Author: Jacqui
A Holiday Card in Publisher
Greeting cards are easy enough for second graders–even early readers. Using MS Publisher, pick a template, add a picture to personalize, add their name–and they’re done. It takes about 15 minutes. Kids always feel great about creating these greeting cards: (more…)
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120+ Digital Citizenship Links on 22 Topics
Here’s a long list of websites to address Digital Citizenship topics you teach in your classroom:
Avatars
to promote digital privacy
- Avatar 1–a monster
- Avatar 2–Lego you
- Avatar 3–animal
- Tellagami–a video avatar
- Vokis
- With comics, via Pixton — fee-based
Copyrights and Digital Law
- Copyrights–BrainPop video
- Copyright and Fair Use–Common Sense Media video
- Copyright Law Explained (fun video, informative, thorough)
- Copyright law curriculum
- Creative Commons
- Take the mystery out of copyrights–by the Library of Congress
- Videos on licensing, copyrights, more (from Creative Commons)
Curriculum
Cyberbullying
- Bullying—Watch this (videos)
- Cyberbullying video
- Cyber-bullying–5th grade
- Cyber-bullying—BrainPop
- Cyberbullying—what is it
- Think Time: How Does Cyberbullying Affect You
DigCit (General)
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32 Websites to Support Math Automaticity in K-5
Here’s along list of websites that focus on math automaticity for the K-5 classroom. I’ve broken it down by grade level, but you can decide if your second graders are precocious enough to try the websites for grades 3-5:
K
1st
2nd
- Math Flashcards
- Math Practice Test
- Mental Math
- More Quick Math
- Multiplication Tables
- Quick Math
- Quick Math II
- Quick Math—by level (more…)
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Tech Tip #115: Three-click Rule
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: Some websites/blogs are confusing. I click through way too many options to get anything done. What’s with that?
A: I hadn’t put a lot of thought to this until I read a discussion on one of my teacher forums about the oft-debunked-and-oft-followed 3-click rule made popular by Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman in his book, “Taking Your Talent to the Web.”. This claims ‘that no product or piece of content should ever be more than three clicks away from your Web site’s main page’.
This is true with not just programming a website, but teaching tech to students. During my fifteen years of teaching tech, I’ve discovered if I keep the geeky stuff to a max of 2-3 steps, students remember it, embrace it, and use it. More than three steps, I hear the sound of eyes glazing over.
Whether you agree with the ‘rule’ or not, it remains a good idea to make information easy and quick to find. Readers have a short attention span. Same is true of students.
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3 Lesson Plans to Teach Architecture in First Grade
Here’s a great lesson plan with three activities well-suited to the discussion of architecture and design in 1st grade:
Review
Students complete three projects in two weeks to aid understanding of architecture, design, and three-dimensional thinking. They’ll experiment with spatially laying out a three-dimensional structure on a two-dimensional paper. When completed, they’ll discuss with neighbors while practicing good listening skills learned in class.
Start with a discussion of design. This includes size, shape, texture, proportion, scale, mass and color. We will apply these to rooms, buildings, and neighborhoods. Encourage students to think and analyze critically as they engage in learning.
In figures below, ask students which are two- or three-dimensions? How do they know?
[gallery ids="50170,50171,50172,50173,50164"]Design the Classroom
Visit Classroom Architect and demo how to design the classroom with drag-and-drop pieces (see figures below). Take suggestions from class on layout. Students must think about where tables and storage are relative to other items. This is an active learning lesson that encourages visual thinking. Develop a sample based on class input and show how to make corrections if necessary.
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33 Great Research Websites for Kids
Here are quick, safe spots to send students for research:
- BrainPop–with the BrainPop characters, a launchpad to curiosity
- CoolKidFacts–kid-friendly videos, pictures, info, and quizzes–all 100% suitable for children
- Dimensions–academic research geared for college-level
- Fact Monster–help with homework and facts
- Google Earth Timelapse–what changes to the planet over time
- Google Trends–what’s trending in searches
- History Channel–great speeches
- How Stuff Works–the gold standard in explaining stuff to kids
- Info Please–events cataloged year-by-year
- National Geographic for Kids
- Ngram Viewer–analyzes all words in all books on Google Books
- TagGalaxy–search using a cloud
- Wild Wordsmyth–picture dictionary for kids
- World Book–requires membership
Citing Resources
Kids Search Engines
How to Research
- A Google A Day
- How to Search on Google
- Power Searching (with Google)
- Teaching students to search/research
- Internet Search and Research–a lesson plan for K-8
Lesson Plans
Resources/Research
- Kids Picture Dictionary
- Primary Source Documents
- Talk to Books–research your topic based on books
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Tech Tip #112: How to Open 2 Gmail Accounts at Once
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: I have a home Gmail account and a school one. How do I open both at once so I can keep track of what my kids/home business/etc is doing while at my teaching job?
A: The quick answer I got from e-friend and tech guru Chris Hoffman is: Open each account in a separate browser (in my case, I use Firefox and Chrome). Click here to get all the details why this works. It has to do with each browser keeping its own cookie.
Why do you need this:
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6 Sites + 12 + 6 About Coin Counting
Second graders (sometimes first graders) learn about money. The only way to really ‘get it’ is repetition. Here’s a list of websites to provide redundancy for each type of learner:
For a longer list that includes concepts like ‘economics’, try these:
Coins and Counting Money
- Brain Pop Learn about Money
- Cashtivity
- Coin games—from US Mint
- Count Money
- Face on money
- Face on money–from Lunapic; lots of options
- Make change
- Money—counting
- Moneyville
- Money Flashcards–APlus Math
- Mr. Bouncy’s Money collection–lots of websites
- US Mint virtual tour (a slideshow)
Economics–for youngers
- Brain Pop Learn about Money
- Coffee Shop Game
- Rich Kid Smart Kid
- Spent–living at minimum wage: the game
- Three Jars–kids learn to use money wisely
- Tykoon Kid–earning with a purpose
Do you have any to add to this list? These are mostly for youngers–I’d love some for older age groups. (more…)
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Tech Tip #108: Got a Tech Problem? Google It!
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: Sometimes, I just can’t remember how to accomplish a task. Often, I know it’s simple. Maybe I’ve done it before–or even learned it before–and it’s lost in my brain. What do I do?
A: One of the best gifts I have for students and colleagues alike is how to solve this sort of problem. Before you call your IT guy, or the tech teacher, or dig through those emails where someone sent you the directions, here’s what you do:
Google it.
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Tech Tip #106: Auto-add a Period, Caps Lock, When Typing on an IPad
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: Typing on the iPad keyboard is slow. You have to access two different screens to type most messages. How do I speed that up without buying (and installing) a separate QWERTY keyboard?
A: Here’s one time-saving tip: IPads and most Smartphones will add a period (which inconveniently is on the second screen) if you double-space.
Cool.
Double-tapping seems to be a secret shortkey for many tools. For example, if you double-click the shift key, it turns the CAPS LOCK on.