March 21

Safe Searching

With all of the researching and computer use children are doing in the schools, it seemed appropriate to locate some great child friendly search engines. Below is a list of them that have proven to be safer than some of the more popular ones adults use.

  • Kidsclick The safe little search engine that could! Conduct a safe search and watch it streamline Google safe search results for kids at home and at school.
  • Factmonster A free reference site for students, teachers, and parents.
  • Quintura Kids The first visual and intuitive search engine for children with content filter and safe browsing.
  • Ask Kids Allows users to ask a question in plain English, confirms the question, then takes them to one web site that answers the question.
  • Boolify Drag the puzzle pieces to the window and type a word in each piece. When they are place together it creates the search.

If you have others that you use and would like to share, please send me an email using the “thoughts…” field on the right side of the page. I will add them to this list.

 

Category: Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 23

Jackpot for Writing

Children today are expected to compose online, which includes the entire writing process.  The class sits down at their computer, opens a writing program and stares at a blank screen. The direction: write about anything you want. Some children begin writing while others fiddle with their mouse or look around the room while searching for a topic. Story Starter has solved that dilemma if you are looking for a fiction story that’s a little out of the ordinary.

Story Starter is a fun way to help a child choose a writing topic. The screen shot above is how your next prompt will be decided. Click on the “spin” lever to make all four wheels go and will stop at random times. If one section is not desired, simply click on the “spin the wheel” button that is aligned with that section. At the top of the window is the full prompt. Beware that the topics are less than ordinary as the prompt above states Write a letter to a million-year-old cantaloupe who stars in a TV show.

Another feature that is beneficial is that the language of the topics is age appropriate. Before pulling the lever, you will have the option to choose your grade level ( K-1, 2, 3 and 4-6).

The next step is the writing of the topic. The author will select from four options: notebook, letter, newspaper and postcard. Each option will have a text box and an option to add a drawing, using a pencil, various colors, selection of line thickness and an eraser-if needed.

There is not option for the work to be saved making this activity a one class project.

Category: Language Arts | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 18

Word Up!

Wordle is a neat way to display a student’s writing in a different way. It may not be a paragraph or have any punctuation, in fact it may not even have a sentence. It will be filled with many, many words.

What it will be is text presented in an artistic way.  The text can be adjusted by color pallete, layout and font. Once the words are placed in the window, they can be adjusted as many times as you want. The size of the word depends on the use of it. Looking at the Declaration of Independence below, government is the largest word because it has been used the most. The smaller words are used less frequently. If you were to type the words in yourself, you would type one word several more times than other words to make sure it was larger.

Another example that is similar to Wordle is Tagxedo. Tagxedo offers the same features as Wordle. It also allows the creator to select from various shapes, which will enhance the presentation of the text. Once created, if you roll over the words they become hyperlinks. Clicking on them will take you to a website where you will find more information. (This feature is only available while in the site. Once it is saved as an image, you cannot click on the words.) Below is the same text as above, The Declaration of Independence, but presented in a shape.

 

How can you use this in the classroom:

  • create list of traits about a character
  • description of vocabulary word
  • words used in a Science or Social Studies unit
  • synonyms or antonyms
  • historical documents
  • back to school activity
  • book reviews

 

 

 

 

Category: interactive white boards, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 15

Chatting in the Classroom

Social networking and online chatting are part of our everyday lives. It is our responsibility to teach our children how to use these tools responsibly and respectfully. The challenge falls when the well known social networking sites are blocked in schools, which is done with the best interest of the child in mind.

How do we overcome this hurdle? http://todaysmeet.com allows this to happen. The students are able to create a room in 30 seconds and share it with one, or more, members of the class. From here, all members will join the room and begin chatting. Once the students are comfortable doing this in one location, consider chatting with another classroom, local school or across borders.

Possible uses in the classroom:

  • digital citizenship
  • book reviews/group
  • historical decisions that affected countries
  • discussion on solving Math problems
  • impact of online chatting
  • proper use of grammatical skills through conversation
  • proper use of written tone

There is the concern of keeping a record of this type of conversation. TodaysMeet offers the ability for all transcripts to be printed. Simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and select Transcript. A new window will open where a document will display the entire conversation. (It may be on more than one page.)

Below is a list of ways that this site was used in the classroom:

 

Category: Language Arts, Science, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 9

Past and Present

Students need to learn about history. What happened on a certain date? Who was involved? What is the significance of the instance? True, this is important to know, but what if your Past and Present lesson took a turn in a new direction….

What if your students learned about what happened on the day they were born? The day their parents, or even grandparents were born? How different was life way back when their elder was a child?

Time Capsule gives the student the opportunity to do this. They can type in a date and find out top headlines, top songs, prices of popular items, current President and Vice President, popular books-toys-shows, award winners and famous people born on this date.

Let’s take this lesson one step further. This could be a start of a great research project. Have the students select a show or toy that they never heard of.  From here, they would could find out the use or premise of it, why it was popular, if someone in their family enjoyed it, etc.

Take a step away from the traditional route of research projects and learn about what once was. Besides this project meeting needs of research and writing, it could also lead to primary interviews of people who once loved those items-as well as be a great beginning to fabulous conversations with the child’s elders.

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT