Interactive Whiteboard – Page 30

Interactives Geometry 3D Shapes

January 23, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment10041 views

What it is: I ran across this site yesterday as I was searching for a Geometry site for a teacher. Interactives Geometry 3D Shapes is a great website for students to learn about 3D shapes, surface area and volume, Euler’s theorem, and platonic solids. Each section gives students an interactive environment where they can manipulate 3D objects as they learn. In the surface and area section, students can learn how to calculate area of a 3D object and then have an interactive space to practice calculating the area of 3D objects. At the end of the site there is a place where students can put their knowledge to the test and apply what they have learned. This is an outstanding alternative to learning from a text book. The Interactives site gives students what a text book can’t, interaction with 3D shapes and the ability to rotate and manipulate the shapes. Throughout the site, math words are highlighted in red, students can click on these words and are taken to a glossary that defines the word for them.

How to integrate Interactives Geometry 3D Shapes into the classroom: Use the Interactives Geometry 3D Shape site to introduce 3D shapes, area, Euler’s Theorem, and platonic solids to your students. This is a great way for your students to learn geometry, especially 3D geometry, in an environment where they can interact with and manipulate 3D shapes. This site could be used with a projector, interactive whiteboard, as a math center in the one computer classroom, or individually in a lab setting. Use the interactive portions with an interactive whiteboard to manipulate shapes for students to see as you are teaching new concepts about 3D shapes. This would be a wonderful site to point your students to for geometry homwork help, students can use it to model and define concepts they may find difficult as they work.

Tips: The Test Your Skills section gives students 15 problems to complete that are accompanied by photos, illustrations, or animations. I wish my geometry tests looked like this! I am such a visual person, I think I would have been so much more successful.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Interactives Geometry 3D Shapes in your classroom.

Inauguration Speech Generator

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3063 views

What it is: With President Obama’s Inauguration speech looming on the horizon, this site is worth a look. Inauguration Speech Generator is like a mad lib, fill in the blank that generates a speech for President Obama to say. 🙂 Students enter words in the blanks according to the part of speech that is requested and then read the speech they have written for our soon to be president.

How to integrate Inauguration Speech Generator into the classroom: This is a great lead in to teach students about the Inauguration of President Obama. It is also a fun way to practice those parts of speech! Students can fill in the blanks individually and share with a partner, or a speech can be generated as a whole class. This would be a fun thing to do right before the inauguration. Save the students version of the speech. They can compare and contrast their speech with the actual inauguration speech after viewing it.

Tips: The inauguration is supposed to be live on CNN, it would be fun to watch live but I suspect that Internet may be slow that day! Those of you with cable in the classroom take advantage!!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Inauguration Speech Generator in your classroom.

Myths and Legends

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4223 views

What it is: Myths and Legends is an awesome, free, online digital story telling website. I heard about the website through @kjarrett. The story creator lets students combine pictures that they compose with clip art or images that they upload, sound, and words to create a digital story. The stories can be saved, printed, and shared. Students can record themselves reading the story aloud and even add video! The website is pretty comprehensive as far as online digital storytelling tools go, I am impressed!

How to integrate Myths and Legends into the classroom: Myths and Legends is a great way to get your students interested and eager to write. The digital story telling format gives students a unique opportunity to express themselves creatively. Many of your reluctant writers will jump at the chance to create a story in this manner because it doesn’t “feel” like writing. They don’t get stuck looking at that blank piece of paper and feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of them. I have found that students write more, and the quality of work is better when they create digital stories that are shared later with the whole class. In the one or two computer classroom you can set up a digital storytelling writing center that students can work at, in the lab setting whole classes can create at the same time, and as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector, the entire class can create a story together.

Tips: Each student should sign up and register for a free account so that they can save their work. As a teacher you can also sign up for a school account where you can login and review all of your students work online.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Myths and Legends in your classroom.

Literactive

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4805 views

What it is: Literactive is an outstanding website for reading material for pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade. The program is made up of leveled guided readers, comprehensive phonics activities, and supplemental reading material that is aimed at developing reading skills in a sequential, motivating manner. To use and view the site is free. To download material you are required to register but registration is also free. The guided readers are fully animated and each comes with a breakdown of every word in the stories. The Road to Reading is an interactive journey for students that moves them sequentially though pre-reading activities, alphabet awareness, letter sounds, short vowels, CVC word blending, initial blends, long vowels, and various phonic activities. There are over one hundred learning activities that can be used for individual or whole class use that can be downloaded for free. Worksheets are available in pdf format that correlate with each reading skill. An ESL version is offered for each guided reader, stories can be translated with the click of a mouse. E-picture books tell traditional tales for early readers and e poetry is a collection of interactive poetry including poems by Rober Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allen Poe, Edward Lear, and more. The Literactive website is packed full with reading activities for primary students that will have them on the road to reading!

How to integrate Literactive into the classroom: Literactive is a complete reading program that should be included in any primary classroom. I am amazed at the comprehensive list of activities, stories, and scope and sequence of this program. Because activities are downloaded, after having downloaded them your computer does not need an Internet connection to use them. Use Literactive as a daily reading center, individually in the computer lab setting, or for whole class instruction and reading. The activities on Literactive are highly motivating and provide an excellent foundation for reading.

Tips: Register for free today and transform your classroom into a reading-rich environment for your beginning readers! Thank you to @annemarie80 who sent a Tweet about this site!

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

Pic Lits

January 14, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments6444 views

What it is: Pic Lits is a really neat creative writing site that provides pictures and a word bank for students to create a enriched sentence or sentences about the picture. “The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.” Students can choose to only drag words from the word bank to create their sentence or compose a sentence freestyle.

How to integrate Pic Lits into the classroom: Pic Lits is a great way to get students to think creatively and critically about writing. Students can choose any picture and then use the word list to create a sentence. Pic Lits is complete with punctuation and any word can be capatalized. Students can use Pic Lits individually on computers, as a whole class with a projector, or as a creative writing center in the one or two computer classroom. When using Pic Lits as a class, choose a picture for the day and have students write their sentences on paper using words from the word bank. Take turns sharing to hear the combination of words and the different meanings that students gathered from the picture. This is a great writing exercise to use in your classroom every day! Here in Colorado, we often have indoor recesses for bad weather. Use Pic Lits with an interactive whiteboard and invite your cooped up students to choose pictures and create sentences.

Tips: Students can sign up for a free account and save each Pic Lit they create. At the end of the year, each student can create a book of their Pic Lits to take home for creative inspiration.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Pic Lits in your classroom.

Prezi

January 12, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3191 views

What it is: Prezi is a unique online presentation builder that seems to be popping up a lot lately all over the web. It is getting so much attention because of its new approach to online slide shows. Prezi has some unique features like zooming presentations that grab and hold viewers attention. Prezi lets you create a sort of walking path through your presentation. The finished product is engaging and impressive looking. The tools in Prezi are different from other online presentation builders but are easy to use and figure out. The tutorial will have you and your students creating in minutes.

How to integrate Prezi into the classroom: Because of Prezi’s unique zooming feature, it would be a good tool for students to use for vocabulary. Students can type in the word to be defined and then zoom in on the definition. Building vocabulary presentations would be good for review and study. Prezi would also be a neat way to explore and display information from history (display a date, place, or person in history and then zoom into facts and details that are related), timeline information (create paths from different dates in Prezi), literature (create a sort of interactive character map of any literary character), science projects (use Prezi’s path to lead through the scientific method), foreign language (type a word in another language and zoom to translate), geography (zoom into details around a map), math, and much more.

Tips: Be sure to check out the tutorial on Prezi, it will have you up and creating in no time! Check out the inspiration to see the amazing things that others have used Prezi to create.

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

International Childrens Digital Library

December 30, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3899 views

What it is: The International Childrens Digital Library (also known as ICDL) is an online digital library for children of all ages. The mission of ICDL is to “ excite and inspire the world’s children to become members of the global community – children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online.” When students visit the ICDL website they are brought to a simple search area where they can choose different options for finding a book. They can narrow down results by age (3-13), fiction or non-fiction, book length, award winners, language, picture or chapter books, subject matter, and even what colors that cover has in it. When students choose a book they can read the book in its entirety online. I learned about this site in the iTunes store, they have a free iPod Touch and iPhone application for downloading books from the ICDL in addition to their online content. So neat!

How to integrate ICDL into the classroom: The ICDL website reminds me a lot of LookyBook. The search options are extremely user friendly and allow even the youngest readers to find a book they are sure to love. Students can register for the library (free) and then leave an online review of the book. I like the idea of digital libraries for students because it opens up a number of books to them that they may not otherwise have access to. If a story is started during school, students can finish the story when they get home from any Internet connected computer. The ICDL is nice for reading groups. All students can be reading the same book from school and from home without setting aside a large budget for group sets. The search is a wonderful way for students to discover what types of literature they enjoy. Many of the books featured are from different cultures and languages, these would be perfect to bring into a foreign language classroom. ICDL books provide a fun way for students to gain global awareness. Books in other languages could also be used as a starting point for student created stories. Students can do picture walks through the online books and then compose their own story to accompany the pictures. ICDL is a great way to read with the whole class. Connect your computer with a projector and students can read the story along with you, everyone will be able to see the pictures as you discuss the story!

Tips: One thing that I really appreciate about ICDL is the ability to view the books full screen and zoom in and out of the pages. The site is easy to navigate and this feature makes it even more user friendly.

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

Aviary Toucan

December 26, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2328 views

What it is: Aviary is a website on a mission to make creativity more accessible. They do this by making powerful image software available online (no download required) and with free versions of the online software. Aviary has four different offerings: Peacock, Phoenix, Toucan, and Raven. Because each tool does something different, I am going to break it down into four posts.

Toucan is the third application in the Aviary suite. Toucan is a color palette chooser. It is a simple tool but combined with the other Aviary applications is pretty powerful for the creativity process. Choose colors for your palette and then adjust hue, saturation, hue, light, CMYK, and RGB. The color palette helps students learn about relationships between colors on the color wheel. As students manipulate and choose colors from the color wheel, they can save to the clip board. When color palettes are in the clipboard, students can filter out colors in their palette or expand colors. There is also an image chooser where students can choose an image and then pick colors directly from the image. The last cool tool in Toucan is a color deficiency tool where you can see what people who are color blind might see when they are viewing your color palette (especially helpful for website creation!). After you create a color palette, it can be imported into Pheonix or Peacock. In the color chooser in Pheonix, you can click a special button to import your swatches from Toucan. Neat!

How to integrate Toucan into the classroom: Aviary Toucan is a wonderful addition to any art or science class studying color. The color wheel and adjustment options make it easy to see and understand color relationships as well as concepts like hue, tint, and saturation. This would be a great tool for students to explore individually, recording observations about hue, tint, saturation, etc. as they discover how each affects color. Toucan would also be useful for whole class instruction on color with a projector. The ability to create color palettes is a great tie in for the other Aviary applications as well as for website design. I love the color deficiency tool that allows you to see what the colors in your color palette look like to someone with color blindness. This is a nice way to teach students about color blindness and useful when creating websites, advertisements, etc.

Tips: Aviary Phoenix, Peacock, and Toucan are both in beta right now. Be sure to check out the Toucan overview video to learn more about how Toucan works. The video breaks down the application nicely.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Aviary Toucan in your classroom.

Animalia

December 2, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3744 views

What it is: The Animalia website is based on the popular book and television series written and illustrated by Graeme Base. The website is just as impressive as the book with amazing illustrations and activities for students. On the Animalia website, students are introduced to the characters of Animalia, the goal of the Animalia site, Animalia news, and games and activities. The Animalia site brings students on a wonderful adventure where their goal is to collect all of the “core spores” to restore the Core of Animalia. Students collect the core spores by going on several adventures where they will play learning games, discover, and follow directions. Games and activities include logic puzzles, memory skills, code cracking, map reading, and listening skills. The listening game is called Toucan Talk (which I learned about on Larry Ferrazlo’s blog) and asks students to listen to a message in the wrong order, and change the order of words or sounds so that the message makes sense. The site is extremely interactive. Students will love becoming part of the adventure.

How to integrate Animalia into the classroom: Animalia is like a giant online scavenger hunt where students solve problems to advance in the game. This site would be a great one to use to teach following written and oral directions, logical thinking, and problem solving skills. These aren’t skills that we generally focus on in isolation but the Animalia site does a wonderful job of weaving a story around a problem and inviting students along on an adventure to solve the problem. Because students are problem solving, this would be an excellent site for students to work on collaboratively as a team. Students can be split into teams to see who can collect all of the “core spores” first through problem solving. What I love about watching my students interact with each other on this site, is the way that one team would solve a problem and then teach another team how they did it. Nothing better than kids teaching kids! For younger students, the game could be completed as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard. The clues and games will have to be more teacher directed but your students will quickly catch on and be ready to play!

Tips: This site is highly interactive including video clips, highly interactive games, and sounds. You will need a high speed connection for this site. Bring on the bandwidth!

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

Webspiration

November 30, 2008Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2227 views

What it is: You have most likely heard about the popular visual thinking software called Inspiration (or Kidspiration). Webspiration is a new online version of the visual thinking outlining and organizing. Webspiration has many of the same features as Inspiration but is free to use and allows for collaborative visual thinking. Webspiration is perfect for planning, organizing research, and completing projects successfully from beginning to end. Brainstorming and outlining tools help students organize thoughts for papers and research projects. Collaboration on Webspiration documents is simple and allows for same document contributing, posting, comments, and viewing changes. Concept maps and diagrams are created easily with Webspiration. Visual diagrams and graphic organizers, such as those created with Webspiration, help students retain information.

How to integrate Webspiration into the classroom: Webspiration is a great tool for the classroom. Teach elementary age students how to visually organize information using concept maps, venn diagrams, and KWL charts. Basic outlining skills can also be taught in the elementary classroom using Webspiration. As students get older, Webspiration helps them take control of and organize their own learning. Teachers can create concept maps and invite students to collaborate and help fill in information. These online graphic organizers are wonderful for students, they contribute to filling it in and can access it from any Internet connected computer, iPod, or phone to study from later.

Tips: Webspiration is currently in beta, if you notice any glitches or have ideas for additional features let Webspiration know!

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