TRC Classroom: Trees Project

Brochure example created by students

Students of Angie Carter from Clark Elementary in Wichita, Kansas are studying different types of trees from around the world by reading a Time For Kids article called A Forests of the World   from their Treasures Book. After reading the article students paired up and created a 6 panel brochure with the following elements:

1. Title 
2. A picture of their tree with a caption
3. Where the tree grows with a map of location
4. What the tree is used for & if it's deciduous or coniferous
5. What types of wild life live in or around the tree 
6. The final panel information was of the students choosing.  

Some students chose to create word searches or crossword puzzles while other students added interesting facts about their tree. Students were expected to site their sources at the end of their publication. Once the brochures were finished, students shared them with a contact from the Great Plains Nature Center  who would decide if their brochure could be displayed in the center's lobby.

To view the full lesson plan, go to http://trc.usd259.org and scroll down to the Project-Based Lesson Plan Website. The lesson will be posted there soon.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, What's the Best Way to Teach It?

Image found at Education World.com

I am writing this blog while singing Aretha Franklin's song RESPECT all because one of my teachers asked me to help her find some activities that would help her students have a better understanding about how to have respect for one another as well as her. We started talking and she thought it would be fun to have kids parody Aretha's song to make it applicable to the classroom but as we read the lyrics we rethought that idea because they were a little suggestive.

So I dug into the web and asked my PLN (Personal Learning Network) for ideas and here is what we came up with:

jgustin from Plurk, suggested an activity where students define respect and find images that represent respect to them and put them into animoto to create a presentation. I thought of possibly using VoiceThread instead because it has an easy connection to Flickr creative commons images. 

http://www.micheleborba.com/Pages/BMI05.htm This site suggests that you do one of these activities for each day of the month, I think it would be cool to give this list to the kids and see which one or two they would like to do to show respect to someone in or out of the classroom. They could then report back to the class about how their actions impacted the person they interacted with as well as how it changed their perspective. 

http://charactercounts.org/resources/booklist_search.php This site allows you to search for children books that help to teach Character Education without sounding preachy. I would have the students select a book from the list and do a book talk on it with PhotoStory3 to retell it.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson329.shtml This site starts with some ideas to introduce RESPECT to your classroom. Then it gives you 5 lessons for teaching respect. I really liked the Popcorn Party lesson.

Please post your ideas for teaching students respect in your classroom!

First Days of School

Teachers and students are back at it today and I wanted to share some fun activities with you to help you out on this crazy first week of school. I hope you find something helpful!

All about me Scavenger Hunt http://www.tammyworcester.com/Tips/ScavengerHunt.html

This is a great activity for the beginning of school as a way for you and your class to get to know one another. I suggest taking these questions and having them record them on a graphic organizer or a word document.

Newspaper Clip Generator http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

This site allows you to create a newspaper clipping of your own. It would be a cool way for students to type up a goal for the school year as well as a million other ideas

First Day Activities http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/ideas/subj_first_day.htm

Here is a list of first day activities but I think some of them could be done the first week for sure. I think the Name Bingo game would be a fun one for you and the kids!

Dear Me Letter http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAOBeginEndOfSchoolLettersIdea36.htm

Students write or type a letter to themselves and then read them on the last day of school. NOTE: There are pop-up ads on this site.

Free Money for Teachers

 

  Dollar_Bills__58_.JPG by Alvimann

I thought this post title might catch your eye, with the economy in the state it's in right now getting much needed equipment and supplies for your classroom can be next to impossible. However, U.S. Cellular has teamed up with Donors Choose to help teachers received money for a project that they would like to implement in their classrooms. For now if you go to the link below you can get set up as a U.S. Cellular teacher within Donors Choose and then come back in August when your projects will be considered for funding. 

http://www.uscellular.com/uscellular/common/common.jsp?path=/about/community-outreach/calling-all-teachers.html

Good Luck!!!

Wrapping up the Year

Image taken by: aconant at morgueFile

 I know many of you are nearing the end of the school year, YEAH! I thought I would share some great resources to help you make the year end wrap that much easier.

End of Year Activities:
http://www.theeducatorsnetwork.com/main/units/endofyear.htm
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/end-of-year/
Time Capsule An Elementary Activity
http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/endyear.html
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAWritingLettersAtEndOfYearForStudentsNextYear48.htmhttp://docs.google.com/View?id=dcbqf82p_95cd748xxh
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/OEndOfYearClassMemoryBookAndPosterContestIdeaMO.htm


Award Creators:
http://www.certificatestreet.com/templates/education.html 
http://www.schoolexpress.com/awards/name.asp
http://www.123certificates.com

MACE 2010 Best of the Best

 I attended the Mid-America Association for Computers in Education (MACE) conference in Manhattan, KS in March (I know it has been a crazy couple of months...don't ask) and was inundated with resources. The best part about this conference is that the instructors are mainly classroom teachers who are sharing what worked for them on their quests to integrate technology into the curriculum. I learned a lot at the day and a half conference and want to share the highlights with you.

The first resource I want to share with you is Kansas Memory. This site is full of primary sources from Kansas History. It is fairly easy to search and find great documents, images and even some video from Kansas. While this is a resource geared toward 7th-12 grade standards (those are tied into the site as well), the 4th grade/5th grade teacher in me thinks they could be used with that age range as well they just need a little more guidance. The only thing I would change about this site would be the ability to sign students up under a teacher account (not able to do that for now).

The second resource I want to share is Worth 1000. This site has tons of photos that have been altered in some way. When I first saw this site I thought, oh it would be great to teach students that not everything they see on the web is real because all of these photos are altered in some way. I also thought, what a cool site for a writing activity to get students excited about writing. I also thought it could be used as a good brain break!

The third resource I want to share is Lego Avatar Creator. I like this creator because students can create their own avatar for different web2.0 tools that they might want to use without sharing their real picture online. I thought, this would be a cool one to use with VoiceThread. In our district we can't allow students to have their own accounts but teachers can manage and create ones for them so this would be a way for them to be identified.

There are tons more resources from MACE 2010, so check them out on my Delicious account at http://delicious.com/jgridley/MACE10 HAVE FUN!!!

Images, Images Everywhere!

Image taken by Sarah Klockars-Clauser

Today I wanted to share with your several sites that have images you can use in your classroom with your students that are copyright-friendly. I hope you find them as useful as I did. :)


Flickr Storm To view images that have a creative commons license click on the advanced search just below the search field. Great for visual learners. However, like any site that isn't created for education you must be careful when allowing students to search on their own.

Openphoto This site beautiful images, use categories in the middle of the page to browse or click on the search bar at the top to search for specifics.

Pics4Learning A site full of copyright-friendly images for students and teachers.

Public Domain Pictures Tons of beautiful pictures at this site, you can add your own if you are a budding photographer.

I also wanted to share some ideas for using these photos. One of my favorite ways to use photos is when I am teaching students new vocabulary words. A quick presentation with the word and an image that describes that word seems to work really well all my students but especially the low readers or the ELL students.

How do you plan to use these sites in your classroom?

Cool Tool: Jog the Web

Image found here: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/193424

There is a cool tool on the web that allows you to create a synchronous guide to a series of web sites. You can also make an annotation on each website to give more information or pose a question. This site is called Jog the Web and I love it. This tools makes going to multiple sites with students quick and easy.

It is really easy to create an account and begin creating your own jog. They even allow you to try it out before creating your own account. There are also other people's jogs that you can have access to and use with your students if they work with your content. 

To create your own jog, you start by giving your jog a title, description and topic. Then you begin adding pages to your jog. They also provide a web browser extension for you to easily add sites to your jog. When adding a page, you will need to have a title for it, the web URL or address and a comment (if it's needed). On the comment section this is where as a teacher you cold add a question or task for students to do while on this page.

Here are several ways you could use Jog the Web with students:

• Researching on the web in a safe way
• Doing a scavenger hunt on the web
• Teach students to evaluate real and bogus websites
• A different way to do a Web Quest
• Use it with Center time in Math or Reading 
• Use it during Computer Lab time
• Use it to differentiate instruction

Now that you know about this cool tool, how do you plan to use Jog the Web with your students?

YouTube Video help

I feel bad because I have taken a bit of a hiatus for the holiday season, but I am back with a great web tool for your classroom. Have you ever found a YouTube video that you wanted to show your students but didn't want them to see all the annoying and distracting visuals around the video? Are you worried about the "related videos" or "featured videos" that are affiliated with the video you want to show in a staff meeting?

Worry no more, SafeShare.TV is to the rescue. This site allows you to copy and paste the URL for your video into the site and then it generates a safe link that will allow you to show your video without the normal YouTube distractions. You can put the link that is created in presentations, in various web 2.0 tools (many right from the page in the top right)...pretty much anywhere you can think of basically.

Above is what you will see after you have created the link. What I love about it is that after the video is finished playing that's it, it stops and you don't have to be worried about what is going to pop up next in the suggested videos. I just love it.

Thanks to someone in my PLN for sharing that info with me, sorry I can't give you full credit because I can't remember who shared it  :)

I wanted to share how of my TRC (Technology Rich Classrooms) teachers used this in his classroom the other day. He showed his students the Change the World video using this tool in order to get them thinking about how they can impact their school and the world in a small amount of time. The students loved the video and have decided to try to start recycling in their building. The teacher asked them questions that got the student really thinking about the logistics of this type of project. So, they began in their table groups to write proposals to recycle in their school. The teacher reminded the students that the class will need to convince the principal and building committee to OK this project. The students then went into action researching recycling centers, ways to collect the recycling at the building level, what should be recycled, how much it will cost and many other factors that will impact the project. The teachers didn't think the students would take it this far, you've gotta love it when a project builds momentum from the students. I will try to update you on this project in a future blog post.

How would you use this tool in your classroom or with your teachers?

Happy viewing!