Fantastic Fridays: Friday, Set. 24

Welcome to "Fantastic Fridays" for Friday, Sept. 24.

1. Classroom Spotlight Project: Sharing Websites with Parents
Does homework always need to include a piece of paper? Connie C. suggested several fraction skill websites to parents this week through Edline. You may consider having parents sign a form to verify the number of minutes students have spent on online skills practice instead of a worksheet! Instead of grading HW in class, consider displaying the website using the projector (lower grades, I can set it up for you!) and working on a few problems together.

Here's what Connie sent to parents:

"Also, I have noticed that most of the students have forgotten how to reduce fractions, change fractions into mixed numbers, and add/subtract fractions.  Here are some websites to review fractions:

http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/fob.cgi

http://funschool.kaboose.com/formula-fusion/number-fun/games/game_action_fraction.html

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-fractone/index.html

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-fraction-splat/index.html

Please have your child spend some time working on these.  Please drop me an email or send me a note if your child does work on these websites.  I would like to reward them."

2. Student Websites: Cartoons and Animations
One of NCTE's "Common Standards" states, "Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts" (http://www.ncte.org/standards). One way to address this goal is the use of cartoons and animation in the classroom. Take a minute to explore these two websites:

• http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ This website allows students to create comic strips online. It's a challenge to condense complicated ideas into three panels, and to apply grammar and language conventions to a new media! Remind students that not all comics are funny. 
• http://www.kerpoof.com/ Click on "Make a Movie". This website empowers students to create online animation similar to a cartoon. Characters can move and use voice bubbles, in addition to several other features. Students can also make online storybooks and drawings on this website. *Note: This website may take several seconds to load due to the size of the files*

3. Teacher Productivity Tools: United Streaming Online Video

"Discovery Education streaming is the most comprehensive digital video-on-demand and online teaching resource available today. Educators get access to a rich collection of more than 40,000 video segments and 4,000 full-length educational videos—all designed for easy integration into the curriculum and correlated to state standards."

I have set up a school trial of United Streaming (it requires a yearly fee) for the month.

• Website: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
• Username: ihmtech
• Password: ihm123

Once you have logged in, use the search tools on the left side of the screen to find a video which would apply to your curriculum. Although we do not have a subscription to United Streaming at this point, I wanted you to be aware of it.

And finally, here's our video of the week, from SchoolTube. I hope you enjoy hearing these "Digital Natives" tell us how they like to learn! (FYI, most of us are "Digital Immigrants"-- people who did not grow up using Technology tools)

Fantastic Fridays Sept. 16: Video Interviews, "Words", and Daily Readings

Welcome to "Fantastic Fridays" for Friday, Sept. 16.

1. Classroom Spotlight Project: Video Interviews

Julie G. planned an awesome "Interview" project with our 8th graders. Noticing that our Mac Laptops all have integrated Webcams, she decided to augment the lesson by having students record their interviews. It's like having a video camera available at any time! To record video from the Mac laptops:

• Start "iMovie"
• Choose "File" and then "Import from Camera"
• Click "Capture" to being recording
• Click "Ok"
• Click "Stop" when you are done recording
• Exit out of the Camera window with the red dot
• Now, your clip is displayed in the "Event Library" at the bottom of the screen to save or edit!
• Here is a great source of ideas for integrating student-created video projects in your curriculum: http://www.alicechristie.org/edtech/dmedia/ 

2. Student Websites: Spelling City and Wordle

Spelling City: If you teach spelling, and haven't seen http://www.spellingcity.com , GO THERE NOW! :) You'll want to put this resource in your classroom newsletters, so parents will be able to use it as well. One of the most useful features is the ability to pre-create activities with your spelling list, so students don't need to type in the words individually at the beginning of the lesson. You'll have to register first, which is an easy and free process. For directions on creating the activities in advance, click here: http://www.spellingcity.com/faq.html#52

Wordle:"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends." You will love this! Check it out at http://www.wordle.net 

3. Teacher Productivity Tools: Daily Readings
To receive Daily Scripture Readings in your email each morning, try Flocknotes. Click here to register: https://www.flocknote.com/register.php , and then you will receive an email to log in. It will ask you for a picture and phone number, but you do not have to add those-- just keep clicking "Continue"! Next, you'll have the chance to click on "Browse Existing Networks". Select "Faith Formation". You can click on "Subscribe" to add any of the items listed. I also added "Daily Catholic Quotes", and I absolutely love it. Here's the quote I received yesterday: "At first we feel called by God and attracted by him. We grow in our vocation and get the impression that God has gripped us and will never let us go. We want to withdraw from him in order to escape his grasp. But he loves us too much to allow us to fall. He holds us fast, challenges us."

- Fr. Notker Wolf

And finally, here's our video of the week, from Edutopia! It shows a school in SC using tech to help differentiate instruction, a favorite topic of mine.

Friday, Sept. 10: AIMSWeb, Grammar, and Puzzlemaker

Hello IHM! Welcome to our second "Fantastic Friday"!

1. Classroom Technology Spotlight: Maggie is working with PowerPoints about the citrus industry. Students are creating persuasive presentations to evaluate threats to the citrus industry. A fun alternative to PowerPoint is an online tool called "Prezi" at http://prezi.com/ . This free Web 2.0 tool creates "non-linear" presentations. Here is an *unfinished* example of the "glogs" from last week: http://cboone.edu.glogster.com/glog/

2. Student websites: Grammar Skills-- Language conventions are a standard benchmark in each grade, and are permanent fixtures in most standardized tests. If "your" tired of reading "there" mistakes, try these websites!

• Power Proofreading 
• Quia Quiz- To/Two/Too: http://www.quia.com/pop/1000.html
• FunBrain- Word Confusion: http://www.funbrain.com/whichword/index.html
• Quiz- There/Their/They’re: http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/75.html
• Another There/Their/They’re Quiz: http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz115704d41148.html
• Double Negatives - a quiz
• To/too/two quiz - by James Rainville
• Sit or Set Quiz - Complete the sentences using the proper form of "sit" or "set." 

3. Teacher Productivity Tools: Puzzlemaker-- Puzzlemaker is a fun way to create customized worksheets. Create your own crossword puzzles, word searches, and other learning tools at http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ 

And for dessert...  "I Need My Teachers to Learn", by Kevin Honeycutt

 

Welcome to Fantastic Fridays: Technology at IHM!

Hi Everyone! 

Welcome to our first segment of "Fantastic Fridays". This weekly posting will spotlight three elements of technology here at IHM. I will email you a copy of the posting, but you may also access it through this blog address.

1. Classroom Spotlight Project: Haiti Project
Sigrid's Wednesday afternoon 8th grade class is working on a multimedia research and action project covering Haiti. In anticipation of the Sept. 27 "Haitian Dancers" visit, these students are researching, writing, and creating a multimedia project (drama, dance, podcast or other format). Students will learn to use Glogster, an online poster creator (http://edu.glogster.com/) as a media for information. I will post links to their final projects at the end of September!

2. Student Websites: Math Computation 

All students need practice with basic math computation. Although these websites may not be the most enriching, they are a proven best practice for math fluency.

• Math Fact Cafe: http://www.mathfactcafe.com/view/default.aspx?t=F 
• IXL: Try using a "problem of the day"! http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/
• Math Mayhem: Almost too much fun :) http://members.learningplanet.com/act/mayhem/free.asp 
• Leon's Math Dojo: http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Dojo *NOTE: This site will ask you to register. Click on "Maybe Later" to access the games without registering*
• Math Baseball: http://www.prongo.com/math/addition.html 

3. Teacher Productivity Tools: Edline
By now, most of you have had some fun accessing the online version of Gradequick. Most parents should be regularly checking Edline for classroom news. Did you know...

• You can post videos to Edline? Try using a digital camera to take a short video of a great activity in your classroom. To save it to Edline, add a "News" document, and click on "Import an Existing File"
• Edline does not save a copy of your emails? You may want to consider composing your emails, newsletters, or other postings in Word, and copying/pasting them into Edline. This also saves you from Edline's charming habit of logging you out and losing what you're working on. 

And for dessert.... here's a funny (but edgy!) video interpretation of Taylor Mali's poem "What Do Teachers Make?":