Fantastic Fridays: October 15

Fantastic Fridays: October 15

1. Classroom Spotlight Project: Gathering Data Using Apple's "Numbers" or Excel

4th graders will begin a new project next week integrating science and technology! Students will gather daily data about evaporation of water in their classroom, and record the data in "Numbers" to create tables and graphs. Patty K. and I are excited to facilitate these SCIENTISTS in their professional research!

2. Student Websites: Reading and Literacy Online
For this week's topic, I'd like to list an online source for digital publications for each grade level. Enjoy!

• K-2: http://www.starfall.com (Starfall is an invaluable resource for early literacy!) and http://www.storylineonline.net/ (celebrity actors read some very high-quality books aloud, with images from the books!)
• 3-5: Scholastic News and Time For Kids are great ways to add current events in an age-appropriate format, and include video segments. I especially like the quizzes and extra resources on TFK.
• 6-8: http://www.bartleby.com/ Bartleby is a collection of all copyright-free publications. It's amazing that we can read so many classics for free! You will want to pre-select resources for your students from this site, since it also includes works that may not apply to your classroom standards.  http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/ Online poems for students (high quality).

3. Teacher Productivity Tools: Digital Storytelling and Literacy

You mention the word "vacation", and 20 hands shoot into the air... do students like to tell their stories? YES! Listed below are a few resources for digital storytelling in the classroom. A digital story can be made with PowerPoint, Keynote, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or even KidPix! All of the elements of quality writing still apply, but with an added multimedia feature.

• http://teachingteachers.com/ Awesome digital storytelling resources
  
• http://www.techteachers.com/digitalstorytelling.htm A general page for links and resources about digital storytelling.
  
• http://www.kidblog.org This classroom-oriented blogging tool allows students of all ages to share their work. Only users you add to the "list" will be able to see the students' work. Comments can be turned off or on. I used this as an incentive for excellent work, and it was awesome!

I have two videos for you this week, and they are more instructional than usual. The first is how to add narration in Keynote, and the second is how to add narration in PowerPoint. Now you'll be able to teach all of those students how to create a digital story with sound!