Category: Secondary Elementary

October Issue of Project PLN

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on October Issue of Project PLN2760 views

It is October, which means the second issue of Project PLN!  In this issue, we asked educators to share their best practices for the start of the school year.  We got some great ideas, challenges, and suggestions from PLN members.  Take a look at the newest issue here or view the embedded version below.  I encourage you to get to know the contributing members of this month’s project PLN.  Connect with them via Twitter or through their blogs.   In the next issue we want to hear from administrators, what do you wish teachers knew about administration?  What suggestions do you have for teachers, parents, administration?  Give us an inside look at the world of the administrator.


projectpln10 – Project PLN Issue 2

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Today’s Document: History through cartoons

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Today’s Document: History through cartoons2957 views

What it is: Today’s Document is an awesome daily history site that I learned about from the Instructify blog written by Bill Ferris.  Today’s Document is based on the RSS feed from the National Archives. Jon White takes these daily documents from history and turns them into cartoons that illustrate the history.  Cartoons and drawings offer such an incredible and striking visual to accompany history.  They help flesh out what was happening and give students a way to connect to and characterize history.

How to integrate Today’s Document into your curriculum: This is, simply stated, an AWESOME site.  I have mentioned before that history was not my strength in school.  I struggled with finding the story in history.  For me it was a lot of facts, dates, names, and places that I couldn’t seem to get a handle on.  A site like Today’s Document would have done wonders for my understanding of history.  The visuals clearly connect the facts with a larger story.  Even better, White publishes the story behind each cartoon along side it.  Today’s Document makes an incredible e-textbook complete with daily updates, links to videos, articles, primary sources, and additional opportunities to learn more about each topic.  Today’s Document would make a fantastic discussion starter in any classroom.  It’s natural fit would be in the history or civics class but could really be used in many disciplines including literature, writing, and even science.  Because Today’s Document uses cartoons to tell history, the site can be used with a wide range of age groups.  Even young students can look at the cartoons and follow the story each day.  Each drawing is linked to the original primary source document on National Archives with an invitation to dig deeper.  Within the preamble describing the cartoon, White often includes links to outside videos and articles that reinforce the daily document.

Tips: I encourage you to take a look at White’s previous cartoons, you can do so by using the “previous” button or searching the archives by date.  He started this project in January 2010.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Today’s Document in your classroom!

EdTech UNconference- Win a year of professional development!

Kelly Tenkely22 Comments on EdTech UNconference- Win a year of professional development!17100 views

What it is: Recently I received a free year long pass to the EdTech UNconference from Simple K12 to review.  Not only did they offer me a free pass, they offered me a free pass to give away to a lucky reader, very generous!  After spending a few days learning and playing around in the EdTech UNconference, I am impressed!  The EdTech UN conference is a year long, 100% online all-inclusive resource to help educators learn about and use technology in an “UNintimidating” way.  It is professional development that works the way you need it to.  Teachers are some of the busiest people I know.  We constantly work, think about our students, and strive to make ourselves and our classrooms better.  The problem: because we are so busy, professional development can be an after thought or put off all together.  It isn’t convenient to leave your family and travel across the country for a 4 day conference…not to mention the expense.  The EdTech UNConference has a low admission fee $199.99 (or free for a lucky iLearn Technology reader), lasts 365 days, has a recording of ALL sessions, is online and on demand which means no travel, no sub plans, and no rearranging your schedule.  In addition to the great sessions, EdTech UnConference will send regular email updates, twitter updates, offers a private social networking site, 500+ hours of learning programs, and online support.  That is a lot of professional development for your school $$.  Learn about Internet safety, technology integration through podcasting, wikis, interactive whiteboards, Microsoft Office (for both Mac and Windows), iMovie, monthly live edtech sessions, live follow-up Q&A, ongoing collaboration with other educators from around the world, your own blog (so easy it is already set up!), 2 min. edtech talks (professional development in those spare 2 min!), and printable reports of training time that you can share with your supervisor.  And that is just the beginning 🙂  Presentations come from some of the best in education including Steven Anderson, Kyle Pace, Richard Byrne, Shervette Miller, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, Kim Munoz, Steven Katz and more!  If some of those names seem familiar, they probably are, a few are members of the iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance.  The kickoff session for the conference starts today, October 1.  Online Professional development is amazing, it is there when you need it, available any time, and in a manner that works for your schedule.  What can you learn in 365 days?

How to integrate EdTech UNconference into your classroom: The EdTech UNconference is sure to launch your classroom into the 21st century  with practical professional development that you can implement into your classroom right away.  One of the difficulties of a regular conference, is hearing a new idea, getting excited about it, only to have it fizzle out when you try to implement it because there is no one to talk to, no ongoing support when you hit a roadblock.  Not so with the EdTech UNconference.  This is professional development that you can really use.  The recorded sessions mean that you can review a topic as many times as you need to.  Still need some help, head over to the forum and get on demand help from other educators from around the world.  How cool is that?!

How to register to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference pass: There are two ways to enter to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference year-long pass.  1.  Tweet about why you need free professional development using the hash tag #iltUNcon or 2. Leave a comment below about how much you would love some free professional development.  You have until Oct. 4, 2010.  On Monday, I will put all of the entries into a Google Doc and use a random number generator to choose the winner.  Good luck!

Please leave a comment to enter the EdTech UNconference contest!

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Technology & Character Education: A Lesson in Empathy

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Technology & Character Education: A Lesson in Empathy16927 views

Empathy is an important cornerstone in character education; developing empathy can help prevent negative social behaviors such as bullying, spitefulness, and alienation.  It is a key social emotion and when developed brings an awareness of ones own emotions as well as those of others.  Using Apple’s Photo Booth and Pages (or Seenly and Microsoft Word), students can make a “How are you feeling?” poster of emotions.  These posters teach students to recognize what their own emotions look like and help them to recognize them in others. If you don’t have access to built in cameras or web cams, digital cameras can be used in their place.  The completed posters can be used for various character education lessons throughout the year and make for a nice year-long bulletin board in the classroom. The posters are also useful when discussing literary characters and their feelings/emotions, as well as an aid in conflict resolution for younger students.  The Feelings posters are a helpful tool for autistic children as they help them recognize facial expressions and emotions in themselves and others.

The lessons in empathy is perfect for kindergarten through sixth grade.  Three templates are included in the lesson k-1 grade, 2-3 grade, and 4-6 grade.  As a computer teacher, I completed this lesson with my students every year from kindergarten-fifth grade.  By the fifth grade, students had a collection of 6 feelings posters that showcased each year of school.  Parents saved these posters as a keepsake.

This collection includes a lesson plan, templates, an emotions card game, and suggestions for sharing the template with student computers.  There are two options for download, one for use with Apple’s Pages and PhotoBooth (or digital camera) and one for use with Microsoft Word and Seenly (or digital camera).  The Pages option is for use with Macintosh only.  The Microsoft Word option is for use with Mac or PC. In this lesson students will practice using text boxes, drag and drop, mouse manipulation, inserting images, and resizing.  Click here to find the Feelings Poster Lesson in Empathy in the iLearn Technology store.

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EduTecher’s Change the World

Kelly Tenkely12 Comments on EduTecher’s Change the World4203 views

Change the World

What it is: EduTecher’s Change the World is a campaign started by @adambellow at EduTecher to transform the world one penny at a time.  Between October 1 and November 25 every new user that enters EduTecher.net will allow @adambellow to donate 1 penny on their behalf to a charity that his audience votes on.  The charity that gets the most votes will get a check.  The idea is that we can change the world together, one person at a time.  Want to make an even bigger impact?  If you have a blog, website, or Facebook page you can post the Change the World badge or link and every time one of your readers or friends clicks on it another penny will be donated. I am taking @adambellow’s idea the step further and will offer the same.  For each new user that comes to iLearn Technology between October 1 and November 25 (2010), I will donate a penny to a charity that we will vote on here.   So, if you would like to double your difference, you can add the EduTecher’s Change the World logo and link along with the iLearn Technology Change the World logo and link.  This is a great idea of a little way that we can start making a difference in a bigger way.

You can view the video explanation below:

How to integrate EduTecher’s Change the World into your curriculum: Why not create a similar school wide campaign to change the world one penny at a time?  You can collect pennies as a class or if you have a class blog or student blogs, issue a similar Change the World Challenge.  As an added bonus, map out where your “pennies” are coming from and have your students write an introductory letter to the charity and include a map of where the money came from!  If you aren’t familiar with the EduTecher website, it is definitely worth checking out.  EdTecher reviews web 2.0 tools for the classroom, they have a great collection of web 2.0 for students and teachers all in one place.

Tips: Add the EduTecher’s Change the World badge to your website, blog or Facebook page and then double the change by adding the iLearn Technology badge.  Together we can (and will) change the world.  If you are extending the change please let me know in the comments below, I would love to see how far reaching this is!

iLearn Technology badge:


Code to place badge on your site:

<a href=”http://ilearntechnology.com”><img title=”Change the World” src=”http://ilearntechnology.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/iLT-Change-the-world.png” alt=”” width=”235″ height=”151″ /></a>

Please leave a comment and share how you are using EduTecher’s Change the World in your classroom!

Progressive Phonics

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on Progressive Phonics5479 views

What it is: Progressive Phonics is a fantastic, free all-in-one reading program that I learned about from @rmbyrne on his blog Free Tech for Teachers (honestly, some days I wonder why I bother with a resource sharing blog…he is amazing!)  This site is totally FREE, as in every single download is available for $0, all that is required is registration.  Progressive Phonics provides books that can be read on-screen or printed out.  Books include alphabet books, beginner phonics, intermediate phonics, advanced phonics, and handwriting.  In addition to phonics rules, Progressive Phonics teaches essential sight-words (phonics rule-breakers).  Each book includes a PDF version of the book, and accompanying activity sheets such as handwriting worksheets, a word search puzzle, flash cards, and a five-minute memory game.  If you have access to iPads or iPod’s for your classroom, these FREE phonics books can be downloaded and put into the iBook bookshelf for reading.

How to integrate Progressive Phonics into your curriculum: Phonics is one of those things that a reading program either excels at, or falls flat with.  Using the Treasures reading curriculum, I was always disappointed by the lack of real phonics work and often supplemented with sites like Starfall.  Progressive Phonics is another resource that would make a fantastic supplement.  If you use a standard reading curriculum, take a look at the Progressive Phonics books and align them with your current curriculum.  For example if your current curriculum has students practicing short vowel “a”, find the corresponding phonics rule in Progressive Phonics.  Because these books are free to download, they are excellent for printing out and sending home with students for extra reading practice.  The accompanying printable games, flashcards, and puzzles will keep your students practicing that skill in and out of the classroom.  Books can be printed out and assembled as a traditional book, read on the classroom or lab computers, or transferred onto a mobile device such as the iPad or iPod Touch.  This collection of phonics resources is a must see!

Tips: One thing I really appreciate about this site is that each book comes with a page count and an approximate time to print.  I remember spending hours printing Starfall books on an old school printer, wondering if I would ever finish.  The approximate printing time lets you know what you are in for before you hit print.  Each book is offered in two formats, one is a print friendly version that has been designed to use as little ink as possible.  So smart!

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

Join Me

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Join Me3086 views

What it is: Join Me is an incredibly simple way to share your computer screen with others.  It works on both Windows and Mac allowing you to share your screen (and whatever is on it instantly).  The simplicity of this site is brilliant.  If you have even a sparkle of being a “techie” among family, colleagues, or friends, you most likely get regular phone calls asking for your help with something.  The problem: those asking the question don’t usually know enough to accurately articulate what their hang up is.  Join Me is a simple solution, it lets you share screens so that you can see what the problem is and walk them step by step through the solution.  Join Me is also great for the classroom, it lets students and teachers quickly share their screens for instant collaboration, feedback, or virtual meetings.

How to integrate Join Me into your curriculum: In my computer lab, I often wanted to share my screen with a student so that I could share a process with them, or provide them with feedback.  I usually used Apple’s Remote Desktop for this, the only problem was that students couldn’t initiate the shared screen.  Another problem I ran into was Remote Desktop dropping connections or crashing.  Join Me would have made an excellent backup!  With the increased use of technology, Join Me would be a great tool to help students collaborate on homework projects, enabling them to easily share screens and work as if they were in the same room.  Join Me provides a unique URL for the screen share, enables a conference call phone number, an on-screen chat, and the ability to choose a presenter and switch control of the mouse.  Join Me would be an easy way to extend the learning day for your students, or allow a student who is absent to be included in a live lesson (this could be students who are sick, students with a long-term illness, students who are traveling, or students who know they will be attending your classroom after a move).

Tips: When you use Join me, a package is downloaded to your computer to allow it to run.  If you want to use this tool with students, make sure that they have privileges to download and run packages.

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

Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master6162 views

What it is: The Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master is a portion of the Read Me program (learn about it here).  This is a really cool online comic creator, the interface is fun to use and very intuitive.  It is obviously geared toward students with a great look and even an embedded music player.  I love the details on this site, including the headline “Reading isn’t only in books, it’s everywhere!”.  Using the Graphic Novel Creator, students can create their own multi-page graphic novels with interesting backgrounds, characters, props, and customized text.  The graphic novels can be saved and printed out.

How to integrate Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master into your curriculum: Graphic novels are becoming increasingly popular reading material, particularly for boys.  They have even the most reluctant readers excited to pull out a book.  Now those kids who love reading graphic novels, can create their own.  A graphic novel is a great way for students to show what they know.  They can create a graphic novel re-tell of a story as a book report, describe a science experiment, re-tell a portion of history with a superhero twist, practice another language by telling a story, even define and demonstrate understanding of vocabulary words.

Tips: Be sure to check out the read me site for great teachers notes, ideas, and additional resources for teaching with the Graphic Novel Creator.  A special thank you to @thebookchook for introducing me to this tool!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master in your classroom!

Read Me

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on Read Me3733 views

What it is: Do you want your students to become deep thinkers?  Read Me is an incredible set of engaging resources that will have your students thinking deeply about who they are and how learning and thinking is vital to their life.  The resources have been designed to reach 11 to 14-year-old boys, to excite them about reading in and out of the classroom.  I can tell you that as a girl, I am enjoying these resources just as much,  I think that would be true of girls in the 11 to 14 age range as well.  Read Me (by the National Schools Partnership) has created six modules that connect with students at their interest level and teach them how to be reflective, deep thinkers and learners.

This is me- covers an understanding of autobiographical texts in traditional (diary) and modern (blog) contexts.  This is me includes teachers notes and presentations that will help students to explore autobiographical texts and self-expression through blogging.

Sport & me- asks students to explore sports websites and media texts by analyzing their structure and presentation.  Students take on the role of a persuasive sports person and ultimately create their own report or website.

Love 4 me- helps students explore different types of love by using texts from a variety of time periods and genres (including images, short extracts, music, lyrics) as well as in Romeo and Juliet.  Students engage with a range of texts that are thematically linked by love.  The culminating activity here is for students to create their own chat show and to create a collage based on love.  (I’m not sure if 11-14 year old boys would be into this topic…but this one will hook the girls for sure!)

Film + me- students use film trailers and titles to develop an understanding of how meaning is created through a combination of words, images, and sounds.  After students have analyzed film trailers and titles, they are asked to present a novel as a trailer.

Graphics 4 me- this one is my favorite because it comes with an awesome graphic novel tool (learn about it here) Here students explore how graphic novels work and become familiar with the medium and its complexity.  Students can create their own graphic novel online using this tool.

Music in me- students explore songs, their lyrics, and the impact they have on their audience.  As a result, students understand how society is presented through music and the media and stereotypes and attitudes it can help to perpetuate.

How to integrate Read Me into your curriculum: There is so much learning that will happen as a result of these six modules, but at the heart of Read Me is a goal to excite kids about reading.  Read Me has incredible ideas and resources for the language arts/literature/literacy classroom.  Use these resources to connect your students with story, passion, and understanding of how language is used.  There is something for every kid to connect with here.  Each module contains teachers notes, resources, links, and tips.  This is a truly incredible resource and collection for this age group.  Read Me encourages students to understand, analyze, evaluate, apply, and create.

Tips: This site includes a graphic novel creator.  I am writing about it separately because it deserves its own post.  You can find it here.

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

MathMovesU

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on MathMovesU2946 views

What it is: MathMovesU is an interactive virtual world where middle school students can interact with algebra, geometry, decimals, fractions, and word problems through topics they are passionate about like sports, music, and fashion.  As students navigate through MathMovesU they will encounter math problems delivered through games, polls, and fun facts.  The site is a great supplement to curriculum and will help students practice and improve their math skills in a fun, engaging manner.

How to integrate MathMovesU into the classroom: MathMovesU is an innovative approach to math practice that shows kids how math is used in real life.  As students explore the MathMovesU virtual world they will collect points by discovering math and tracking solutions.  This site truly encourages students to discover more, dig deeper and think critically about math.  Start your own MathMovesU class competition for the school year where students work to earn the most points.  MathMovesU is a great alternative to worksheet practice.  It is best to use MathMovesU in a one to one scenario where each student has their own computer to work on.  If a one to one experience isn’t possible, use classroom computers as a center.  Throughout the year students can rotate through the center to earn points and practice.

Tips: MathMovesU needs a robust network, the site is highly interactive but can crawl if you have a lab full of students accessing it at once.

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