Miscellany

Miscellaneous Resources and Project Ideas

[|38 Ways to Use Search Engines In The Classroom] Sometimes we overlook the "little things" when it comes to technology applications - there are so many possibilities for using a search engine in lessons! (This links to a GoogleDocs presentation.)



Twitter [|Twitter presentation] Not just for sharing short blurbs with your friends, this is also a great resource for summarizing and for finding website links. In this presentation you'll find ideas for specific projects, tips gained by teachers who've been using Twitter in their classrooms, and management ideas. I love the historical characters project idea. (Note: some of these projects are definitely geared towards secondary grade levels!).



[|Big Huge Labs -] This site is affiliated with flickr. You can use it for free, or create an account that gives you additional options for saving/storing work. All of the projects begin with you uploading a photo, and then creating interesting projects with it - magazine covers, puzzles, trading cards, motivational posters, etc. My students use this site for an autobiography project where they feature their future selves on the cover of TIME magazine. They also create trading cards for the Native American tribes that we study.
 * magazines covers for TIME project



PicLits: [|www.piclits.com] This site has images that you can scroll through. Once you have selected an image, you can add text over it in two ways: either in a traditional text box, or by dragging over "refrigerator-magnet" style words from a suggested word bank that goes with the picture. I use this in lessons on adjectives and word choice and expanding sentences. This is a good fit for grammar lessons, and can be engaging for reluctant writers, since it is very structured and visual.

[|Animoto] Super-easy video creation - simply drop in a few images or short video clips, add text, and choose a theme. 30-second videos are free; anything longer than that requires a subscription. These are easy to upload to a website or wiki to share. My class used them this year for book reports and for making commercials.

[|National Geographic For Kids Online] A great nonfiction resource for engaging reading material! Includes games, writing prompts, and great visuals. The site has two different reading levels from which to choose.



Google Earth Don't underestimate the value of this tool as a student engagement tool at the beginning of a unit - a couple of YouTube videos embedded on a Google Earth layer can be mighty interesting when you're starting something new. And there are also some great math usages for the lines and paths applications in Google Earth. [|Slideshow] about Google Earth Buhler's Google Earth wiki, created by the fabulous Mary Frazier!

[|360 Cities] This free site allows students to explore cities and locations around the world in panoramic photographs. We've explored the bus that Rosa Parks made famous, the Eiffel Tower, underwater coral reefs, Russian amusement parks, shrines in Japan, and so on.

[|Meet Me At The Corner] - virtual field trip videos These videos are all child-friendly and new videos are posted every two weeks. They vary widely - Paris fashion shows, chemistry labs, tarantula farms, perfume making, author interviews...