Talkin’ Tech

I found this link to Harvey’s Homepage while perusing a list of presenters that will be at the Rockingham County SmartConferencein August.  Harvey has created some engaging and interactive SmartBoard Lessons to help teach your students math skills.  He has them conveniently organized by math objective and incorporates student manipulatives, instructional strategies, and problem solving into his lessons.  He has some clever teaching techniques (check out the lesson, Telling Time with a Broken Clock ) that will be sure to help your students master even the trickiest math concepts.

Thanks Harvey!

Are you planning on teaching your students about the Constitution on September 17th?  If your school receives federal monies, it was  madated in 2005 that you must “hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year.” (If September 17 is on a weekend day, schools must recognize Constitution Day the week before or after.)  Read more about that mandate in the  notice of implementation from the U.S. Department of Education.  If you want a great resource to teach about the Constitution on Constitution Day, try Constitution Challenge.  It was created by a group of teachers from school districts in PBS 45 & 49’s  service area for 5th and 8th grades, and integrates social studies and language arts.  Topics addressed on the site are The Constitution, Checks and Balances, The Bill of Rights, and Federalism.  It also includes online activities, links to webquests, and printable materials. I hope you find this helpful when planning your Constitution Day in the classroom!

Are you (or your students) tired of “old school” spelling activities like: write your words 3xs each, or put each spelling word in a sentence?  If so, then go check out Spelling City.  At this site your students can practice their spelling words with online games, practice tests, and printables.  You can save your lists so your students can access them online for spelling practice at a literacy workstation or at home.   To begin, just go to Spelling City and register, it’s totally free!  Once you log in, go to List Management in the Teacher Toolbox and create your spelling list.  If your list is more than 10 words, select the Batch Entry option and separate your words with commas. Be sure the Publish box is checked and Save your list.   Your students don’t need to register to find your lists, they only need to go to the “Find A List” tab at the Spelling City homepage and type in your name.  Your lists will appear and once your students click on the list, they can choose the Teach Me, Test Me, and Play a Game online features.  They can also choose to print the list (no more excuses….”I lost my spelling list!”) or print a manuscript practice page.  What a fun alternative to traditional spelling activities.  I hope you and your students enjoy this site!

 Okay, so I’m spending way too much of my time playing with Wordle, you’ve got to try it out if you haven’t yet!  Be careful though, it’s addicting!  Wordle is a free web tool that creates funky word clouds from either text you type in, from RSS feeds, URLs, or a del.icio.us account.    The more times you type in a word, the larger that word appears in your cloud.  You can change the font, color, and layout of your cloud.  To try it out, go to the Create Wordle  page.  Begin by typing in your words, click on Go, and watch the magic happen.  Once your Wordle is created,  you can edit you Wordle to your liking.  You can then print it out or save it to the Gallery. 

Here is one I created about myself that I’m going to share with my students our first week back at school as an ice-breaker activity:

I’ll then have them create a Wordle about themselves as well to share with the class.

I’ve been thinking about ways teachers could use this tool in different subject areas.  Here are a few ideas;

Language Arts: 

*Spelling or vocabulary words

*Synonyms and antonyms

*Brainstorming lists of settings or characters for future writing ideas

*Create a list of those “Worn out Words” that students cannot use in their writing.

Science:

*States of matter:  solids, liquids, or gases

*Steps of the Scientific Method

*Observations from different experiments

Social Studies

*Details of a specific battle, person, or event in history

*Characteristics of a certain Native American Tribe, Ancient Civilization, Holiday, or Famous Person

Tina Coffey has great Wordle ideas to see at her blog, Teaching with Technology. So go ahead, try it out, and let me know how you are using Wordle with your students.

Okay, new school year, new technology leaf….well, for me anyway.  Sure, I’ve read bunches of blogs but to start one on my own?  C’mon, how hard can it be?  I’ve been reading Karla Karr’s “What the Tech!” now for months, it’s loaded with great technology integration ideas.   I have been fiercely inspired by it…Thank You, Karla!  My hope is to share with you great ideas, one leaf at a time, to help you use technology with your students in meaningful ways. 

If you are asking yourself, what’s all this hype about blogs anyway… here is a super video created by the Common Craft that gives a great explanation of exactly what blogs are and how they can be useful to you.