Category: Interactive Whiteboard

Netsmartz Kids: Router’s Birthday Surprise (Internet Safety)

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Netsmartz Kids: Router’s Birthday Surprise (Internet Safety)8054 views

What it is: NetSmartz Kids is an incredible Internet safety site for kids.  I have reviewed this site in the past here, and use it every year with my students to teach and reinforce Internet safety.  Router’s Birthday Surprise is a new feature of NetSmartz.  It is an interactive video where students are drawn into the story, playing a contestant on a game show to learn online safety rules.  Clicky, the robot star of NetSmartz, is planning a surprise birthday party for his robo dog Router.  As they follow Clicky through his hectic day, students play games, help Clicky put the Webville Outlaws back in jail, and decide who is a trusted adult.  When students complete the video and games, they become certified NetSmartz Kids complete with an official certificate.  Students have to complete all sections correctly before they can be certified.  The complete video and game play runs for about 45 min, but NetSmartz has broken the video and game into manageable pieces so that it can fit in any schedule.  Students can watch a portion of the video and play the associated game and save their progress for the next time they are able to login.  Games include Make-a-Match where students think about the fun things they do online (history, music, jokes); What Rule is it Anyway where students play a contestant on a game show to learn about the rules of online safety; Get Clicky to Webville where students choose an Internet tube to get Clicky to his destination, Outlaw Roundup where Clicky captures the Webville outlaws and students match the outlaw to their crime; Who Can You Trust where students define a trusted adult; Router’s Gift Grab where students choose a gift for Router;  and a NetSmartz song about the four rules of real-world safety where students drag words to complete the lyrics of the song.

How to integrate NetSmartz Kids: Router’s Birthday Surprise into your curriculum: I truly didn’t think that NetSmartz Kids could get any better.  They have outstanding videos and songs about Internet safety that my students love year after year, they have fantastic educational resources (lesson ideas and downloads), and the games get requested by my students frequently.  Router’s Birthday Surprise manages to make it even better!  This interactive video is an excellent way for students to learn about Internet Safety and has the added bonus of tracking their understanding of the concepts being learned.  Regardless of what subject you teach, Internet Safety is something that we all need to teach and reinforce in our classrooms.  In the past, I have used NetSmartz in addition to the sites listed here to help my students learn proper use of the Internet.  The rule that I love that NetSmartz includes is the “Tell a trusted parent or adult if there is anything online that makes you scared, uncomfortable, or confused.”  I cannot tell you how many students see inappropriate content but fail to tell an adult about it because they think they will be in trouble.  This is a rule I make sure that my students know and a rule that I pass on to parents so that they can handle inappropriate web content appropriately (without banning use).

Router’s Birthday Surprise is such a nice addition because it invites students to be part of a story.  It breaks the learning down into manageable pieces so that it can be used in any class situation.  In the computer lab setting, students can each create an account and save their progress as they go.  In a classroom setting, the video can be played for the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer.  Poll students to find out how they would respond to each question and invite students to take turns coming to the whiteboard or the computer to interact with a game.  If you have a student response system (clickers) students can respond to the game show questions using them.  In the one or two computer classroom, Router’s Birthday Surprise can be played as a center activity over several weeks.  Each week students can complete another video portion and game.

In my class, after students had learned the Internet safety rules (which we came up with as a class), we would have an Internet safety quiz.  This was similar to a drivers permit test.  I made a big deal about how using the Internet is a privilege just like driving a car.  Just like driving there are rules to learn and follow that will keep them and others safe.  Just like driving they would have to prove that they knew the rules in order to get their license.  And just like driving, they could lose their license if they weren’t following the rules.  When students passed the test, I handed out Internet Licenses.  Most years I used their previous yearbook picture and created the license myself, but a few years before I had the pictures, I used the NetSmartz UYN club cards, these are great because they list the UYN rules on the back.

Tips: Mike Hill, a creative producer with NetSmartz, generously sent me some DVD copies of Router’s Birthday Surprise to share with my readers.  If you don’t have Internet access in your classroom, or don’t have reliable Internet access, let me know in the comment section and I will be happy to send you a DVD version-free!  If you need a DVD let me know why, and be sure to leave your correct email address when filling out the comment form.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NetSmartz Kids in your classroom!

Picture a Story: Digital Storytelling

Kelly Tenkely9 Comments on Picture a Story: Digital Storytelling4007 views

What it is: As I mentioned a few days ago, I am starting a virtual classroom/club for digital storytelling.  I have been on the lookout for great resources, I listed my favorites here, and now I am remembering a lot of tools I left off of my original list (like Toon Doo!).  Today as I was going through my Google Reader, I learned about this gem from Richard Byrne’s Free Tech for Teachers.  The Delaware Art Museum has provided a great website dedicated to storytelling.  The tagline is “bringing visual art to life through stories”.  On the site, students can picture a story, experience a story, or tell a story.  The Picture a Story was the most intriguing portion for me, as it provides a great tool for telling a digital story.  First, students choose a genre of story that they want to tell, next they choose a famous painting background for their story, students add characters (also from famous works of art), props, and then tell the story.  In the tell the story section, students type out the story.  If a microphone is available, students can even record the story in their own voice.  When students have completed their story, it can be shared via email.

How to integrate Picture a Story into your curriculum: Stories are powerful.  I love the way that Picture a Story weaves together famous works of art with story.  It teaches students to reflect on the art that they encounter and think about the stories that it represents. Picture a Story is a great way to discuss genre, characters, and parts of a story.  It is also a fantastic way to bring a little art history into your classroom.  It would be a neat class experiment to have students choose all the same genre, background, characters, and props and, without talking to others, write their story.  After students are finished they can share their stories with the class.  Students will learn about perspective, creativity, and voice as they listen to all the different stories that originated from the same picture.  If you don’t have access to a computer lab, this activity could be done with an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer and students writing on paper.  Let your students experiment with story and share their finished pieces with each other.  Picture a story is ideal in a lab setting where each student has access to their own computer.  If that isn’t a possibility, you could also have students visit Picture a Story on classroom computers as a storytelling center.  The site is quick to navigate through and students can tell a story in a sentence or a few paragraphs making it a good center.  If students don’t have access to email or can’t email the finished product to you, have them take a screenshot of the story to save in a digital portfolio or to print out.

Tips: The teacher section of this site has some great lesson ideas for every grade level.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Picture a Story in your classroom!

Lucky Star Game Show for SMART boards

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Lucky Star Game Show for SMART boards3528 views

What it is: Cyberchase is an animated math series on PBS Kids. Now, Cyberchase is making math even more fun with an interactive game show called Lucky Star.  The game show is a free download for the SMART Notebook software. Lucky Star was designed for kids in 3rd-5th grade.  The game show has kids competing for top scores while building important math skills.  Lucky Star has 150 questions that focus on problem solving, algebraic thinking, number and operations, geometry, measurement, and more.  The game show includes an on-screen think pad (a drop down area where students can work the problems with the pen.  The game show also includes some great virtual manipulatives that students can interact with on the interactive whiteboard.  Want more? Create your own questions tailored to your curriculum using the Cyberchase characters and props.  You can customize the game for your students needs.

How to integrate Lucky Star into your curriculum: Lucky Star is a fun way for your students to practice math. The ability to create your own questions that are tailored to your math curriculum means that this is game can be used all year. The game show makes for a great math warm up to get those brains thinking math.  Use Lucky Star as a fun class competition, split your students into teams for a little friendly math competition.  Your students will love the game show feel that Lucky Star has.  Any time I play games with my whole class, I really play it up.  Act the part of Game Show host and get into the game with your students.   Hold weekly competitions or semester long competitions to see who can get the top score.  Hold a fun math themed party for all of the “contestants” at the end of the competition.  When I taught second grade this meant bringing out all of the kids favorite math games and calling them by their class number all day instead of their names.  To mix it up, I might call on student number 10 by saying “I need 5+5 to line up third in line”.  It was a fun way to have fun with math and celebrate the hard work of all of my students.

Tips: I couldn’t get the Lucky Star Game Show download to open in ActivInspire (for Promethean) even using the Smart Notebook option.  I also couldn’t get the download to open in SMART Notebook’s interactive viewer. If anyone has a trick or luck with either of these let me know and I’ll update the post accordingly!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Lucky Star in your classroom!

Save the Words

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Save the Words3247 views

What it is: Save the Words is a site that celebrates words by “saving” words that are becoming forgotten and left behind in the English language.  I learned about the site today from @BookChook on her wonderful literacy blog.  The site has a simple premise, words are displayed graphically, when your roll your mouse over them they call out to you “pick me”, clicking on a word displays the definition, part of speech, and a contextual example of the word.  Signing up on the site allows you to adopt words.  I love the mission of this site, on the f.a.q. page they state that “Words are the cornerstone of language. The more words we have, the richer our vocabulary. Words allow us to communicate precisely.  Without the right word to describe something, well…we’d be speechless.”  So true, words bring so much color to language, it is a shame to use the same words over and over.  I am certainly guilty of this in my overuse of words like fantastic, outstanding, wonderful, amazing, great, nice, fun, etc.  in blog posts.  Surely there are many more appropriate words that describe the tool I am reviewing more precisely, but we become lazy in language and use words that are easy and we don’t have to think about.

How to integrate Save the Words into your curriculum: Save the Words is a site with a beautiful goal, preserving words to keep language rich and powerful.  Most of the words on the site are new to me, but I was surprised at how many of them I could make an educated guess about  meaning based on what I already know about words.  Use Save the Words in your classroom (at any age) to enrich your students vocabulary, help them identify word patterns and meaning clues, and to help them appreciate words.  Choose a word to adopt each day as a class using a class account (adopting a word requires an email address).  Commit to using the word at some point during the day.  My elementary age students loved learning new words, especially words that they found out parents and other teachers didn’t know.  They become the experts.  In my class, I often had a secret word of the day.  I would casually mention what the secret word was at some point in the morning.  Throughout the day if I needed my student’s attention I would ask for the secret word, immediately students were silent with their hands raised to give me the word.  Save the Words would be the perfect place to draw those secret words from.

Students could also keep a journal or word list of all of the words they have adopted, I could see this being especially popular with the Webkins age group.  The words are often difficult, but I don’t think that is any reason to exclude them from the classroom vocabulary!

Today I adopted the word antipelargy: reciprocal or mutual kindness; love and care of children.

Tips: You can sign up for a word of the day delivered directly to your email on Save the Words.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Save the Words in your classroom!

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That3997 views

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!

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iLearn Technology eStore

Kelly Tenkely10 Comments on iLearn Technology eStore1320 views

Over the years, I have had numerous requests to sell my lesson plans, flipcharts, etc.  Today I am excited to announce the grand opening of the iLearn Technology eStore.  In the store you will find technology infused lesson plans complete with resources and templates, ebooks, Promethean flipcharts, and even great freebies!  I will be adding to the store regularly so check back often.

To kick things off you will find the following in the iLearn Technology eStore:

  • A beginning of the year lesson to teach students about the rules and policies for using school technology and a Responsible Use Policy.  Make learning the rules of the classroom fun by using interactive jigsaw puzzles.  In this lesson package you will find: lesson plan, step-by-step jigsaw puzzle guide, Keynote and PowerPoint templates, and a sample Responsible Use Policy.  [wp_eStore_buy_now_fancy id=2]
  • Free and premium flipcharts including an Expectations for the Computer Lab flipchart, el/le ending sounds flipchart, and beginning/ending sounds flipchart.
  • Free eBooks and guides including: Build a Wiimote Whiteboard in 3 easy steps, Pages ’09 Toolbox, iLearn ezine, iLearn vol 2. ezine, Contractions card game, and a Winter Olympics lesson plan.
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ArcGIS Explorer Online

Kelly Tenkely7 Comments on ArcGIS Explorer Online3253 views

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!

Critical Past

Kelly Tenkely14 Comments on Critical Past5562 views

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.

** Check out this awesome lesson that @pharesr created based on this post. So cool!

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!

Sharendipity

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Sharendipity3322 views

What it is: Sharendipity is an excellent online tool that lets you easily create your own learning and educational game.  You can do this by using one of the Sharendipity ready-made templates, or you can create a game from scratch.  There just isn’t always a quality game for students to practice with when you need one.  I know I have found myself wishing that I could find a game focusing on the exact phonic skill or a game that used the vocabulary that we were working on in class.  Often those tailor-made games just don’t exist.  Sharendipity is the answer, making it simple to create your own custom games.  Games are a fun way for students to practice a new skill and they make a great quick center activity on classroom computers.

How to integrate Sharendipity into your curriculum: Create games that are tailored to your students learning needs.  Sharendipity makes it easy enough to create fun games, you can create one in the time it would take you to make copies of worksheets.   Use one of the ready-made templates for the easiest game creation, or if you are feeling brave, start from scratch and make your own.  You can upload all of your own images to Sharendipity making customization really easy.  Consider using pictures of your class, school, or students as the background of a game.  Your students are sure to love seeing familiar faces or landmarks as part of the game.  These games are great for fact practice and recall in math, vocabulary, spelling, phonics, or geography where quick recall of the basics is key.  Sharendipity will walk you through each step of the game making process and when you are finished, you can share the url or embed the game in a class website.  If your students are a little older, they can make their own Sharendipity games to practice with.  Students can create games for their classmates to play as a way to study.  I have students who were constantly creating games and practice activities for my classroom; they got really good at it!  If you are teaching in a computer lab, Sharendipity is a fun way for students to create “original” content for their wiki, blog, or website.  At my school, we buddy up older grade level students with younger grade level students.  It was fun for the older kids to create special games for their buddies after learning about their buddies favorite things.  For example, one student found out that their buddy loved basketball and created a basketball themed spelling activity for them.

If you collaborate with another class or another school, it would be neat to swap customized games with them.

Tips: If you are braving creating your own game, be sure to check out Sherendipity’s learning center for a great guide on how to use the tools.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sharendipity in your classroom!

DragON Tape

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on DragON Tape4344 views

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!