DOM Teaching Tools with Technology

A Smile for you

2009-05-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Teachers,

I will add new content in the next week but I thought you'd enjoy a "technology" smile.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2009 when....

1. You accidently enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played Solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach only 3 of your family members.

4. You e-mail the person who works in the room next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull in your driveway and use your cell phone to call anyone in the house.

7. You start tilting your head sideways to smile :)

and 8. You're reading this and nodding and laughing :)

Happy Spring!
Adele

Looking for a place to get lessons and conversation with educators all over the country? Try TeacherLingo.com

2009-04-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

TeacherLingo.com is an educational networking community that enables teachers to connect on professional development, classroom management, and lesson plans. The website is free to join and also offers blog space for users. The best feature of this site is its easy to use for beginners and advanced enough for those with more technology knowledge. I found lesson plans for science, social studies, language arts, music, etc.

Truly worth a look ~ http://teacherlingo.com.

Looking for Something Different? Here's a website that leads you to contests

2009-03-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

Teachers,

We know there are plenty of contests out there that the children can use to showcase their talents and you can use to reinforce lessons. There is a website that catalogs contests and offers other types of entertaining ways to use contests in the classroom.

Try the website, http://teachingwithcontests.com/ - Teaching with contests. Right now is a contest for saving animals represented by St. Francis for the Animal Society. Contest ends April 15th so look it up quickly!

Have you used Kidspiration?

2009-03-01T13:11:00.001-08:00

Kidspiration is a great tool for helping students up to grade 5 learn how to organize thoughts and outline ideas. Kidspiration can be used for all types of classes - science, social studies, math, etc. There are activities already built into the program and it allows you to create your own.

Want an idea on what it looks like and how to use it? Atomic Learning Library has some great tutorials for both PC and Mac users - click here to go to the portion of the website that has the tutorials - you will need QuickTime and your speakers on to view and listen to them.

Want to try it? Here's the link to the Inspiration/Kidspiration website for a free 30 day trial: http://www.inspiration.com/Freetrial

How are things going with your Professional Development?

2009-02-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

Do you feel the Professional Development that is offered on a one day basis is enough? Or do you feel there should be ways to continue to learn more about the new ideas you found? Take my poll and see how others feel as well. It's anonymous and will be shown at the ASCD conference on March 16th.

Click here to go to the poll

Thanks!

Consider using wikispaces for your classroom!

2009-02-17T12:32:00.001-08:00

I know you all have heard of Wikipedia and how content can be edited by anyone who logs into the website. Wikipedia is a good place to start for a conversation regarding almost any topic and we know that there are times when the information is accurate and times when it is not. However, did you know you can have your own little wiki for classroom use? As the teacher you can start the wiki with a question that students log on to answer or you can post something and encourage the students to add to it or make their own corrections.

I have a wiki for you to look at:
http://dom-powerschool.wikispaces.com/. I took one of my blog posts from the past and made a few errors to it. Feel free to log on and make some corrections, or leave a discussion on the page.

Try it - it's free! Go to wikispaces.com to begin your own account. Students will love the interaction and being able to see what the other students have added.

Use Verizon's "Thinkfinity" to find lessons on everything from A to Z

2009-01-20T03:54:00.000-08:00

Verizon Foundation has long ago created a website that can verify content on any subject and provide availability and verification in one site. This free service is available to educators, students and parents. Since today is an important day in history, I went onto http://thinkfinity.org" and looked up "inauguration." It offered several sites by reputatable companies such as EdSitement and Smithsonian History by grade level, state standards, interactivity, lesson plans, etc. Here's what I found interesting today:

Celebrating Inaugurations

George Washington (1789-1797)
gave the shortest inaugural address, 135 words, at his second inauguration.

James Madison (1809-1817)
held the first official inaugural ball in 1809.

William Henry Harrison (1841)
gave the longest inaugural address--8,445 words.

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
was the only president to use the words "I affirm" as he took the oath of office, rather than "I swear."

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
wore a ring to his 1905 inauguration that held a lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair, cut off after Lincoln was shot.

Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
was sworn in using his nickname, Jimmy, instead of his given name, James Earl.

Why not start incorporating this site into your lessons? Have your students look for information on ThinkFinity and have them site the sources and reliability? Happy hunting!

Start the Year off right - use Google Earth to add to any lesson

2009-01-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

New Year - Renewed Ideas!

Have you every used Google Earth to highlight an area that is of interest in your curriculum? It's not just for Geography or Social Studies - use it for Language Arts, Science, Art, Music, etc. Discussing Edgar Allen Poe? Log into Google Earth and bring the students to his Philadelphia quarters.

Click on the link and it was take you to more information regarding the hours to visit and website information.

Think of the possibilities - look up the birthplace of anyone - Barack Obama perhaps? Tour the White House this month when discussing the Inauguration. Have the students use Google Earth to determine how long far in distance to fly from your school to the Vatican. And the best part? IT'S FREE!!!

Download the program today and try looking for your school or house:

http://earth.google.com

Here's a great site for podcasting and geography

2008-12-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

Teachers,

While searching for some interesting podcasting tools, I found this wonderful website called "Learning in Hand." Tony Vincent, who created and runs the site has great directions on using podcasting in the classroom, but I love his "Our City" podcast site. Your students research the city where the school resides and shares the facts in a conversational format using either GarageBand or the free Audacity program. The great thing about Tony's site is that you can upload and share your podcast from his site easily. People all around the United States can click on the link for your town and listen to the podcast about your school and the area. Click on this link, Our City Podcast and listen to some of the podcasts on the site from all over the country.

If you'd like to add yours and need assistance, please contact me - this is a fun project.

Adele - aellis@diometuchen.org

Great content available for you to use FREE from iTunes University!

2008-12-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

Did you know that there are many videos and podcasts available free for educators on iTunes? Even if you don't have an ipod you can still use the content free! All you have to do is download iTunes on your computer and then download the video or audio you wish to view.

If you download iTunes on your school computer you will be able to use a projector and share the content with the students - its that simple! There are free lectures from Universities, free lectures from writers (I've seen Randy Pausch, Tom Friedman-The World is Flat author, and Discovery Channel episodes), and even math and language arts content from teachers in New Jersey (Perth Amboy in our area.) Take advantage of this free tool - you can even upload podcasts created by your class when you are comfortable.

Here's the link: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes_u to learn more about iTune University.

A free way to use a "student response system"

2008-12-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

Teachers,

There are many types of "student response systems" available for use. Most of them are "clickers" that allow the software to show responses on a screen from a projection device. There is a simple and free way to take these types of "polls" with your students. Using the website http://pollanywhere.com you can create a poll with real time results for free with up to 30 responses. Responses can come from the Internet from a website or can be answered by cell phone. This might be a way you can get feedback on a homework assignment if the students are using their home computers or in a computer lab. Try it, take my poll:

Replace audience response hardware with Poll Everywhere

Digital StoryTelling

2008-12-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

Stories are wonderful - especially when children can create them to share their knowledge and excitement for a particular topic. In all areas of Core Curriculum Content Standards, whether its Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, etc., students can use digital storytelling to share information and receive feedback. As we become more involved with integrating technology standards 8.1 and 8.2 within the CCCS for each discipline, we allow the students to use their skills to embrace learning of the present and future.

Here's a site to get you started - Scratch.mit.edu. This site is free and you can view projects already uploaded on the system. Here's some points to help you get started:

7 elements of digital storytelling

*Point of view – What? Who? Why? What is the story only you can tell?

*Dramatic Question – What makes a good story – what hooks us?

*Emotional Content - Is it engaging to me – the reader?

*Voice - Who is telling the story?

*Soundtrack – optional – watch copyright violations

*Economy - how many panels to get the point across? No more than 3 minutes.

*Pacing – need to allow time to reflect and should vary. Pauses are important.