Instructional Technology Specialist

Here we are at the end of the year.  I just saw a ustream that sums up a year as a teacher.  It is very touching so I thought I’d share.  The singer is Kevin Honeycutt with Essdack.

Image Source http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/341792

Here is an idea of how a teacher can use a flip camera in the classroom.  This is a second grade classroom doing an animal presentation.

Download

Did you know that the games available through BrainPop are free?  You have to have a paid subscription for most of their educational videos, but the educational games are all free.  They are listed in order of content.  It is a great resource!

Image Source: http://www.brainpopjr.com/games/

This virtual dice give you options on how many faced you use and what you put on those faces.  Yes, you can customise your dice.  I can see the possibilities in language arts (figurative language, story elements, vocabulary etc), science/ss (content vocabulary), and of course math.

Image Source: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/maths/dice/

Have you ever wanted to integrate technology but don’t know where to start?  Here is a wiki done by a computer teacher.  She has some fantastic ideas on here.  If you don’t find an activity that will work for you hopefully it will help spark a new idea for you.

http://computerkiddoswiki.pbworks.com/Interactive+Lessons

If you don’t find an activity that will work for you hopefully it will help spark a new idea for you.

I have caught the GPS bug.  GPS hunting (also can be called geocaching) is great fun!  I’ve even purchased a unit for my family to use.  The traditional geocache is a great way to teach latitude and longitude.  Teachers can hide containers with objects for the students to find.  Teachers supply the students with coordinates and a GPS unit.  Children use the coordinates to find the containers.

There are many ways this technology can be integrated into the various curriculum areas.  Here are a few.  I welcome more ideas!

Traditional geocache
Treasure Hunt – Each container gives the next set of coordinates to find.  The treasure can be a creative writing prompt.
Hide and Seek – one class/group hides a set of math problems.  The other group/class find them and answers the problems.
Logic Challenge – children have to find coordinates in order.  Each find gives them a clue to a logic problem they have to solve.
Mystery Person – similar to the logic challenge but with clues to the identity of a famous historical figure.
GeoTrooper – Each container has a puzzle piece that when all found and put together create a geographical location the class has been studying such as a region of the US
Figurative Find - The children have the task of finding one example of the various types of figurative languages.  Each type of figurative language is in a container at a different location.  The examples are on strips of paper.  The children collect one strip from each container.
Amazing GPS hunt - take off from the Amazing Race.  Children have to find details about the type of habitat/biome they are studying.  Each group has cards of a different color.  Each container has a card for every group.  When the child finds the coordinates they have to do a physical fitness challenge in order to get the card in that container.  This is done on the group’s honor. It is just a fun way to incorporate fitness into the activity.  When they have all the details the kids take the information inside and create a powerpoint about their habitat/biome.

For details on how to set up your own hunt you can check out this fantastic website.  http://www.alicechristie.org/geocaching/steps.html

This website is a free site that allows you to download and personalize a wide variety of awards.  There are 9 pages of educational awards alone.  They download in PDF version.  You can type the information in but you are not given the privelages of saving what you type.  You must print at that point.

This is a great resource to have at the end of the year when teachers are giving awards to students for a variety of reasons.

Image source:  http://www.myawardmaker.com/templates/education.html

Here are some links that will help your grade 3-6 child/student practice language arts/reading skills.  I would be happy to add more if I’ve missed any.  Just let me know what I’ve missed.

http://www.jogtheweb.com/play/Y7e64ut49CeT/readinglanguage-arts-practice

Do you like to play games like jeopardy in your classroom in order to review specific concepts but do not like to do the work to create the PowerPoint version? There are other options for you to create jeopardy games and other games with your own content.

Image Source:  http://jeopardylabs.com/

Here are a couple of sites that have jeopardy and other game possibilities:
http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/misc/winnergame022500.html
http://www.superteachertools.com/index.php

One of my principals does a weekly assembly on the topic of bullying on Wednesdays.  Our district has a No Bullying Allowed policy.  At North Fairview we have staff NBA shirts that we wear every Wednesday.  The students respond well to the assemblies that often include enjoyable stories.  Mr. Albert is a wonderful speaker, so we decided to share these assemblies with the educational community as well as parents and local community members by posting them in a podcast.  Enjoy our first week’s podcast.

http://nba.podomatic.com/

Image Source:  http://nba.podomatic.com/