February 21

February 21

"There are certain spots in the world where you can stand that will change the way that you look at things forever."
Pete Whitaker

In the News
One teacher wrote on the teachers.net listserv about project based learning: I teach in a school that is about 98% ELL. I believe in project learning because it is authentic assessment. My students have a project due every 2 1/2 weeks that goes with the guided reading book they are currently using. My students have 14 tasks to complete in this period. Most of them are really easy -- like ABC order, Working with Words, etc. They also have a webquest to complete along with the project. They love it and so do my parents. I use only informational text so my kiddos are constantly widening their knowledge base.

Cool New People ... Not So Cool Risks?: Too much Web site info has some worried: http://www.fltimes.com/Main.asp?SectionID=38&SubSectionID=121&ArticleID=11097

Do These Web Sites Work?: http://www2.districtadministration.com/viewArticle.aspx?articleid=90

Kid online? Relax, experts tell parents: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1140407739247150.xml&coll=7
Internet - While adults worry about unknowns, teens bond and learn social and leadership skills

Learning With Laptops - These five examples show different ways school districts are funding laptop programs: http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=1023

Lights, Camera, Lesson Plan: http://www2.districtadministration.com/viewArticle.aspx?articleid=65

Odvard Egil Dyrli on Really Simple Syndication - RSS revolutionizes how districts distribute and use online information: http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=1033

The Online Edge: Online Social Networking: http://www2.districtadministration.com/viewArticle.aspx?articleid=74

Pew Internet Project Data Memo: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Surfforfun_Feb06.pdf
"Some 30% of Internet users go online on any given day for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time," the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports in its latest survey. Which makes hanging out just for fun tied for third (with getting the news) in favorite online activities. First and second are email (52% of Net users do this on a typical day, Pew says) and using a search engine (38%). Fun and news both got 31%. And the number of fun-seeking surfers is growing fast, from 25 million going online for that "purpose" any given day (as counted in November 2004) to the 40 million cited in Pew's research this past December. Pew gives two basic reasons for this growth: the growth of broadband connecting (making Web use more seamless, fast, and convenient) and the growing body of Web content and applications. Pew also found that leisure surfers are generally more experienced online, younger, and male (34% of men vs. 26% of women go online "on an average day with no particular purpose," Pew says).

Seems like MySpace is everyone's space: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/18/Worldandnation/Seems_like_MySpace_is.shtml
"The Web site never really intended to change the way human relationships were conducted. With 50-million members, that just happened."

Teaching Teachers Technology via Technology: http://www.educationnews.org/Commentaries/Teaching_Teachers_Technology_via_Technology.htm
" Not only do teachers need to know how to work the equipment, they must learn to optimize their use of technology in their curricula and to consider the larger issues that access to the Internet might pose for their students and themselves."

Teens Gain Valuable Social Skills Online: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/info-tech/dn8748.html
"Instead of steering them away from their computers, parents should recognise that teenagers sharpen important social skills online, say psychologists and anthropologists studying internet behaviour." One of the study's authors, David Huffaker, "thinks the blog format enhances [teens'] understanding of how to build a narrative," according to New Scientist.

Teens need to Exercise Caution While Using Online Blogs: http://www.medindia.net/news/view_news_main.asp?x=7991
Medindia cited some of the study's other findings, bearing out parental concerns: "The blogs, equal samples from male and female teens [average age about 15], were studied minutely, to reveal that nearly 70% opened up with their real names," 61% with contact information, some 30% linking to their personal home page, 44% giving IM contact details. About 50% had "stories about love affairs, infatuations, sexuality debates and homosexuality opinions"; "71% also discussed school topics, homework, grades and stuff along with music preferences."

Technology in the Classroom
Digiwalker (or other pedometers: http://www.digiwalker.com
These are great for students. They can wear for the gym class or for the entire day. They can chart their steps, figure how many calories they burn, discuss why they walk more some days than others, incorporate data collection and analysis with math class, etc.

The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT): http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/index.php
"IJEDICT aims to strengthen links between research and practice in ICT in education and development in hitherto less developed parts of the world, e.g., developing countries (especially small states), and rural and remote regions of developed countries."

Learning Times Network: http://www.learningtimes.org/
Discussions, Listservs, Online workshops, all free.

Library in the Sky - Educational Web Resources: http://www.nwrel.org/sky/
An interesting searchable collection of annotated links, organized by departments (science, language arts, ESL, library, etc.) and materials (education games, lesson plans, grants, etc.); also has special portals for students, teachers, parents, and librarians.

PALS: Performance Assessment Links in Science: http://pals.sri.com/
"The National Science Education Standards (NSES) outline what students need to know, understand, and be able to do to be scientifically literate at different grade levels." "PALS is an on-line, standards-based, continually updated resource bank of science performance assessment tasks" that measure student performance on those and various other standards frameworks.

Scope on a Rope: http://www.scopeonarope.lsu.edu/
"The Scalar™ VL-7 EX SOAR consists of a miniature, self-lighted video camera with interchangeable magnifying “objective” lenses. Each magnifying lens has a “contact tip” which is at the focal plane of the lens; therefore, simply by touching the SOAR tip to the sample, a teacher or student automatically produces an in-focus image on the TV screen."

TypingMaster Online Test: http://typingtest.com/
There is a free online typing test and you can have a certificate emailed to show the words you typed per minute and the accuracy you achieved.

Types of Educational Software
3D Writer: http://www.3dwriting.com/
Freeware for Windows, this program easily lets students write using hypertext. I found many unexpected gems on the site while checking it out, like "Standardized Testing Blues": http://www.3dwriting.com/examples/stb/stb.htm, a song parody turned into a 3DWriting project.

e/pop: http://www.wiredred.com/
This is Web Conferencing software. The demonstration at this site explains what it can do.

Making Decisions About Open Source Software (OSS) for K-12: http://www.netc.org/openoptions/index.html

WordSmart: http://www.wordsmart.com/
This is a vocabulary building program. You can take an "Online Challenge" at this site.

Books on line
Aaron's Books: Classic Tales: http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/classic.html

Absolutely Whootie: Stories to Grow By: http://hazel.forest.net/whootie/default.html
Whootie the Owl guides you through this site, which is filled with international legends, folk stories, and fairy tales for younger students. Search for stories geared toward 10- to 12-year-olds; then check to see if your choices have accompanying worksheets to hand out in class. There are also related games and puzzles for kids to try. Many of the stories incorporate character education themes.

Blackmask Online: http://www.blackmask.com/

Books relating to the Ancient Near East: http://lib11.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib/abzu-processquery.pl?SID=&UID=&CID=&auth=&selectsearch=etana&searchstring=active

The Celebration of Women Writers: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/writers.html
"on-line editions of older, often rare, out-of-copyright works."

The Censors by Luisa Valenzuela: http://www.southerncrossreview.org/3/censorseng.html

Childrenstory.com: http://www.childrenstory.com/
Great for beginning readers, this site adapts a number of well-known fairy tales and nursery rhymes and gives youngsters the option of reading the text or listening to the stories in their entirety. It has short stories like Cinderella and Snow White and interactive reading and listening options.

Children's Storybooks Online: http://www.magickeys.com/books/
Although parts of this site feel like they were built for very young kids, they actually include content that is appropriate for middle schoolers. Students can read illustrated stories or religious parables on the site, as well as take quizzes or solve riddles.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html

CyberEnglish-The Web-Book: http://www.tnellen.net/cyberenglish/

Etexts: http://www.infomotions.com/etexts/

GutenMark: Pretty Printable Material: http://www.sandroid.org/GutenMark/MarkedTexts.html

HarperAudio!: http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAudio/
HarperAudio! is a sound file database of poetry and literature selections read by the authors or actors.Choose from a wide variety of authors and poets -- including Poe, Vonnegut, Hemingway, Shakespeare, and Frost -- to see the available works. Then click on your selection to hear the work read out loud. This is a great way to get your students excited about what they're reading.

International Children's Digital Library: http://www.icdlbooks.org/

Josie has a Secret: http://www.jitterbug.com/josie/index.html

Knowledgerush Book Directory: http://www.knowledgerush.com/

manybooks.net: http://www.manybooks.net/
Free books to download to PDA's and some cell phones can be found at this site.

Microsoft Catalog of eBooks: http://www.mslit.com/default.asp?mjr=FRE

Pennsylvania State University: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/jimspdf.htm

Plastic Fork Diaries: http://www.plasticforkdiaries.org/index_flash.cfm
This is not truly a book but contains a serial story about a group of sixth graders. A new section is published each Wednesday. There are activities and many things to do at the site.

One method for students to make your own digital books
Students first brainstorm ideas for a story, working in groups of two to four people or own their own. They work up the writing for their stories and their illustrations together, on paper. For the illustrations, the students first use a regular pencil to get their drawing down, then go over their drawing either with markers or colored pencils. (Pencil lines by themselves do not show up well on the computer--they need to ink them and/or color them).
Next, they take pictures of their illustrations with a SONY Mavica Digital Camera. These take floppy disks--and each group has their own floppy disk for their work. After their pictures are taken, they go to the computer.
They start a PowerPoint and insert the pictures from their floppy disk.
They can crop their pictures if necessary using the crop tool in the picture toolbar. They type their story into their slides. Then they narrate their story into a computer microphone.
They work on the timings and transitions for their slides by going into "slide show/custom animation" on the menu at the top of the screen.
Then they go to a website http://www.ifni.com to select music they feel will go best with their story. They download this music and insert the sound file into their PowerPoint and program it to play for the entire slide show.
When they have their PowerPoint working correctly, they burn their PowerPoint onto a CD.
Next, they make a cover for their CD. This can be done by taking a picture from one of their PowerPoint slides, copying and pasting it into Microsoft Publisher, and sizing it so that it will fit into the jewel case for the CD.
Next, they make a label for the CD. The students either take a picture from their PowerPoint for their label or they design a label using any label making software.

This site began in March 1998 and was created by Janet Luch. This page was last updated on January 19, 2007 .
Email to studyplans@yahoo.com.