Resource type – Page 58 – iLearn Technology

Spelling City: Update

January 29, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4106 views

What it is: Spelling City is a fabulous site for practicing spelling, I have written about its uses in the classroom before (here and here). Spelling City has just added a new feature that teachers are going to love, the ability to add your own sentences on Spelling City! Now you can customize your spelling lists to fit your needs. For example, if you are studying fish and one of your spelling words is “scales”, the default sentence that Spelling City might offer is “The scales were not giving the weights accurately.” Now as you create a list, you can click on “add” and type a new sentence to fit your classroom needs. The feature is also extremely useful for homonyms (our fifth graders are using this feature this week!). For the teacher created sentences, the audio read of the sentence will be done by a sophisticated voice synthesis.

How to integrate Spelling City into the classroom: Now that Spelling City allows teacher generated sentences, you can customize your lists for students even more. Have students generate sentences for the weeks spelling words and vote on which sentence should be included on Spelling City. This is a great way to involve your students in thinking about word meanings and uses.

Tips: Spelling City has a premium membership that has been approved for funding by Adopt-a-Classroom.org. You can use the Adopt-A-Classroom service to ask for donations to cover premium membership.

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

The Eco Zoo

January 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2570 views

What it is: The Eco Zoo is an impressive 3d environment where students can meet different “animals” that will give them some ideas about taking care of the environment. Each of the critters has a virtual pop-up book that tells a little about the character. Each character has an environmental quirk, like one who is always turning off the lights to save energy, and has a little story that will get your students thinking about the environment. The site is available to view in both Japanese and English.

How to integrate The Eco Zoo into the classroom: The Eco Zoo is a great site to travel through as a class when you are studying the environment, ecology, or eco-friendly solutions. This site is ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. As a class, travel up the tree, visiting each animal along the way. Ask students to guess what environmental issue the animal is passionate about. Have students brainstorm ideas of ways that they could be friendlier to the environment as it relates to each animal. This would be a great site to guide classroom discussion and spark some new ideas.

The look of the site is very unique, students will love the virtual popup books! Students can also explore this site on their own on classroom computers or in a computer lab setting. As they view the different animals, students can create character cards about the animal, listing the environmental passion, and ideas of how they can be more environmentally friendly.

Tips: This site was created in Japan so some of the English is a little awkward, or the humor missed.

Leave a comment and share how you are using The Eco Zoo in your classroom.

5 of the BEST Virtual Field Trips

January 26, 2010Kelly Tenkely12 Comments3967 views

Kelly Tenkely | TheApple.com (Posted at The Apple.com)
Field trips can be amazing learning experiences. They provide students with the opportunity to actively participate in education, offering learning possibilities that aren’t readily available in the classroom. Unfortunately, it isn’t always practical or possible to take students on field trips. Tight budgets, location, transportation, time, and resource restrictions can keep your students school-bound. Virtual field trips can fill this void. Virtual field trips have come a long way from the page of links they used to be. Now students can explore the world with simulations that are so realistic, they will believe they have left the classroom. Below are five of the best virtual field trips on the web:

Virtual Field Trip #1:

Smithsonian Museum
Not all cities have access to an incredible natural history museum like the Smithsonian. This virtual tour is the next best thing to taking an actual field trip to the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian Virtual Museum is truly remarkable. Students can ‘step’ into the exhibits and take a tour through the entire museum in a 360 degree environment. The virtual museum is made up of panoramic pictures of the actual exhibits inside the Smithsonian. Using their mouse, students “walk” through the museum room by room. They can zoom in, look left and right, look up and down, and walk forward or backward. Camera icons throughout the museum show students hot spots where they can get close to an exhibit panel. As students explore the museum, they will see: the ocean hall, ancient seas, dinosaurs, early life, fossils, plants, mammals, African cultures, the Ice Age, Western cultures, reptiles, insects, butterflies, bones, geology, gems, and minerals.

Students can explore the various exhibits on individual computers in a computer lab setting or life size with an interactive whiteboard or a projector. Split your students into groups and assign them an exhibit to explore and take notes on. After students have explored and become the ‘expert’ on their exhibit, project the Virtual Smithsonian Museum on an interactive whiteboard/screen. Explore the museum as a class. As you enter an exhibit, invite the group who explored the exhibit to act as tour guides.

Even if you have access to a natural history museum for field trips, the Smithsonian Virtual Museum is still incredibly useful. Prepare for a field trip to your local history museum by visiting the virtual museum. After the field trip, students can compare and contrast what they saw at the local museum with the Smithsonian.

Virtual Field Trip #2:

UPM Forest Life
A field trip to a forest is a wonderful way to learn about tree species, ecosystems, habitats, and animals. The UPM Forest Life virtual field trip will have your students believing that they are actually in a forest smelling pine trees.
UPM Forest Life aims to teach about forest sustainability. It does this by inviting students to take a virtual hike through a forest. The forest is made up of panoramic pictures of an actual forest. Students can zoom in, look up and down, left and right, and ‘walk’ through the forest with their mouse. Students start their field trip with a virtual tour guide. As students ‘hike’ through the forest, they will click on hot spots that reveal videos of forest life, pictures with information, and sounds. Throughout the forest are opportunities for learning about forest planning, harvesting, regeneration, re-spacing, thinning, transport, recreation, training, berry picking, bird watching, hunting, fishing, natural forests, valuable habitats, deadwood, forest structure, water, native tree species, and the various animals that call a forest home. This virtual field trip is impressive on individual computers and amazing when viewed as a whole class on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector. Allow students to take turns acting as forest rangers. They can click on various videos, pictures, and information embedded in the forest. Students can record their observations of the forest, trees, animals, and sounds they experience in an observation journal.

Virtual Field Trip #3:

Moon in Google Earth
The moon is no longer off limits for field trips! Students can visit the moon virtually using Moon view in Google Earth. Google Earth makes for excellent virtual trips around the world; in Google Earth 5.0 you can also take your students to the moon.
Moon in Google Earth makes it possible for students to take tours of Apollo missions to the moon, from takeoff to landing – all narrated by Apollo astronauts. Students can explore 3-D models of landed spacecraft, zoom into 360-degree photos of astronaut footprints on the moon, watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions, and, of course, explore the surface of the moon. Take your virtual field trip to the moon as a class with an interactive whiteboard/projector, or send students on their own mission to the moon using student computers. Assign groups of students to an Apollo mission to explore. When the ‘astronauts’ return to earth, they can tell other students about their mission to the moon or write a newspaper article about their journey.

Virtual Field Trip #4:

Planet in Action
Real field trips don’t allow for adventures like a helicopter ride above the Grand Canyon, an expedition to Mount St. Helens, or a helicopter tour of Manhattan or Disneyland Paris. Planet in Action makes all of these possible with the help of Google Earth.
Planet in Action is an outstanding way to bring learning to life. Students can take a guided tour of the Grand Canyon, Mount St. Helens, Manhattan, or Disneyland Paris or take control and explore on their own. These journeys are incredibly lifelike on an interactive whiteboard/projector. Take your whole class on a virtual helicopter ride above famous landmarks that they are learning about in class. First, watch the recorded tour and discuss the different landmarks as you see them. Then ‘hire’ a student helicopter ‘pilot’ who can navigate a trip for the class. On individual computers, students can create postcards of their virtual field trip or create their own virtual tour that can be saved and shared with others or with Planet in Action. As students fly above the landmarks, a Google Map will show them exactly where they are in the virtual tour.

Virtual Field Trip #5:

AR Sights
Most students probably won’t have the ability to travel to the pyramids or the Eiffel Tower for a field trip.
Augmented Reality makes it possible to see these landmarks, and more, using Google Earth in 3-D.
Augmented Reality requires a webcam, browser add-on, and a printout provided by the AR Sights website.
After a simple graphic is printed out, it is held up to a webcam. Students will see a landmark spring to life right before their eyes on the computer screen. As the printout is tilted, twisted, and moved the landmark moves accordingly. Students can view the famous landmark in 360-degrees, 3-D, and up close. It is truly incredible!
AR Sights makes it possible to view Google Earth right in a web browser and then zoom into places of interest, looking at them in 3-D with Augmented Reality. Students can ‘fly’ around Google Earth, when they find a place of interest, they will hold the printout up to the camera and explore the landmark. This is an amazing visual method for learning about geography and famous landmarks. If you only have access to one webcam, use it with a computer connected to a projector or interactive whiteboard for whole class exploration.

Geography, budget, and time are no longer field trip restrictions. With virtual field trips, students can explore the universe using a computer. These simulations are so realistic that your students will believe they have traveled the universe, actively participating in their learning.

Kids Interactive-Whales

January 25, 2010January 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments3144 views

What it is: The stories in our 3rd grade reading curriculum are all about whales this week. I found this great interactive about Whales put together by the Australian Government Department of the Environment for the students to explore. In the Kids Interactive-Whales, students board the Discovery where they can explore 5 different rooms including the science lab, the research center, the office, the library, and the bridge. Each room has an “expert” that will help the students as they explore the room. As students explore each room, they can take notes by saving text to a clipboard. In the research center, students learn about whale migration, the effects of whale hunting, watch video footage of whales, take an up close view of whale pictures, learn about whale sounds, and even report a whale sighting. On the bridge, students will learn about the rules for viewing whales from land, listen to sounds that different whales make, learn about sonar, steer the boat, learn about the whales that live in Australian waters, learn the rules about watching whales from a boat, and learn the best time to go whale watching. In the underwater library, students will use the database to look up facts about whales (they can take notes on their clipboard), use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar terms, learn about the history of whaling, see how whale populations have suffered, and see pictures of whales that can be used in a research project. In the office, students can watch whales through a portal, read about Australian whale preservation, read a brochure, and view a timeline of how whaling activities have changed throughout the years. The science lab is the last room on the Discovery. Here, students can learn about what whales eat, take a closer look at the anatomy of whales, play a game to practice identifying whales, find out how whales are important to the ecosystem, learn about the difference between whales and dolphins, learn about the research that scientists do, and take a closer look at whale statistics.

How to integrate Kids Interactive- Whales into the classroom: Our 3rd grade students study whales every year in both reading and science. This is an excellent interactive to send kids through to help them build background knowledge about whales for future reading or study. This is also a great place for students to begin a research project about whales. Students can save notes to a virtual clipboard as they learn and explore each room. The clipboard can be printed out and used as research notes. The interactive is packed full of good information and activities. Set up your room so that as students file into the room, they feel like they are boarding the Discovery ship. Choose students to act as tour guides for each of the 5 rooms. Using a projector or interactive whiteboard, have the tour guides lead the class through each room. Students who are at their seats can take notes about whales and ask the tour guides questions. If you have access to a computer lab setting, students can explore the site individually. Create a guide of things to search for as they complete their tour, make it a scavenger hunt for information.

Tips: As an extension activity, encourage students to learn about whaling practices and preservation in their own country.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Kids Interactive-Whales in your classroom.

Pages Tutorial

January 23, 2010Kelly Tenkely15 Comments2712 views

Discovery’s Make a Quake

January 21, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3507 views

What it is: Our fifth graders are going to be reading stories about extreme nature next week. To build background knowledge about extreme nature, I was on a hunt for some sites that would teach them about different natural occurrences and include an interactive where they could explore the occurrence first hand. Discovery has an nice interactive on earthquakes called Make a Quake. Students are able to create their own earthquake in a virtual simulator. Students enter a simulator that lets them choose the kind of ground that their building is built on, the preventative measures that have been put in place, and the magnitude of the earthquake. Then they begin the quake to test out different scenarios.

How to integrate Discovery’s Make a Quake into the classroom: This is a great site to help students understand how different factors determine the impact of an earthquake. Allow students to explore this interactive individually on classroom computers or in a computer lab setting. Encourage them to take notes about what combination causes the most damage and which combination causes the least damage. You could also complete this simulation as a class using an interactive whiteboard or a projector. Invite students up to adjust the different factors (ground, prevention, magnitude). Ask students to make predictions about what will happen to their building. Begin the quake to test their hypothesis.

Tips: Students can learn more about past earthquakes by learning more about 1906: The Great Quake Cover-Up and view a photo gallery of earthquake destruction.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Discovery’s Make a Quake in your classroom.

National Geographic Forces of Nature

January 21, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3716 views

What it is: Our fifth graders are going to be reading stories about extreme nature next week. To build background knowledge about extreme nature, I was on a hunt for some sites that would teach them about different natural occurrences and include an interactive where they could explore the occurrence first hand. National Geographic has a great collection called Forces of Nature. Here students can explore a natural forces lab where they learn about the extreme nature. Students can learn about tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Students learn what the force of nature is, what causes them, their characteristics, the damage that they do, how they are forecasted, and then have the opportunity to actually create the force of nature virtually. Students can also view an interactive map that shows hot sites where the forces of nature occur, and read case studies of actual events.

How to integrate National Geographic Forces of Nature into the classroom: Set up a science or reading center where students can read and learn about each force of nature. Allow students to interact with the activities to control their own tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Choose a “weather forecaster” for the class. Using an interactive whiteboard or projector have the forecaster change the elements that lead to the force of nature. Ask students at their seats predict what will happen with the force of nature. Are conditions right for a tornado/hurricane/earthquake/eruption? The forecaster will test out conditions to find out what happens. Ask students to explain the occurrence and why their predictions were correct or incorrect. If you don’t have access to an interactive whiteboard or projector, students could complete this activity in partners on the classroom computers. This is an excellent visual aid for the science classroom, it is like an interactive text book.

Tips: National Geographic has a great Forces of Nature photo gallery (found below the interactive) where students can see high quality photos of tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes. The earthquake interactive is a timely addition to the classroom with the recent earthquake in Haiti. This is a great way for kids to understand exactly how the earthquake occurred.

Leave a comment and share how you are using National Geographic Forces of Nature in your classroom.

Learn English Kids

January 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments4108 views

What it is: Learn English Kids is a website especially for students who are learning English or need some remedial help in language development. Created by the British Council, Learn English Kids has fun games, songs, stories, and offline activities to help students learn English. All of the activities are created so that they can be done independently or with family members or friends. In the listen and watch section of the site are animated stories and songs, many have accompanying activities to use in the classroom. There are also videos and online activities designed to build listening skills and comprehension. In the read write section are downloadable materials designed to help develop reading and writing skills. The make section features online activities in which students can create something. There are also arts and crafts directions to download and videos of children creating things. In the explore section are additional resources and websites for English language learners. The game section features several games broken down into language games, fun with English, little Kids games, and games to play with friends. Students learn basic English vocabulary, alphabetical order, phoneme matching (matching phoneme to its sound), hieroglyphics, months in a year, famous landmarks, seasons, recycling, ancient Egypt, animal habitats, around the world, bugs, Chinese New Year, Christmas, cities, colors, computers, countries, currency, daily routines, days of the week, dinosaurs, directions, environment, fairy tales, food, Great Barrier Reef, health, holidays, human body, maps, money, nature, numbers, Olympic games, pets, planets, plants, school, solar system, space, sports, technology, weather, just to name a few.

How to integrate Learn English Kids into the classroom: Learn English Kids is a comprehensive resource that can be used in your classroom in a variety of ways. The site was designed specifically for English Language Learners (or ESL students) but is appropriate for primary students or students who need some remedial language building. The site has been created to be navigated and used independently and many of the activities would be perfect as a center that students can visit. The games are outstanding for vocabulary and language building. Listen and Watch has an impressive collection of songs that are traditional children tunes like Hickory, dickory dock, teaching songs that help students remember things like months in a year, and themed songs. Each song is accompanied by a pdf of the lyrics and a print activity. There are several well made short stories for your students to read along with. The animated stories can be read with or without audio. Each story comes with the ability to print and includes accompanying activity suggestions. Kids Talk features videos of kids answering a variety of questions. The Listen and Watch section also has a place for students to practice their listening skills. Students watch an animated video and listen to what the characters say. Then they are asked to interact with the activity according to what they heard. These activities are great for ELL, but would also be excellent for students with sensory integration problems. In the Read and Write section, students read a passage and are given follow up questions that they can write about themselves. These would make an excellent writing center for students who need some prompting to write. In the Create section students can create online stories, characters, etc. There are also some offline printable activities and suggestions of things to create. This site features so many great resources, it will keep you ready with activities for your students. Every one of the activities/songs/read alongs are high quality and engaging. Students will love this site! I cannot stress enough that this site has something for every student, not just English Language Learners. My kindergarten and first grade students really enjoy using this site.

Tips: This site could take you hours to explore to find all of it’s hidden treasures. If you are looking for a specific game, story, or topic, you may want to click on “Site Map” at the very bottom of the webpage. Here you can sort through all of the resources by topic, finding exactly what you need quickly. What a great website!! Be sure to check out the Teacher page where you will find lesson plans, resources, and guidance for teaching your ELL students.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Learn English Kids in your classroom.

Learning 2.0 A Colorado Conversation

January 18, 2010January 18, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments2668 views

What it is:

“Education is conversation. Conversation creates change.

The future of education does not exist in an isolated world of theory conveyed through abstract conference sessions. Instead, it exists in conversations that begin with a robust learning network that is ever-expanding and just-in-time. Learning 2.0 is not the beginning of this conversation, rather it is a stopping point; a time to talk about the visible difference that we all seek. We read. We reflect. We write. We share. We learn. Come join us for a day of conversation about learning and technology.”

Learning 2.0 A Colorado Conversation is “ a conference/unconference/meetup for teachers, administrators, students, school board members, parents, community, and anyone else who is interested in education. There is NO COST for attendees to join the conversation.” Participants can attend in person or virtually. This year Learning 2.0 takes place on Saturday, February 20 at Loveland High School. Learning 2.0 is in it’s third year. I attended for the first time in 2009 and throughly enjoyed the conversation, learning, and collaboration. You can’t beat the price (free) and even luch is included (who says there is no such thing as a free lunch?!). Sessions range from leadership, classroom practice, to professional development. Round Table discussions end the day (I am hosting one of these).

Tips: Be sure to register for the event here and add your name to the attendee list here. I look forward to the conversation and hope you will join us (in person or virtually).

Are you joining the conversation?

Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010

January 15, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments3138 views

What it is: The Winter Olympics are just around the corner and Vancouver has created a website to track all things Olympics. Vancouver 2010 has excellent information and links for your students to explore. On the website, students can learn about each of the winter games sports, the medals, the athletes involved, current news relating to the Olympics, photos, videos, and more. My favorite features is in More 2010 information. Here you will find the 2010 Olympic torch relay route. The torch is tracked on an interactive map. Students can follow its journey from October 30 to February 12.

How to integrate Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 into the classroom: Vancouver 2010 is a well made site where your students can learn more about the winter Olympics that will be taking place in February. There are some great little videos that will teach students about each event, photos of the Olympic events, historical medals of the different countries, schedules of events, and much more. The Olympic games is a fun time for each country, students can learn more about geography, other cultures, the Olympic games, and the history of the Olympics. Track the torch as it makes its way to the games each day. Talk about the places it has been and about this history of the torch. Create a Google Earth Map where your students can keep track of the medals won by different countries throughout the games. Assign groups of students to learn about the different competitions in the winter Olympics. Each group can be assigned to learn more about the competition using the Vancouver 2010 website and use the photographs and pictures to help them present the event to the class.

Tips: The Olympic games is a great time of year to teach about teamwork, doing your best, and supporting your country. Great tie ins for character education! Check out the education programs (More information for 2010) there are great lesson plans and ideas.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Vancouver 2010 in your classroom.