Web 2.0 Can Make Writing More Fun

Writing is very important. Unfortunately students often dread writing in school. The writing process can be overwhelming and difficult even for the most able students. We spend a log of time teaching the types of writing and forms of writing. Sticking to essays and traditional stories. I do believe that it is important to teach the writing process, but in elementary school I hear too many groans from children.

Children have lots to say and write about. I know this is true because I spend my mornings at breakfast duty hearing tale after tale from all ages of yarn spinners. The breakdown in the writing is when they have to get their ideas on paper. Paper seems to suck away all creative thought for children. How can we change this?

The reason for writing must be stronger that just because the teacher assigned the work. I am no different. I write this blog because it is exciting to see how many people will read it during the week. Unfortunately I do not yet have my students blogging. There are restrictions for putting students’ work on the web. I will be working on this problem over the summer. In the mean time I want to share some ways I have found to keep motivation high through the writing process.

The most important way to get students motivated to write is by using a real purpose. If students are learning to write a persuasive essay, have students write to the principal to get something changed. Work with the principal to find a topic that students can address so change is made and they feel empowered. This has worked in my building.

Another motivator is to very the end product. I find if students are always asked to write a paragraph or a 5-paragraph essay they lose interest quickly. They write the draft and do very little revising. I believe the most important part of the writing process is the revising because that is were students can see their own growth. I have some web2.0 sites that offer ways to break the paragraph patterns a little to create a wonderful published piece of writing.

Read*Write*Think had some of the best interactive publishing resources.

Graphic novels are also popular with children. Makebeliefscomix.com is an easy way for students to create their own original stories.

There are also a couple of websites I would love to try with my students.

Bookr is a site that allows you to upload pictures and add text. The pages turn like a real book.

Writing Fun makes the planning part of the writing easier.

Enjoy bringing some fun to writing.

Using Technology For Higher-Level Thinking: Am I?

I have been reading a lot of blogs lately. I am overwhelmed with the number of ways teachers have used technology in the classroom. I have barely tapped the surface of what can be done. Every time I read something new I want to try it. Is it too much? I guess I have come to a point of reflection. Am I integrating technology because it is fun and I enjoy trying new things, or because it is good for students and their academic growth?

Robert Marzano's research shows that students whose teachers use technology 75% of the day will have greater academic growth than those students whose teachers do not use technology. The study focuses on the use of the Promethean Activboard, but I bet if I looked for more research I could find something about 1:1 computing as well. Marzano’s research also talked about that the true academic growth for students came from the training of teachers and their ability to use the technology effectively.

I have many tools available to use; plenty of computers, Moodle, an Activboard and all the web 2.0 resources. I find myself using them a lot and the students are enjoying the activities and are very engaged. Many of my students lack a strong base of knowledge. I do spend a lot of time building background knowledge. The technology keeps the students engaged as we review material, build vocabulary and other basic information. I do worry that I am not using the technology to help students move beyond the basics. Teaching in gifted education should be about critical thinking and working beyond the basics.

I believe I am getting the training I need integrate technology in my classroom. I know when and how to use it. I have been so focused on using the technology that I may have forgotten my purpose in teaching. I plan to spend my weekend reflecting on whether or not my use of technology is engaging my students in higher-level thinking or just recall and basic comprehension. My guess is I am, but I need to spend more time when I plan my use of technology to ensure that it focuses on higher-level thinking.

I would love to hear from other teachers and how they are using technology to go beyond the basics in their classroom.

Super Science Sites

Children learn best through play. The following interactive science sites make learning fun. Reinforcing skills with games keeps my students asking for more. Most of these sites work well on interactive whiteboards like the Activboard.

FossWeb has a variety of engaging activities for grades k-8. The simulations help students apply skills that they may have learned. They can also be fabulous tools to introduce a topic and get students excited about a new concept. The Rube Goldberg simple machines simulation is my favorite.

Edheads has simulations on the topics of human body, simple machines, weather and more. These interactive actives require students to follow a story and complete an activity. The weather activity had student learn about weather prediction and then predict the weather as if they are doing a weather report on the news.

Bitesize offers short activities on living things, materials, physical processes. I love the fact that you can inbed the activities on a website or blog. I will defiantly be adding a few to my class’s Moodle.

Scholastic’s Magic School Bus has much more that simulations. There are games and a large number of resources for students, teachers, and parents. This site is a wonderful compliment to the informative book series.

Argosy’s Visible Body is the most intriguing site I am sharing. It is billed as “the most comprehensive human anatomy visualizing tool available today.” Students will be amazed with the 3D images of the body. You can look at any part of the body from any angle. Activboard using health teachers will be in anatomy heaven.

It is time to put on your lab coat and enjoy!

Activboard Comes Alive With Interactive Math Activities

My gifted 3rd grade students started a geometry unit this week. In an effort to prepare my lessons and make flip charts for the students, I took some time reviewing interactive math websites. I thought I would share the sites that work well with the interactive white boards.

Venn Diagram
Shape Sorter:
Activity includes a mystery sort. Students must use critical thinking to figure out the rules of the sort.






Shape Tool:
Demonstrates the translations, reflections and rotations of shapes.







What's My Angle?
Help teachers teach angle measurement and how to use a protractor.

Hidden Picture:
Review geometry vocabulary and reveal a hidden picture.

Additional sites with great interactive activities in all areas of mathematics:

Illuminations
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
Shodor Interactivate: Activities

Moodle Moves My Teaching into Cyberspace

I started using Moodle in my classroom last year. Moodle is an open source course management system. My school district uploaded it on to our servers and has made it easy to access. Any teacher can get a virtual Moodle classroom, even if they do not have a server, just by going to sqooltools.net.

Moodle allows me to create an online course that compliments my teaching. Moodle allows me to communicate with parents, post daily homework, and offer extra activities for home practice. In the classroom, Moodle is used to give quizzes, check student understanding of content, supply safe links to online resources, and even display student work. Moodle looks and feels like a website, but has privacy protection for students. Only those enrolled in the Moodle course have access to the content.

My students love many of Moodle’s features. Their favorite module is the chat. Students chat in small groups to collaborate on projects. Collaborating in Moodle’s chat allows for great conversations, while not adding to the classroom noise level. The chats are also great for deepening a students understanding of a topic. Book chats allow those quite and shy students to have a voice. One of my students will not talk in front of others during a class discussion, but chats up a storm. She posts many high quality questions to keep us thinking. I have even heard of a teacher who has used chat in the evening to help student prepare for a test. She would post questions to the different students in the chat. Students took turns answering her questions. All the students who participated in the chat did very well on the test the next day.

Another useful feature on Moodle is the quiz module. Quizzes are great for assessing vocabulary as well as students’ comprehension of a novel. The possibilities are endless and the students seem to enjoy the paperless tests. I like the quizzes because for the most part they are self scoring. You create the question and the answer and once the student answers the question Moodle then records the score. The only questions you have grade are the essay questions. I do review all quizzes to see what I need to reteach, but the self-scoring is a real timesaver. By setting the quiz module to a setting that allows students retake quizzes, student can repeat quizzes until they understand the material.

The last feature I want to share is key for the students that I work with throughout the week. I teach gifted education students. Often they complete their regular classroom work quickly. They need alterative activities to keep them engaged and out of trouble. Adding activities to Moodle for these students can provide alternative learning greatly needed by these students. These enrichment activities can be password protected just for a particular student. My students can safely explore and area of interest even when they are not in the gifted classroom. The regular education teachers appreciate the ease in which Moodle helps them to challenge the gifted students.

Google Earth Brings Literature to Life

I am so excited that people are actually looking at my blog. I especially want to thank the people at Promethean for giving this new blogger such positive feedback.

On to today’s topic:

Google Earth is a free program you can download that works great with the interactivity of an interactive white boards like the Activboard. Using the mouse, pen, or your finger you can travel the world. You will need to stop at your school and each child’s home first. Once you have gotten that out of the way the teaching opportunities are endless.
My favorite use of Google Earth is being able to bring books to life for the students.

When reading nonfiction books about an historical event you can find the city and view images. You can even read about a ship that sank and then find the wreckage. Once you find the location of the wreckage you can double click on the ship and you will get more information and some links. The link connected to the Titanic shipwreck will give you a video of the ship on the bottom of the ocean. Look to the right in the media gallery to find the clip.


While reading fiction it is fascinating to watch the student’s eyes get as large as saucers as they see places in their story come to life. Students find it amazing that authors use real places as the settings for their stories. While reading Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, we were able to find the University School and the general area where Calder and Petra lived. What really wowed the students was when we went to the street view and they saw Podwell’s bookstore. The personal connection to the story heightens interest, which improves the reader’s comprehension.

All of this makes Google Earth a truly useful tool that is both fun and educationally sound. To get Google Earth for your classroom down load it from: http://earth.google.com/