Another Treasure Trove for technology integration

I just tripped over a teriffic site called Megaed. Wow is about the best word I can think of to describe what you will see. Check it out.

Black Friday Math

Yes, Thanksgiving is on its way. Despite the fact that many Americans are eagerly awaiting the time of year when we stop to reflect upon what are grateful for, a goodly number of our fellow citizens are contemplating the day that follows. You know what I'm talking about--the annual After Thanksgiving Sale. That's right, they're thinking less about thanking and more about Black Friday shopping. Sad to say, buying Christmas gifts on the day after Thanksgiving has become a tradition. What a lot of people don't know, however, is that this year, sales information for a number of national chains have been leaked to the public. Yep. Yep. Anyone can look and see what deals are being touted by a number of well-know stores. Here's a timely suggestion that acknowledges the reality of consumerism and incorporates math: suppose you asked students to (1) use a random number generator to create a number and multiply that number by 100 (we'll pretend this is the cash amount they have to spend when shopping); (2) look through a Black Friday list; (3) use a spreadsheet template to compare the prices of 10 items that they'd like to purchase for themselves or others. Given the cost of an item, the spreadsheet automatically calculates the amount of time needed to earn that item (if we suppose the student is making $5.15 an hour earning minimum wage). This little exercise is meant to be a springboard for discussion. Any math teachers out there want to add to the activity? Post your suggestions.

Technology integration for Grades K-5

Are you looking for new ideas and ways to teach concepts in all subject areas? If the answer is yes then I have just the site for you. The Newton School District in Kansas has put together an awesome site. This site includes links to activities and tutorials. It even provides practice tests in reading and math. Check it out!

GahooYoogle And Twingine: Too Much Of A Good Thing?

Here’s a nifty parlor trick that will actually prove useful when it comes to ferreting out the data you need. Just remember that what you’re about to learn how to do will allow you to integrate technology when you (or your students) are looking for more details on a given subject. It’s like hedging your bets when looking for an elusive bit of information. Suppose you want to search for resources using trusty old Yahoo but find yourself afraid that you’re missing something that might otherwise show up on Google. What can you do? The answer: crank up Gahoo!Yoogle. For even more fun, use Gahoo!Yoogle to look up Twingine (the twin search engine) or Vivisimo or Clusty and then click on the resulting links to look for more details on a given topic. Search engines within search engines. Hmmm…kind of intriguing. Next thing you know someone will develop a zip code mapping search engine.

King's List of Online Math Activities

I am always looking for new activities to use to help my students with math skills. I found just the thing at King's List of Online Math Activities. This list also includes some practice tests from the Illinois test that is like our CRCT. The students complete the sample tests online and they are immediately scored. Check it out!

GaDOE Uses Technology To Assist Katrina Victims

Wow! Last Friday I posted a question on SEGATech. I was curious as to what role technology would play in Georgia's schools as we began helping displaced students fleeing Hurricane Katrina's destruction. I visited our state's Department of Education website and, to my surprise, saw that there had been a complete digital make-over (note: there is a link to the regular website). I'm impressed. Our DOE is wisely using internet-based resources to help the displaced parents and students of Louisiana as they attempt to become assimilated within our classrooms. Systems, schools, administrators, community members, parents and educators with questions about Georgia's educational efforts to alleviate Katrina's impact now have a timely means of answering them. Good work, Kathy Cox! I'll be willing to bet that the Louisiana DOE is very appreciative as well.

Library Spot

The Library Spot is a reference desk and much more. It includes links to to assorted libraries, calculators, encyclopedias etc. Check it out. You may be surprised at what you may find.

New York Times Learning Network

I subscribe to the Tourbus by Bob Rankin and Patrick Crispen. In the most recent post, Bob Rankin spotlighted this link to the New York times Learning Network. This is created for students and teachers in grades 3-12. It is a free news service that provides summaries, quizzes, and lesson plans.

Teachnet PowerTools

The Teachnet site has some pretty nifty things for teachers. One is the PowerTools link which has various tools to make your job easier. This site has many things to offer including lesson plans. Enjoy!

PowerPoint Anyone!

If you have been looking for just the right PowerPoint Presentation but don't have time to create one yourself, then look no further. There is a site on the web called Nebo School District which has ready made PowerPoint presentations at every grade level. If you save the presentations to your computer, you can change them to meet your needs or use them as is. Check it out!

Test Practice help from Texas

Thanks to Jeff Giddens at the Segatech site, we now have access to pretests, lessons, and post tests. These activities are provided through Sam Houston State University. Math and Language arts are covered. I hope you find these useful.

More Fun Learning Sites

I am continually looking for things to make learning fun. The sites we are about to exlpore certainly meet that criteria. The first is a site which looks at all of the Wonders of the World. It includes both modern and ancient wonders. I have known about this next site for awhile but they have added a section on floating cities. How stuff works is featuring The Freedom Ship which is currently under construction and will be a floating city. It will go around the world every 2 years. The final site for today is the World Factbook. Just about everything you want your students to learn about the world is included at this site.

PowerPoint Sounds

I don't know about you, but I get very frustrated when I add sound to a presentation and find that when I show it, the sound is MIA. I know to save the sound file in the same folder as the presentation but sometimes I forget. Now I don't have to worry about that anymore because I have stumbled upon the solution to the problem. It seems the folks at Microsoft have decided that if a sound is larger than 99k, it doesn't get embedded. The solution is to open Microsoft PowerPoint. Click on tools, options, and general tab. You will see something that says, "Link sounds with files greater than" and a box with a number. Change the number to 9999 and click okay. That should solve the problem.

Just For Fun

It's time to take your mind off of teaching and think about something else. Do you have a favorite restaurant that you like to go to on a regular basis? If you would like to find the recipes for your favorite foods from many of the best restaurants check out CopyKat. This link has recipes from places like Applebee's. Meal plannig just got easier with meals.com.

Enjoy!

A Treasure Trove for Teaching and Learning

I am so excited about the sites I just found. The first is a site where you can learn the origin of every idiom you can think of and more. Next, take a trip to the scitoys site where you will find the directions for making science toys. For example, they provide instructions for making your own 3D pictures. Can you imagine playing with time. Well, it is possible at the playing with time website. The exploratorium is another terrific site for science and math. Are there times when you need a quote but can't find it? Check out brainy quote and find a quote for almost any topic. Okay, I even have a site for computer nerds. If you want to learn any type of compuer language, check out the w3schools site.

Enjoy your journey through these sites!

Rubrics

Rubrics are becoming more important in today's classrooms. I believe the reason for this is that the students know ahead of time what you are looking for when they complete their project or acrivity.

So what are rubrics? they are authentic assessment tools used to measure students' work. It is a formative assessment because it becomes an integral part of the entire teaching and learning process. Check out the links below to find out more about rubrics or to create your own rubrics.


Rubric Generators and general information about rubrics
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php – Rubrics created continue to be available as long as you want them.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/asses.html
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Office/Teacher/Assessment_Information/Rubrics.html
http://insys.ed.psu.edu/~lin/Rubric/H_rubric.htm - Free generator to download and use without going on internet.

Google Scholar

This post is for all of you graduate students out there. Google has added a new feature to its website. If you click on the more tab you will find something called Scholar. This is a search engine for generating research articles. I think you will find it to be a very valuable tool.

Vocabulary Fun

Are you looking for fun ways to teach vocabulary. Vocabualry.com is just the place. It provides free interactive puzzles and activities for grades 4-12. It also has lesson plans and activities. Check it out for new and exciting ways to enhance vocabulary instruction.

What Kind of Weather Now?

Ruthlessly ripped from Jamie's OVESTech blog...

Here are a few sites students and parents can use to get their daily dose of weather:
Weather For Kids
Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network
Weather Channel
All About Snow
How much longer will it be winter? Ask a groundhog!

CRCT Practice

It is that time again. The time when teachers begin to worry about the CRCT and where to find quality practice items. Look no further, Unity Grove Elementary School from Henry County has just the thing. They have quality practice items and the answers for all elementary grade levels. Check it out today.

Tsunami: Before and After

If the current topic of tsunamis is fascinating your students, here is a site with before and after photos. Make sure you click on the BEFORE button to see the difference .

Need Answers? Need Them Fast?

If you need answers and need them fast, you might consider trying Answers.com, a new search engine that is particularly good at answering "Who is..." and "What is..." type questions. As with all search engines, this is a good tool for teachers but don't expect to turn it loose on your students without supervising them. Pupils want answers to all kinds of questions but they don't anticipate (nor are they always prepared for) the kinds of responses their queries deliver.