A Lesson for Teachers

A fellow educator recently said to me:  can you just SHOW me what you mean?  WHAT should I do with the kids? 

I thought about that and decied, why not create a lesson ?  In trying to pick just ONE lesson to share, I had a tough time!  Pod/vodcasts? Wikis? Blogs? Digital stories? Online sharing? Finally, I decided, why not share a lesson FOR EDUCATORS that outlines how to create an online learning experience?

View this for vodcast for more information:

Resources:
Lesson Plan Overview -page 1 (screen shot)
Lesson Plan Overview -page 2 (screen shot)
Rubric (screen shot)
The experience was very rewarding for me- and for the educators invovled. At first, they were extrememely intimidated when they saw samples of digital stories, blogs, wikis and pod/vodcasts- thinking they could not possibly create and/or maintian one!! However, as they worked through the process, they were intrigued and motivated to press on!

Link(s) O'the Month: Digital Timelines

Timelines are graphic organizers that can be used as a tool to explore and discover a sequence of events. Online timelines provide an interactive opportunity for students to create, share, and collaborate. Here are a few to try:

• http://whenintime.com
• www.dipity.com
• www.timeglider.com
• www.timetoast.com

  Enjoy ~ and Happy Creating!

 

 

Link(s) O'the Month: PPT alternatives

When creating visual content, PowerPoint is not always the best answer or most effective tool. Don’t get me wrong– I would never argue that PowerPoint doesn't have its merits. Over the years, most of us have jumped on the PPT presentation wagon at one time or another: we’ve used it to visually support oral presentations; we’ve used it as a stand-alone teaching aid; we’ve even encouraged students to use it to create content. But what happens when PowerPoint becomes

 

boring… monotonous…predictable...

 

GOOD NEWS! There are lots of online web tools that can serve as alternatives to ppt for creating and delivering content. Here are just a few:

• Animoto: www.animoto.com/education  
• Glogster: http://www.edu.glogster.com/  
• Prezi: http://www.prezi.com/
• Slide Rocket: http://www.sliderocket.com/

Enjoy ~ and Happy Creating!

Link O'the Month: Illuminations

Illuminations

http://illuminations.nctm.org

Illuminations provides “standards-based resources that improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for all students” and provides “materials that illuminate the vision for school mathematics”. The site is a product of NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) and Verizon’s Thinkfinity.

There are over 105 activities! Use the search page to explore activities by grade level and/or keyword. For example:

~Algebra Tiles ~Data Grapher & Advanced Data Grapher

~Calculation Nation ~Interactive Geometry Dictionary

~Computing Pie ~Shape Tool

~Conic Section Explorer ~Turtle Pond (length and angle measure)

~and much more!!!

Enjoy ~ and Happy Computing!

Tara L. Parr, Technology Integration K-12

Link O'the Month: Glogster

Glogster’s tagline is “Poster Yourself!”

Glogster EDU: http://www.edu.glogster.com/

As per the website, Glogster empowers educators and students with the technology to create GLOGS, online multimedia posters, with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, links, data attachments and more.

Posters can be marked public or private; in addition, teachers can manage student accounts and share within their classroom only. Glogs can be tagged into many categories: including current events, economics, math, reading, etc.

Enjoy ~ and Happy Creating!

Tara L. Parr, Technology Integration K-12

Link O'the Month: Tagxedo

Tagxedo

http://www.tagxedo.com/
From the website: Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even websites -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. The site is similar to another favorite, Wordle (http://www.worlde.com/). The difference is Tagxedo word clouds can take the form of a shape (ie map of the US, Abraham Lincoln, footprint.) Tagxedo’s are also easy to download & save and import into other programs!

Enjoy ~ and Happy Creating!

Tara L. Parr, Technology Integration K-12

Link O'the Month: Snappy Words

Snappy Words
http://www.snappywords.com/

Snappy Words is a free online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words.

Input a word to create a color-coded web of related words, phrases, and definitions. Plus, the word web is interactive! Users can hover over any word to gain its definition; they can click and drag to explore other branches of the web; or double-click to generate new branches!

Enjoy ~ and Happy Creating!

Tara L. Parr,
Technology Integration K-12