Websites – Page 66 – iLearn Technology

Lit2Go

January 22, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3885 views

What it is: Lit2Go is a FREE online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse. With Lit2Go teachers and students can download files to an iPod or Mp3 player, listen to the Mp3 files on the computer, view the text on a webpage and read along with the audio, and print out the stories and poems to create a customized book. Lit2Go can be searched by author, tiltle, or searched via the database (by authro, keywords, title, or reading level). Each reading passage can be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or supplemental reading material for your classroom. Many of the selections can be downloaded directly to your iTuens library making it a simple transfer to one or many iPods.

How to integrate Lit2Go into the classroom: Lit2Go is a fabulous resource for all readers, but is especially valuable for struggling readers. Set up a Lit2Go listening center in your classroom. You can either download the audio to a Mp3 player or let the students listen from the computer. Each audio file has a PDF text version that can be downloaded and printed out as a read along. If students are listening from the computer they can also view the text online. Lit2Go would be a great help for a reading buddy program. Send your struggling readers home with a Mp3 player loaded with level appropriate stories or poems and the PDF print out. Students can practice reading anywhere, even if a parent or sibling isn’t available to read with them. Reading levels range from .10 to 53. You are sure to find something for every student! This is an easy way to help differentiate instruction.

Tips: Search Lit2Go in the iTunes store or visit the Lit2Go website to get started.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Lit2Go in your classroom.

2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book

January 20, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2003 views

What it is: Curriclick is a site that I have mentioned before that provides free and low cost curriculum for download and use in your classroom. Today they released a 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book for download. After the speech today it would be great to download and use some of the reading and activities in your classroom.

How to integrate 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book into the classroom: I don’t know about you but I found that many of my students still didn’t “get” president Obama’s Inauguration speech even after viewing it. Use this free lap book download to help your students understand the history behind the Inauguration speech. Watch the speech again as a class or read the transcript of the speech. Help your students understand this historic occasion with the help of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Lap book. I wish that they had released this one sooner!

Tips: This is a 40+ page guide. Download the pdf version and only print out the pages you are going to use in your classroom. NOTE! I tried to access this site just a few min. ago and could not get to it, probably because of the flood of traffic. Try back later today if the links in this post don’t seem to be working.

Leave a comment and tell us how your students responded to the speech.

Inauguration Speech Live!

January 19, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2506 views

Obama’s Inauguration Speech

January 19, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2407 views

What it is: Barak Obama’s inauguration speech is taking place tomorrow morning! Make sure that your students (regardless of age) are a part of this historic moment. Wouldn’t it be neat if your students remembered sitting in your classroom watching and discussing the speech? Hulu is going to host the speech live. Because traffic to Hulu is bound to be heavy, I am also going to embed the speech right here on iLearn Technology. Feel free to come here and watch the speech with me!

How to integrate Obama’s Inauguration Speech into the classroom: It isn’t every day that you can watch history in the making live in your classroom! This is a historic moment that every student should be a part of. Come back to iLearn Technology or Hulu to view the speech live. It might be fun to make up a speech bingo card and see how many of the words students can pick out of the speech. I’m sure a ready made bingo card will pop up somewhere! If it does, I will update this post with the link.

Tips: It will be interesting to see what people are saying about the speech via Twitter!

Leave a comment and tell us how your students responded to the speech.

Inauguration Speech Generator

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3068 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.

Science Museum: Launch Ball

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3792 views

What it is: Here is another one I found thanks to @kjarrett. Science Museum features a game called Launch ball. Students are given a series of challenges to get a ball from one point to another through an obstacle course. The trick is they have to build the obstacle course so that the ball naturally flows to the goal after dropping into the play zone.

How to integrate Science Museum Launch Ball into the classroom: This is a great puzzle/game site to use with your students to get them to approach problems creatively and work through solutions with trial and error. The game is addicting and will have your students solving problems and thinking logically about how different objects interact with one another. I love using these mind benders with students, they are elated when they solve a puzzle! Each time students complete a level, they will learn fun science facts. After your students have all of the levels down, they can create their own obstacle courses for other students to solve.

Tips: This is a great game to introduce in science class. I also love using this site with students on indoor recess days!

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

Myths and Legends

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4227 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 Comments4815 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.

Soshiku

January 16, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment16797 views

In an effort to clear out some bookmarks (I am up to about 890) I am going to do a marathon of posts today. I don’t usually like to load you up with too many in one day because I know how busy you teachers are, and I want you to have time to really look at the cool tool I have found. My hope is that with the 3 day weekend you will get a chance to shuffle through these!

What it is: Soshiku is a web tool for students that helps them manage their assignments. Soshiku keeps track of when assignments are due and can notify them by email or SMS. With each assignment students can save notes, manage tasks, attach files, and share messages with assignment partners. Soshiku is perfect for partnered assignments because it gives students a place to share files, chat, and more.

How to integrate Soshiku into the classroom: I think that organization is one of those important life skills that we don’t teach enough of in schools. Introduce your students to Soshiku as a method of school orginization. The email and text messaging features to notify them when assignments are due will appeal to your students. If you have younger students, secondary elementary or middle school, encourage parents to be there Soshiku partner to help them keep track of assignments.

Tips: Use a day in the computer lab to sign students up for Soshiku and teach them how to enter assignments, add notes, attach files, and share messages with a partner. Your students are on their way to a more organized school life!

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

Wordly Wise 3000

January 15, 2009January 15, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3014 views

What it is: Wordly Wise 3000 is a vocabulary curriculum that can be purchased, any time I see a website mentioned as part of curriculum, I always take a look. While the Wordly Wise 3000 curriculum costs, the website activities are free! Students are told to choose their vocabulary book (I just choose the appropriate grade level). Students can go through a word list that says each word, gives a picture, the part of speech, the definition, and a sentence using the word. They can read this information or have it read to them. Then they review the word with a mini quiz review. The audio from the website can be downloaded and saved on a CD to be used in class without computers. After students have learned the words, they can play games that reinforce the vocabulary learned. Games include concentration, flashcards, hangman, matching synonyms, and word searches. Wordly Wise 3000 has vocabulary units for second through twelfth grade.

How to integrate Wordly Wise 3000 into the classroom: Wordly Wise 3000 is a great site for your auditory learners to learn vocabulary. It is also a great addition to ESL and ELL classrooms, the written and auditory output is a nice feature. The site combines auditory, visual, pictures, and hands on games making differentiated instruction for vocabulary easy. Wordly Wise 3000 can be used individually by students, as a vocabulary reading center, or for whole class instruction with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Wordly Wise 3000 can help build a vocabulary base for your struggling readers. This would be a great site to use for learning a new word or two each day as a class. Studies show that students who have a solid vocabulary base to pull from are better readers.

Tips: I have not seen the actual Wordly Wise 3000 curriculum but based on their web activities, it looks like it may be a good one to check out.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Wordly Wise 3000 in your classroom.