Tech Tips for Teachers!

Teacher Created Websites

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:35:28 +0000

Are you looking for a new way to do something in your classroom? Are you interesting in updating your website but aren’t sure what to put on it? Well, below are some of my favorite teacher created websites available on the Internet. They’re filled with a wealth of ideas, tips, and techniques to make your classroom run even more smoothly!

Team Newingham (3rd Grade)
Mrs. Renz’s Website (4th Grade)
Mr. Coley’s Website (5th Grade)
Ms. Powell’s Management Ideas for Teachers (K-8)
Mandy’s Tips for Teachers (K-8)

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:34:21 +0000

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

This is an EXCELLENT site to use with your students during math instruction. It covers our math strands, which include Number & Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, and Data, Analysis & Probability. What’s even better is that each of these categories is broken down by grade level chunks (PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) so the manipulatives you are using are suitable for your students. Some of the ways that I have used the site with my students is to teach factor trees, equivalent fractions, and transformations.

So my question to you is this: After viewing the site, what are some of the tools that you can use with your students? If you have used this site with previous classes, which tools did you use with your students? Was the tool effective in helping your students understand the concept better?

Blogging Tips & Guidelines

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:33:41 +0000

So far you’ve seen examples of what student and teacher blogs might look like, as well as learned 20 reasons why you should integrate blogging into your classroom. You’re read about how teachers are using blogs in their classrooms and seen videos that support the use of blogging. Now that you’ve decided to blog with your students, it’s important that you set up some guidelines for student posts.

1. Do not have students post any personal information, such as last name, phone number, home address or school name. You may choose to have your students create pseudonym’s to go by to avoid the use of their name at all.

2. Set the expectation that students will revise and edit their posts prior to publishing them. Their content can be viewed around the world so it’s important that they follow these expectations so their writing is readable.

3. Be respectful. There should be no bashing, name calling or anything offensive that could hurt a person’s feelings. Their blog can be viewed by anyone, including teachers, administrators, peers, family members so it’s important that they avoid being disrespectful.

4. When writing about their friends or classmates in their blog, it’s important that they get that person’s permission first and that they only use their first name. This goes back to keeping students safe and being respectful of others.

5. Determine how the blog will be used. Will students use it to display their work, get feedback from their peers on their writing, discuss topics they are learning? Remember: We don’t want to blog just for the sake of blogging. We want to have a purpose for using this 2.0 tool.

6. Use appropriate language. Have your students try to avoid using slang or inappropriate words due to their world wide audience.

Additional sites you may want to check out are:
Discovery Blogging Rules
Keeping Students Cybersafe!
Blogger’s Contract

So my question to you is this: What is an expectation that you will definitely set with your students when blogging and why?

Examples of Student Blogs

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:32:58 +0000

I have posted several examples of student blogs below. In some of them you’ll notice that students are creating posts that are not school related, but in others it is all about school. Plus, there are a few blogs that have been designed for a book study discussion (which I love!). Just remember, how you choose to do blogs with your students is really up to you. Just make sure you have a clear focus of what their blogs will look like and that you’re not doing them just for the sake of it.

Student Blogs:
Jaw’s Blog
Austin’s Blog
Jacob’s Blog
Leah’s Blog
Goodnight Mister Tom (book study)
The Diary of Anne Frank (book study)
The Secret Life of Bees (book study)
Caitlin’s Blog
Cameron’s Blog

Additional examples can be found here.

So my question to you is this: Which blog(s) did you find the most enjoyable to read? How might you set up your students blogs?

Examples of Teacher Blogs

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:32:12 +0000

I have posted lots of examples of teachers blogs below. One thing you will notice is that quite a few of them are using their blogs to communicate with parents and showcase student work. I tried to cover a wide range of grade levels, content areas, and special area classes but will continue to be on the look out for even more examples!

Teacher Blogs:
Mrs. Myrmel’s Classroom Blog
Mr. Stoeckly’s Classroom Blog
Mrs. V’s Blog
NCS Room 3
A Duck with a Blog
Green Stream
Art on the Move
Mr. Ardiot’s Scientists
Mr. C’s Class Blog
6th Grade Art
My Music Tech
South Paris Collaborative Chat
Miss T’s Talented Texans
Room 613 Talk
Mr. Waxler’s Class
Additional examples can be found here.

So, my question to you is this: Which blog(s) did you find the most enjoyable to read? How might you set up your own blog if you choose to create one?

20 Reasons Why Students Should Be Blogging

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:31:13 +0000

I came across a blog post tonight that really sums up why blogging is a valuable tool to be using with your students. I won’t post all 20 reasons here, but rather the one reason that I feel is the most important:

11. Ability to share – part of the conceptual revolution that we are entering. They can share with each other, staff, their parents, the community, and the globe.

Although there are many reasons within the list that are important, I chose this one because it opens our students up to the world of possibility. A world that allows for collaboration and interaction with their parents, friends, classmates, relatives, and many other people that will make their thoughts and ideas become meaningful to more than “just their teacher.”

So, my question to you is this: Which reason did you find the most interesting and why? If you have used blogs with your students, is there a reason you would add to the list?

Teacher’s Blogging? Yes, YOU can do it!

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:30:30 +0000

Before you can expect your students to blog, it might be helpful (although not mandatory!) to have a blog of your own. This will allow you to get a feel for how a blog works so that you can better prepare your students to use them in the classroom. Now that you’ve decided to create a blog, what will its purpose be?

Communicate with parents: Knowing that we’re all busy teachers, this might be an easy way for you to share with parents what students are doing in your class each day or each week if you do not want to commit to posting on a daily basis. Perhaps you want to highlight something special that is happening in your class, such as a unit-of-study, a guest speaker’s visit, or upcoming events. Your posts do not have to be extremely long, so don’t feel as though you have to write a book each time you post. A bonus to having this type of blog is the fact that parents can comment directly to your post and you can start building those valuable relationships with your parents.

Communicate with peers: Much like this blog, it has been designed to provide teachers with tips on the different ways technology can be used within their classroom and allows for a discussion to ensue through the comment feature. I chose to create this blog because educational technology is a topic that I strongly believe in and want to see more teachers using in their classrooms. Choosing a topic you are passionate is vital to creating this type of blog. You can also create blogs for grade level discussions on a variety of topics, such as field trips, tutoring, weekly homework assignments, lesson plans and much more. School level committees can use blogs to discuss action plans, meeting dates, and to post related Internet links.

Showcase student work: Rather than just having little Billy run home to tell their mom or dad about something great they did in school day, why not use a blog to tell the whole world about the awesome things that Billy is doing, along with the rest of your students? Post work samples, videos, or pictures that exemplify the learning that is taking place in your room. This would be a wonderful way to broaden the audience of your students and to allow them to receive a wide range of feedback from their peers, as well as from people all over the world.
A couple things to take note of when it comes to using blogs:

Update: If you want your blog to become a tool that parents, peers or students visit, it is important that it’s updated on a regular basis. How often you do this is up to you, but keep in mind that people will stop visiting it if it is never updated.
Student Confidentiality: When posting student work samples, remove any identifying information. Their first name is okay, but do not post their first and last name. If you post pictures of activities from your classroom, do not identify students by name, either.

If you would like to create your own blog, you may want to try:

Once you’ve created your blog, I’d love to see it! If you have questions, I’d love to answer them! If you have any comments, I’d love to hear them! Please comment below.

The One Computer Classroom

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:29:44 +0000

Unfortunately, with the big push to develop our students into 21st Century Learners, we still have classrooms that only have one computer. Obviously this is not an ideal scenario, but there are ways to get around it. It may take some creativity, patience, and modeling but it can be done. I promise! Below are my top ten strategies on how to use technology with your students, even if there is only one teacher, one computer and 30+ students.

Make sure the computer is easily accessible to yourself for whole group instruction and for your students, including small groups. Also consider making the monitor viewable from anywhere in the room so you can monitor student activity at all times.
Discuss and model your expectations of your students when they are working on the computer. As a class you may want to brainstorm a set of rules that must be followed and then post them near the computer station for easy review.
Provide handouts (with screenshots when possible) to your students when learning a new skill or reviewing a website on the computer. This will allow students to use the handouts when they’re working independently and may ease their frustration level.
Use a projector to display content onto your overhead screen/whiteboard so that all students are able to see what is being covered and can “see” what you’re talking about.
Create centers so that as students rotate through them, they will have the opportunity to visit the computer.
It is important that all students are given the same amount of time on the computer so you may want to create a schedule for your students and use a timer to signal the end of a students’ work time.
All work must be completed prior to a student working on the computer to maximize their computer time. If a student is “making it up” as they type, than valuable time is being wasted so switch that student with another student on the schedule until they are ready to use the computer.
Use cooperative learning strategies in your lessons to allow for small groups to work on the computer. You may find it useful to assign jobs within the group to avoid any arguing amongst group members. Rubrics are also ideal to make sure students are using their time wisely. RubiStar is a great site to generate rubrics on a variety of topics, including cooperative learning rubrics.
Assign each group to a certain day of the week where they will use the computer while the rest of the class works on an alternative assignment.
Identify “experts” within your class that can assist students that need help on the computer as to not interrupt your teaching. There may be times where you’re teaching or working with a small group and instead of having a student sit at the computer, doing nothing because they don’t know what to do, your class “experts” can assist the student and get them back on track.

Still want more ideas? Here are some additional links:

Since this is an issue that a lot of classrooms are facing in this day-and-age, I hope that some of you have been able to take away some tips that you can implement with your own classes. If so, I’d love to hear how things went!

So, my question to you is this: How do you cope with a one computer classroom? What advice can you give to fellow teachers that are in your same predicament?

Interactive Learning with Read.Write.Think

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:28:19 +0000

ReadWriteThink.org is a favorite website of mine that can be easily used with any grade level. It has NCTE Language Arts standards, student materials, lesson plans and website resources that are sorted by grade level bands. The student materials section is filled with a TON of interactive tools that can be used to support student achievement and engagement. Some of my favorites include:

Alphabet Organizer: This would be a great tool to use to have students generate a list of topics that demonstrate their understanding of a recent topic of study. For example, at the end of a study on the human body, students can generate a list of words, from A-Z, that show what they have learned. For younger grades, you could also assign each child in class one letter of the alphabet and have them come up with a word/phrase that shows something they learned. Then they (or you) could type it into the tool and print out a class Alphabet Organizer.

Bio-Cube: After reading a story in the Houghton-Mifflin text or studying a historical person in science/social studies, students can create a bio-cube to show their knowledge of a character or real life person. They would have to identify their name, time period they lived in, where they lived, personal background, personality traits, why they were important, the biggest obtacle they faced, and an important quote that they are known for.

Flip Book: An excellent tool to have students use to take notes on the 6-Traits and what each one of them look like in a written response or to take notes on the different comprehension skills/strategies from the Houghton-Mifflin series. That way students can refer back to the flip book throughout the school year and add information to each page if new ideas are presented.

Literary Elements Map: This tool allows students to identify information for a character map, conflict map, resolution map, and setting map. This would be an excellent tool to use at the end of a selection in the reading textbook to have students demonstrate their comprehension of the story or to even have them complete for a monthly/quartley book report.

Timeline: As students track important movements in history, they can create timelines to support their learning, as well as possibly creating autobiographies about their own lives.

So, my question to you is this: If you have experience with ReadWriteThink.org, which student materials have you used with your students? If you are new to the site, what tool would you like to try implementing with your students?

Blogging from the POV of Teachers & Students

ncpottinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:24:21 +0000