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!

State Assessment Resources

This is a great video for state assessment prep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY04CTYuVao&feature=related 

Some tips for getting students prepared for the Kansas State Assessment:

·         Recommend starting by reviewing the KCA tutorial with students

·         Use the test builders to create tests covering the content being studied in class

·         Test prep strategies:

o   Scanning Practice  http://www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/reading.cfm?str=reading&num=9&act=2&que=1

o   Critical Reader
http://www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/reading.cfm?str=reading&num=11&act=2&que=1

·         Reading Activities:

o   http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/magazine/wr/0,28413,091009,00.html and highlighter tool in Word

o   Review questions from stories in TFK http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/class/pdfs/2009f/091009_wr_quiz.pdf

o   Labette County Resources by Grade level  then subject http://www.506.k12.ks.us/vnews/display.v/ART/47221964e16c2

o   Reading Comprehension activities http://www.readingcomprehensionconnection.com/lesson.php

o   http://www.readingmatrix.com/directory/pages/Reading_Comprehension_Beginner/

o   http://www.readingmatrix.com/directory/pages/Reading_Comprehension_Intermediate/

o   http://www.readingmatrix.com/directory/pages/Reading_Comprehension_Advanced/

o   Reading online text

§   Story with Questions
http://www.english-zone.com/reading/dolphins1.html

§  Reading text online http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/story_telling/index.htm

§  http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2003/grade5/read.htm

o   Reading Lessons
http://www.tv411.org/reading 

o   Fact/Opinion
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/factoropinion.shtml

o   Drawing Conclusions
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/h/inferencesp.cfm

o   Main Idea http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/book_buddy/rosie/skill_pre.html
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/h/mainideap2.cfm

o   Author’s Purpose

§  matching game  http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/match/term/matchgeneric2.asp?filename=kderitteauth

§  http://unx1.shsu.edu/~txcae/Powerpoints/prepostest/authorpovpostest.html

o   Practice Assessment
4^th grade http://www.bpl.org/teens/mcas/R04Menu.htm

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/book_buddy/test/coyote/test_coyote.html

·         Math Activities:

o   Great Site to practice reading math problems online http://www.mathplayground.com/wpdatabase/wpindex.html 

o   Basic Calculator practice site http://www.math.com/students/calculators/source/basic.htm

o   Labette County Resources by Grade level then subject http://www.506.k12.ks.us/vnews/display.v/ART/47221964e16c2

o   Math Operations

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/operation_snowman/?password=luckie&school=Royal+Oaks+Elementary&state=Minnesota&where=both&cookie=1&from=loginForm&back=/menus/harcourt_math/harcourt_math.html&vi

o   Practice Assessment
   4^th grade http://www.bpl.org/teens/mcas/M04Menu.htm http://www.mathslice.com/mathmocktest.php

o   Brain Teasers
    3^rd grade http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mhm/brain/gr3/index.html

     4th grade http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mhm/brain/gr4/index.html
    5^th grade http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mhm/brain/gr5/index.html

o   Online tools

http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activities.aspx?grade=2

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/classic/

3^rd grade http://www.kidport.com/Grade3/Math/MathIndex.htm

4th grade http://www.kidport.com/Grade4/Math/MathIndex.htm

5^th grade http://www.kidport.com/Grade5/Math/MathIndex.htm

o   Math games based on Kansas standards
      http://www.ixl.com/math/standards/kansas
Math Lessons

http://www.tv411.org/math/

Christmas Wiki-Countdown to Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year, I love it...I mean it I absolutely LOVE IT!!! This year I wanted to share a wiki created by a friend of mine. Mary Frazier is a Technology Specialist from Buhler, KS and she is awesome! This season she has created a wiki that is basically an electronic advent calendar (to bad you can't email a piece of chocolate, lol but the tools she shares are almost as yummy).

Her Count Down to Christmas wiki provides you with wonderful Web 2.0 tools that you can apply to your classroom daily from now until Christmas, how cool is that? You can also join the wiki and add to the discussion as well as adding content  to the wiki if you want. On the left is the navigation for the site, these pages have links to Web 2.0 tools and great ideas to use them in your classroom.

So, what are you waiting for...go check it out and enjoy!