources they are using and to check their “facts”.

Tips: Time Tube is related to a site called Dipity which I will be reviewing tomorrow…very neat!

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