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iPads in Education

July 16, 2010July 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments1708 views

Some of you may know that I am working on an iPad 1-to-1 pilot program for first and fifth grade students at the school where I teach. The program will study the effects of the mobile device on learning and achievement in the math and reading/language arts classroom. One of my PLN members, Jason Schmidt will be working with us as a part of his masters program. Additionally, Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering from the Marzano Research Institute, have agreed to partner with us in research if we can get the funding all settled. Which brings me to the point of this post. I still have to fund the thing! I am waiting to hear back on several leads but never the one to only have one marshmallow in the fire, I am looking at every method conceivable to find the money for this.

This morning my mom sent me a Kohls Cares for Schools contest email that is offering $500,000 to the 20 schools with the most votes by September 3. Of course I promptly signed up for it and am counting on all of you to help me out. You are given a total of 20 votes that you can use, but you can only use 5 votes per school. So I am asking for 5 of your votes to help fund the iPads in education study. It is simple and just takes a one time click to connect and then 5 clicks of the votes button. Easy right? So, would you give us a hand and help us put some research to the iPads in the classroom debate?

One of the fun outcomes of this little idea is the comments that students have started leaving about how they think that the iPad could be used in the classroom. Pretty fun to see from the students point of view 🙂

Two side notes:

1. I have an iLearn Technology fan page on Facebook, if you haven’t already become a fan and clicked “like” you can do that here.

2. If you have a contact that could help with funding, I would take that too 🙂

Thank you all for your help and support! If you are so inclined, you can also tweet about this post and ask others in your PLN to help vote.

National Geographic Kids Animal Jam Virtual World

July 16, 2010July 19, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3754 views

What it is: National Geographic Kids is a constant source of excellent activities but their new Animal Jam virtual world is above and beyond my favorite. My students love virtual worlds, they enjoy being immersed in a story, sent on a mission, and interacting with each other to complete adventures and learn. Animal Jam lets them do all of these things while providing a virtual world where they can discover real-world plant and animal information and follow a rich storyline that has National Geographic’s multi-media content built in. Cool huh?! Animal Jam does something else, it excites students to learn more about the real world around them, so when they aren’t playing in the virtual world, they will be excited to learn more about the world they live in. The virtual world is an easy one for students to pick up on and learn, it is perfect for young students and caters to their specific levels of play and developmental stages. Animal Jams will be one of those environments that is as appealing to fourth grade students as it is to first grade students. The online environment is safe and monitored so you can feel comfortable introducing it in your classroom. Each portion of the sign up process is narrated so it is easy for even young students to sign up. The site requires a parent’s email address to sign up, the email is required but does not have to be verified before play can begin. In a classroom setting, a teacher or classroom email address could be used for sign-up. The email address allows an adult to monitor and adjust settings in a child’s game.

How to integrate National Geographic Kids Animal Jam into the classroom: After students sign up, they are entered into the magical world of Jamma where they are introduced to the world. Each portion of the game is narrated making it accessible to early readers, struggling readers, and English language learners. As students explore the world of Jamma, they will find embedded learning about different kinds of plants and animals along with incredible National Geographic images. Animal Jam is a nice environment to let your young students practice what they are learning about online safety and netiquette. As students explore Jamma, they will learn about links, navigation with mouse and arrow keys, and learn fun facts in the process.

Every primary curriculum that I have seen carves out time for students to learn about plants and animals. Animal Jam is a fun place for them to discover this learning within the virtual world. Send your students on expeditions and adventures to find these learning opportunities. As they play in Animal Jam, students can keep an observation journal where they record the plants and animals they are discovering like a scientist would. Ask your students how many of the plants and animals they can find in real life around their homes. If you are learning about ecosystems and environments, ask students to count and name the different ecosystems they can spot in Animal Jam. This site is ideal for the computer lab setting, make sure to at least begin the game in the computer lab where each student has a computer. After the kids are signed up and familiar with the world, it could become a center activity for your classroom computers throughout the year.

Tips: Right now Animal Jam is in Beta. The world is free to join and play in but premium accounts are also available to students.

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

BBC: Magic Key

July 9, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments3033 views

What it is: The BBC is a constant source of excellent classroom interactives and games. Today I ran across Magic Key while working on supplementing MacMillan Mcgraw Hill’s Treasures curriculum for first grade. Magic Key is based on a cartoon in the UK, even if your students aren’t familiar with the cartoon, they are sure to enjoy the website adventures. Magic Key has fun literacy games for kindergarten and first grade students. The games help students practice full stops (sentence endings), sentence order, questions, character characteristics, capital letters, seeing patterns, figuring out new words, descriptions, and words that make sounds. The games are age appropriate, include fun characters, and help students practice and understand important literacy skills. In each game, students enter an adventure where the goal is to collect the Magic Key.

How to integrate BBC: Magic Key into the classroom: The Magic Key games are short and sweet, they give students the opportunity to practice new skills independently. I like to use games like these as a center activity. These types of short games make a great center because they provide students with immediate feedback and are self leveling. Set Magic Key up on your classroom computers as a literacy center for students to visit independently or in small groups. Don’t forget that the interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer can also be a center station! These games are a great alternative to the worksheet (you didn’t really want to grade one of those anyway) and will provide your students with an opportunity to practice what they are learning.

Tips: Check out the teacher section of Magic Key for a description of each game, the curriculum tie in, and (I hesitate to mention) worksheets.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using BBC: Magic Key in your classroom.

Whiz Kids

July 8, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments3968 views

What it is: Whiz Kids is a new site developed for autistic children. It was designed to give these kids a fun place to develop life skills. All of the games and videos have high production values, making them engaging and impressive, they feel as though you have stepped into a Pixar movie. Through this one portal, you get 16 interactive and therapeutic games. The games help kids develop essential life skills like empathy, recognizing emotion, making decisions, coping with change, transactions, non-verbal gestures, grouping, schedules, finding a route, and making eye contact. Although these games were specifically developed for children with autism, they are wonderful for primary elementary students and ELL students as well.

How to integrate Whiz Kids into the classroom: Whiz Kids has an incredible back story, the site was created by more 80 students 8 lecturers and 10 autism specialists, the project represents more than 16,000 hours of research and development. The games are tailored to fit the needs of autistic children. If you teach autistic children, these games will help them develop important life skills that will aid them when interacting with classmates. The games would be great for classroom computers as a center activity. Help other students in your classroom understand how they can help the autistic children in the classroom by having them play the Whiz Kids games as well. This will give your students a shared vocabulary and experience to draw on when they are working and playing together in the classroom. Because the games focus so much on character development, they are appropriate for any primary classroom. Help your students learn about complex human interactions like empathy, non-verbal communication, and coping with change through game play. The games can be played and discussed as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer, or they can be played independently at a computer center, or a computer lab. After playing the game, practice the skill taught as a class. For example, if students play Robbie the Robot and are practicing recognizing emotion and facial expressions, follow up by asking students to work with a partner making faces and naming the emotion. ELL students can use Whiz Kids to develop character related vocabulary and understanding.

Tips: On the Whiz Kids sister site, Autism Games, teachers can get more information about individual games and how to use them with students. Each game is categorized based on the life skill that it teaches. The game descriptions and suggestions are fantastic.

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

Rags to Riches

July 5, 2010Kelly Tenkely8 Comments3706 views

What it is: Rags to Riches takes Lemonade Tycoon to a whole new level with simulated business. In Rags to Riches, students are working to make their band a success. Students play the part of a new band going on tour with a few new songs. As they play the Rags to Riches game simulation, students must make decisions about what the band should do. They have to decide which cities are best for them to play in, what venues to play, how much money to spend on publicity and how much to charge for tickets. Students start out with $100 and must make wise decisions to continue in the simulation. When they run out of money, the game ends and they must start again.

How to integrate Rags to Riches into the classroom: If you teach students like mine, breaking out Lemonade Tycoon in the classroom is met by cheers from some and with eye rolls by others who are “way too cool” for a lemonade stand. For those students, Rags to Riches is in order. The premise of the game is the same, but instead of selling lemonade, students are working to take their band to super star status. This is a great game for teaching students about business, economics, and money. This game is really best played in a computer lab setting where each student has access to their own computer, but if you don’t have that luxury, it could also be played as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. If you are playing as a class, give each student a roll in the band and set up rules together about how business decisions will be made. After the simulation, come together as a class and talk about what decisions had the best outcomes and which led to downfalls.

Tips: Don’t hit your back button while you are in the simulation or your game will start over. This is an important tip to pass on to students!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Rags to Riches in your classroom.

Aviary Education

June 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4375 views

Great news! Aviary has come out with a special education edition! In the Education version, teachers can create private student accounts, manage assignments and projects, use the image editor, vector editor, audio editor, and music creator. All content and images will be 100% school safe! Right now the Education site is in Beta, you can request an invitation to test the site with your students. If you aren’t familiar with the Aviary tools, check out my previous posts HERE. Aviary is a fabulous online alternative to those expensive Adobe creativity suites.

Hot Shot Business

June 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments7460 views

What it is: The Disney website has a lot of engaging and fun content for kids, unfortunately, not all of it is educational. Hot Shot Business is one of the better Disney games I have seen for the classroom. It teaches kids about business and entrepreneurship through a fun simulation game. Students are introduced to the idea of entrepreneurship and franchising by their virtual business hosts, Kate and Jack. Kate and Jack offer advice and recommendations throughout the game. The decisions that students will make throughout the game will have consequences that extend beyond profits and losses alone. They will have to deal with environmental factors, as well as finding ways to provide jobs for members of the community. Students can choose to start a pet spa, a candy factory, a comic shop, custom skateboard shop, professional landscaping, or a magic shop. Kids are sure to find a business that they are interested in! The entire game is narrated which is great for all levels of readers. As students play the game, they will be exposed to the nuts and bolts of running their own business, they will have to make decisions about how to respond to market trends, how to respond to customer preferences, how to respond to fast breaking news reports that may affect their business, and how to respond to ethical dilemmas. Students even have access to a Hot Shot Business kit where they can download and print out business cards and fliers.

How to integrate Hot Shot Business into the classroom: Hot Shot Business was designed to meet national standards in both language arts and math, making it fit easily into any curriculum. The ideal setup for Hot Shot Business is a few days in the computer lab for a 1-to-1 setting where each student can work individually on setting up their own store. Game play could extend for several days depending on the unit that you are teaching. The Disney site has some excellent lesson plans and suggestions for implementation, I highly recommend them. I like the idea of connecting with entrepreneurs in the community during this unit so that as students are working through the game, they can get advice and recommendations from those who do it every day.

If you can’t make it happen in a computer lab setting over several days, choose a business to start as a class and make decisions as a team. You can do this using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. In this scenario, students will have to discuss their decisions and reason with each other to decide on a course of action.

Hot Shot Business is a really well designed game, it would be a great addition for the 3rd-6th grade classroom. I suspect that it ties into several of the curricula already being used in schools, I know that Treasures (MacMillan McGraw Hill) has units that it fits nicely into. This is great hands on learning, a definite step up from Lemonade Stand. 🙂

Tips: This is a really great site, but I must warn you that it eats up the bandwidth!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Hot Shot Business in your classroom.

Meet Me at Midnight

June 24, 2010June 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments1481 views

What it is: As I said yesterday, the Smithsonian is a wealth of outstanding online activities and interactives. Meet Me at Midnight is an interactive adventure/comic book that takes place in the Smithsonian Art Museum. Through this fun mystery adventure, students are introduced to American art and Artists from the Smithsonian collection. Students are taken on adventures as they explore each item in the Root Monster’s treasure chest. The coyote teaches about sculpture, the headless horseman about landscape, and the ballerina about light. As students go through the adventures they will pick up art terminology. Each story takes place in five galleries: media, technique, design, purpose, and culture. Students will play art games and puzzles to find clues about where the artwork in the treasure chest should be returned to.

How to integrate Meet Me at Midnight into the classroom: Meet Me at Midnight is a fantastic interactive game for third to fifth grade students. The reading throughout the interactive is appropriate for 8-11 year old readers. To me, Meet Me at Midnight feels like a fun graphic novel/comic book adventure that students can interact in. The interactive takes time to get all the way through, once students get to certain points in the interactive, they can stop and get a code that they can plug in the next time they visit the site. They will pick up right where they left off. Meet Me at Midnight is a good way to pique students interest in art. There is a lot of good learning embedded in the games and puzzles. Because there is so much reading on this site, it would make a good reading center/thinking activity on classroom computers. Meet Me at Midnight is really best played individually in a computer lab setting, but I think students would also enjoy playing together in a whole class setting using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard.

If your class takes a field trip to your local art museum, this site is a must visit prior to the field trip. It will give students common language about what they see at the museum and students can complete the accompanying Kids Activity guide. If a field trip to the art museum is out of the question, use this site as part of a virtual field trip experience for your students.

Tips: Are you taking your family on a trip to the art museum this summer; start your art adventure by visiting Meet Me at Midnight!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Meet Me at Midnight in your classroom.

A Walk in the Forest

June 23, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments15184 views

What it is: The Smithsonian site is a wealth of outstanding activities and interactives. In the Walk in the Forest interactives, students are guided through a virtual forest where they do field research using the same scientific methods and tools that Smithsonian scientists use to monitor forest biodiversity. Students can act as dirt detectives, predicting which trees will thrive in each type of soil; learn about forest layers and the plants and animals that take up residence in each; identify a tree; observe seasonal changes; map the forest; and use amphibians as an indicator of the forest. Each of the interactives has the option of narration (audio) or non-narrated (students read through the interactive).

How to integrate A Walk in the Forest into the classroom: The interactive activities on A Walk in the Forest are very well made. They will have your students working and thinking like a scientist. The activities are meant to be completed by individual students, but if you don’t have access to a computer lab, they would also be excellent as a center on classroom computers or on the interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. For whole class participation, send a team of scientists (your students) into the forest to investigate and collect data. Give each student a job to do on the forest adventure. For the students not at the board, create a field guide that they can fill out while they observe. As an extension activity, students can create an Animoto or Prezi about what they learned in the forest. They could also create a comic book style field guide about walking through a forest.

A Walk in the Forest is well suited to all elementary students. Independent readers can complete the activities without narration while emerging or struggling readers could have the interactive narrated.

Every year, we have an outdoor education program for our 5th graders. They spend a week in the mountains, in a forest, learning outside. If you do something similar, A Walk in the Forest is a great preparation activity for students. They can learn about the processes of collecting and analyzing data virtually before they do it in real life.

Tips: If you and your family are visiting national parks this summer, these are fun activities to do before hand that will transform your kids into scientists when they are exploring outdoors.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using A Walk in the Forest in your classroom.

Stop Disasters

June 22, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2062 views

What it is: Stop Disasters is a collection of disaster simulation games created by the ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). As students play the games, they learn about natural disasters and actions that people can take to help protect themselves and others. The student’s job is to plan and construct a safer environment for their population. Students must assess the disaster risk and try to limit damage when natural disasters strike. Some advice that students are given within the game will be good and some of it will be bad, it is up to them to discern which is which. Students can choose from 5 different scenarios, Tsunami, Earthquake, Hurricane, Wild Fire, and Flood. Each scenario has 3 levels: easy, medium, and hard. When students enter the simulation, they are greeted by a local who briefs them on the situation. Students are given a budget and time limit to complete the necessary precautions. After 20 min., the natural disaster occurs and tests their solutions. Students develop the land and learn about their choices each step of the way. During the game students can keep track of their budget, the population they are working to keep safe, a map and risk management map, and their remaining time. The game is very engaging, it reminds me of the SIM City games that I played as a kid. This game will put those critical thinking muscles to the test!

How to integrate Stop Disasters into the classroom: Stop Disasters is an excellent game for teaching students about natural disasters through an engaging simulated environment. It is up to each student to create solutions for their environment before the natural disaster occurs. Students get immediate feedback during each development period and get to test their work when the natural disaster strikes. This game is best played in a computer lab setting where each student has the opportunity to interact with the simulation individually. A simulation game takes about 20-30 minutes to complete so make sure that your students have ample time to complete the game. After students complete the simulation, bring them back together as a class and discuss choices that were made, why those choices were made, and what outcomes students observed. Students can also write a reflection piece on what they might do differently next time. Stop Disasters has quite a bit of reading embedded in game play, it is best for 4th-5th grade students and older. If you are teaching younger students who won’t be able to read the site independently (or you don’t have access to a computer lab) the simulation can be run as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.

I found Stop Disasters while working on a unit in our Treasures curriculum that had the theme of natural disasters. As an extension activity, students can create public service announcements about safety using a tool like Animoto or create safety posters for their population.

Tips: Students can learn more about the ISDR on this site, when we are talking disasters with kids, it is always nice to have a place where they can learn about organizations that are working to help keep them safe. This makes the topic less stressful and overwhelming for students.

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