Your Search Has Never Been Sweeter...

One of the challenges teachers face when teaching kids about content on the Internet is evaluation. It can be difficult for kids (especially the younger ones) to know or be able to see that even if a website looks fancy the information it contains can be misleading or flat out wrong.

Most times when kids are giving an assignment the first place they go is Google which can lead them to sites in their quest for information that might not be what we as educators want them to have or, again, could be just plain wrong.

Enter Sweet Search.

When students enter a search term into Sweet Search you know they results they are going to get have been vetted by an educator or librarian for their relativity and content. Results from trusted sources like the Library of Congress, universities and PBS appear higher in the search results.

When results are returned there aren't tens of thousands of results. What is returned is the 20 best sites for the term, again, all evaluated and ranked for their relevance and content. One of the neatest features is the ability to send search results right to Google Docs so if your students have accounts or you have Apps for Ed that is very handy. But there is also the ability to bookmark the results so students can come back later on. There are some really great widgets for your website also so kids can go to one location like a homework page on your website for easy access.

But Sweet Search isn't the only resource here. Sweet Search 4 Me is a search engine for early elementary students. Sweet Search 2 Day is a nifty site where kids can learn something new everyday. Sweet Search Biography has 1000+ bios of significant persons in history. And there are tons more sites and applications to check out.

Sweet Search is part of a larger site call FindingDulcinea. Calling itself the Libraian of the Internet, FindingDulcinea is a treasure trove of information for the classroom. From their great web guides on every topic imaginable (my favorite is the one on Internet Resources) to their articles that aim to take kids beyond the headlines and give them all the information, FindingDulcinea is a wonderful website that you should add to your list to give to kids. And if you have kids where Spanish is their native language or your are teaching Spanish, they have "EncontrandoDulcinea" for them!

FindingDulcinea has a Facebook page and a Twitter feed with lots of great information too. Be sure to subscribe to their blog for regular updates.

So as the school year is starting, be sure to check out Sweet Search and FindingDulcinea. Two of my favorite and "must use" websites this year!

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Do you hear netTrekker calling ....

How can netTrekker be used to help teachers and students? How can netTrekker be used to encourage 21st Century Skills? How can netTrekker be used to teach critical thinking skills? How can netTrekker be used to provide search results tailored for student needs? How can netTrekker be used to find images, famous people, time lines, information, lessons, standards and ideas?

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October Online Workshops

Participants who would like to take an online course should first login to the WSFCS Staff Development Registration and Evaluation Database and register for online courses. These courses will be listed as Online in the location field. Once the participant has registered for the course, they will be contacted by the course instructor with directions for setting up a WSFCS Online Learning account and the course's enrollment key.

October
• Twitter for Teachers
• Introduction to Schoolwires
• Schoolwires Tips and Tools
• Photostory 3
• Excel Basics
• Google Reader & RSS
• Internet Safety
• PBWorks Wiki

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Fall Face-to-Face Workshops

All face-to-face workshops will be held at Central Office in the NCWISE Computer Lab. Please register ahead of time if you plan on attending. Due to space and computers, there are only 24 spaces for each class.

Quest Atlantis October 4, 2010 3:30-4:30
EduGlogster Basics October 11, 2010 3:30-4:30
Learning Village Introduction October 18, 2010 4:00-5:00
Scratch (Computer Programming for Kids) October 25, 2010 4:00-5:00
CPS (Classroom Performance System)- Middle and High Schools November 1, 2010 4:00-5:00
Schoolwires Calendar and Assignments November 8, 2010 3:30-4:30
Schoolwires Tools: Photo Galleries and Documents November 15, 2010 4:00-5:00
Presentations with a Punch November 29, 2010 3:30-4:30
Learn 360: Questions and Quizzes December 6, 2010 4:00-5:00
ActivInspire: Introduction- Elementary Schools December 13, 2010 3:30-5:00

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Smithsonian's History Explorer - a partner site of Thinkfinity

This morning @ShellTerrell posted on Twitter a blog from James Hollis on Invention at Play. This site can be found within Smithsonian's History Explorer, which is a partner site of Thinkfinity. First, be sure to check out James Hollis' blog "Teachers Love SMART Boards". He has some great ideas for using SMART Boards and interactivities.

Invention at Play can be used on interactive white boards and on student computers. One of my favorites is Cloud Dreamer. Students can create their own cloud and then "see it in the sky" to see what it looks like. There is a site on Inventors' Stories where students can read about inventors of different subject areas. For example, under "Recognize the Unusual", inventors of post-it notes and cardiac pacemaker's are listed.

Just like with all of Thinkfinity's partner sites, History Explorer includes lesson plans, activities, interactives, media, museum artifacts, and a professional development tab. The professional development tab is for teachers to learn more about teaching with primary sources and tips on using History Explorer.

A sample lesson from History Explorer that I chose was for K-4 and is "A Letter to Abraham Lincoln Homepage". Within this lesson is the topic that is covered, vocabulary, national standards, and instructional strategy. Also under related resources are several web pages to be viewed. When you view "Our Story: Activities: A Letter to Abraham Lincoln", there is a timeline with the historic time period highlighted, and more activities to do in the classroom.

I highly recommend this site for all grade levels of history and social studies. By the way, all of the above sites are free to use.

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Looking for a project ....

Love, love, love the resource, Google Templates for Student Projects shared by Steven Anderson (@web20classroom on twitter) this morning. There are so many great graphic organizers and project templates that can be used to promote and practice critical and creative thinking skills.
Here are a few of the ones that caught my attention:

• History Quilt Square (great Social Studies project but could also be used in other areas)
  
• Timeline Template (either use for creating timeline of own life or a historical figure)
  
• Daily Calendar Time (my 4 year old's favorite job at preschool is the Weather Helper so this one jumped out at me)
• Today's Temperature (keep track of data and learn different ways to present)
  
• Colored Venn Diagrams (loved the mixing colors in middle area ... good for visual learners)

There are even instructions about how to use these Google Templates with students!

I shared a few of my favorites, but I would strongly encourage you to go look at the whole list. Remember there are many different ways to use all of these templates and graphic organizers ... even if you decide to use a form in a way not thought of by the creator of that template. So look outside of the box and see what you can do ....

image from Google Templates for Student Projects

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Lots of Resources for Searching

I recently found this EduGlogster and thought it would be a great resource to share with both teachers and students. Have fun exploring!

(Hint: When you mouse over the poster above, each time you see a pink circle, that is a link to that site).
Poster from School Library Journal

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Learning Village Updates

I wanted to let you all know that the WSFCS Learning Village will be down for updates the last week in September (end of the day September 24 through the morning of October 4th). The websites which are currently linked through Learning Village will be available from the WSFCS site in the planning section under teacher resources while Learning Village is down.

The glog below shows a few of the features of WSFCS Learning Village. The Curriculum Warehouse tag is a link to Learning Village. The Quick Reference Guide tag near the bottom of the glog is a link to a trifold printout explaining some of the areas you can find in Learning Village.

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Lets Rap About The News...

Last week my good friend Richard over at the Free Technology for Teachers blog posted what has to be the coolest video ever. Ok, well maybe not ever. But it is still pretty cool. The folks over at Flocabulary post, each week during the school year, The Week In Rap, a short music video set to rap, that highlights current events from around the world.

This week is the Summer Recap. Check it out!



Cool right?

But think about it.

Why not have kids do the same thing? One of the things that some teachers do is require kids to get current events articles. I even did it as a science teacher. Kids had to the newspaper or online and get some science current events. My goal was to get them to know more about what was going on in the world of science. What usually happened is they got the articles, did a summary but couldn't tell you a thing about it a few days later. It was more "busy work"

But this idea...

Let the kids have a little bit of creativity with it. They can still do current events in history or science or the news but they could create a song, act it out, write a letter to the editor. The point is that when the students are allowed that little bit of freedom to express their creativity with what they are learning they take ownership of it and it means something to them.

And it doesn't have to be with current events. Any type of classroom assignment or project can be this way.

And that is sorta where I wanted #edchat to go this week. The topic centered around the Arts and assessment. The conversation broke down into how the arts are assessed and how they fit into modern day testing. What I hoped we would talk about is how the arts can be used as assessments themselves or parts of assessments.

What do you do in your class or what do your teachers do to differentiate assignments or projects? What cool or different ideas have you seen teachers do to allow students to express their creativity? Leave me some comments below.

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Didn't go exactly according to plan ....

So last night, I connected with a group of teachers in Nebraska using skype to discuss how skype can be used in the classroom. This conversation took place after I left work, so I was at home sitting on the couch and my little girl was playing in the other room. I had explained that I needed to make a call, so she needed to watch a movie or play quietly for a minute. Normally my 4 year old daughter is very well-behaved, but as soon as she figured out that she could see herself on the webcam on my laptop, she wanted to show off (sticking out her tongue, making funny faces, and asking me for brownies). I think the teachers in Nebraska found it funnier than I did. :) Even though my little one wanted to be the star of the show, we had a good experience. Maybe they will even ask me (and my daughter) to visit with them again!

As I think about the way my child reacted to seeing herself on the webcam, it reminded me of how my students acted the first few times I used the webcam and/or skype in class. I think some of them also made funny faces and acted out more than normal. Before using a webcam and/or skype with students, it might be a good idea to give them 5 minutes or so to get the "wiggles and sillies" out. You might want to start by skyping with a class in the same building or with someone that you know in person.
But if students (or even adults) act a little silly when using a webcam and/or skype, that is OK too. If things don't work out perfectly for a skype conversation, it is OK. My students blogged about one of our first skype experiences where the sound was not working on one end, but they still loved the opportunity and learned from the experience. Please don't let the fact that everything may not have gone exactly according to plan prevent you from trying it again (or from trying it at all).

The Langwitches Blog has lots of great information about using Skype in the Classroom. She even suggests assigning students jobs (reminds me a bit of jobs for literature circles). My Making Connections with Skype Livebinder is full of suggestions, examples, and experiences to help teachers and students use skype.

Making Connections with Skype

title created using LetteringDelights.com

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Writing and Wordles ....

I wrote on reflection responding to some questions on Teacher Leadership, then I copied and pasting that whole reflection in Wordle to create a word cloud image. From this word cloud, I can clearly tell the terms knowledge, technology, team, teacher, learning, and classroom were prevalent in my reflection. If you wrote a reflection on teacher leadership, what do you think that Wordle would look like? If students created word clouds using something they have written, what information could that tell you?

I have written about Wordle and various word cloud creators before, but I thought I would share some of the highlights again.

http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5

Here are some other great resources related to word clouds and Wordle:

• Ways to Use Wordle in Your Classroom
• Using Wordle for Comparision (example uses innauguration speeches)
• Word Cloud Resources, Tips, and Tools (provides some options for making word clouds besides Wordle
• More than Wordles
• Tips, Tricks, and Resources for Word Clouds including an idea and directions for putting wordle image over another picture

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Collaboration Corner

Most of the time when I think of classes collaborating, it involves talking or working on the same project at the exact same time. The many technology tools that we now have available make it even more possible for classes to collaborate even when on opposite sides of the world.
I stumbled across the Collaboration Corner Blog one day. This blog is an example of two classes in opposite hemispheres (one in America and the other in Australia) collaborating.
From a page on this blog:

Since early 2009, Mrs Yollis' third grade class and Miss McGeady's grade two class have been blogging buddies.

We created this blog at the start of 2010 to collaborate and learn together.
***

We are finding that through technology, the barriers of distance, time zones and cultures can be broken down and collaboration is a very powerful tool!

***

Have a look at some of the great things we are doing and leave us a comment!

On that blog, you can find clocks that show the current time for each school. (I think that would be a great way to introduce time zones.) There are a couple of projects both classes are completing throughout the year.

Project #1: What's for lunch? This project involves each class posting pictures of descriptions of the contents of a student's lunchbox a couple times a week. There are questions on the blog for students to discuss after seeing and reading about the lunches.
Project #2: Our School This project both schools posting about about various places around their school each week. The students in each class are hoping to learn more about their blogging buddies.
***Notice the variety of web 2.0 tools used for posting videos and pictures in the blog

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Discovery Education's Classroom Resources

A little known or little explored area of Discovery Education is the Classroom Resources link. You can see this tab on the Discovery Education site before you log into DE. Once you click on the Classroom Resources tab, there are all sorts of free resources to use in the classroom.

Create a word search, maze, hidden message, etc. using Puzzlemaker. Choose the type of puzzle you would like to create, fill in the information required for that puzzle; for example, the title, how big the puzzle should be, the words or numbers, clues, messages, etc. Then click "Create My Puzzle" and your puzzle appears.

The next tab is Lesson Plan Library. When you click on Lesson Plans, you can choose the grade range you are interested in: K - 5; 6 - 8; and 9 -12. After selecting a grade level, scroll over a subject to view the list of lesson plans available for that subject. Each lesson plan is divided into several different areas: objectives of the lesson; materials needed for the lesson; procedures to follow in delivering the lesson; evaluation of the lesson; the vocabulary used in the lesson; and the standards the lesson addresses.

The "Featured Content" tab has several different web links to choose from. Science of Everyday Life has a list of "Science of Summer" activities and you can learn about the Young Scientist Challenge that 3M and Discovery Education sponsor every year. More information will be coming soon to this site. Energy Balance: 101 is about schools being healthy. There is a contest teachers can sign up for and teachers, parents, and the community can find out more about being healthy and living a healthy life. Explore the Blue includes outside activities that schools and parents can explore with students to develop healthy lifestyles. Web 20.10 has lots of different types of Web 2.0 tools to use in your classroom. There is information on internet safety, media literacy, blogs, and tech tips. For all of you interested in STEM, check out Siemens STEM Academy. There are webinars, resources, contests, and teachers can become STAR's and attend professional development opportunities. Be sure to check out the other web links under Featured Content: Understanding Epilepsy, ReadyZone H1N1, Think Green®, Classroom Emergency Preparedness, New Teacher Survival, WebMath, Clip Art, NASA at 50, Kathy Schrock's Guide, Brain Boosters, Curriculum Center, Learning Adventures, and Worksheets to Go.

The other tabs under Classroom Resources are Parent Corner, Science Fair Central, Discovery Student Adventures, and Contests and Grants. At the bottom of the Classroom Resources page is a list of Featured Resources that you might also like to explore.

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