Lowell Students Use a Webquest to Explore Environmental Challenges
Posted by Juli on November 17, 2009 in 1, Internet Research, PowerPoint, Social Studies
Students in Dustin Wood’s classroom used a webquest to explore current environmental problems facing Earth. Students worked in teams to develop presentations about a particular topic (e.g., extinction, landfills, air pollution…). In the scenario for this activity, each student team is vying for $1 million in funding from the fictional Help Our World (HOW) Foundation. As members of the HOW Foundation, all students will vote for the team that makes the best case for its environmental issue.
A Middle School Teacher Uses Photostory for the First Time
Posted by Juli on May 12, 2009 in Internet Research, Photo Story 3, Social Studies
Barbara Beers, 8th grade geography teacher at Whitman Middle School, was tired of using Power Point for student projects. (She’s not alone, a fun video – How Not to Use Powerpoint.) With the support of her librarian and Instructional Technology Specialist, she decided to try Photostory for the first time. In this post, you will find an overview of the project phases, links to her project files, and student work samples.
Project Purpose: to create a “sense of place” about a country in North Africa or Southwest Asia. See her project handout for details about student expectations. This project was part of a larger unit that included a UNESCO essay designed to use a research gathering tool which prompted students to gather background information about an assigned country (essay handout).
Key Resources: UNESCO website, eLibrary (great resources for pictures & maps), Photostory3 handout (QRD)
Wiki for Student Book Reviews
Posted by Janice on April 15, 2009 in Internet Research, Language Arts, Teacher Voices
David Edelman, who teaches English at Ingraham High School, was looking for a project to celebrate and highlight student success in reading and writing. After the WASL is over, students see the end of the school year in sight and need something that engages their attention. David decided to use a wiki for an online culminating project. Each student writes a book review on the best book they have read all year, and publicly publishes the review to the wiki. The wiki becomes a repository for student book reviews year after year. This year’s class will be working on their projects in May, but there are great reviews there from past classes. David says: “Almost all students, in the end, thought it was fun. More importantly, they accomplished something they were proud of.”
When you go to David’s wiki to read these reviews keep these minimum student guidelines in mind. There must be:
- a summary,
- an explanation of why they are recommending this book,
- a description of where this book can be found which includes links,
- information about the author which includes links, and
- one or two images.
If you would like to know David’s thoughts on this project and how he set it up, click on (more…)
Supporting a Principal’s Book Club
Posted by Abbey on February 1, 2009 in Internet Research, Language Arts, Photo Story 3, Podcasting
A book club is a great way to bring people together to share their thoughts about what they are reading. Organizing such an event for students and /or parents in your community can send a powerful message to establish yourself as a reader and as a leader in literacy. Whether you are considering developing a book club with face-to-face interaction or through online social interaction, there is a wealth of resources online which can help you throughout the process.
Mark Federman, principal at Eastside Community High School in New York, has been conducting Book Clubs for his students (6-12 grade) for the past 8 years. He advocates, “ The most doable way to create a culture of learners who value reading and to launch the start of Readers Workshop is through a Book Club.” Click More to continue reading: (more…)
Digital Media in the Classroom
Posted by Gary on November 5, 2008 in Internet Research, Language Arts, Photo Story 3, Podcasting, PowerPoint, Science, Social Studies, Teacher Voices
An excellent example of teachers and students using digital media in the classroom is Nathan Hale’s 10th Grade Academy. These students are creating movies about the effects of worldwide epidemics as a research project. The Hale teachers realized that the video editing process would consume too much time and decrease the time students spent learning the content. Their solution was to imitate the “Ken Burns” style and create movies using only digital photos instead of video. To do this, the teachers designated Photostory 3 as the “movie” making application. These changes helped simplify the movie making process and reduced “creation” time significantly. (more…)
Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home Virtual Tour
Posted by Gary on January 17, 2008 in Content Areas, Internet Research, Social Studies
A 4th grade teacher shared this National Park Service resource site (Birth Home Tour) that gives a virtual tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s boyhood home in Atlanta Georgia. Using this site you can gain a better understanding by seeing and reading about his boyhood home. Also you can download the text for many of King’s speeches at this site (MLK Speeches). More National Park virtual tours can be found at http://www.nps.gov/ .
Social Bookmarking – Made Easy
Posted by Gary on October 31, 2007 in Internet Research, Language Arts, Libraries, Math, Social Studies, Web 2.0
Del.icio.us is a practical social bookmarking tool teachers can utilize to make classroom use of the Internet more efficient. By using a Delicious account teachers can easily and simply share internet sites with students at multiple computers. Watch the video below (created by Commoncraft) to learn about Social Bookmarking with Delicious. If you have more questions or want to investigate and think about using a Delicious account contact the Instructional Technology Specialist assigned to your building.
There are 0 comments | Post a Comment