Tag: lists

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 week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q:  I got an email that looks legitimate, but I’m not sure. How do I check?

A: You’re right to take a step back. ‘Phishing’ is an attempt to steal your personal information by posing as a trusted source (a friend, your bank–like that). Kaspersky reports that while spam is declining, accounting for only 66% of email last year, phishing attacks have tripled. Why? Because it works. People think it won’t happen to them, until it does. To clean up after a successful email box invasion can take months, cost thousands of dollars, and give you many sleepless nights.

As a educator, you’ll want to teach students how to protect themselves as soon as they start using open email networks. Here are six suggestions:

(more…)

Memorial Day is the time we remember all of those soldiers (and anyone in the Armed Forces) who gave their lives in the defense of American freedom. In war and peace, they made the ultimate sacrifice, and because of them we are privileged to live the American Dream.

Once a year, we honor them, their sacrifice, and those they left behind. Here are some activities to help students understand the import of this day:

1. In Flanders Field--poem
2. Memorial Day Messages, Speeches, Oaths, Poems, Anthems, and images
3. Memorial Day Poems
4. Memorial Day Poetry–poems
5. Memorial Day Prayer
6. Memorial Day puzzle I
7. Memorial Day Puzzle II
8. Memorial Day DigitPuzzle
9. Memorial Day Quiz
10. Memorial Day Word Search
11. Primary source recollections of War
12. Quotes about Memorial Day/Wars
13. Remember our Warriors
14. Who you are remembering–Americans killed in action

(more…)

As a passionate Economics major in college (which grew into an MBA), I find Econ at the root of much of the world around us. It starts with counting coins in first grade and grows up to a peek into NASDAQ and other adult subjects in middle school.

These websites cover kindergarten (counting money) through elementary (economics for youngers) through Middle School:

Coins and Counting Money

1. Brain Pop Learn about Money
2. Cash Out
3. Coin Counting
4. Coin games—from US Mint
5. Count Money
6. Counting Money
7. Face on money
8. Face on money–from Lunapic; lots of options
9. Make change
10. Money—counting
11. Moneyville
12. Money Flashcards–APlus Math
13. Mr. Bouncy’s Money collection–lots of websites
14. Piggy Bank
15. US Mint virtual tour (a slideshow)

(more…)

This is for both younger and older students so check these out–pick the ones that work for you:

1. America’s Story
2. America–Colonies
3. American Indians
4. Civil War I video
5. Civil War II video
6. Civil War—reconstruction—video
7. Colonial America–life
8. Growth of the USA
9. Historic speeches
10. Jamestown Adventure Game
11. Mt. Vernon
12. Native American Conflicts
13. Oregon Trail—all about 
14. Oregon Trail—virtual tour
15. Patriot Spy–Deliver a covert message to Paul Revere
16. Picturing America
17. RR—inventing
18. Timelines
19. Transcontinental Railroad video
20. Underground Railroad
21. US History Map Game
22. USA Games

(more…)

Coding has become the poster child for a tech-infused classroom. Over 15 million kids participated in Hour of Code this past December. So many teachers took students to Code.org’s curriculum offerings, the website crashed.

So what is ‘coding’? According to the Urban Dictionary, it’s another word for ‘programming’ which means:

The art of turning caffeine into Error Messages

Let’s go to Webster’s definition instead:

The act or job of creating computer programs

Not much better. To techies, ‘programming’ or ‘coding’ is

a series of symbols, used synonymously as text and grouped to imply or prompt the multimedia in the games and programs that happen on computers, websites, and mobile apps.

This complicated definition is why–historically–programming, IT, and Computer Science have been of interest only to the geekiest of kids. But there are good reasons why kids should like this activity. According to Computer Science Education Week:

(more…)

Space units are always exciting. Part of it’s the history, but a lot is that space is our final frontier, a wild  untamed land that man knows so little about. I have a list of over 20 websites I use to support this theme for K-8. Here are 10 of my favorites:

100,000 Stars

100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood showing the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. You can zoom in on 87 major named stars including our Sun. There’s a brief introduction and a longer tour students can take to get acquainted with the program. From there, it’s intuitive to use with many of the same browsing tools students are used to from other programs.

100,000 Stars is programmed by space enthusiasts at Google. The introductory music is mesmerizing. Put your headphones on and fly.

(more…)

April 22nd is Earth Day. Celebrate it with your students by letting them visit these websites:

1. Breathing Earth
2. Breathing Earth YouTube Video–of CO2 use, population changes, and more
3. Conservation Game
4. Earth day collection
5. Earth Day—NASA Ocean Currents
6. Eco-friendly house
7. Eeko World
8. Ecotourism Simulation–for grades 4 and above
9. Electrocity
10. Footprint calculator
11. Home of the Future
12. My Garbology
13. NASA City

(more…)

AATT contributor, Krista Albrecht, has a balanced evaluation of Chromebooks in the classroom I think you’ll find useful. Krista is a NY State certified Instructional Technology Specialist working in public education on Long Island, NY.  She has over 15 years experience in the field ranging from classroom teacher to tech teacher, to Professional Developer, to 1:1 integration specialist.

Chromebooks in the Classrooms… Friend or Foe?

Chromebooks…those little computers that everyone is talking about.  Everywhere you look in education people are talking about Chromebooks, Google Apps for Education, Chrome Apps, etc.  So what’s the big deal with these things? Are they really useful in the classroom to help your students achieve greater understanding?  In my opinion, yes, but like any other piece of technology they do have their own list of pros and cons. So here’s one Instructional Technology Specialist’s (this girl, right here) attempt at laying out what I see to be the pros and cons of Chromebooks in the classroom.  Hopefully, after reading this article, you will have a better idea of how these devices fit in your educational setting.

What is this Chromebook you speak of?

(more…)

Many Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. The Easter date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox. This year, it’s March 31st. Here are some websites your students will love:

1. Easter color-me (for Kindergarten/first grade)
2. Easter Color Me to print or import to drawing program
3. Easter games II
4. Easter games III
5. Easter games IV
6. Easter poems and songs (to play online)
7. Easter Puppies–video
8. Easter puzzles and games
9. Easter songs for kids
10. Easter story--the Easter Egg–video
11. Easter Word hunt (Starfall)

(more…)

After you’ve looked at these 28 sites, there’s no reason to print student work and stick it on a wall. You have too many options:

1. Book Cover creator
2. Create a magazine cover
3. Flipboard—organize ideas into mag
4. Glogster—posters
5. Go animate
6. Issuu (http://issuu.com/)
7. Newspaper—create a newspaper
8. Newspaper—create a newspaper clipping
9. Newspapers around the world
10. PhotoPeach–online slideshows
11. Poster maker—like an eye chart
12. Posters—8×10 at a time–simple
13. PowerPoint games for kids
14. PowerPoint stuff
15. PowerPoint Templates
16. Prezi
17. Print Large Posters in 8×10 bits
18. Print Posters One Page at a Time
19. Publish the magazines 
20. Scoop-it—organize webpages
21. Screen Capture—full webpage
22. Screencast-o-matic
23. ScreenLeap—screen share for free
24. Slideboom—upload PowerPoints; share
25. Tackk—create online fliers
26. Turn short stories into books
27. Wideo–create videos online
28. Youblisher to make your pdf documents flappable

(more…)