Tag: lists

This week, I’ll post updated suggestions to get your computers and technology ready for the blitz of projects you’ll swear to accomplish in New Year resolutions. Here’s what you’ll get (links won’t be active until the post goes live):

1. 12 Ways to Update Your Online Identity— December 11th 
2. 8+ Ways to a Speedier Computer — December 12th (today)
3. Backup and Image your computer — December 13th

Regular readers of Ask a Tech Teacher know these are updated each December. New readers: Consider these body armor in the tech battle so you can jubilantly overcome rather than dramatically succumb. If you also read WordDreams, these are also posted there with some adaptations to writers.

8+ Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

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Need a few websites and apps to fill in sponge time? Here are Thanksgiving websites that will keep students busy and still teach them:

1. Berenstein Bears Give Thanks (app)
2. Canadian Thanksgiving
3. Online/Offline Thanksgiving activities
4. Plimoth Plantation–a field trip of a Pilgrim’s life. Included on this real-life site is a video of the Pilgrim’s crossing to the New World.
5. Thanksgiving edu-websites–CybraryMan
6. Thanksgiving Games
7. Thanksgiving games and puzzles
8. Thanksgiving games–Quia
9. Thanksgiving Lesson Plans
10. Thanksgiving Wordsearch
11. Turkey Templates — activities in Google Slides

If you’re an iPad school, try one of these:

1. Berenstein Bears Give Thanks
2. Primary Games–games, coloring books, more
3. Thanksgiving coloring book

If you’re looking for projects, you’ll find two on Ask a Tech Teacher:

1. A Holiday Card
2. A Holiday Flier

For more, click here:

• Thanksgiving ASCII Art
• Comics
• Countdown Clock for the Holiday
• Team Challenge
• Thanksgiving Poll

Here’s a gallery of some of the Thanksgiving/Holiday projects:

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Here are popular online royalty-free music resources for presentations, classwork, and projects (click here for updates):

1. Audio Archive–millions of varied musical selections
2. Bensound–royalty free
3. dig.ccMixter--free for commercial too
4. Fesliyan
5. Free Music Archive
6. Free Stock Music
7. MusOpen–royalty-free music
8. Pixabay Music
9. Videvo–royalty-free music

Looking for general music sites? Check these out:

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“Family physical education” refers to physical activities families do together that promote health and fitness. Why? How about:

1. Bonding: an opportunity for shared experiences and mutual support.
2. Healthy Lifestyle: healthy habits from a young age
3. Quality Time:  as a family
4. Role Modeling: when children see parents value fitness, they are more likely to do the same
5. Fun and Enjoyment: create happy memories.
6. Health Benefits: like maintaining a healthy weight and improving mental well-being
7. Social Interaction: fostering friendships and social skills

Family PE Week is October 2-6 this year, 2023. Here are some online resources you might find useful:

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1. Autumn Facts for Kids
2. Don’t “Leaf” Out Fall’s Most Valuable Lesson
3. EEK! A Tree’s True Color
4. Fall Bucket List For Families Printable
5. Fall Crafts, Decorations, and Printouts
6. Fall Books & Short Stories For Kids about Autumn
7. Primary Games’ Fall Fun
8. Science Made Simple: Why Do Leaves Change Color in Fall?
9. Why Leaves Change Color

Click for an updated list (more…)

It sounds easy, but to a five or six year old, holding the mouse, clicking that left button, dragging and dropping while holding a finger down is darn difficult. Here’s a list (click for updates):

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It’s easy to confuse ‘using technology’ with digital tools. Your school passed iPads out to all classes. Some of your colleagues think having students read in this tablet format means they’re integrating technology into their curriculum. Kudos for a good start, but they need to use the tablets to differentiate for student learning styles, enrich learning materials, and turn students into life-long learners.

That’s harder than it sounds. Technology hasn’t been around long enough to beget standards that work for everyone (not withstanding ISTE’s herculean efforts), the set-in-stone of settled science. Truth, that will never happen. Technology tools populate like bacteria in a culture. Every time you turn around, there’s another favorite tool some teacher swears has turned her students into geniuses and her class into a model of efficiency. After fifteen years of teaching technology, chatting with colleagues, and experimenting, I can assure you there is no magic wand. What there is is a teacher not afraid to try new ways, test them out in a classroom environment, toss what doesn’t work and share the rest. Her/his success doesn’t come without lots of failure and mistakes, widgets that sounded good but were too complicated or non-intuitive for a 21st century classroom.

Which of these nine mistakes do you make? Then, see how to fix them:

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Pew Research recently reported that about half of Americans regularly get their news from social media. Really? Isn’t SM where you share personal information, stay in touch with friends and families, post pictures of weddings and birthdays, and gossip? So why do students turn to it for news?

This stat may explain it: 60% of people don’t trust traditional news sources. That’s newspapers, evening news, and anything considered ‘mainstream media’. They prefer blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.

So when it comes to research, are you still directing kids toward your grandmother’s resources — encyclopedias, reference books, and museums? No doubt, these are excellent sources, but if students aren’t motivated by them, they won’t get a lot out of them. I have a list of six research sites designed by their developers with an eye toward enticing students in and keeping their interest. It’s notable that most are free, but include advertising. The exception is BrainPOP — there are no ads, but it requires a hefty annual fee:

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Quick, safe spots to send your students for research (click here for updates):

1. BrainPop–with the BrainPop characters, a launchpad to curiosity
2. CoolKidFacts–kid-friendly videos, pictures, info, and quizzes–all 100% suitable for children
3. Dimensions–academic research geared for college-level
4. Fact Monster–help with homework and facts
5. Google Earth Timelapse–what changes to the planet over time
6. Google Trends–what’s trending in searches
7. History Channel–great speeches
8. How Stuff Works–the gold standard in explaining stuff to kids
9. Info Please–events cataloged year-by-year
10. National Geographic for Kids
11. Ngram Viewer–analyzes all words in all books on Google Books
12. TagGalaxy–search using a cloud
13. Wild Wordsmyth–picture dictionary for kids
14. World Book–requires membership

Citing Resources

1. BibMe
2. Citation Machine
3. EasyBib

Kids Search Engines

1. Kiddle–visual search engine for kids
2. Kid Rex
3. Kidtopia

How to Research

1. A Google A Day
2. How to Search on Google
3. Power Searching (with Google)
4. Teaching students to search/research
5. Internet Search and Research–a lesson plan for K-8

Lesson Plans

1. Image Copyright Do’s and Don’ts
2. Internet Search and Research

Resources/Research

1. BrainPOP–Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP® Featured Movie app
2. Kids Picture Dictionary
3. Primary Source Documents
4. SparkVue–collect and display live data from iPhone etc to the iPad
5. Talk to Books–research your topic based on books
6. TED app–TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people

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