The third one is http://www.todaysmeet.com/ . It is a free, no log-in site to have a back channel converstation where all students can participate and everyone can respond in real time.
Basics: You choose a name for your meeting, then you share the link with others, they put in their name, and finally the conversation begins.
Test Kitchen: I have used todaysmeet.com multiple times and every time I do the kids get really excited. The first time I used it I had a bad experience because someone went to our conversation after class, signed in as one of the students, and wrote some inappropriate words. The next day we went to see the site and a student noticed the bad words. Luckily, I was able to stop the rest of the students from reading it but, it was one of my first internet safety moments. I decided that I needed to rethink how we use todaysmeet.com and now I use random room names and I only leave them there for 2 hours. I also only leave the link up for the class that is currently using todaysmeet. I haven't had another problem since then. The kids love using this site and it is a great place to teach them about how to act on the internet.
Possible Applications:
As a Mindset or Warm-up: You could post an open-ended question and then have each student post a response. Then give them the challenge to respond respectfully to another student's post.
As a Brainstorming Tool: When you need to brainstorm about a certain topic have students post their ideas here.
As a Review Game: You write a question and then instruct students to answer the question but, not post until you say go. This way all students have enough time to formulate their answers. I give them points for answers and they keep track of it on the calculator that is in the computer. They love this game.
As an Editing Excercise: You write a sentence that has mistakes in it and have the students rewrite the sentence fixing the mistakes. This can be done as practice or as a game as well.
As a Group Discussion: Create multiple rooms for the class and divide students up into groups. Have the groups carry on discussion about different topics. This is a quick and easy way for the group to discuss anything. You could be a part of every group and you would monitor each room.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Site of the Week # 2 Edutecher
The Site of the Week # 2 is http://www.edutecher.com/ .
Basics: You go to this site and you can see a lot of other sites that have educational applications. This site is not an application, rather it is a resource that has links to other sites.
This site is for the adventurer who would like to see what kind of tools and resources are out there to incorporate into their classroom.
Example: Here is the front page of the site with some explanations on the side.
Test Kitchen: I have used this site a lot to find different sites. A new site is added almost every day. You can subscribe to their RSS feed. When you subscribe to an RSS feed you will get updates, in one place, for the sites that you are following. There are sites for every subject area and grade level.
Applications: This site could be used by anyone who wants to incorporate technology into their classroom. I have found that there are certain categories that most of the sites fall into like: video searching, flashcards, games and practice, collaboration, polls, quizzes, interactive tutorials, photo searching, social bookmarking, class platform building, project based learning, blogs, and wikis. There are other categories and then there are some sites that don't fit neatly into any category.
Happy exploring!
Basics: You go to this site and you can see a lot of other sites that have educational applications. This site is not an application, rather it is a resource that has links to other sites.
This site is for the adventurer who would like to see what kind of tools and resources are out there to incorporate into their classroom.
Example: Here is the front page of the site with some explanations on the side.
Test Kitchen: I have used this site a lot to find different sites. A new site is added almost every day. You can subscribe to their RSS feed. When you subscribe to an RSS feed you will get updates, in one place, for the sites that you are following. There are sites for every subject area and grade level.
Applications: This site could be used by anyone who wants to incorporate technology into their classroom. I have found that there are certain categories that most of the sites fall into like: video searching, flashcards, games and practice, collaboration, polls, quizzes, interactive tutorials, photo searching, social bookmarking, class platform building, project based learning, blogs, and wikis. There are other categories and then there are some sites that don't fit neatly into any category.
Happy exploring!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Zooburst
I just have to give a shout out to Zooburst.com. It is an awesome site where you can create digital 3D pop-up books. We were working on our fable project and created books in Zooburst and two students who do not actively participate in class both perked up for this assignment. They got so excited about Zooburst and they want to view eachother's books as well. I have seen a rise in student engagement and they are learning about folktales at the same time. Some students have even started to create books that are not assignments in class. One reluctant reader told me that he showed his mom his project and the technology.
It also has a feature were they can read and comment on each other's books. Today I heard a few of them comparing how many views they've gotten. :)
How did they do on their multiple choice standardized post test? Amazing!
Check out Zooburst.com
Here is a link to a blog that has some examples of the fables my students wrote.
http://www.carloscougarfables.blogspot.com/
It also has a feature were they can read and comment on each other's books. Today I heard a few of them comparing how many views they've gotten. :)
How did they do on their multiple choice standardized post test? Amazing!
Check out Zooburst.com
Here is a link to a blog that has some examples of the fables my students wrote.
http://www.carloscougarfables.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Site of the Week
Every week I would like to spotlight a site that I have used in my classroom.
The first one is Answer Garden (http://answergarden.ch/). It is a quick feedback tool that does not require a login and has a lot of features.
Basics: You ask a question. Students answer the question in less than 20 characters. Answers are turned into a word cloud.
Below is an example of an answer garden:
What are the best technology tools for the classroom?... at AnswerGarden.ch.
After you have created your Answer Garden they have a connection to turn it into a Wordle or Taxedo with only 2 clicks of the mouse.
Test Kitchen: I used this last week to brainstorm for fables that we were writing. Students had to think of an animal and one of their personality characterisitcs like, "dog playful" or "cat curious". The bad part was that I didn't check if the site was available for students with their logins. It wasn't. I had to turn to plan B which was to have the students dictate and I wrote them in. I learned my lesson to check the site on student computers before trying to use it. The kids loved it and it was easy to embed. It really seemed to help them exand their answers and get beyond basic animals.
Possible Applications:
Science-Have them make a list of all the parts of a cell that they can remember or kinds of rocks or any other set of vocabulary words.
Social Studies-Ask a question that makes students take a stance on a topic like-Who was the most powerful leader of the 20th century?
Math-Give a set of parameters for a number and have students list all the numbers that fit the parameters like it is an even number, divisible by three, and it's absolute value is greater than negative 50.
Language Arts-Brainstorm topics for an essay.
Screentoaster: (short video tutorial to be posted at a later time)
The first one is Answer Garden (http://answergarden.ch/). It is a quick feedback tool that does not require a login and has a lot of features.
Basics: You ask a question. Students answer the question in less than 20 characters. Answers are turned into a word cloud.
Below is an example of an answer garden:
What are the best technology tools for the classroom?... at AnswerGarden.ch.
After you have created your Answer Garden they have a connection to turn it into a Wordle or Taxedo with only 2 clicks of the mouse.
Test Kitchen: I used this last week to brainstorm for fables that we were writing. Students had to think of an animal and one of their personality characterisitcs like, "dog playful" or "cat curious". The bad part was that I didn't check if the site was available for students with their logins. It wasn't. I had to turn to plan B which was to have the students dictate and I wrote them in. I learned my lesson to check the site on student computers before trying to use it. The kids loved it and it was easy to embed. It really seemed to help them exand their answers and get beyond basic animals.
Possible Applications:
Science-Have them make a list of all the parts of a cell that they can remember or kinds of rocks or any other set of vocabulary words.
Social Studies-Ask a question that makes students take a stance on a topic like-Who was the most powerful leader of the 20th century?
Math-Give a set of parameters for a number and have students list all the numbers that fit the parameters like it is an even number, divisible by three, and it's absolute value is greater than negative 50.
Language Arts-Brainstorm topics for an essay.
Screentoaster: (short video tutorial to be posted at a later time)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Welcome to the Tech Learning Lab
I have had the opportunity to implement one to one technology in my classroom this year and I would like to share my successes and my trip-ups. I hope that I can help other teachers who are implementing technology initiatives in their classes to have a little smoother road on this wild ride. I can't even start to tell all of the things that I have learned over the past 3 months but, I would like to tell about a few of them. Here are the top five things I have learned about implementing technology learning in my classroom:
5. Students may be digital natives but, that does not mean that technology comes easy to all of them. They know how to the things that they are familiar with and do not just intuitively understand everything related to technology.
4. You have to think about how you are going to teach the tech as well as how you are going to teach the standards.
3. Everything you do on paper can be done with tech and usually there are many advantages to using the tech.
2. You need to always have a plan B or be ready to think of one on your feet.
1. Integrating technology into learning has the potential to engage students who never seem to be engaged otherwise.
This is what I have for now. I am going to be posting at least weekly about a web resource that I have used in the classroom and give a peek into what these digital resources look like in a actual classroom. This is my own technology learning laboratory.
5. Students may be digital natives but, that does not mean that technology comes easy to all of them. They know how to the things that they are familiar with and do not just intuitively understand everything related to technology.
4. You have to think about how you are going to teach the tech as well as how you are going to teach the standards.
3. Everything you do on paper can be done with tech and usually there are many advantages to using the tech.
2. You need to always have a plan B or be ready to think of one on your feet.
1. Integrating technology into learning has the potential to engage students who never seem to be engaged otherwise.
This is what I have for now. I am going to be posting at least weekly about a web resource that I have used in the classroom and give a peek into what these digital resources look like in a actual classroom. This is my own technology learning laboratory.
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