Teaching About Web Includes Troublesome Parts
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/education/09cyberkids.html?ref=education
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
Published: April 8, 2010
This article is a great read for all educators and parents. It constructively discusses some of the negative sides to the internet and how students use them. These types of issues will become even more important for us to consider next year as every student may have a laptop at school.
Before coming to FEC, students in my classroom (5th and 6th grades) were blogging and using email and there were several instances that came up where students were posting or sending inappropriate things. Calling students names. Talking about how students dress, sound, etc. The types of things that were usually said on the playground, but now were posted for the whole world to see and comment on. Plus, things that are posted to blogs or websites stay up there a long time - it's like saying something over again every time someone reads it.
My initial reaction (and the reaction of most principals and other administrators) was just to stop using blogs, email, websites, etc. altogether. But that's not the answer. It may keep me from getting into trouble, but what does it teach the students? If they are not already, they will be using these technologies at home anyway so I can't keep them from using them 100% of the time. So, what do we do?
We need to teach them how to use these technologies appropriately. This topic has not been discussed yet but hopefully will as student laptops or iPads become a reality. This is something I am very passionate about and will make sure to focus on next school year and as long as I am here.
Reading Ideas
These are Reading Comprehension Ideas from myself and other TISs around the state.
Great site with WV Specific resources attached to CSOs. Plus, there is a pretty cool Countdown to the Westest timer: http://sites.google.com/site/
Interesting Ideas for mainly 5th grade, but ideas can be adjusted based on grade level: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_549f83rrtk4
Inferences (5th grade)- http://www.fffbi.com/games/perp/
Author Purpose (5th grade) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/typesoftext/flash0.shtml
You could do video conferences or skype. We could do a writing/drawing activity where one class explain what a "monster" looks like then the other class draws it - compare/contrast. You could give a situation to a class and the other class would come up with causes. One class provides a summary of the book the other comes up with the genre
I have done a compare contrast activity with 3-8 grade that is simple but the kids seem to like. You take index cards and put everyday things on them like dog/cat, lemon/banana, pencil/pen, horse/cow, book/magazine ..... whatever. You split the students into groups and have them brainstorm how the items are alike and how they are different. Make them really think outside the box- beyond the obvious. It is amazing some of the things they come up with, especially the older kids. Then have them present it to the class and let the class add any more they think of to the list. It sounds kind of too easy but really we have had some aha moments doing this
If you go to our school website (no passwords needed), you can find links to what you need. I've linked to Jennifer Filopovich's site as well as some others that give assignments sorted by grade level, CSO, & subject. Don't forget about Thinkfinity!
http://edline.net/pages/Glade_ES
http://edline.net/pages/Glade_MS
Fayette County Schools have correlated many of the CSO's with web activities. Go to http://boe.faye.k12.wv.us/maps/cso_website_correlations/cso_website_correlations.htm for some ideas.
Thinkfinity is another good place to look: http://thinkfinity.org/
Check out Kingwood Elementary website, too. You may find ideas under teacher links, student links or parent links . Be sure to check out their Portaportal.
Collection of resources wrapped around CSOs: http://sites.google.com/site/georgewardcsoswestest/home
http://www.smarttech.com/ I am trying to buy a piece of Smart technology so we could have access to the Smart software and put it on every laptop and with every mimio/intelliboard.
Clearing Out
Clearing out my email and putting resources sent to me here. Enjoy!
Lots of resources here: http://internet4classrooms.com/
Google Apps: link
Great site full of interactives, lessons and much more. http://magma.
Be sure to check out the quick flick featuring FREE Brain Pop movies.
http://magma.
tombarrett: iPod touch apps for the early elementary classroom http://bit.ly/cnuOCG
Mathematics Websites 3/12/2010
Featured sites:
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/
http://www.primarygames.com/
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/
Middle/Elementary
http://gamequarium.org/index3.
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/
http://www.primarygames.com/
http://www.teachers.ash.org.
http://www.
Math Game
For ages 9+
http://sumdog.com/
Google Apps Collection
Here are a collection of "must reads" for teachers wanting to use Google Apps in the classroom from Tom Barrett.
- 10 ideas for using Forms in the classroom
- Introducing Google Docs to the Class
- Lessons Learned about Forms
elementary bogs
I haven't pushed classroom blogs or student created websites up to this point. Techsteps is important, but it is in the middle on the importance scale. Students need to be publishing their work onto the web, commenting and responding on the web, and creating content in the classroom or on the web. The key word their is Creating. Here are two examples of teachers using simple blogs with their students using ePals:
More to come on this subject ...
timeline
Want to make an amazing timeline? http://www.preceden.com/
