Where Do I Go?

While working in schools, teachers ask me to find resources for them to help enrich their lessons. When I went back to the office I was talking about finding some really great resources and what some of my "go to" sites are with my co-worker Melissa Edwards. She suggested that this should go into a blog.

First stop on the "go to" places that I automatically look at when a teacher asks for help finding resources are: Learning Village; Thinkfinity (and the partner sites); and netTrekker. 

1. Learning Village is a repository of information for teachers in WSFCS schools. Teachers can find just about everything in Learning Village. There are blackline masters, week by week essentials, pacing guides, lesson plan ideas, and many more things for teachers.
   
   
2. Thinkfinity (which I have written about many times before), consists of several partner sites that teachers can find great resources. There is math, science, language arts, history, humanities, arts, and foreign language lessons that can be found within the Thinkfinity community. Thinkfinity is free and teachers everywhere can access lesson plans from there.
   
   
3. netTrekker is a database that teachers can search for web sites. Teachers can search by subject area, grade level, or keyword. Just in the past few weeks, I have found resources for rocks and minerals, water cycle, and soil. Some of these are web sites, others are interactives teachers can use on their IWB or have students work on using the computers.
   

 Some other places I find resources are:  reading educator blogs to find out what other teachers are doing in their classroom. I know that everyone is busy and they say they don't have "time" for anything else; especially reading someone's blog post! If you just choose a couple of blogs that you really like and read those, I feel that you will become hooked and look for more blogs. One of the blogs that I get a lot of resources from is "Free Technology for Teachers" by Richard Byrne. He always has some great resources and he always says how they could be used in education.

I follow some great educators on Twitter, along with following the #elemchat stream. Twitter is where educators can quickly share resources with each other or ask if anyone has a resource for a particular item they are getting ready to study. Another resource I use is my Skype group. We have a group of North Carolina educators that chat regularly about resources and helping each other with problems. It is a great group.

You can also find great resources. Next blog I will write about how I organize my resources. Join me, won't you?

Quick Tips with ActivInspire

You have found all these great resources in Learning Village and you want to write on them using your ActivBoard; or you want to copy them and put them into your flipchart. What do you do?

Once you have pulled up your file from Learning Village that you want to write on, open ActivInspire. On the toolbar is a button with a picture of a blue screen and black scribbles on it. This is called "Desktop Annotation". By clicking on Desktop Annotation, you can then write on the document even though it is not in ActivInspire.

The next thing that you can do is to click on the button next to Desktop Annotation; Desktop Tools (this is a picture of a blue screen with a hammer and wrench on it). Once you click on Desktop Tools, your file from Learning Village can be brought up. Move your mouse over the icon, select the picture of the camera and then the last picture of a camera with a square on it (area snapshot). From there, move the white box over what you would like to take a picture of. Once you have everything highlighted by the box, click on Current Page or New Page and your image will then be placed into your flipchart. Then click on the icon again and click on the picture of the flipchart to open your flipchart up again.

Something is new ....

There is something that has changed ....

Do you have any idea what it might be?

Hint: it relates to the title I have as "The Queen of Learning Village" ....

The front page of Learning Village (the dashboard) has a new and improved look!!!!

All of the Instructional Resources are at the top of the page. When you hover over the titles of these links, there is supposed to be a box that pops up with a description and.or usernames/passwords. I am not sure why it is working at times and not at others. In case the boxes don't pop up, in the blue box just below the Instructional Resources are links to a presentation and a bookmark sharing usernames, passwords, and descriptions for WSFCS employees. The blue box is also where you can find my name and email if you have any questions.

Instead of clicking on the Elementary/Middle/High school buttons, then choosing a grade, and then choosing a subject .... now it is all available to you on the dashboard and requires fewer clicks!

You may have noticed there is not a resources button anymore ... but don't worry, you can still get to the graphic organizers, Jeopardy templates, Mobi Handouts, and all the other great resources. At the bottom of the Elementary Section, there is a long button called Instructional Tools. That is what the old Resource button is called now! If you scroll down the page, you will notice the Instructional Tools button is also located at the end of the Middle School Section and the High School Section.

Don't forget there is a quick way to get to Learning Village .... it is a Quick Link on the WSFCS Homepage!

Awesome Resources

Our department was tasked with creating a lesson plan using a specific goal or objective from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. I knew of several resources that I had that could reinforce the objective, but I needed to understand what students needed to learn.

Learning Village to the rescue! I logged into Learning Village (remember you can access it from the front page of the WSFCS web page). Then I clicked on the Elementary tab under the Curriculum tab. From there I chose the grade, subject, 1st Quarter, week 1-5, and my specific objective. From there I had a wealth of resources. The indicators and strategies were linked so that I could read about the objective, look at sample problems, and get general ideas of what I needed to cover.

There were web site resources, video resources, all sorts of resources for me to use to create my planning guide and lesson plan. 

Please make sure you go to Learning Village. There are some wonderful resources that you can find to enhance your lessons. They are aligned directly with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

Looking for resources over the summer?

Are you going to spend some time this summer looking for some new resources to use for your lessons when school starts back?

netTrekker is a leader in the delivery of digital K-12 educational content and is dedicated to enhancing the education of today's youth with highly effective technologies that deliver rich educational content to every child in a safe, relevant, easy-to-use format. With the mission to help every child learn and a belief that technology can transform education, netTrekker was first to market with a standards-based educational search tool.

As a WSFCS teacher, do you know where to find a link to netTrekker?

I will give you a hint ... there are two words in its name .... the first one starts with L and the second word starts with V ...

Did you guess Learning Village? You are exactly right if you did!!!

If you would like to learn more about the features of netTrekker:

Use our online video tutorials to provide targeted training on netTrekker features. If you ever need that just-in-time learning, or if you are a visual learner, our set of freeonline video tutorials will help acquaint you with netTrekker features and tools.

Here are some blog posts about the many helpful things you can find in netTrekker:

• E-books from netTrekker
• This month from netTrekker
• Monthly Resources for March
• Current Events in netTrekker
• More help using netTrekker in the classroom

When you are looking at netTrekker, you may want to look at the netTrekker blog to find some other great resources!

Look at some posts I found on the netTrekker Blog:

• Minnesota Zoo: Education: Four Stomachs: How a Cow Turns Grass to Food
• Philadelphia Museum of Art: Cezanne and Beyond
• Smithsonian Education: IdeaLabs: Prehistoric Climate Change
• Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: The Beatles

If you are a WSFCS teacher, and you need some help getting into Learning Village and/or netTrekker ... just let me know and I will be glad to help!

~Melissa (mwedwards@wsfcs.k12.nc.us)

Learning Village Instructional Tip of the Week!

Did you know a new section has been added to the dashboard of WSFCS Learning Village?

There is now an Instructional Tip of the Week area (in the first column above the calendar). So far this month, the tips have covered:

• Presidents Day
• This Month in NC History (information about any month in NC History)
• Tripttico

You should go to Learning Village (3rd quick link on the WSFCS Homepage) and check out the tips of the week. We try to update the tips each Monday.

If you have ideas for things we can include in this section, please let us know. The tips don't have to be websites or even have anything to do with technology. If you have a reading or math strategy that works really well in your class, please let us know so we can share. If you found a great instructional tip that should be shared with others, this is the way to share it!

I wonder what next week's Instructional Tip of the Week will be ...

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/242558967/

Have You Looked at Learning Village Lately?

Have you looked at WSFCS Learning Village lately?

• Did you know you can now find the Instructional Technology workshop resources linked on the Resources page?
• Did you know you can find DPI released test items on the Middle School and High School pages?
• Did you know there are content writing prompts in 7th and 8th grade?
• Did you know there is Thinkfinity Standards Search link on each page (Thinkfinity will soon have the NC Standards)?
• Did you know you can find CPS and Mobi Handouts on the Resource page?
• Did you know there is a Prezi Jeopardy Template now on the Resource page?

• Are there some resources or instructional websites that you regularly use that are not in Learning Village?

If you have some resources, lessons, or even project ideas that you think other teachers would benefit from, please send them my way or post them in a comment here.

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-love/5032931614/

What else can we find?

Let's look at some of the resources that are available (just from one site ... that is linked in WSFCS Learning Village on the dashboard)?

• Did you know you can find information on 21st Century Skills in Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can find student interactives on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can do a State Standards Search on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can look at information on Today in History in Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can find lesson plans on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know you can attend webinars to learn more on Thinkfinity?
• Did you know Thinkfinity partners with EconEdLink, EDSITEment, ArtsEdge, ScienceNetLinks, Wonderopolis, NatGeoEducation, and NCTM for great resources?
• Did you know @Thinkfinity @EconEdLink @EDSITEment @artsedge @ScienceNetLinks @Wonderopolis @NatGeoEducation @NCTM can all be found on Twitter as well?

My co-worker Dorene Bates has written about Thinkfinity and the great resources there in the past: Thinkfinity from Verizon.

I would encourage you to go check out Thinkfinity and see what you can find. If you find something you like, please come back and tell us about it so we can go look at it too!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/89165847@N00/3982881207/

Information from an Owl? I hope it is a Wise one ...

One of the resources that is available for WSFCS teachers from Learning Village is NCWiseOwl. I admit that for years I thought NCWiseOwl was just for the media center. I am happy to find out that I was wrong. I have been pleasantly surprised at the things I have found on NCWiseOwl. There are zones for Elementary School, Middle School, and High School with resources for each level for students as teachers. There is also a Professional Zone as well as a zone for Media/Technology.

I found this in What's New on NCWiseOwl section:

"When we added the EBSCO databases last year we were not expecting the overwhelming response they would receive. The Student Reference Center quickly became the most popular resource on WiseOwl, and several other EBSCO databases have become extremely popular as well. This year we're hoping for a similar outcome as we add Britannica Online to our collection. Britannica replaces the Grolier encyclopedias with a product that offers a broader scope and more multimedia features. At one end of the scale, The Learning Zone adds an interactive K-2 resource; and at the other end, Britannica High School provides a useful research starter and curriculum reinforcement tool for grades 9-12. "

The former elementary school teacher in me went automatically to the Elementary Zone. In the sidebar, I found the Learning Zone which would be good for younger grades since it covers shapes, numbers, and sounds. There are areas to explore, play, read, and draw. There is a section on Amazing Animals from Grolier Online Passport where students can find information on animals and habits, see images and videos, play the Jungle Jumble and read an article.

The Featured Websites section is organized by month. For December, there is lots of information available on the Wright Brothers and various holidays.

I could go on and on about the things I found, but then this post would go on for 2 miles ... so I just encouraged you to go check out NCWiseOwl and see what you can find!

Learning Village is back and ready for you to use!!!!!

Yay!
You can now access WSFCS Learning Village from the WSFCS Homepage under quick links on the left side. There is also a link to WSFCS Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse on the top of the glog below as well as a quick reference guide linked at the bottom of the glog!

Learning Village Updates

I wanted to let you all know that the WSFCS Learning Village will be down for updates the last week in September (end of the day September 24 through the morning of October 4th). The websites which are currently linked through Learning Village will be available from the WSFCS site in the planning section under teacher resources while Learning Village is down.

The glog below shows a few of the features of WSFCS Learning Village. The Curriculum Warehouse tag is a link to Learning Village. The Quick Reference Guide tag near the bottom of the glog is a link to a trifold printout explaining some of the areas you can find in Learning Village.

Learning Village additions coming soon ... (hopefully)

If you are a WSFCS teacher, and you have not looked at the Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse in a while (or ever), well ... you should! :-) There is even a link to Learning Village off the district homepage (it is the 2nd one in the list of Quick Links). If you go look at a department webpage for one of the curriculum areas (English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science), there are links to the WSFCS Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse there too. If you can log into a computer at school, then you should be able to log into Learning Village.

In Learning Village, you can find find ideas, resources, and even lesson plans for curriculum areas (just pick a grade level and subject area). SCOS competency goals and objectives have links to specific resources from LearnNC, netTrekker, and Learn360. You can also find templates for flashcards, bingo games, and graphic organizers for all grade levels in Resources.

If you don't find what you are looking for, or if you have suggestions for other things to include in Learning Village, there is a place for discussions and feedback. When you share ideas or wants or needs, I try to see what it possible to make that happen. I think my job to is help you get what you need, so just let me know!

Instructional Resources in Learning Village

Where is the first place you go to look for ideas for a lesson on a certain topic?

We all have our favorite places to go. Some of your commonly used resources may be listed in the image above. Did you (as a WSFCS teacher) know that you can go to one place and be able to access all of the sites listed?

These Instructional Resource for you to search in are all linked to the front page of the WSFCS Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse. I was impressed to be able to find them all in one place, but what even caught my attention more was that if you search for your grade or subject in Learning Village, there are links to specific things in most of these resources.
For example, if you were supposed to teach a 4th grade Science lesson on Rocks and Minerals, in one place in Learning Village, you could find:

• NC Standard Course of Study Objectives
• Links to Lessons from LearnNC on this competency goal
  
• Links to the Standard Search Site for both Promethean and SMART
• Links to a variety of Online Resources for this competency goal
• Learn360 search results for videos on this competency goal
• Link to netTrekker Search Results on this competency goal
• and Links to Related Content (which may include some already made lessons complete with Essential Questions and other needed information)
  

That means you won't have to take time to search the various sites in the image above for the pieces that fit with your curriculum area and Standard Course of Study. Learning Village is not just for Elementary School teachers .. there is also content available for both Middle and High School subjects.

To get the the WSFCS Learning Village from our New Website home page, look to the left to see Quick Links. Learning Village is the second one there. You can also get to Learning Village by clicking on Employees in the blue channel bar. From the drop down menu, click on Resources. Once you click on Planning, you will see the Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse option!

image taken from WSFCS Learning Village