Category: Websites
Valentine Sites For Your Students
Here are some fun Valentine sites to fill those few minutes betwixt and between lessons, projects, bathroom breaks, lunch, and everything else:
- Apps
- Drag-and-drop
- Dress up the heart
- Google Drawings Magnetic Poetry from Ctrl Alt Achieve
- Games and puzzles
- Games and stories
- ‘I love you’ in languages Afrikaans to Zulu
- Line up the hearts
- Match
- Mouse skills
- Poem generator
- Puppy jigsaw
- Rebus game
- Sudoku
- Tic-tac-toe
- Typing
- Unscramble
- Write in a heart
Do you have any I missed?
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Dear Otto: Should I stick with age limits on websites?
Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.
Here’s a great question I got from Leanne:
I am a Middle School teacher. Many of the teachers in my school want to use websites that state you need to be 13 or above. So far we have avoided them but as technology becomes more pervasive in our school and cooler and cooler websites become available, this is getting harder to stand by. How do you approach using websites that require 13 or above access?
Thank you, Leanne
And my answer:
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14 Holiday Websites For Your Students
Need a few websites to fill in sponge time? Here are Holiday websites that will keep students busy while teaching them (check here for updated links):
- 12 Days of Christmas
- Holiday collection
- NORAD Santa
- Penguin Show
- Reindeer Orchestra
- Holiday—North Pole Academy
- Holiday—match game
- Holiday hangman
- Holiday—Math Facts
- Holiday Crossword
- Holiday Hangman II
- Holiday—find the word
- Holiday—Design a Gingerbread House
- Holiday Elf Games
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Subscribers: Your Special is Available
Every month, subscribers to Ask a Tech Teacher get a free/discounted something to help them with their tech teaching.
This month:
760 Websites Integrated with K-5 Classes
This 36-page list includes over 760 K-5 tech ed websites organized by grade level and subject that will connect tech to every subject in your school. They’re sites that the Ask a Tech Teacher crew uses every year in every class they teach. If you’re the IT coordinator or tech ed specialist or the technology teacher, you’ll want this.
Regular price: $14.95 (+p&h)
Your price: $7.95 (+p&h)
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18 Thanksgiving Sites For Your Students
Need a few websites to fill in sponge time? Here are Thanksgiving sites that will keep students busy and still teach them (check here for updates):
- Various Thanksgiving websites–BillBear 4 Kids
- Online/Offline Thanksgiving activities–some require a computer, others not so much
- Thanksgiving information–history, poems, and more
- Starfall–Silly Turkey
- Thanksgiving Tic-tac-toe
- Thanksgiving Jigsaw
- Thanksgiving Jigsaw II
- Thanksgiving Games
- Thanksgiving games–Quia
- Thanksgiving educational websites from CybraryMan
- Thanksgiving Wordsearch
- Thanksgiving activities
- The First Thanksgiving
- Thanksgiving Lesson Plans
- Thanksgiving Online Coloring Book
- Thanksgiving Webquest
- You are the historian–Thanksgiving
- Thanksgiving video–Brainpop
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How to Teach Digital Citizenship in 6th Grade
Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.
But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.
Here’s Sixth Grade (all of these links may not work. Check here for updates):
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Weekend Website #116: Google Street View Locations
Every Friday, I share a website (or app) that I’ve heard about, checked into, been excited to use. This one covers anything on your mind and uses the quintessentially-popular Google Earth. I know you’re going to enjoy this review.
[caption id="attachment_9802" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Google Street View goes inside locations[/caption]Age:
3rd-8th
Topic:
Academic
Address:
Review:
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Weekend Website #115: Minecraft
Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. This one is a blockbuster as far as student interest, risk-taking, enthusiasm.
[caption id="attachment_10086" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Click to visit website and play movie about Minecraft[/caption]Age:
Grades 3-8 (or younger, or not)
Topic:
Problem-solving, critical thinking, building
Address:
Review:
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Weekend Website #114: 55 Digital Citizenship Links
Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.
But with wealth comes responsibility. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. I’ve collected resources here so you can make your choices.
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Tech Tip #108: 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. It takes too long to do something. What’s with that?
A: I hadn’t put a lot of thought to this until I read Pete‘s response to Kate’s post about Blog Navigation. He cited the oft-debunked-but-just-as-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 one-score-and-seven-years of teaching, 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.