What it is: The last time I wrote about Seussville was in May 2007. Recently I have written a few Dr. Seuss posts and my friend @crudbasher sent me a link to Seussville asking if I had seen it. I had NO idea it had been so beautifully and creatively revamped! The new Seussville truly feels like a site Dr. Seuss himself would have imagined. It is simply a funtastical place! On the site your students will find little snippets of Dr. Seuss books to read, video clips based on Dr. Seuss books that could act as book trailers, printable activities, online learning games, a place to meet the Dr. Seuss characters, a place to meet Dr. Seuss the author, and much more. Seussville also has funtastic classroom resources for teachers including printables and activities, lesson plans, The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, an author study, a complete list of books, and information about programs like Read Across America and the Lorax Project. This is such a fun, engaging site I could have explored it for hours!
How to integrate Seussville into your curriculum: A Dr. Seuss author study is always fun! Seussville has all of the resources you need to let your students get up-close and personal with Dr. Seuss. The learning games on Seussville make students think and play using trial and error and critical thinking(see the Green Eggs and Ham game for example). This is a fun site to use year round with your students but would be particularly exciting around Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Set up Seussville on your classroom computers during reading time and invite students to search for a Dr. Seuss book they might enjoy reading. The mini descriptions and book trailer type video clips will have your students excited to read to find out what happens next.
Tips: Sign up for Seussville newsletter to be delivered to your email box throughout the school year.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Seussville in your classroom!
What it is:The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That is a new PBS TV series and website that ignites an excitement about science for primary students. The series is based on the Beginner Book Collection “The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library”. The goal of the series and online resources is to “cultivate positive views about science and scientists among the next generation-the children who will become tomorrow’s citizens and innovators-and help teachers and families build communities of science explorers.” I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of building communities of explorers, science or otherwise! In the TV series, The Cat in the Hat, Sally, and Nick set off on a science adventure. In one episode, the trio flies with birds to discover why they migrate. In another, they are taking a snowcat to the Arctic to explore freezing and melting. As the Cat in the Hat guides them, the children solve problems by engaging in science inquiry. Right now students can watch video clips on The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That website, play related games, find activities and coloring pages to print, and play games with snapshots from the program. Right now adventures on the site include science concepts like bird migration, camouflage, and melting/freezing.
How to integrate The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That into your curriculum: If you are a regular visitor of my blog, you know that I am a big Dr. Seuss fan (see pictures of Dr. Seuss inspired classroom theme here). While this site isn’t strictly Seuss, it does a remarkable job of bringing The Cat in the Hat to life with a focus on scientific inquiry. Use the videos on the site to introduce your students to new science concepts including migration, camouflage, and melting/freezing (my guess is more will be added as the series takes off). Students can engage in the inquiry process along with Sally and Nick and then practice the newly acquired concept in the games section. This would be a fun site to use as a science center that students visit on classroom computers during a coordinating unit. Students can view videos prior to exploring the concept as background knowledge, or watch the videos after engaging in their own inquiry process on the topic and compare the journey of inquiry taken. Did Sally and Nick come to the same conclusions?
The printables on the site include fun mazes, coloring pages, matching vocabulary, and even bookmarks, stickers, and other paper crafts. One of the print outs in the Paper Craft Sections is a Cat in the Hat frame that would be great for framing pictures of students engaging in their own scientific inquiry.
Tips: Be sure to click on the teacher button to find an Explorer’s Guide where you can find tips for engaging young students in scientific inquiry. You will also find tips for using the online video in your classroom, a list of Cat in the Hat science books, and find video enhanced activities.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That in your classroom!
Tomorrow I am doing a training on the Treasures Supplement that I created over the summer. Most of the supplemental suggestions fall into the bottom two tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Remember and Understand). I want to show teachers that just because these activities help students practice basic skills and remember and understand, there are SO many more options that will reach the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy! I created the Bloomin’ Peacock to show teachers the Blooms Taxonomy break down and the Bloomin’ digital Peacock that shows how the digital tools in the supplement break down.
Below are the tools listed in my Bloomin’ Digital Peacock
I have received a lot of requests and DM’s for the Bloomin’ Peacock on posters (I’m still working on these), mugs, etc. For those of you who asked, here it is:
What it is:Mission U.S. is a brand new multimedia adventure game site (currently a preview site) that is set to officially launch September 21, 2010. The site will feature interactive adventure games that are set throughout U.S. history. The first game, Mission 1: For Crown or Colony, is available for play now. In For Crown or Colony, student play Nat Wheeler, a 14 year old printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. As students explore Boston 1770, they will encounter merchants, soldiers, sailors, poets, Patriots, and Loyalists. The game helps students virtually experience the rising tensions of 1770 and ultimately asks them to choose where their loyalties lie. The website is extremely classroom friendly, teachers can use the teacher tools to manage classrooms and track student progress. The teacher page is incredible, on it you will find everything from models of instruction, to a synopsis of each stage of the game, to additional tips and resources, and a downloadable version of the game. From the looks of the site there are more great adventures in history to come!
How to integrate Mission US into your curriculum:Mission U.S. looks like it is going to be an amazing collection of adventure games that drop your students right in the middle of American history. Students will really understand the history they are learning as they meet historical characters, learn about the conflicts of the day, and are asked to make decisions of loyalty. A textbook just can’t provide this kind of up-close-and-personal experience with history. Use the Mission U.S. game and resources to immerse your students in history. Student progress can be tracked making it easy to use in the classroom as a center or in a lab setting.
Tips: Students can even play the pennywhistle in the mini game, Pennywhistle hero.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Mission US in your classroom!
What it is: There is a new trend in reading: book trailers. It seems that lately book trailers are popping up on all of the video sharing sites. Digital Book Talk is a collaborative effort from the University of Central Florida where Dr. Robert Kennedy and Dr. Glenda Gunter have completed research on what motivates reluctant and striving readers to select, read, and complete books. “The student productions of DBT (Digital Book Talk) focus use the technological skills taught in the undergraduate Digital Media and graduate Educational Technology curricula that teach teachers how to create dynamic digital games, trailers, and Web sites. Many of these skills include research and writing, Flash animation, visual storytelling, video recording and editing, audio recording, graphic design, website development, programming, and database creation.” On the Digital Book Talk site, you will find high quality book trailers that will whet your students appetite for a good book. Students can search for books by content level, and interests.
How to integrate Digital Book Talk into your curriculum: The Digital Book Talk site is an excellent place for students to start their search for a book that will hold their interest. Just like a movie trailer, the book trailers give students just enough information to leave them wanting more. The Digital Book Talks will help your reluctant readers understand the adventures that await them in a good book. Find a book trailer to introduce a novel that the whole class will be reading or set up classroom computers with a link to Digital Book Talk where students can be inspired to find their next read. After students read, they can create their own Digital Book Talks using video cameras or tools like Xtranormal, ZimmerTwins, or Kerpoof movie.
A few years ago I had my students create bookcasts. These were the same ideas as a book trailer but instead of being video, they were audio podcasts only. I created a wiki where the students uploaded their bookcasts as they finished them. The wiki was a place where students could recommend books to their peers, demonstrate their understanding of a book, and find the next book to read based on a classmates recommendation.
Tips: Be sure to check out the student work tab to see book trailers created by k-12 students around the country.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Digital Book Talk: Book Trailers for k-12 in your classroom!
What it is: Rustle the Leaf is an enchanting site that I learned about from @alexgfrancisco’s excellent blog ZarcoEnglish-Tool of the Day. Rustle the Leaf is a collection of online comic strips that teach about the environment. The comics star Rustle the Leaf (don’t you just love the name?) and his friends. Each comic is designed to help kids think about and understand their relationship to the planet and how their actions affect the Earth. The site has a great collection of teaching resources that include lesson plans, offline games, and comics. In the kids fun section, students will find Earth Day e-cards, printable cards, computer desktops, printable posters, and book downloads.
How to integrate Rustle the Leaf into your curriculum: I feel like when I was in elementary school (in the 80’s), that protecting the environment was a much bigger theme in schools than it is now. Maybe it just isn’t as widely taught at the schools I am in, or maybe it has been cut out of curriculum because it isn’t tested on. Regardless, the environment is as important to teach today as it was when I was growing up. Rustle the Leaf is a fun way to help your students think about and understand environmental issues. Use the site as the basis for a unit around Earth Day or help your students understand that everyday is Earth Day by reading and discussing a new comic every day. The comics would be great discussion starters at the beginning of the day. The resources on Rustle the Leaf are really well done, these can be used throughout the year, monthly, or all together as a focused unit. Set the desktops on classroom computers with Rustle the Leaf wallpapers as a daily reminder of how to care for the environment.
I have a feeling that students will fall in love with the Rustle the Leaf character. If this is the case for your students, they may enjoy creating their own Rustle the Leaf comics about the environment. They could even create a Rustle the Leaf comic reminding others to turn off the water or lights to be posted next to sinks and light switches in the classroom.
Tips: At the bottom of the Rustle the Leaf homepage in the left sidebar, you will find links to animated shorts starring Rustle the Leaf. These are entertaining and have a great message that tie directly into the comics and lesson plans on the site. Don’t miss them!
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Rustle the Leaf in your classroom!
What it is:ArcGIS Explorer Online is a neat mapping experience powered by BING that lets you use, create, and share ArcGIS (Global Information System) maps online. The online software lets you read and write ArcGIS maps that can be used with the website, ArcGIS for the iPhone, and ArcGIS desktop version. Mark up maps with notes that have photos, text, and links embedded directly in the map. Measure distances on the map and include them as a layer of the map. Create a presentation in the map that guides viewers from one location on the map to another.
ArcGIS lets you create an interactive map experience.1. choose a basemap to display your GIS data on top of.2. Click on one of the map notes shapes to add a GIS note to your map.3. Click "edit note" along the bottom of the note and add text, a picture, and a link.Create a slideshow presentation of you map by clicking "Edit Presentation"Click "Capture New Slide" to take a screen shot of your map to become a slide in the presentation.Format the slide with the formatting tools above the map. View slides in the slide pane to the left of the map.Click the home tab to return to the default tool bar. (You can switch back and forth between the two).Click Measure to measure distances on the map. Click "add to map" if you want to add the measurement to the map.
How to integrate ArcGIS Explorer Online into your curriculum:ArcGIS Explorer is an impressive online mapping tool. Use it to create guided tours for your students that can be played on classroom computers as an independent learning system or on the interactive whiteboard as a whole class map tour. Embed links to informational websites, pictures relating to learning, and text to help guide your students through their journey. Do one better by asking your students to create a map where they layer information, pictures, measurements, etc. on a map. Students could create and swap tours of their home town with pen pals/blogging buddies around the world. Create historical maps by adding notes with primary sources, pictures, links to additional learning (or blog posts that your students have written), and text that indicates the importance of the place. Create literary maps by making note of key locations in literature that students are reading. Students can add a note to the map with a quote from the book or a description of what happened there. When they are finished reading, students can create a presentation/tour of the literature by creating a slide out of each place in the book. An interactive literary tour of learning beats a traditional book report hands down! ArcGIS would be a really neat way to plot a Flat Stanley project in the elementary classroom!
Tips: ArcGIS requires the Microsoft Silverlight plugin to work. You can download Silverlight for free directly from the ArcGIS website.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using ArcGIS in your classroom!
What it is:Critical Past is a website I learned about today from Tom Boito’s great blog EDge 21 in his Catch of the Day. The resource is too good not to share again here! Critical Past is a collection of more than 57,000 historical videos and more than 7 million historical photos. All of the photos and videos are royalty free, archival stock footage. Most of the footage comes from U.S. Government Agency sources. All of the videos and photos can be viewed for free online and shared with others via url, Twitter, or Facebook. The videos and photos are also available to purchase for download.
How to integrate Critical Past into your curriculum:Critical Past is an incredible collection of historical videos and pictures. The site is easy to search either by decade and topic or keyword. The clips and photos on Critical Past will bring historical events alive for your students. Use photos or videos on Critical Past to help illustrate what students are learning in history. Ask students to be “eyewitnesses” of history and watch a video before they have context for it. Students can write or blog about what they think they are witnessing, afterward they can research the event more in-depth and write a follow-up reflection on what was actually happening in the clip.
Tips: Along the right side bar of Critical Past, you will find “related videos.” Students can watch a clip and the related videos and reflect on how the clips are related. Sometimes it is a similar time period, sometimes a related event, other times it is a related location.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Critical Past in your classroom!
In the last year I started two edubloggers alliances (you can learn about them here and here). I have had wonderful teachers from around the world join me on this journey of blogging, commenting, and supporting fellow educational bloggers. As it stands, there are nearly 200 educators who have committed to reading, commenting, and encouraging other bloggers. I am still truly amazed at the results of this “crazy” idea I had. Many have asked me when I am going to start another alliance or when I will open it up for more to join. My answer, I have NO idea. You see, when I started the edublogger alliance, I committed to commenting on each and every post that members of the alliance posted. I did really well with this until the end of the school year hit. I am still commenting, but I can’t seem to get through the 400+ edublogger posts in my Google Reader. It made me re-think the reason I started the alliance in the first place.
My initial goal was to encourage others in their blogging. It can be hard for those new to blogging to break into the “club” and stick with it long enough to gain readers. My thought was, if we could encourage each other from the beginning of the blogging journey, more would stick with it. The problem? There are teachers who are new to blogging every day! I can’t keep up with it on my own and yet I still have a desire to help those who are new to blogging. My solution? Create an edublogger alliance social network on Wack Wall. I know what some of you are thinking: “is she out of her mind? I already belong to 15 social networks, subscribe to countless numbers of blogs, follow people on Twitter, how in the world am I going to keep track of one more thing?!” This isn’t my intent. For those of you who feel overwhelmed by the prospect of joining ANOTHER social network, don’t. It won’t hurt my feelings. I get it…I feel the same way every time a new social network pops up. It is too much, I can’t keep track of it all. But, I also know that there are thousands of educators out there who would like to try their hand at blogging but need a support system. You need someone to encourage you, answer your newbie (or not so newbie) blog questions, help you figure out how to blog with your students, help you navigate the blogging platform choices, etc. You need a place to be plugged in with others who are working through all of this themselves. Don’t misunderstand, the Edublogger Alliance is for everyone; of course I would love to have all of you join! I just don’t want you to feel an obligation to sign up for one more thing if you are already overwhelmed.
Let me be clear, I am by NO means an expert of any sort on blogging, I just know that I wish that I had someone to guide me in my blogging journey. I wish I had someone to ask questions, and sort through WordPress and blogging etiquette with. My hope is that this will be a place where blogging educators can come together, share what is working and what isn’t, ask questions, and get answers. I want it to be a place where those who have been blogging for a little while can help those who are just dipping their toes in. I want it to be a place of discussion and encouragement.
If this social network isn’t for you, if you are already stretched in a million directions, that is fine…I truly do understand. I will ask you to keep your ears open and offer it as a suggestion for those new to blogging, or those looking for a place to connect with other educators.
Below are a few screen shots of the new iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance with some explanations about how it works and what you can expect to find there.
The dashboard is your On the blog tab you can write, share, or read a blog post.Add the link to your blog on the link tab.Join a group to find others using your same blog platform, or to share blogging tips, tricks, and ideas.Start or add to a discussion on the forum page.
If you are interested in joining me on this journey, you can sign up here. Don’t forget to pass this on to all those teachers who are deciding to try blogging for the first time this year. They are going to need help!
What it is: DragON Tape is a web application that lets you create video “mix tapes” (mashups) of YouTube Videos. DragoON Tape is really simple to use, just search for a video by YouTube URL or subject and drag it down to the timeline. Add as many videos to the timeline as you want and save it. DragON Tape makes it easy to give your students access to several videos with just one url.
How to integrate DragON Tape into your curriculum:DragON Tape is a simple way for you to create a mix of videos for your students to watch, collected under one url. DragON Tape is very easy to use and share, you can create a video mashup in no time. This is a great way to send video collections to students and colleagues. If you have access to YouTube at school, students could create their own DragON Tape mixes on any subject. Students can mix the best of the best videos on a subject to share with classmates. This year, I had my students make video commercials advertising Free Rice that we uploaded to YouTube. DragON Tape would be a fantastic way to collect all of the student videos in one url so that students and parents could watch the student creations in one place. DragON Tape is easy to fast forward and rewind through making it perfect for this type of class video collection. Want to see DragON Tape in action? Check out this phonics mix I made in under 2 min! Another thing that I like about DragON Tape is the way that it isolates YouTube videos against a black screen when it replays them. There are no distracting comments, advertisements, or related videos suggested. DragON is perfect for the projector-connected computer, interactive whiteboard, or on computer lab or classroom computers as part of a guided learning activity.
Tips:DragON Tape requires an email for registration. If students are creating mixes, consider creating and using a class email address as the login credentials or used a @tempinbox or @mailinator temporary inbox address.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using DragON Tape in your classroom!
