Math – With Geocaching students will be using GPS waypoints to find locations. Students can solve a math problem to get the waypoints. Then plug the waypoints into the GPS and find the cache.

Math – Students can use their GPS to calculate speed, distance and plot on a graph. They can answer questions about time, distance, area and speed.  They can then use their information to solve other scenarios without even leaving the classroom.

LA – I’m sure you’ve heard of picture prompts.  What about location prompts!?  Enough said…

LA – Students could create progressive stories.  If you have 4 or 5 groups with a GPS, each group could Geocache to different locations with each group crossing to each Geocache.  Each group will write a new paragraph to the progressive story at each Geocache.  At the end every story should be complete with a beginning,middle, and end.  Each group has written all 3 parts but in different stories.

SS – As a 4^th grade teacher I’m a little partial to studying the Indians so my example will for that but can be used for other areas.   You can create waypoints of study.  In studying the Native Americans we would study their shelter, food, tools and regions.  I would create a Geocashe for each one of those topics.  At each stop the students would have to study, read or observe information about those topics and answer questions about each.  I would include pictures, essays, etc so the students could get a good idea of the concepts.  After completing the Shelter Geocashe they would move to the Food cash learning more information.

SS – Students are required to study maps in Social Studies so this is a great way to tie in maps.  They are learning Latitude & Longitude, Coordinates, Cardinal directions.

Science – Each Geocache can contain instructions on completing a Science activity such a building a lever, surveying what object has the most buoyancy, categorizing and then they can create a podcast explaining their findings, experience and results.

Science – You can also have learning stations setup at different Caching locations where the students participate in a learning activity. I remember at certain times of the year we would have our students rotate classes going to each teacher’s room where they would teach a specific related concept like Crust, Core, Mantel, Volcanoes, Landforms, Platelets, etc.   (plants, oxygen, photosynthesis, light, etc.) At the end of the Geocaching experience every student has rotated through each concept either learning new information or review former knowledge.

The ideas of how to use Geocaching are endless.  If your school campus is not big enough to Geocache then a nearby park would be a good location for these experiences.  If you have one of the new cell phones with GPS such as the Palm Pre, Blackberry or iPhone give this a try yourself.  After you’ve done it 2 or 3 times you will find all kinds of ways to use this with your students.  If you would like a listing of the Geocachings around your local area go to http://www.geocaching.com/ put in your zip code and you’ll find lots of them around you.  Each one will have a GPS co-ordinance for you to plug in and then you track it down.  We visited Inks Lake in Central Texas this weekend and did some Geocaching and my 3^rd grader and Kindergartner loved it.  Not only that. I was able to give them a real world experience that they can use for prior knowledge in their Writing, Science, Social Studies and Math.

Please leave a comment telling all the ways you have used or are thinking of using Geocaching with your students.

This is obviously a prime opportunity to tie in health content as well. 4th and 5th grade need good hygiene lessons this time of the year anyway, so why not use this as the tie in. lol My wife tells me of her elementary years in New Zealand and how they had time in the schedule to brush their teeth after their lunch meals. Her teeth are a lot better than mine now. I wonder if we took the time to take health issues more serious if we’d be a healthier America now. What are your student’s thoughts about this?

Another way to tie this into your curriculum is by writing about it. Over the last few weeks I’ve heard a lot of opinions about how to solve the problem or what should be done. What are your student’s opinions? Have them take the time to research the issue, think out a resolve, and have them write about how they would solve the issue if they were in charge. Other students have fears about it because it has become such a big deal. If we give our students the opportunity to write about that we may be surprised at their concerns.

As a 4th grade teacher I once gave an assignment similar to this and it changed my perspective forever. Without any details, I gave one student a voice to be able to get some things out that she had obviously been dying to tell someone. She always had a smile so before that essay I had no idea that she had been going through such sad things. It totally changed the way I was able to teach my students.

Anyway, back on track. Maps, you can teach maps, geography, continents, etc. by plotting the course of the N1H1 Virus. Using Google Maps or other tools you can plot the growth and spread of the virus. Students can really start to realize we live in a small world after all.

Again, reach into your bank of ideas and see where you can use this current event and leave a post telling us about it. Economics teachers, Journalism teachers and Science teachers should have a hay day with this current event.

1. http://www.Piclits.com
I tested this site out and had lots of fun with it. You can pick a background that goes with your poem and thin type your poem out on it. Or, you can accept the challenge to select a background and use a limited word bank to write a creative poem. I did both and it was a challenge but a good experience. I signed up for an account so I could imbed the picture and poem into my wiki page or blog. That’s probably the coolest part about it. It generates the code for me to imbed it. This is a cool way to share your poetry with the world, family or just your classroom.

2. http://www.voicethread.com
I played around with Voice Thread a year or so ago and introduced it to a lot of people but I never thought of using it as a tool for poetry. Good Idea! Students can create their poem on a Voice Thread and other students in the class can leave “constructive” comments on it. The final product can then be imbedded into a class wiki or blog. Voice Thread provides all the necessary code for it. This is an awesome idea! If you pay for the upgrade version you can even do more cool stuff, but I like free! (This is also a good way to teach your students about appropriate responses and constructive input.)

3. http://www.voki.com
I thought this was a good way to make every student want to do poetry. You can have all of your students create a personalized Voki Avatar that recites their poem. What kid wouldn’t want to create one of these? (This is also a good way to help your students with public speaking ability along with proper word annunciation.)

4. http://www.writerhymes.com/
Poetry often includes rhyming words and this tool can help them when they are stuck. You simply type in the word you want to rhyme hold down the Ctrl key and click it. It then gives you a nice list of words to pick from. They simply pick the word they need and continue writing. It’s kinda like the happy place between a Dictionary and a Thesaurus.

5. http://www.poetrycollaboration.wikispaces.com
This page has several good examples of poetry, ways to teach it and even a sample of a Voice Thread being used in a poetry lesson. It’s full of resources so check it out. It will take you to other great tools that can be used. It’s well worth a look.

Thanks to all who gave input via Twitter, helping to provide these awesome ideas! If you have other ideas, tools or links please leave a comment. Your ideas help others,thanks!

We as teachers should take the current events of our time and build meaningful lessons out of them, but being careful to not push our own political views or ideals from the headlines but true meaningful lessons. Of course my goal is that you incorporate technology into that lesson.

So, in order to help, I’m going to start posting a “Tying in Technology to Current Events” posts every so often. This week I want to take a look at the new “White House Garden News” .

What lessons can be done from this? Just off the top of my head I think of:
1. Health – A study on the importance of Fruits and Vegetables.
2. Math – Students can do calculations for savings. Take a news paper add and determine what it would cost at the store to feed your family and then how much they saved by growing it themselves.
3. History – Have them research how gardens have helped in recessions of the past.
4. LA – Write a persuasive paper on why more people should grow home gardens.
5. Politics – Have students talk and write about what this does for the Obam’s politically.
6. Science – Turn this idea into a Science project for your school and grow a school garden.

The lessons are endless. These are not the only lessons in each of these areas that can be used. I can think of several more Math lessons as well as LA lessons. The important part is that you tie in current events with the student’s learning.

How do these lessons tying in technology? Each student should present his/her findings in some form of digital media, and the teacher should provide several digital medias for the student to resource for their projects. News articles, TV News Clips, etc.

Please, take the time to leave a comment about other ways you see that this “Current Event” can be used in education.

With the software that Microsoft is giving away, your students can learn to design web pages, build video games for the PC, XBOX, and Mobile Windows as well as write programs to kick off their futures. What student wouldn’t want to learn that?! Who knows, maybe they’ll end up on Dancing With the Stars tv show like Steve Wozniak the co founder of Apple Computers. (The man is genius but he sure can’t dance. lol)

Stop by www.DreamSpark.com to check out the details. Students and Teachers will need to provide proof of academic status before you are allowed to download. If your district or school is not listed you will need to have an account with www.JourneyEd.com. It may take a few days to get your confirmation back from them once you provide your academic status proof, but it is well worth it to get several hundreds of dollars in free software. That’s less time than it would take if you ordered it and paid for it. It only took a picture of my school ID and two days to get my approval.

Here is an article and video by Chris Pirillo with more details. http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-get-free-microsoft-software/

What are you waiting for get on over to www.dreamspark.com and read the details to get started with your free software. Your students will love you for giving them something for free!

As an automobile enthusiast this picture of the first Rolls Royce car from 1903 sure captured my eye.

The First Rolls Royce in 1903

I sure could have used this when I was a student and writing those papers about cars. What about that student that you have that just lives for sports? Here is a picture of Muhammad Ali raising his gloves victoriously after knocking out Oscar Bonavena in 1971.

Muhammad Ali in 1971

This resource can be used for many lessons in history, writing, math and even science as you look at how technology has changed over time. Technology should not just be about computers but all innovations.

You can use these images as writing prompts as they compare and contrast the there and then to the here and now or they can write about what it must have been like during those days working on the big oil derricks and no A/C to come home to.

Oil in 1943

Often our students hear about walking to school in the snow, uphill and barefooted. Now they can see the picture.

Snow at School

OK, so they were not barefooted but most people that tell that story never went barefooted either.

The ways you can use photography, images and historical photos is endless. The good part is that they can be used in every subject area. Leave a comment letting me and others know how you used the LIFE photo archive hosted by Google.

When your students get involved with creating animations with frame based apps like this they will learn higher order and problem solving skills. They will be forced to calculate and solve animation glitches to correct speed, direction and handling multiple objects. They can create animated graphics for their powerpoints, videos, and web pages. They can tell short stories, give demonstrations, and create simulations and much more. Wouldn’t it be nice if you were teaching about the moon phases and your students created a simulation to demonstrate their understanding? How cool would that be!? The ways this tool can be used is endless. Just the hands on math experience alone is worth giving this a try with your students.

Please leave a comment letting others know how you use Flash or other animation tools in your classroom.

Note: Be very careful you can get addicted to this!

You can also find other great collections from the Worlds Public Photography Archives in the Flickr Commons at http://www.flickr.com/commons. There you’ll find collections from the Smithsonian, Imperial War Museum, and the New York Public Library along with several others.

Be very careful here History Buffs, you can end up spending a lot of time here. I hope you find this resource useful for your classroom and instruction. Please, leave a comment letting me and others know how you’ve used this resource in your classroom. We can all learn from your experiences!

Enjoy!

What an awesome tool http://vocaroo.com/widgets.php !!  With this tool and a microphone your students can login onto your wiki or blog record their reading and play it back!  What K-2 teacher couldn’t use this?

It doesn’t save the recording in any location so you don’t have to worry about copy right issues.  The student simply clicks the record now button, reads his/her story into the mic and then presses stop.  The student can then listen to his recording as many times as he likes.  (just don’t close it)  Once the page is closed the recording is lost. 

Another option for use is having a student read for other students to listen or for a teacher to read and have students listen.  This is a great way for struggling readers to hear themselves or other quality readers to help them improve their reading skills. 

One librarian is using this as a library center http://monarchcenters.wikispaces.com/readingrecording .  What other ways can this be used?  Leave a comment and share your ideas for this tool.  Play with it over Thanksgiving break and see what you can come up with.

If you want to save the recordings then you’ll want to look at other options, but then you need to be careful with copyright issues. 

An online collaborative tool that you can use is www.xtimeline.com Your students can collaborate in the classroom or from home. They can post images, maps, links and videos that they find to their timelines.

Check out this US Civil War timeline that a student created. Use the green dot at the bottom to navigate the timeline.

Do you have a student that you have a hard time getting to buckle down and do his research? What if you gave him a topic that he likes and a computer to create a timeline of that topic? He can find articles to link to, videos to post and images to demonstrate. Check out this timeline about the life of Michael Jordan. What kid wouldn’t research their favorite athlete?

For your kindergarten students you can even timeline your daily events together. This can help them get an idea of sequencing, time and scheduling.

This tool can be used in hundreds of ways. Leave a comment about how you plan to use it or how you have used it.

Wordle is a tool that creates a graphical display to show the frequency of word usage in a text, web page or document. This is called a Word Cloud. The bigger the word is, indicates its dominance of usage. As I’m sure you know; Visual Feedback can give a more lucid understanding of what you read. To give you an example here is the “First Inaugural Address by George Washington in 1789”.

You or your students can use this tool in many ways.

Here are some ideas that I’ve had:

1. Students can use it to monitor the frequency of word usage in their own writings.

a. How often do they use the same adjectives or nouns?

b. Are they overusing words?

2. Students can use it to analyzing news articles.

a. What is this article about?

b. What’s the gist that the author is trying to get across?

c. Check out this assignment http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=103

3. Teachers can use it for field trip reviews.

a. Have each student generate a list of what they saw are learned on the field trip. Combine the list, copy and paste into Wordle. Whoop! you have an instant “What’s Important List” from the field trip. (side note: A wiki would be good for creating that list. )

4. Teachers can create a Current Events Analysis.

a. Copy the RSS feed from popular news sights like Google News and use Wordle to give you the hot topics.

b. Copy the text from a news page and use the same way.

5. What are your students listening to? Copy and paste the lyrics of popular songs into Wordle and find out.

6. What is important on your school campus? Copy and paste your schools mission and vision statements into Wordle and find out. My schools Wordle.

7. Self Reflection; If you where to write a story about yourself, what would your Wordle say?

8. Current Study posters. What is curricularly important in your class this week? Create a Wordle that visualizes that.

There are as many ways to use Wordle as there are clouds in the sky. If you where to Wordle this blog post what would be the biggest word? So, today’s theme would be? You guessed it, Wordle!

Leave a post and let me know how you used or plan to use Wordle in your educational setting.

The good part about using these pre-made Power Points is that if you need to change something, you can. It’s totally adaptable for you and your students.

Some of the topics that I found of interest were ADHD, Telling Time, Texas History, Asthma, Bill of Rights, Cause and effect, Decimals, and even Thunder. There are over 1050 topics to pick from. What are you teaching this week? Maybe there is a Power Point or activity there just for you!

Bad #1. Not every parent has the program or fonts that you used to create your nifty little newsletter.  When they get it they can’t open it or the fonts have turned to gibberish, so they can’t read it. 

Bad #2. If you send your news letter in the most popular format .doc then the parents can edit and make changes to your news letter.  (A good reason to keep your original on file!)

Bad #3. Again, if you use a .doc file parents are able to see all the little red and green squiggly lines.  Not that any of you make mistakes, but if you did it’s like BROADCASTING “there is a mistake here . .  . . hey hey look over here. . . I’m a mistake look at me!” 

Resolve. Use a converter and convert that .doc file into a .pdf file.  Anyone can read these.  If they don’t have the program to view the .pdf file they can download it for free.  You say, “What if they don’t have internet access?”  Well, good point!  If that’s the case, they can’t get their email.  So, you’ll want to print it for them and send it home.    I know that was smarty wasn’t it.  Sorry! 

Here is an online converter that I have found to work perfectly with Word and Publisher files.  http://www.doc2pdf.net/converter/  You simply brows for the file on your computer and click the convert button.  It automatically opens your new .pdf file.  All you need to do is save it.  Note:  Be sure to use the save button in the PDF area not the file save of Internet Explorer. 

I hope you find this tip helpful.  If you have other ideas about this please leave a comment so everyone can benefit.  Thanks for reading!

One of the first things that every teacher does when they kick off the year with their students is brainstorm ideas for classroom procedures and expectations. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to add this brain storm to your class web page, blog or wiki. Now you can by using http://www.bubbl.us/index . Bubbl will allow you to create a mind map (similar to Inspiration) using the web. Yes, that’s right! You create your brainstorm (mindmap) online. You are provided html code from Bubbl to place your mind map on your web page, blog or wiki. What a great way to take your students back for reviews, updates and changes as they are needed. You can make changes to your Bubbl at any time to add or delete information as needed. Check it out to see how easy this is. It’s free so it won’t hurt you to try it.

Extra idea – You can even break your students into groups and have them create their own Bubbl to present to the class. Then take all the bubbls and collaborate with the whole class to create a finalized bubbl.

Of course http://www.bubbl.us/index can be used for lots of other brainstorming needs, but what a great way to introduce it to your students. I’m sure they will enjoy using it and later come up with ideas of their own ways to use it. Is brainstorming not the epidemey of student centered learning?

Other ideas for start of the year brainstorming are: Procedures, Rules, Expectations, Classroom Character Traits, Proper Ways to Read a Book, Classroom Student Interests, and etc. The list can go on and on, but I’ll stop here and let your imagination roll for a bit.

I’ll share more ideas for brainstorming “mind mapping” in future blogs entries. Enjoy your Bubbl(e)ing at http://www.bubbl.us/index .

I am slammed with projects this summer and I hope to take a two day vacation.  I’ll get back to my weekly posts when school starts back up.  Until then please browse the older posts if you are new to my blog.  I have lots of great tools and resources that can help you kick off your 08-09 school year!