Today I am not going to direct you to one site that has a subject or activity on it. This post will focus on my own student technology site. This year I taught a 2nd grade technology class, and many of the sites we used in class they wanted to use at home. That's exciting because it means they enjoyed what we did, are still learning, and since I only saw them every 6 days, they were practicing their skills. Throughout this experience, I wanted to keep a site where the kids could access their websites. I have another Weebly that you can actually get to from here. On the navigation bar at the top, you can click on 'Student Site' and be directed to their area. During the summer students are more than welcome to use that site! I am going to be updating it, but their links will be there all summer. Access it here http://schwartztech.weebly.com/. You can then go to Students > and then choose the appropriate grade level. Honestly, I am still working on this site. I have made it to 3rd grade as of publishing time of this blog post. I hope to get further on it this week. Students are free to go to any grade level, as many of the sites have multiple grade levels as choices. OrganizationThe sites are shown using Symbaloo. This is a wonderful way to display links using tiles. There is actually one I created for teacher resources up above under 'Website Collections'. On all of the Symbaloos you can find ELA in the top left corner, math in the top right, sites with many subject areas in the bottom right, and science/social students in the bottom left. There are technology links, typing practice, and other fun sites in the center area. Some of the links may contain ads, but the games are safe for children. As always, monitor their use and talk to them about using the Internet!
One more post next Monday will close out this 6-week series. To see all the posts in one area, select "Summer Series 2015" under 'Categories' to the right. All posts will be on one page then!
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Questionaut is an interactive website that delivers Math, Science, and English questions, but in a very creative way. There is artwork created by Amanita Design where players must click in strategic orders to release the questions. The questions available are higher order questions, most started at about a 4th grade level.
Start out by getting your character into the hot air balloon, then move through 8 different levels of questions. Each level is specific to one of the mentioned subject areas above. You are in charge of filling the balloon each round by answering questions correctly. If you get a question wrong, it deflates the balloon by one puff of air. Then you get a new question. The questions change each time you enter the game, but the clicks are the same to activate the questions. Halfway through my Summer Series, and this week's focus is a challenge that just started today. It is a free online reading program for students. It lasts from May 4 to September 4. Parents, if you sign your kids up for it, you can get free book lists, activities, and tips. Students can unlock stories and earn rewards as they log their reading.
All you have to do is go to the Scholastic website to sign up today! You enter your birth date and then get directed to a screen to register your child. Along the bottom of the screen you get daily reading tips. Today it is "5 Tips for Building a Reading List for Advanced Readers". You then register your reader. The next screen will lead you through some different information regarding the program. You will see a "Register Here" or "Login", you will want to register. There is a quirky way to get a screen name for this program that is kind of fun! Then it allows you to create your password. You can choose to link your child to the school, but that is up to you. You are then registered. There is a main screen where you log your minutes for the day and it totals it. Kids can earn different badges, invite their friends (think, challenges), and play reading games. This is another wonderful way to encourage reading and do it in a fun way! Good luck and happy reading! Last week I showcased Wonderopolis, which is great for reading and writing. It can also be useful for science and social studies depending on the articles students choose.
This week I am taking my focus to math. TenMarks is a website many teachers have used to allow students to work at their own pace, especially if they need reteaching or enrichment. The company, an Amazon company, provides personalized online math practice for 1st through 12th graders (Algebra 2). This summer they are providing a free Summer Math Program that typically cost about $40. You can sign up now and they will notify you via email when it is time to begin. Your child will:
The website states that students only need an hour a week...an hour! Parents and students will receive an end-of-summer report card they can share with their teachers the next school year. Another wonderful way to keep students from taking the "summer slide"! Try TenMarks Summer Math Program this summer. Over the next 6 weeks, I will spend Mondays focusing on websites and/or apps that will benefit students to use over summer break to avoid that "summer slide". Consider some of these activities that are previewed over the next 6 weeks, as a part of your child's summer routine. Camp Wonderopolis Wonderopolis is a great site in itself. They pose a question each day that is accompanied by a video and typed explanation. Students can learn the vocabulary through Wonder Words, check out galleries, test themselves, submit wonders, and search for past wonders. It is one of the best sites out there right now. A great tool they offer in the summer is Camp Wonderopolis. Starting June 15, 2015, Camp Wonderopolis will begin. You can register your child as a parent and then customize your experience based on what your child really likes. As a Camper or Counselor (recommended for families), you can track your experiences through 6 tracks of scientific exploration. The students can test to earn 42 different Wonder Cards. This experience is completely FREE! You can preregister at their website now. I did some of this with students in summer school last year, and we had so much fun! You can access Camp Wonderopolis 2014 to see what the kids did last year. There are Wonders within each section of science and then some great, easy experiments and activities. Some Benefits of Wonderopolis
With more and more students using Google in our schools, I feel it is important for families to understand what we are doing with it and what it means for our students. What is Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is a collection of apps created by Google that schools can use for FREE. We host our domain through them, meaning our email accounts are able to be @hallsville.org, but we are logging into Google. Google Drive Students and faculty have access to the apps offered by Google. These are the same ones you have if you have a gmail account. One of the most valuable we can access is Drive - Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, and Forms. This is a great, free alternative to Microsoft programs. Also, this provides an easy way to collaborate with each other and with the teacher. Students and faculty can share documents, allowing them to work on them at the same time, make comments, and view them from anywhere with Internet access. They can even work on them without access to the Internet, and the documents will sync when they do get access. This eliminates the frustration of "read-only" documents and not being able to get to the documents when you are in another location. They are web-based. Other Apps Students also have the chance to use Maps, Sites, and more! They use these for projects in class. In Google Maps they can create maps that pinpoint locations and make paths. We used them in 5th grade to show where the European explorers traveled and what they encountered on their journeys. Sites has allowed our middle school to showcase their work through eportfolios. Information and Safety Students are not allowed to have Google+ accounts, specifically those under 13. There is no personal information tied to their accounts. Google does not phish through any of their information because they own their information. There are no ads associated with these accounts.
The admins on the account have access to documents created through the @hallsville.org domain. Accounts can be suspended, if they violate the technology agreement signed by all students at the beginning of the year. Students also went through an introduction explaining this is a "professional" account, not personal. The activity on these accounts should be used for things you don't mind a teacher, principal, parent, etc, seeing. Parents, I recommend having your child login and show you what they have been working on in class. They love to show it off! If you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]! Feeling a little behind the times? Here are three steps to get you on the right track with technology with your child. 1. Show and Tell - Kids love to teach adults how to use something. Ask your child to show you how to use a website, device, or app. This will help if you ever need to access it and it opens up that line of communication. 2. Browser History - When we are online, our history is tracked. After a child has been online, you can easily check their history. It's a good idea to do once in awhile in order to hold your child accountable. Typically it is on the toolbar once you open the browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.). You can view the full history from there. If there are things you are not comfortable with or you are not sure of, talk to your child about them. 3. Passwords - One parent I know created the password to her child's Facebook when she first started using it. The only way her child could login was with her mom doing it for her. To me, this is very wise to do as your child starts out using social media. Remember, the legal age for them to be on social media is 13. Being in control of the password ensures you can see what is on their account first, you can check their messages, and limit their activity. Eventually, you could give more control as they gain trust, knowledge, and age. Kids will argue they need privacy and you aren't trusting them. Remember to have talks with them as to why you are doing this. It isn't about having control over them, it is about safety. Have real talks with them. You are the parent, and you make the choices for your child. Kids love YouTube. They could watch it for hours, game how-to videos, music, funny videos, the list goes on and on! Sometimes we run into the problem where they see material we would prefer for them not to see. We can't preview every video they see on YouTube, but there are some pieces we can put in place for them in order to scaffold them into using YouTube. A new app was released this March called YouTube Kids. It is available on Android devices and iOS devices. This app has only age-appropriate videos, channels, and playlists. They can still get to popular programming. The screen is easier for a child to navigate. The buttons are larger, making it easier to click what they want. When they play a video, it goes into automatic full-screen. You can feel safe knowing that kids can browse this app and not see questionable content. If they do, notify YouTube and they will take care of it. A few things to keep in mind:
Common Sense Media is a website that is ideal for parents wanting to keep a close eye on the media their children use. As they say, they "rate, educate, and advocate for kids, families, and schools". This website allows a user to explore by the age and media desired. They rate age appropriate movies, games, tv, books, apps, websites, and music. WOW! They tell you the best age for using or viewing the given media as well as the reasoning behind their rating. Here is an example of a movie rating done by Common Sense Media. They also added a new section called Parent Concerns which gives guidelines, videos, and articles to help you get through issues such as, screen time, cyberbullying, learning with technology, reading, etc.
Many nights students come home to the familiar question, "Do you have any homework?" We've all been there, either hearing it or saying it. Then the dreaded feeling of, I have to help them with their homework, comes next. Homework is not always easy. There are terms that are different than when we went to school. There are new ways to work out math problems that we aren't familiar with, so it makes us uncomfortable. The good news is, parents are not alone. Teachers have often felt the same way when a new way of doing something is thrown our direction. The good news is, we have the Internet to help us. When I was first introduced to some of the new math styles, I didn't understand the illustrations in the book, but I found that videos helped me. Fast forward a few years and you will see there is a big market to students and parents that need help at home, using videos. Here are some great places to look:
I hope these sites can provide some relief and help at home! |
AuthorA teacher turned techie with an obsession with Google, teachers that love learning, and students that love life! Archives
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