high school – Page 2 – iLearn Technology

Venture into Student Blogging Risk Free!

April 29, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments2545 views

My edublogger alliance friend Christopher Rogers at EdTech Swami has made an incredible offer:

“If you have students interested in blogging but for whatever reason have not set one up, or perhaps the prospect of administering a student blog seemed over whelming I have a deal for you. I already have a blog set up and running. I have quit a bit of experience blogging personally and with students. I have hard core spam protection set up. I will administer, moderate and commentate on the posts. If you have students interested in blogging they are welcome to join my students (who are desperate for other writers to interact with). Registration is open. All high school students are welcome. Just direct your browser to this address and click register. http://www.rogersenglish9.com/studentvoice”

If you have high school students who are interested in blogging, but you aren’t ready or can’t go there on you own, take Christopher up on this incredibly generous offer. Give your students access to an incredible teacher and resource for growth in writing and higher-order thinking.

Neo K12

March 1, 2010March 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely13 Comments4758 views

What it is: Neo K12 is an outstanding online collection of educational videos, lessons and games for students in grades k-12. Neo K12 believes that “kids learn best by ‘seeing’ the real world.” They have created this site with that belief in mind. Neo K12 has cataloged the best free online educational videos from the Internet in one place. Each video is watched and reviewed by k-12 educators to ensure their accuracy and appropriateness for students. Subjects include physical science, life science, human body, earth and space, social studies, math, English (including phonics, stories, and grammar), and fun videos such as time lapse, slow motion, arts and crafts, learn magic, music lessons, and sports lessons. In addition to videos, Neo K12 has Web 2.0 tools. The School Presentation tool is a mashup of Flickr and Wikipedia, and allows users to create and share presentations online. To create a presentation, students choose pictures for their presentation from Flickr, read and article about the subject from Wikipedia, and then add text to their presentation. When the presentation is finished, it can be printed or viewed online as a slideshow. Quizzes, games, and puzzles on Neo K12 are an interactive way to improve learning. Teachers can create and share videos playlists complete with notes and instructions for their students.

How to integrate Neo K12 into the classroom: Videos provide excellent opportunities for learning, they make it possible for kids to visualize and build a model in their minds. This helps them to better understand key concepts and can stimulate curiosity in a subject. When students or teachers search a subject, they are given a list of related videos, quizzes, games, and puzzles. When a teacher creates an account, they can create a complete assignment within Neo K12 that includes instructions and notes for the students. Students can complete the assignment by watching videos, playing related games and creating a School Presentation that shows understanding. The presentations are easy enough for even young students to create. Primary students can skip reading the Wikipedia article and just choose pictures and add some captions about facts they learned from a video they viewed. These videos are a great way to introduce new learning, expand on previous learning, or to spark curiosity in a topic.

Many of the educational games and puzzles would be great for an interactive whiteboard as whole class activities. They could, of course, also be used as classroom center activities, or completed individually in the computer lab. The jigsaw puzzles can be used as teasers to introduce a new topic. The jigsaw puzzles use incredible images from Flickr. Have students take turns coming up to the interactive whiteboard to put puzzle pieces together. Students waiting at their seats can take guesses about what new learning you will be doing in class.

Tips: Create a free Neo K12 account, you will receive a dashboard where you can store videos, games, presentations, quizzes, and add notes and instructions. You get a unique URL for your dashboard to share.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Neo K12 in your classroom.

HippoCampus

October 22, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2050 views

What it is: HippoCampus is a website with incredible vision. The goal is to provide high-quality multimedia content on general subjects to high school and college students free of charge. Subjects on HippoCampus include algebra, American government, biology, calculus, environmental science, physics, psychology, religions, statistics, and US history. Each of the subject has a large library of multimedia content from students to learn from. HippoCampus was designed as part of the Open Education Resources, a worldwide effort to make education available equitably to everyone. Each lesson includes multimedia lessons, the text of the lesson, and related resources. I believe the HippoCampus model will be the textbook of the future. Students are able to learn at their own pace, pausing, reviewing, and receiving instruction on demand.

How to integrate Hippo Campus into the classroom: HippoCampus has an incredible library of content for teaching and learning. Use the multimedia lessons in place of traditional textbooks or as a supplement to your current curriculum. Teachers can build their own HippoCampus homepage where students can access specific lessons targeted for them. You can even create custom announcements to be displayed to students. Although HippoCampus was designed with high school and college students in mind, many of the multimedia presentations could be used to teach middle school students as well.

Tips: HippoCampus uses Adobe Flash and QuickTime. Make sure that you have each on your computers before using HippoCampus.

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

Lost Generation

February 24, 2009Kelly Tenkely5 Comments2393 views

I came across this video recently on YouTube. As I understand it, a 15 year old wrote this poem as part of a school assignment. Amazing! This video would be wonderful to use as inspiration for a teaching staff or with students. It would be a great opener for a creative writing class! The video speaks for itself, I’m sure you’ll come up with great ideas for using this video with your students (share those great ideas with the rest of us). 🙂

The Week in Rap

December 16, 2008December 16, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2717 views

What it is: I remember being forced to pay attention to current events when I was in high school for class assignments. I know that my teachers were trying to get me to pay attention to what was happening in the world; but, to be perfectly honest, I hated watching an hour of news. My mind would wander and local news left a lot to be desired (why did I care about the dog who dialed 911 for its owner?). The Week in Rap brings students current events on their level in a fun and entertaining way. Every Friday a weeks worth of news is posted in video form. The entertaining piece comes in the way that the recap of the weeks headlines is presented, in the form of a rap. The videos will hold your students attention while they keep up to date with what is happening in the world. The lyrics for each rap are posted below the video. This free website was created by Flocabulary which makes rap videos about a number of subjects.

How to integrate The Week in Rap into the classroom: The Week in Rap is a good way for your students to get involved with current events. Use the videos as a launching point for further discussion, a beginning point for research, or have students write a blog post in response to the video. Students can read more about each story mentioned in the weeks rap by clicking on the link for the news story in the lyrics. The few that I clicked on brought me to PBS.

Tips: Since current events are posted every Friday, this site might make a good end of the week fun activity.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Week in Rap in your classroom.

Picturing America Bookshelf

November 19, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2287 views

What it is: I have written a few posts about Picturing America but I have to do another one! Picturing America is now offering a free Bookshelf to k-12 libraries. The Picturing America Bookshelf is a set of classic books for readers in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Applications for the Picturing America Bookshelf are being accepted online now through Jan. 30, 2009. All that is required of your school is that you would encourage young readers to explore the Picturing America books. The great literature included in the Bookshelf can provide students with a window into our nation’s character, ideals, and goals. The books will give students the chance to experience some of the most iconic times, people, places, and stories in American history. The Bookshelf comes with the following titles:

Kindergarten to Grade 3: Walt Whitman: Words for America by Barbara Kerley; Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull; Cosechando esperenza: La historia de César Chávaz by Kathleen Krull (translated by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy); The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Sweet Music in Harlem by Debbie Taylor.

Grades 4 to 6: The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich; American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne; On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck; Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gillem Robinet; The Captain’s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe by Roland Smith.

Grades 7 to 8: The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by Russell Freedman; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving; La leyanda de Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (translated by Manual Broncano); Across America on an Emigrant Train by Jim Murphy; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Grades 9 to 12: Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis; Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge; Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck; Viajes Con Charley – En Busca de América by John Steinbeck (translated by José Manuel Alvarez Flórez); Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.
Bonus: Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out by The National Children’s Book and Literary Alliance; 1776: The Illustrated Edition by David McCullough.

These books would be excellent companions to the Picturing America art and curriculum! Be sure to apply today, if the Picturing America art is any indication of the quality of the bookshelf, it will be amazing!

Tips: Be sure to visit National Endowment for the Humanities site EDSITEment for sample lesson plans and resources to enhance the use of the Bookshelf in your classroom or library.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Picturing America Bookshelf in your school.

Get Smarter

October 10, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2028 views

What it is: Get Smarter is an animated, interactive testing and learning site for science and math. Students can practice their science and math skills by working on the animated activities and compare their score with other students their age from around the world. Nothing like a little healthy competition to get your students studying voluntarily! Get Smarter is broken into levels, elementary, middle school, and high school to ensure that their scores are measured against other students at their level.

How to integrate Get Smarter into the classroom: Competition in the classroom is a great motivator. Since your students will be collectively ‘competing’ against students from around the world, they are working together as a class to help raise their countries average scores. Use Get Smarter in the computer lab setting as a place for students to practice and review the skills and concepts they are learning in math and science class. In the one or two computer classroom, students can work in teams or as a math or science center. Keep the competition going year round to see if your students can help raise the averages.

Tips: Be sure to visit the student page at each level to find some more great classroom sites.

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

EdWeek Maps Website

August 29, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1555 views

What it is: I heard about EdWeek Maps Website just after writing my post “Up On My Soap Box”. The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center (that is a mouth full!) launched a feature of its EdWeeek Maps Website that allows you to access and download a detailed report and map on high school graduation rates for every school district in the United States. You can look at individual districts, their graduation rates and trends, and compare it with state and national figures. It is VERY interesting to browse.

How to integrate EdWeeks Maps Website into the classroom: This may be a good site to share with students starting in middle school. Open up for discussion why students think the graduation rates are what they are. Take the opportunity to show your students how important education is and more importantly how critical it is that they learn to learn. If our students can be life long learners we have reached our goal!

Tips: Share this site with fellow teachers, administrators, community members. Lets come up with a way, together that we can change education so that we live in a community where education is valued.

Leave a comment and share how you are using EdWeek Maps in your classroom.

GeoGebra

April 7, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2202 views

What it is: I’m not generally one to get excited about math especially algebra, geometry, and *uggh* calculus. But, I think if I had access to a tool like GeoGebra I might have enjoyed them (or at least understood them) more. GeoGebra is a free dynamic geometry system that lets students complete constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, conic sections, and functions and change them dynamically afterward. Equations and coordinates can also be entered directly; this means that GeoGebra has the ability to deal with variables for numbers, vectors and points, finds derivatives and integrals of functions and offers commands like Root or Extremum. (If you didn’t catch that you are not a high school math teacher *wink*). If you are a high school or college math teacher or know someone who is…that description just made you feel a little excited. GeoGebra is a free multi-platform download.

How to integrate GeoGebra into your curriculum: Use GeoGebra to help your students understand complicated or abstract math concepts. This software is amazing for your visual learners…again a reason this should have existed when I was in school! Allow your students to explore math concepts with this software and to practice their learning. You can also use GeoGebra to create dynamic math worksheets for your students. Very cool!

Tips: Make sure to check out the examples section for some great GeoGebra uses. You can also attend free online workshops to learn how to use GeoGebra. For some great ideas and further explanation of GeoGebra check them out on Wikipedia.

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