Last week in Twitter I posted a fun Youtube video that I hope you checked out. Sometimes if there are an extra few minutes at the end of class or even during transition time at the beginning of class, I like to surprise students with a fun Youtube video that I can pull up and show on the overhead. It can be a fun educational video like How a Bill Becomes a Law or just one to make them smile and laugh.
When I find a Youtube video that makes me laugh I usually write it down and keep it in my "back pocket" until I find a good time to share it with students. Videos that intrigue students (like the Ok Go music video) or brighten their mood (Coke Happiness Machine) can not only capture their attention but also help them feel welcomed and comfortable in the classroom.
Please comment and share good Youtube videos you keep in your "back pocket!" I would love to add to my collection.
Also - don't forget to check and see what those monkeys have been up to!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wordle - Check it Out
Thanks again to all of you who continue to read my Technology and Teaching blog! I am having fun keeping it.
This post I want to encourage you to try Wordle. Wordle is another free service available for us to use in the classroom. It is an online tool you can use to create "thought clouds" or "word clouds". You can check out an example of one I made for my Technology and Teaching class. It literally took me moments to make and it produces a very creative result. You can also check out other provided examples at the Wordle website.
The tool is very intuitive to use, making it very user friendly. Users either type or copy/paste words into the Wordle generator. The more often the word is provided, the bigger or more prominent the word becomes in your final product. After you see the final result, you can click the 'randomize' button to change font color, size, font type and background color. The final product can be printed, saved, or shared with others online.
This would be a great tool to have your students use for a presentation, in providing synopsis of a chapter or text, or any other number of uses. As a teacher, I think it would be great to have all your students names pulled up on the overhead in a Wordle creation on the first day of school. Think about how excited they would be to see their names on a Wordle creation, especially younger students! For those of you followers who have already used Wordle, I would love to hear in what ways you have used it in the classroom.
Have a great week and I will be back again next week! Don't forget to check out Some Silly Monkeys for an update.
This post I want to encourage you to try Wordle. Wordle is another free service available for us to use in the classroom. It is an online tool you can use to create "thought clouds" or "word clouds". You can check out an example of one I made for my Technology and Teaching class. It literally took me moments to make and it produces a very creative result. You can also check out other provided examples at the Wordle website.
The tool is very intuitive to use, making it very user friendly. Users either type or copy/paste words into the Wordle generator. The more often the word is provided, the bigger or more prominent the word becomes in your final product. After you see the final result, you can click the 'randomize' button to change font color, size, font type and background color. The final product can be printed, saved, or shared with others online.
This would be a great tool to have your students use for a presentation, in providing synopsis of a chapter or text, or any other number of uses. As a teacher, I think it would be great to have all your students names pulled up on the overhead in a Wordle creation on the first day of school. Think about how excited they would be to see their names on a Wordle creation, especially younger students! For those of you followers who have already used Wordle, I would love to hear in what ways you have used it in the classroom.
Have a great week and I will be back again next week! Don't forget to check out Some Silly Monkeys for an update.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
I'm still at it!
Hello to all of my followers! Thank you to those of you who took time to read my first ever blog post. I am continuing to update the Monkey blog, so please stay tuned if you are interested.
This week I want to point your attention to Prezi. A few classmates in my Technology and Teaching class have mentioned or suggested the use of Prezi in the classroom. This is a free tool available to us as teachers and I would recommend anyone who has not yet tried it, to give it a try.
Prezi is an online presentation tool that uses zooming and sliding views to aid the presenter in visually sharing information. It is a refreshing new tool after considering how many boring powerpoint presentation we - and undoubtedly our students - have sat through over the years. While it does take some time to 'master', it is worth it. Students will be impressed with your the delivery method. Check out an example of a Prezi I did for a presentation last year. The Prezi homepage also has several other examples of Prezi's that you can review that highlight the many different ways you can use this tool.
I will note that one downside of Prezi, especially when I compare it to a more traditional Powerpoint presentation, is that it is slightly more difficult to print the different screens for students that may have missed the lesson, students who cannot access the Prezi online or for students who prefer printouts to takes notes on, etc.
Try it, let me know what you think!
This week I want to point your attention to Prezi. A few classmates in my Technology and Teaching class have mentioned or suggested the use of Prezi in the classroom. This is a free tool available to us as teachers and I would recommend anyone who has not yet tried it, to give it a try.
Prezi is an online presentation tool that uses zooming and sliding views to aid the presenter in visually sharing information. It is a refreshing new tool after considering how many boring powerpoint presentation we - and undoubtedly our students - have sat through over the years. While it does take some time to 'master', it is worth it. Students will be impressed with your the delivery method. Check out an example of a Prezi I did for a presentation last year. The Prezi homepage also has several other examples of Prezi's that you can review that highlight the many different ways you can use this tool.
I will note that one downside of Prezi, especially when I compare it to a more traditional Powerpoint presentation, is that it is slightly more difficult to print the different screens for students that may have missed the lesson, students who cannot access the Prezi online or for students who prefer printouts to takes notes on, etc.
Try it, let me know what you think!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Blog #1 =)
Welcome to my new blog! I am currently enrolled in a course at the University of St. Thomas called Introduction to Technology Tools and Effective Learning. As a part of the course I will be keeping this blog and sharing technology tools, tips, suggestions and thoughts. I hope this information is helpful to all you other teachers out there.
This week for class we read several articles that suggest how to use blogs in the classroom for student engagement and learning. So along those lines, I wanted to share with you a blog (in progress) that I started last spring for my brother who had just moved off to college. The transition from big guy on high school campus to little fish in the big sea was tough. We have these matching monkeys from childhood and I started to send him funny pictures of my monkey doing interesting things to help give him reminders of home and brighten his day. He started sending me pictures back. I decided to catalog them on a blog for just the two of us because I have all these funny monkey pictures in my email and on my camera phone that the two of us have taken and I wanted to start putting them in once place. Check out the site for some laughs: Some Silly Monkeys.
Anyways, I initial created the Monkey Blog for just the two of us. However, after thinking about starting a blog for this course and thinking about how I could use blogs in the classroom, I think the Monkey site is a good place to start. Using the Flat Stanley Project as a model (for those of you that are unfamiliar - www.flatstanley.com), students from different classrooms could show how they were working on a particular social studies unit, post updates and share that with other classes in their school or other classes in another state or even country! Both classes could contribute, share information, or the teachers could even make something a competition. This would be a great way for students to not only learn new social studies content (or math, science, English, you name it), practice typing skills, and use technology to connect with other students.
This week for class we read several articles that suggest how to use blogs in the classroom for student engagement and learning. So along those lines, I wanted to share with you a blog (in progress) that I started last spring for my brother who had just moved off to college. The transition from big guy on high school campus to little fish in the big sea was tough. We have these matching monkeys from childhood and I started to send him funny pictures of my monkey doing interesting things to help give him reminders of home and brighten his day. He started sending me pictures back. I decided to catalog them on a blog for just the two of us because I have all these funny monkey pictures in my email and on my camera phone that the two of us have taken and I wanted to start putting them in once place. Check out the site for some laughs: Some Silly Monkeys.
Anyways, I initial created the Monkey Blog for just the two of us. However, after thinking about starting a blog for this course and thinking about how I could use blogs in the classroom, I think the Monkey site is a good place to start. Using the Flat Stanley Project as a model (for those of you that are unfamiliar - www.flatstanley.com), students from different classrooms could show how they were working on a particular social studies unit, post updates and share that with other classes in their school or other classes in another state or even country! Both classes could contribute, share information, or the teachers could even make something a competition. This would be a great way for students to not only learn new social studies content (or math, science, English, you name it), practice typing skills, and use technology to connect with other students.
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