Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Using Material Generators in the Classroom

Interactive Whiteboards
My school district has purchased Promethean boards for every classroom, which have quickly become a part of daily classroom instruction.  I use my Promethean board to project activities, text, or graphics from my computer and the use the Promethean pen to write on top of the items.  Daily, my students lead the Calendar Math lesson on the Promethean board.  My students are able to write, manipulate, and add items to the Calendar Math lesson as needed.  I am able to create flipcharts in ActivInspire to use in my daily lessons.  ActivInspire also allows me to create assessments where students use clicker-based devices to respond.  These assessments give me individual responses in the format of a graph.  This way, I can address misconceptions that I see during my lesson.  I can also create a spreadsheet of the answers for each student so I can know exactly which student struggled on each question.

Web Design Software
My school district provides every teacher with a classroom website.  Through web design, I am able to adjust the website to best meet my students' and parents' needs.  On my website, I post announcements, my classroom schedule, weekly homework, and spelling words.  I also have additional links to the instructional games and websites that my students can access at home.  I would like to add more links to iPad apps that my students can download on their devices at home as well.

Worksheet Generators
With the transition to Common Core Math Standards, my district has to use a lot of outside resources for assessments and homework assignments.  I found many worksheet generators like www.themathworksheetsite.com and www.math-aids.com that would create any kind of math worksheet that I needed.  I was able to adjust the questions to the needs of my students.  These were a wonderful math resource this year!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Super Software

There are different types of software that have different functions with in the classroom.

Drill and Practice
This software helps students solve problems or work assignments and receive immediate feedback on correctness.  Some feedback is "OK" or "No, try again."  Other feedback may include an explanation of how to solve the problem the right way.  Drill and Practice can be online flash cards, fill in the chart, or branching questions.  It is important to know how the computer is grading the answers and if it will allow more than one correct answer.  Drill and Practice is a great resource to use when studying for a test, as homework practice, and can be assigned individually to students.

Examples of Drill and Practice websites:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_vocab.htm
http://www.multiplication.com/games/all-games


Tutorial
This instructional software is similar to a teacher's instruction.  Tutorials provide a step by step instructions to complete a task and includes practice exercises at the end.  Tutorials can be linear and follow the same sequence every time.  The can also be branching tutorials that change depending on how students answer questions.  Tutorials can be great when teachers are unavailable and can be individualized for each student.

Examples of Tutorial websites:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line2.htm 
http://congressforkids.net/Constitution_writingconstitution.htm

Simulations
This instructional software is a computerized model of a real system that is designed to teach how the system works.  Students have a chance to experience hypothetical problem situations and react accordingly.

Example of Simulation websites:
www.digitalfrog.com 

Instructional Games
This instructional software mixes game-like rules and competition to learning activities.  Instructional games often have rules, competition or challenge, and amusing or entertaining formats.  Instructional games are appealing to students.

Example of Instructional Game websites:
www.superteachertools.com/jeopardy
www.sheppardsoftware.com/braingames/braingames.htm

Problem-Solving Teaching Functions
Problem-Solving software helps students practice various problem solving in content-area problems.  Some problems can be content area problem solving and others can be content-free problem solving.

Example of Problem-Solving Teaching websites:
www.criticalthinking.com
www.viva-media.com

Web 2.0 Resources

Web 2.0 Resources are ways that students can interact with technology as they demonstrate understanding of content.  These resources can also be used to create interesting ways to teach students within the classroom.

Animoto
You or your students can create video clips with images, audio, and text.  You can create free 30 second videos or pay for a subscription to create longer videos.  This would be a great way to introduce a topic to your students or a great assessment for students to demonstrate their understanding of a topic. I liked this resource and the way it already had a list of audio that could be used for the videos.

Click here for a Animoto about animal life cycles.



Gloster

Students can create interactive posters to share their understanding of content.  They can use these to present to their classmates.  Glosters can also be teacher-created to allow students to explore topics on their own.  I think students would really enjoy making and sharing these in class.

Click here for a Gloster about animal life cycles.



Voki
With Voki, you can animate a cartoon to dictate the text that is typed in.  This can be used as a teaching tool to introduce a topic, ask questions, or present a problem to students.  Students can use Voki to explain a topic to others.  I will allow my students to explain how they solve math problems with this Web 2.0 resource next year.

Click here for a Voki about Mammals.


Click here for a Voki about Fish.



Bubbl
Bubbl allows teachers and students to create concepts maps online.  These can be used to organize writing ideas or to sort information about any kind of topic being studied.

See the example of a Bubbl Concept Map about animals below.




Saturday, June 8, 2013

Hot Topic Debates--Wikipedia

I remember hearing my high school teachers tell me over and over that Wikipedia is not a reliable source and could not be used and cited for any research projects.  Even though so many teachers do not like Wikipedia, its still remains as a very common source of information on the computer.  The question comes, should Wikipedia be forbidden in Social Studies Research?

Pros:  Students need a way to access their schema, or current understanding about a topic, before the can focus their research.  Wikipedia is a convenient location that has a lot of basic information that students can use.  Students can use Wikipedia as a starting point to begin a project as they activate their prior knowledge about a topic before they begin their actual research.

Cons:  Students need to use reliable websites when finding information and develop research skills that teach them to search for information in other places besides Wikipedia.  The skills that students learn in their Social Studies classes will carry them throughout their lives.  It is important to that teachers teach students what information is credible when there is so much information at a student's fingertips.

Wikipedia should not be entirely banned because it is a great source that students can use to activate their schema and prior knowledge before they begin a research project.  However, the information and data that is used within the actual project should come from another source.

Monday, June 3, 2013

All About Me

Hello!  I just finished my second year teaching in South Carolina.  I teach second grade and I love it.  My students always know how to put a smile on my face.  Each year I try to find new ways to engage my students with technology.  My students use laptops, iPads, iTouches, and MP3 players daily within my classroom!

Rebecca