08.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:43 am by clarkv
My Savings Quest is an online role-playing simulation where students “work,” develop a budget, and “save” money. Students are able to build a character, choose from four jobs which includes the amount paid each month. The simulation will then give six goals (the saving quest) or the student can include one of their own. Each goal will provide how much money will need to be saved over a six month period. The student will then develop a budget, go to work (simulation will provide working scenario’s), and pay bills at the end of the given pay period. The best part that will teach a student how to save is when the simulation will give various scenario’s where they will have to decide on whether to spend money that has been saved or earn extra money towards the goal. This activity can be done as a class or individual.
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08.19.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Add new tag, Education, Technology, Web 2.0 at 1:12 pm by webbs
Click on the link to learn more about Web 2.0 tools
Web 2.0
Welcome to the New Web, most often called Web 2.0. It is all about the free new tools such as blogs, wikis, photo and video sharing, and social networking that people are talking about and that many are using already. Our students are growing up and changing the way they learn.
Our students are text messaging, blogging, social networking with MySpace and other Web 2.0 tools. The digital Native enters our classrooms each day powered up. As teachers we do not want them to be powering down. The latest brain research shows that brains of digital natives are developing and responding differently than the brains of digital immigrants and even some of us digital dinosaurs! This research strongly suggests that we rethink the way we engage, empower and educate our students for life in a digital world.
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07.28.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:40 am by mclenahanv
Visit the website of a former K-8 classroom teacher who founded a company to help educators integrate technology and curriculum through excellent staff development and support. She’s developed integrated curriculum experiences for teachers and students and provided innovative staff development using meaningful models and active learning in realistic curriculum-rich settings.
http://www.gaillovely.com
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07.14.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged technology standards at 2:04 pm by hartk
ISTE released the new educational technology standards for teachers at NECC in San Antonio. The updated NETS*T provide a framework for teachers as they transition placing of learning and students into the digital age. Visit the ISTE web site to learn more!
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07.07.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged download, free online, ipod, Lit2Go, mp3, poems, reading strategies, SSS, stories, Sunshine State Standards at 9:40 am by clarkv
Does it seem like all of your students have a mp3 player, ipod classic, ipod nano, or a ipop shuffle? Here is an opportunity for them to use these devices in class.
Lit2Go is a free online service of Florida’s Educational Technology Clearninghouse that allows students or teachers to download in Mp3 format, many stories and poems that can be used to enhance daily instruction. Each story or poem has the Sunshine State Standard connection and also lists reading strategies. Teachers and students can download the mp3 (which gives the length of time), view the text (which gives the word count) and also download a PDF version for printing. Teachers can also download PDF supported materials. Stories and poems can be searched by database, author, title or launched in the itunes library.
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06.23.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Add new tag, collaborate, communicate, documents, Google Docs, presentations, share, spreadsheets, word processor at 5:17 am by webbs
Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.
Google Docs saves to a secure, online storage facility. You can access your documents from any computer and in the event of a local hard drive crash, you won’t lose your saved content.
This is an excellent free resource for teachers to use to communicate with parents, students, and other teachers. Google Docs will help students to access assignments and required materials anywhere and anytime.
You can create a free account by going to Google.com. Once you create your account you can access Google docs from your main page.
Click on the link to sign up for Google Docs.
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06.02.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:39 am by mclenahanv
Five Minute Activities
Tease your students’ brains by utilizing some five minute activities to engage them in at the beginning of class or to bring them back together towards the end of class. You can maximize your instructional time by using those small blocks of time to review content, reflect, or work on critical thinking skills. The following link will take you to some great ideas for developing critical thinking skills in a fun, easy way. These activities can be done as a group, by teams, or individually, depending on your classroom resources.
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/braint.htm
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05.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged calloborate, community, digital content, share, VoiceThread at 11:30 am by hartk
ed.VoiceThread.com is a web-based calloborative community designed specifically for K-12 educators and students. Students are able to work on projects and produce digital content in a safe environment. Educators control access to the community and can choose whether to make the content private or public. ed.VoiceThread provides an easy and fun way for students to publish their digital projects.
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05.22.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Instructional Technology, Photo Story, Student Projects at 11:13 am by fitzgeraldj
I have enjoyed working with Mrs. Pustinger’s third grade students creating projects with Photo Story during the month of May. After a faculty training at Lake Lucina Elementary, I offered the teachers my assistance to work with their students on Photo Story projects. Mrs. Pustinger approached me and thought it would be a good idea to let her students use their research they had just finished for their 5-paragraph reports they were working on.
“Wow! Cool! This is neat!” are the comments I keep getting from the third graders. Working with small groups at the student computers, we use “Google Images” to search for pictures that go with their topics. They simply type in facts they have learned about their topics to go with the pictures, add effects, music or voice recordings, publish, and there you have it. . . PRESENTATIONS WITH “PIZAZZ”!
We are going to be finishing up next week and plan to end the year with a “Photo Story Movie Festival” to view everyones’ work!
A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Mrs. Pustingers third grade class . . . Why? EVERYONE in the class passed the FCAT!!! Matt scored a perfect “5″ on the reading test and Claire scored a perfect “5″ on the math test. WAY TO GO!!!
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05.06.08
Posted in Uncategorized tagged 30 second project, animoto, assignments, essay, movie, produce, select music, upload pictures, video, video production at 8:58 am by clarkv
Animoto is a newer video production website that allows students to upload pictures, select music, and easily produce a short 30 second movie. It’s hard to assess student learning in a 30 second project, but using this tool to replace a paragraph or two of an essay or as an intro to a presentation project gets students interested in the assignment.
Used as part of a mini lesson on clouds.
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