Finally the wait is over! Today was the revealing of #ProjectPLN. In case you missed the build up, @ProjectPLN has been slowly releasing videos for the past few weeks leading up to…well no one really knew what until today at the 7:00 #edchat. The wait is over, Project PLN is out of the bag and I don’t have to keep the secret any more!
A few months ago Nick (@thenerdyteacher) ran an idea by me to start a PLN magazine. I immediately said yes, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of something that highlights the awesome educators in our PLN. My hope is that this magazine will introduce you to members of your PLN you might not be familiar with, share and celebrate the amazing work and voices of the PLN, and encourage teachers who don’t yet have a PLN to build one.
Each month we will release a magazine (both available online and off) that centers around an educational topic. Nick and I will choose “articles” that are submitted, a re-post of a blog post, videos, photos, and Tweets related to the topic. We are using an online tool, Openzine, to put together the magazine each month. We aren’t sure how Openzine will be able to take all of the traffic on their servers so we also have the magazine on Slideshare where it can be downloaded and printed out to share with your staff.
Send colleagues the link, print it out and put it in everyone’s mailbox, leave a copy in the teacher’s lounge, or RT on Twitter. We hope that you will help us spread the word so that we can grow our PLN!
Below is this month’s ProjectPLN magazine, check out the Openzine version for videos and extras!
Tomorrow I am doing a training on the Treasures Supplement that I created over the summer. Most of the supplemental suggestions fall into the bottom two tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Remember and Understand). I want to show teachers that just because these activities help students practice basic skills and remember and understand, there are SO many more options that will reach the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy! I created the Bloomin’ Peacock to show teachers the Blooms Taxonomy break down and the Bloomin’ digital Peacock that shows how the digital tools in the supplement break down.
Below are the tools listed in my Bloomin’ Digital Peacock
I have received a lot of requests and DM’s for the Bloomin’ Peacock on posters (I’m still working on these), mugs, etc. For those of you who asked, here it is:
What it is: Rustle the Leaf is an enchanting site that I learned about from @alexgfrancisco’s excellent blog ZarcoEnglish-Tool of the Day. Rustle the Leaf is a collection of online comic strips that teach about the environment. The comics star Rustle the Leaf (don’t you just love the name?) and his friends. Each comic is designed to help kids think about and understand their relationship to the planet and how their actions affect the Earth. The site has a great collection of teaching resources that include lesson plans, offline games, and comics. In the kids fun section, students will find Earth Day e-cards, printable cards, computer desktops, printable posters, and book downloads.
How to integrate Rustle the Leaf into your curriculum: I feel like when I was in elementary school (in the 80’s), that protecting the environment was a much bigger theme in schools than it is now. Maybe it just isn’t as widely taught at the schools I am in, or maybe it has been cut out of curriculum because it isn’t tested on. Regardless, the environment is as important to teach today as it was when I was growing up. Rustle the Leaf is a fun way to help your students think about and understand environmental issues. Use the site as the basis for a unit around Earth Day or help your students understand that everyday is Earth Day by reading and discussing a new comic every day. The comics would be great discussion starters at the beginning of the day. The resources on Rustle the Leaf are really well done, these can be used throughout the year, monthly, or all together as a focused unit. Set the desktops on classroom computers with Rustle the Leaf wallpapers as a daily reminder of how to care for the environment.
I have a feeling that students will fall in love with the Rustle the Leaf character. If this is the case for your students, they may enjoy creating their own Rustle the Leaf comics about the environment. They could even create a Rustle the Leaf comic reminding others to turn off the water or lights to be posted next to sinks and light switches in the classroom.
Tips: At the bottom of the Rustle the Leaf homepage in the left sidebar, you will find links to animated shorts starring Rustle the Leaf. These are entertaining and have a great message that tie directly into the comics and lesson plans on the site. Don’t miss them!
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Rustle the Leaf in your classroom!
iLearn Technology is coming up on birthday number 4!! It is hard to remember a time when I didn’t blog, the 4 year journey has been amazing! I have grown as a teacher, a user of technology, and (I hope) as a blogger. As I reflected on iLearn Technology, I couldn’t help but remember my first steps into the blogging world. It was the summer of 2007 and I had been teaching in the computer lab for 2 years. At the time, I spent my summers searching the web for resources I could use in my classroom. When I stumbled on gems I wondered why no one had collected all of the great education resources in one place. I kept a notebook of the sites I was finding and would jot down a few words (which I later realized were tags) to help me remember what the website looked like and did. I would also write any thoughts that I had about how I could use the site with students. Every once in a while I would stumble on a collection of education resources for the classroom, but I was disappointed by them. Most were just lists of website links, there was no information that indicated what kind of site it was or how it could be used. It frustrated me that I had to click on each and every link to find out if it was worthwhile for my classroom or not. I was quickly becoming a website snob and when I came upon a website of link lists, I would quickly move on. It was too time consuming to sort through 100 website urls for the chance that I might find something worth keeping.
About this time, the iPhone had just emerged on the scene. My husband bought one and promptly jail broke it so that he could stay on T-mobile network. As he searched around the net for iPhone hacks and tips, he came across this little video from @ijustine. Her AT&T phone bill unveiling.
My husband sent me the video with a link to her blog and said “You should start a blog”. I quickly shot back something snarky like: “oh yeah, what would I blog about my Nokia?” Lucky for me, he ignored my snarky comment and told me to start an education blog where I reviewed all of the sites I was finding for my classroom. I wasn’t sure how I could keep a blog going through the school year or how I would find enough material to keep it current, but it was July and I decided to give it a go. You have to understand, when I started iLearn Technology, I had NO idea what blogging was really all about. I didn’t really understand how it was different from a website (other than being updated more often) and I am pretty sure the term RSS was foreign to me. I started it anyway thinking if nothing else, it would be a good place for me to keep track of what I was finding and would be more easily searchable than my spiral notebook. I didn’t really expect that anyone would read my blog. I didn’t really expect to get a following of any kind. Thus began the journey of iLearn Technology.
Looking back over the past 4 years, I am still baffled that I find time to post every day. I am still dumbstruck that you all read my blog and come back for more. I am still amazed that I continue to find resources that are worthy of posts (I decided when I started iLearn Technology, if it didn’t pass the test of my students enjoying it, there would not be a blog post about it). Each year I get a little nostalgic in July and look through my old posts. I remember what projects I have done with students, make note of the sites that my students still beg for, and look forward to new finds. I also try to find something that I can improve on. This year I decided that I needed to make the resources I post about easier to search. In my sidebar, you will see a category list with several drop-down menus. I have categorized all of my posts by grade, subject, and resource type. The new category search lets you search within multiple categories at once. You can choose a grade level, a subject, and a resource (or just choose one or two categories to search). This should make it easier to find resources that fit your classroom needs. My hope is that iLearn Technology can be your one stop shop for finding the very best student-tested resources for your classroom.
I realize that not all of you have been with me from the beginning of this journey, I thank you for joining me when you did and for sticking with me as I continue to learn and grow! Most of the tools I have posted about I still use every year. They are outstanding resources! I don’t expect you to go back through each and every post on the off chance that you will find something that fits your needs, but hopefully the new multiple category search will encourage you to go through some previous posts that you may have missed to find just the right activities for the next school year. As seems to be the case with technology, not all resources have stood the test of time. Some sites have shut down, others are no longer free resources. I am working on amending these posts accordingly but if you come across a site that is no more, leave me a comment and let me know about it. I can offer some alternative resource suggestions and update the post to indicate the changes.
Try out the multiple category search and let me know what you think! You don’t have to make a selection from every category, just choose the options that best fit what you are searching for.
What it is: Lightning Bug is a fantastic resource for the writing classroom. The tag-line of Lightning Bug is, “Your writing partner, helping you write a story from beginning to THE END”. That is exactly what it does. For each stage of the writing process, students have access to excellent guides and resources to aid the process. Students can get help finding a story idea, developing the idea, and finishing the story. Students can even have a look at what kind of writer they might be based on their personalities. Lightning Bug has a great collection of writing resources. Students can explore author blogs, search for character names, get some exercises in creativity, get help with grammar and spelling, and even get help for publishing their written work. The teacher resources are equally helpful for teaching writing.
How to integrate Lightening Bug into the classroom:Lightning Bug is a great resource to have going on your classroom computers as a writing/publishing center. Students can visit the site to get help with every stage of writing. This is an excellent site to send home and alert parents to, it would be enormously helpful for at-home writing projects. If you have access to a computer lab or 1 to 1 setting, allow your students to walk through this website as they work on any piece of writing. The site is organized really well and easy to navigate independently. Be sure to take a look at the teacher resources.
A few of the recommendations for the writing process include worksheets such as mind maps. Instead of using a worksheet for students to map their ideas, consider using online tools that will let students organize their thoughts and collaborate with others as they write. Try using online mind mapping tools such as Creza’s Mindomo or Comapping. Students can use tools such as Zoho, Google Docs, or Kerpoof to collaborate as they write.
Tips: Many of the ideas and resources found on Lightning Bug are useful for digital storytelling.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Lightning Bug in your classroom.
A reader tipped me off to this great list of ways to use comics in the classroom. The list is extremelly comprehensive and includes sections on the benefits of using comics in the classroom, great resources for using comics in the classroom, suggested comics for reading in the classroom, tools for creating comics in the techie classroom, creative ways to use comics in the classroom, lessons plans using comics for elementary/middle/high school classrooms, manga and anime, and free comics for educators. With 100 tips, tools, ideas, and resources, this list should convince you of the why and how of using comics as teaching tools. Enjoy! Comics in the Classroom 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers
What it is: Switcheroo Zoo is a site I learned about from Kevin Bibo on his outstanding blog Cal Teacher Blog. Switcheroo Zoo has fun interactive games and activities such as “Make New Animals” where students can create their own animal combinations, “Build an Online Habitat” where students choose animals and match them to the correct environment, “Switch Zoo Puzzles”, “Where do I Live” where students help return rescued animals to their homes, “Sound Match” where students match the animal song to the correct animal, “Meerkat Grab-a-Snack” where students help feed a Meerkat by catching food, and “Catch the Moment” where students take ‘pictures’ of wildlife. Switcheroo Zoo also has short films, sound clips, and photographs about animals for students to watch and listen to. Your students also have the opportunity to become a “Switch Zoo Guide” by completing the Switch Zoo Quest. Students play nine fun animal related games and activities to become a guide. When they finish, they will receive a Switch Zoo certificate of merit, a guide badge, and are added to the list of offical guides.
How to integrate Switcheroo Zoo into the classroom: Switcheroo Zoo is an awesome website for students to explore to learn more about animals and wildlife. This would be a great site to visit when studying animals and their habitats. There are three educational animal-themed games on the site that teach about animal characteristics and habitats. Switcheroo Zoo has an educational section that includes lesson plans for art, science, creative writing, and persuasive writing. In second grade at the school where I teach, students complete animal reports as an introduction to research. Switcheroo Zoo has on-site research with 142 animal profiles, a US endangered species map, and stories about unusual animal feats on a Zookeeper’s blog. This site is packed full of fun, useful activities, lessons, and resources! In a computer lab setting, students can research and play games individual. In the one or two classroom computer setting, students can visit Switcheroo Zoo as a science resource center. With the projector or an interactive whiteboard, complete the activities as a whole class or show the animal videos to your whole class.
Tips: This site does have some Google ads. I use these as an opportunity to teach my students how to spot ads on a website and discuss what the purpose of advertisements is.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Switcheroo Zoo in your classroom.
Tonight I am hosting an Internet safety night for parents. I often get safety questions from parents and built a wiki where I can point them for answers. Maybe the wiki will give you some good resources and places to send parents who are asking about keeping their kids safe online. Let me know if you know of a great resource I have left out!
What it is:ARKive is an incredible website that I learned about from a tweet on Twitter (forgive me I was in the middle of class and didn’t keep track of who- thank you whoever you are!) ARKive tag line is “images of life on Earth”, but ARKive is so much more than just a collection of images, it has thousands of videos, images and facts about the world’s species. This is the digital version of Noah’s Ark! This is the most impressive animal and life website I have seen! I truly can’t say enough about this site, students of all ages will enjoy this one (I’m talking k-12 here!) ARKive has an education section of the site that is a free multi-media educational resources complete with downloadable, ready to use audio/visual modules on a wide range of science, geography, citizenship, and environmental based topics. ARKive also has some great games for students to play that are directly related to the lessons they learn while on the ARKive site. Games range from building a habitat to word searches and digital fridge poetry.
How to integrate ARKive into the classroom: ARKive’s ready made educational resources make it simple to integrate into your science, geography, or general classes. The resources are ready made PowerPoint presentations (which incidentally also open nicely in Keynote which we use). The resources bring learning to life with images, videos, facts, and some interactive pieces. This is what textbooks should be! ARKive’s ready made resources can be downloaded on classroom computers for use by small learning groups as a center, downloaded to a lab of computers for individual student exploration, or used with a projector and an interactive whiteboard for whole class learning and exploration. The ARKive site itself is a wonderful place for students to explore and learn more about animal species and life on Earth. This would be a great place for students to collect information, images, and video to create their own presentations. The games provided on the ARKive site are fun for students and teach them as they play. For example, students who are studying habitat can play the Design a Habitat game and gain an additional opportunity to interact with the concepts they are learning. Older students can dig into the facts provided on ARKive and learn about animal classification and species of the world. ARKive images could be used in the language arts classroom as a story starter or creative writing prompt.
Tips: This is truly an incredible site, I encourage you to take a look at it and use it with your class! (Click on the education link at the bottom of the site for the Resources and Games.)
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ARKive in your classroom.
What it is:Web Tools 4U2 Use is an incredible wiki created for school library media specialists to learn about cool new web tools, learn how they can be used in school library media programs, and share ideas and success stories. The links, tips, and information on this site are valuable for school library specialists but also for classroom teachers. Many of the ideas and tools on this site are ideal for classroom integration as well. The wiki is well organized and easy to navigate. Each section of the wiki gives “Five to Test Drive” giving the top 5 resources in each category and then “More to Explore” which gives additional resources and ideas on how they are being used in library media centers. You will also find links to tutorials and more information.
How to integrate Web Tools 4U2 Use into the classroom: Are you in need of some inspiration for your classroom? Looking for tools to help increase productivity? Need to make some brownie points with your school library media specialist? Web Tools 4U2 Use is a great site to share with colleagues, particularly your school library media specialist. Use this wiki as a place to be inspired, share with others, and learn. The wiki has excellent tools for you professionally to grow, as well as ideas for using web tools in your classroom.
Tips: Definitely send this site along to your school library media specialists, they will love it!
Leave a comment and share how you are using Web Tools 4U2 Use in your classroom.
