Weekend Website #53: 41 Websites for Teachers to Integrate Tech into Your Classroom
This list has a little bit of everything, and will kick-start your effort to put technology into your lesson plans:
- 10 Tech Alternatives to Book Reports
- Analyze, read, write literature
- Animations, assessments, charts, more
- Biomes/Habitats—for teachers
- Create a magazine cover
- Create free activities and diagrams in a Flash! (more…)
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Weekend Website #52: 7 Sites About Coin Counting
Second graders (sometimes first graders) learn about money. The only way to really ‘get it’ is by repetition, so I came up with a list of websites to provide redundancy for each type of learner. Thought I’d share them with you (check here for link updates):
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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ISTE Debrief: Don’t Hide the Internet from Today’s Kids
If you didn’t make it to ISTE 2011, you missed a great time. There was more going on than any sane person could absorb in a month and all 30,000+ of us attendees tried to do it in four days. The seminars cover every topic from tech integration to how to use specific programs to general trends. I tried to attend a few of each to not only learn new material but to make sure what I’m teaching is as relevant this year as when I first taught it to my classes.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- Teachers are not lecturers. We are guides, even fellow-learners
- Students learn by doing more than being taught. Encourage this
- There are a lot of ‘right’ ways to learn
- Students are problem-solvers. Let this happen
- Technology is about offering options in learning styles
- Technology offers different ways to teach different learners. Use it that way.
- Work beyond the classroom because class is too short, kids aren’t engaged the entire five hours
- Paperless classroom is possible. Figure it out.
- Virtual presentations so kids hear from the experts in real time (more…)
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#35: Sponge Activities for Vocabulary Building
There are lots of great online vocabulary websites to help kids learn high-frequency and dolch words. I’ll share five you would enjoy this summer. Maybe you have some to share with the group. (more…)
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Weekend Website #51: 17 Story Sites for First and Second Grade
This is my list of websites students can use when we’re studying story-telling, fables and myths. This list includes sites
[caption id="attachment_4872" align="alignright" width="222"]![story create a story](http://askatechteacher.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/story.jpg)
where students can read stories, have stories read to them and create their own. I pick 3-4, post them on our internet start page for a week or two, and then change the list. If you click that link, it takes you to kindergarten. You can select the red first grade tab or the blue second grade for more choices. If you don’t see any there, it’s because we’re not discussing stories right now.
See which work best for your students:
- Aesop’s Fables
- Aesop Fables—no ads
- Bad guy Patrol
- Childhood Stories
- Classic Fairy Tales
- Fairy Tales and Fables
- Make Your Story (more…)
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#10: Drawing in Photoshop
Photoshop reputation as a photo editor ignores its many other tools that enable you to draw like a pro with a wide variety of brushes, textures, and scintillating extras. This side of Photoshop is perfect for creative projects that tie in with many different classroom lesson plans.
[caption id="attachment_5413" align="aligncenter" width="576"]![10 photoshop](http://askatechteacher.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/10.png)
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Weekend Website #50 Visuword
Every Friday I’ll send you a wonderful website that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.
[caption id="attachment_4806" align="aligncenter" width="614"]![visu visuwords](http://askatechteacher.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/visu.jpg)
(more…)
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#38: Introduction to Google Earth
Google Earth can be used for so many classroom activities. It is a favorite of even my kindergartners. I start by showing them how to pan in and out, drag to move the globe, change the perspective of the earth’s surface, use the built in tour or one I add on Calif. Missions or the solar system. I have fifth graders create a tour that the youngers then watch as a tie in. I also let them type in their address and visit their home, including street view.
Click on pages for a full size alternative. (more…)
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Tech Tip #40: Where Did Windows Explorer Go?
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! (more…)
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#36: My First Report
Students type a report for their class on one of their units of inquiry (i.e., animals) using MS Word. Use this lesson to introduce MS Word, margins, page breaks, centering, fonts. Show students how to add pictures from the internet (using copy-paste), from the computer (using insert). Takes a few classes, depending upon how long the report is (more…)