Fantastic Fridays: January 14

Fantastic Fridays: January 14

1. Classroom Spotlight Project: Internet Research in Lower Elementary

Diane D's class has learned a new phrase for homework-- "Google It"! These second graders used the Internet with parent supervision at home to research an inventor. Parents helped students summarize their information, and print a picture of the inventor. Internet research in a large group can be a challenge, but allowing students to research with a parent at home is great way to broaden their exposure to information in all forms. Diane provided an excellent worksheet to structure their research, keeping kids and parents "on track" (instead of blindly copying and pasting too much information) when researching.

2. Student Websites: Charting and Graphing Data, Timeline Tools

Charts and Graphs

• Chartle.net is a kid-friendly template for creating online charts and graphs. Try it as an introductory lesson, using a projector to display your findings to the whole class!
• http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx Create-A-Graph is another visual, guided website for creating graphs with younger (2-5) students.

Timelines

• http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/timeline/ Is a fantastic, web-based time lining tool. No more squished, erased notations on a piece of notebook paper!
• http://www.dipity.com/ Timline application for older students
• http://www.xtimeline.com/ More advanced timeline application for students needing additional use of details, images, and sources

3. Teacher Productivity Tools: Creating a Seating Chart Using Gradequick

Did you know Gradequick has a built-in Seating Chart tool? Follow the instructions at this link to create seating charts without drawing your own tiny boxes and writing each name by hand! An example of a seating chart created in Gradequick is below. Give it a try!

http://www.edline.com/docs/gqdocs/WebHelp/Seating_Chart.htm

 

Your video this week describes changes in the way Americans (and our students!) absorb information. As teachers, we strive to bring information to our students in many different forms, always evaluating for the best media for our classroom goals. Sometimes, there's no better way to learn than touching, doing, or seeing. However, this video points out the variety of media available to our students and how this affects their learning styles and preferences!