TGIF ~ September 25, 2009
Technology Gems, Ideas, and Facts
Friday, Sept. 25, 2009
Gem ~ a website or application that might work well for you or your students
Educational Origami is a wiki that includes lots of helpful information about various aspects of education. One of my favorite parts is the Starter Sheets. This page provides quick introductions to a variety of free applications that teachers might find useful. Some of these Starter Sheets include sites I’ve mentioned previously including Delicious, Wordle, and Google Earth. Others might be new to you including Mixbook, an online publishing tool that allows the user to create, edit, share and publish their work in a digital or hard copy format, and Voicethread, an audio recording tool that allows you to upload images and video and allows audio and written comments. Some of the Starter Sheets also include short video tutorials. If you’re looking for a new tool, you might want to check these out. (http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Starter+Sheets)
Idea ~ a way to enhance your LFS lessons with technology
Looking for information about Content Area Literacy? This website has ideas for every grade level, K-12. Click on your grade level area on the left side and you’ll get links to activities and websites that your students can use to help promote their growth as readers and writers across the curriculum. (http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/contlit.htm)
Fact ~ just a bit of information
Using technology won’t always make our lives easier as teachers. Our decision to use technology should be based on whether or not it will increase learning opportunities for our students. Did you use technology with your students this week? How did it help them learn? Write a comment below to share your experiences. I’d love to hear from you!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Anne
4 Comments Already, Leave Yours Too
We used technology in a word work lesson on dictionary skills. Students were able to look up words they could not find in the limited Student Dictionaries. 
We used the starfall.com to reinforce the phonics skill we were using. The kids enjoyed the creativity, and could link it directly to the concept.
All levels of my senior British literature classes spent two days in the library, creating book jackets for medieval or modern romances: a cover with a large appropriate picture (dragons, swords, castles, etc)and a title for their “book” along with their name (as the author) and a back jacket which was written to entice the reader to buy the book.
In that back “blurb”, they had to include the 7 elements of medieval romances(the name of a hero and his personal flaw, a supernatural element, an evil enemy and his name. a damsel in distress, a quest, a test of the hero and a moral. Before writing, we reviewed some punctuation rules which they then had to apply in their writing, highlighting them in yellow so I could see that they had used the punctuation correctly. A very creative and fun way to access both reading and writing skills and a pleasure to read!
PS I even challenged them to use a heroine to rescue a “male” in distress and some of them did.)
My 10th graders worked in a computer lab on an essay which they had the option to email to me as a “green” final copy. My 11th graders used online dictionary and etymology tools to trace vocabulary word origins and connect them to contemporary usages.