What it is: Today I learned about this impressive resource from @ccscoachadams on Twitter. The Physics Classroom is a really great place where you can access physics tutorials, Mind on Physics Internet Modules (more than 1300 questions designed to improve understanding of common physics topics), problem sets for practice, multimedia (illustrated physics concepts), animations and activity sheets, curriculum corner (pdf downloads to complement the website), laboratories, photos, and more. The site is like a better version of the text books that I had when I was in physics. What I like about The Physics Classroom is the variety of resources that teachers can use to help their students discover and explore physics concepts. The student extras that take you to Flickr collections of “physics” photos is fantastic!
How to integrate The Physics Classroom into your curriculum: I’m not sure I would have my students spend a lot of time on this site on their own (it is very text heavy and they may feel overwhelmed at the scope). I would send my students to very specific places on The Physics Classroom to help them dig deeper into their learning and make connections. As I said above, the Flickr sets are fabulous. These are worth some time exploring!
The animations and information can be used to help students understand specific concepts that they are struggling to grasp. These could be shared on an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.
The Physics Classroom could be used to help students extend their learning and understanding outside of the classroom. Students can use the site as a study aid or to dig deeper for additional understandings.
At the end of the day, this site is a treasure trove of resources for physics classrooms.
Tips: Spend some time exploring this site before recommending it to students so that you can help them navigate it. It is SO information heavy that it could be a turn-off for students who are just dropping in looking for something specific.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Physics Classroom in your classroom!
What it is: Sophia is a site that I have been playing around with for the past few months in their invitation only, beta space. Now that the beta has been released to everyone, I’m excited to share it! Sophia is a platform that connects teachers, learners, experts, and parents. This is an academic community that supports and enriches the traditional classroom. Sophia is a social network of sorts that connects everyone in meaningful ways so that knowledge, help, instruction, standards-aligned content, and experts are available for learners everywhere. As an educator, Sophia will help you to share your knowledge and make it available to anyone, anywhere. Sophia can help students by offering them support in areas of weakness, opportunities for deeper learning, and the ability to follow areas of interest that aren’t being met in the classroom. Currently the Sophia subjects include the arts, business, English/language arts, learning strategies, mathematics, science, and social studies. Each of those subject contain several sub categories as well. Packets of learning can contain text documents, slide shows, videos, and useful links. In addition the packets are rated by users as to how academically sound the resource is. Individual users of Sophia get scores based on how well they contribute to the community.
How to integrate Sophia into the classroom: As a teacher, Sophia can be used to supplement instruction, for blended learning opportunities, for “flip” learning (remember that Fisch flip I mentioned earlier in the week?), and for private personal learning networks (PLN). Students can use Sophia for additional classroom support, homework help, to participate in study groups, and to help others in their learning. Use Sophia to facilitate study groups between students, to create an online learning community for your team to create and share resources, and to create groups that include other classrooms for collaborative learning opportunities.
Tips: Sophia is best for middle, high school, and college right now. I hope that they will scale this down for elementary students as well!
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sophia in your classroom!
Capzles is a site that I have written about and recommended many times (you can read one of my original posts about it below). I am currently working with a school that has zero technology. When I say zero, I mean they don’t even have over head projectors. This is a NO tech school. They recently enlisted my help in taking their eighth graders from no tech into a one-to-one environment. Each of the students will be receiving a laptop to use during instruction. The challenge: the computers aren’t all the same age, make, or model. No problem, we will use web 2.0 tools! The benefit of going from zero to fully immersed: no bad technology habits to break, we are staring from a clean slate!
Last week I met with the eighth grade teacher to talk about what learning is currently happening in the classroom and took a look at the scope and sequence of learning for the next semester. I asked a LOT of questions and together we mapped out a plan for integrating technology that would support and enhance the learning that was already happening. We decided to begin by adding technology into art, composer study, history, astronomy, poetry, and literature. I thought about having the students create blogs or wikis to chart and reflect on learning, but in the end decided that Capzles was the best tool for this job. Capzles lets students organize learning in the form of an interactive timeline. Students can upload a variety of documents to the timeline including images, videos, documents, and slide shows. They can also blog directly to the timeline (complete with comments!). The blog feature also provides a way for students to embed other web 2.0 creations. For the learning that these students will be doing, the visual timeline makes the most sense. Students can create multiple timelines or compile all of their learning into one timeline. If students create these timelines based on actual historical dates, they will begin to see the overlap in history, astronomical discoveries, composers, and artists of the time. This leads to a more complete understanding of how the world that they know has been shaped.
Students can also create a timeline based on their learning, each day adding learning to a virtual “journal” of events.
I have created weblists of the links these students will be using as a part of their learning over the next semester:
The tutorial above is a brief introduction to using Capzles, you will have to forgive the drowned rat look…that is what happens when you shovel snow in a blizzard 🙂
What it is:Capzles is another interactive timeline maker. I really love all the little extras that Capzleshas! With Capzles teachers and students can add photos, videos, audio, and text to their timeline. Themes, colors, backgrounds, and background music can be added to the timeline making it unique and personalized. Capzles also provides options when sharing your Capzle, it can be private with a specific list of who can view the Capzle or made public for the world to see.
How to integrate Capzles into the classroom: Obviously Capzles is a great way for students to create timelines about any subject. The web 2.0 collaborative aspect of Capzles makes it very appealing to students. I think Capzles could also be very valuable in the primary classroom. Students probably won’t be creating their own timelines in Capzles at this age, parent helpers paired with students to create simple timelines would be appropriate. Because Capzles has the capability of adding audio, photos, and text, it would be the perfect place to record students reading throughout the year. As you assess student reading through reading records, record the students using a program such as Gabcast, Gcast,Audacity, or Garageband. Take a digital picture of the student reading. Throughout the year, you can make a Capzle for each student. This is an excellent motivator for students, especially your struggling readers. Students can see their growth throughout the year in pictures, and hear their reading progress made throughout the year. You can share the Capzle with parents (they will go crazy for this keepsake!) and with the students future teacher. How much would you love getting a timeline of your students from the previous year? You would have a jump-start on their struggles and strengths in reading as you quickly flip through their timelines. Cool huh?!
Leave a comment and share how you are using Capzles in your classroom.
What it is: Woopid is one of the best sites I have seen for technology training video tutorials. You can find a video about nearly every gadget or computer question you may have. The videos are very easy to search by category or keyword. Video categories include Hardware, Internet, Mac, and Windows. Each category has a number of sub categories, I am amazed at the number and quality of videos here! Don’t see the tutorial you need? Send in a request and Woopid may choose your suggestion for the next training video.
How to integrate Woopid into the classroom: I can’t tell you how much I learn through online tutorials like these. The computer skills that I have did not come from a classroom, I generally learn from interacting with video and written tutorials. I love these videos because they are easy to follow and understand. I think teaching students how to teach themselves is a valuable skill and Woopid helps you do that. Give students a few resource sites like Woopid, then give them a task. Don’t teach them how to complete the task, let them use the resources to find the information they need and teach themselves. You will be amazed at what your students can accomplish when they learn how to learn! Woopid is also a great site to pass onto colleagues!
Tips: Parents may benefit from Woopid at home, many times parents don’t know how to set up filters and parental controls on their personal Internet, Woopid can help out!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Woopid in your classroom.
