Connecting Birthday and History ...

My birthday is today!

I was looking at Thinkfinity today and noticed the Today in History area ....

I wondered what happened in history on my birthday ... so I clicked on the calendar and went to find out!

That got me thinking about research for students in a class. Each student has a birthday, right? So perhaps for one research project/writing lesson, students would need to research something that happened in history on the day he or she was born. I had grand ideas of using those projects to create a class book or using the multimedia digital projects created to form a classroom gallery. Students could have a choice as to how to share the information collected. Students could investigate the findings of other students ....

So I started playing around with that idea ...

I have a coworker (Marty) who will celebrate his birthday on August 18 ... what happened in history on that day?

I started getting more and more excited about my idea and how rubrics could be formed to assess research and the creation of the projects. I started seeing wonderful creations in my mind. I started thinking of the other dates that are significant in my life that I could look at ...

Another coworker (Dorene) will celebrate her birthday on Sept. 7, so I went looking for the even in history from that day on the Thinkifinity calendar.  I clicked forward to September and found ..... 

the calendar was blank ....

My first thought was ... oh no, another idea down the drain ...  because it won't work

My next thought was ... it may not work exactly the way I had it planned out in my head originally but it still will work in some shape ...

So I started considering alternatives ...  

• 
  each person could look at events that happened in history on the day he or she was born by looking at it that day  (but what about the kids with Summer birthdays ... my sister's is in July and mine is in August)
• students could look at the past Wonders of the day on Wonderopolis to find an event to research based on the information that was shared on their birthdays
• we could look for other resources to use to explore dates in history

That was when I remembered that the Thinkfinity calendar gives you the option to look at days, week, months, and even years. I had seen the ability to see previous ones when looking at the day, week, or month calendars .... so I wondered if I might be able to look at the calendars from previous years ...

So I decided to try!

The good news is that YOU CAN! 

So for my coworker who will celebrate her birthday on Sept. 7, I looked at the calendar from last year to see what event was shared that day!

Yay!

You may have noticed that several of my pictures include a button to click to view more. When you click on that, you are taken to a page describing the event in 2-3 paragraphs. Along with that information, you can also find links to various lessons, activities, and ideas from the Thinkfinity Content Partners that go along with that topic or could be used with that type of information!

The other ideas that I brainstormed above would work too and I predict you can come up with some even better ways to use these dates in history!

I would love to hear some other ideas, so please leave a comment and share them!

Go pick a date and explore ....

images from http://www.thinkfinity.org/today-in-history

Thinkfinity in the Classroom

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting one of my favorite workshops - Thinkfinity in the Classroom. One of the reasons that I like this workshop so much is because there is something for everyone in Thinkfinity. Several of us have written blog posts on what you can find in Thinkfinity and what some of our favorite partner sites are. Below is my Symbaloo from the workshop.

Have you checked your mail today?

Have you gone to check your mailbox today?

Not your inbox for email but your mailbox for mail from the postal service ....

Did you know that on May 15, 1918, US airmail began service?

I did not know that but I will tell you how I learned it .... I went to Thinkfinity's Today In History calendar.  On the page above the calendar, you can find information about some of the special things we celebrate. Then there are tabs for you to choose which type of calendar you would like to look at: Year, Month, Week, Day.

For each day, there is a small piece of interesting information linked to a page full of resources from Thinkfinity's Content Partners where you can investigate the topic even more.

Here are the Thinkfinity resources related to the even that happened May 15, 1918 (I think the comparison of writing emails and writing letters adds a modern twist):

The first airmail route in the United States was over the 200 mile distance between New York and Washington, D.C., with a stop in Philadelphia. One round-trip flight was flown each day except Sunday. For the first few months, the airmail service was a joint effort of the War Department, which provided the planes and pilots, and the Post Office Department, which handled the mail.

By September of 1920, airmail service routes existed from New York all the way to San Francisco. The airmail system that developed was far different from the first attempts at delivering mail by air, which occurred in France in 1870 when letters were sent skyward attached to balloons. 

ReadWriteThink
Who’s Got Mail? Using Literature to Promote Authentic Letter Writing (3–5) uses literature and shared writing to teach letter-writing format and promote authentic letter writing. 

In Mail Time! An Integrated Postcard and Geography Study (K–2), students write to friends and family asking them to send picture postcards. This activity provides motivation for writing and reading and provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about maps as students discover where their family members and friends live.

Students learn to think about and question texts in ways that develop their analytical capacities and critical reading practices by investigating junk mail in Investigating Junk Mail: Negotiating Critical Literacy at the Mailbox (3–5).

In Exploring Literature through Letter Writing Groups (9–12), students discuss literature through a series of letter exchanges.

Airmail significantly increased the speed with which long distance communication could occur. Today, e-mail has further revolutionized written long-distance communication. In What's the Difference? Beginning Writers Compare E-mail with Letter Writing (K–2), students explore the differences between e-mail and letter writing by contrasting and identifying different forms, and experimenting with their own e-mail and letter compositions.

Smithsonian's History Explorer
Write a letter and then take it to the post office using helpful advice in Send Lincoln a Letter (K-4), an activity based on the children's book Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers.

Science NetLinks
E-mail communication is also the subject of the Science Update Lying on Email (6–12), which discusses a new study examining how to detect lies in e-mail.

EDSITEment
In the unit I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Someone a Letter (3–5), students use historical letters as a starting point for discussion of and practice in the conventions and purposes of letter writing.

photo credit: Today is a good day via photo pin cc

Connections Through Thinkfinity

This week I had a workshop on Thinkfinity in the Classroom. I had a very diverse group of teachers. There was a dance teacher, ESL teacher, health teacher, foreign language teacher, etc. What was so great about this group was that everyone found something that they could use in their classroom in Thinkfinity.

Thinkfinity is a free resource for teachers, parents, and students. There are thousands of lesson plans, podcasts, videos, interactives, e-sheets, etc. At first glance, many teachers think it is only for the core curricular areas (Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts). The attendees in my workshop proved that Thinkfinity has something for every subject area. 

Here are some things that they found. There were some resources that I wasn't aware of, so I wanted to share them with you.

The ESL teacher searched keyword ESL and then clicked on the Thinkfinity Community Tab. On that tab were several resources. One that I thought was very good was "Assembling an ESL Toolbox". Another one was "Oral English assessments and ESL speaking English Activities". 

The Health teacher found a lesson he liked in ScienceNetLinks on diabetes. He said he liked the lesson because it gave him all the information he needed to teach it and articles for students to read. The lesson was "Heart 2: Changing Lifestyles and Heart Health." There is a quiz for students, esheet, assessment and answer key.

A 5th grade teacher found "What can you make from a buffalo" (a student interactive matching game). This came out of a lesson from Smithsonian's American History on "Origin Stories of Plains Indians". When we pulled up the interactive, we were looking at what Native American children made out of the ribs of the buffalo. They made a sled with the ribs. Then I mentioned that Wonderopolis had a Wonder of the Day about How Sleds and Sleighs are Different.

Almost everyone found something in Wonderopolis. A couple that they pointed out were: "Does Matter Really Matter?" and "What Fairy Tale Ending Would You Change?". They really liked the vocabulary words, the comments, and learning about the different wonders.

One of the things I really liked about this workshop was that everyone found something they could use in their classroom. Also, how they could connect to other areas through Thinkfinity and the Content Partners. The other thing I really liked is that I also learned some new things. That is my favorite type of workshop, where we all learn new things together.

Thinkfinity Content Partners

Exploring the Beauty Around Us ...

At one end of downtown Kernersville, there is a botanical garden. The Paul J. Ceiner Botanical Garden sent an invitation to teachers in our school district to come for a Tea and See event to tour the garden. Holly DuBois sent me the invitation saying that it looked like something my daughter and I might want to explore, so Madalyn and I went!

On our tour, we learned a little bit of the history and the future plan for the site. Before he pased away, Paul J. Ceiner had an idea to create a beautiful place for the residents of Kernersville, a town he loved, to enjoy.

Here is the vision statement of this botanical garden:

The vision of Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden is to create a dynamic public garden in Kernersville, North Carolina that surprises visitors from near and far by its scope, quality, and benefits for tourism, community events, and civic pride.

Right now only 2 of the 7 acres are developed, and they are thoughtfully designed and maintained. There is a kitchen garden area where there are raised plant beds in the design of a Moravian Quilt Pattern (Kernersville is not too far from Winston-Salem ... and Salem was originally a Moravian settlement). There are raised plant beds because Mr. Ceiner wanted them to be accessible for everyone and his family has raised plant beds when he was younger. The vegetables, herbs, and spices from this area are not sold, but non-profit groups can come harvest these things to use.

The botanical garden is working with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Science department to develop field trips and lessons to go along with the curriculum for teachers ... fruits, vegetables, nutrients, soil, regional characteristics . . .

I can't wait to see what is developed. The tulips in the front garden area should bloom this week or next week, so I also can't wait for that happen. I have plans for Madalyn and I to return .... and we will both have fully charged cameras (the battery in mine ran out halfway through the tour ...)

I searched for Botanical Garden on Thinkfinity and found some great results:

• Become a Plant Hunter:  Discover 66 plants from around the globe with Plant Hunters, an immersive interactive tool that includes video, fun challenges and images of plants. Check out Plant Hunters, or explore additional classroom resources on botany.
• Beauty All Around You: This is actually a Parent Guide for a trip families can take to explore the beauty in the landscapes and environments all around:  New experiences and places help children understand how ideas connect with the real world. Learning on field trips can spark curiosity and inspire children to ask better questions about the world around them. The people children meet on field trips can encourage children to think broadly about their own futures and help them to consider other possible job.

Are You Ready for Leap Day?

As we approach the end of February, I started thinking about finding resources to share next month. I went to the calendar pages of Thinkfinity, and something caught my eye: classroom activities, websites, and resources for Leap Day!

Here are some of the suggested websites:

• Leap Central
  
  This site explains things about Leap Year that are not common knowledge to most, has resources for party planning, and also includes a list of Leap Day books.
• The Year of Confusion
  
  This online story from Highlights Kids is an engaging account of the time leading up to the revision of the calendar to include Leap Day.
• Star Child: A Learning Center for Young Astronomers
  
  Intended for grade-school-level students, this NASA website recommended by SchoolZone has information about astronomy as well as projects, lesson ideas, and resources for the classroom.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day: Julius Caesar and Leap Days
  
  This site from NASA, focusing on an image of a coin minted with Julius Caesar's likeness, provides a brief explanation of the origins of Leap Day. The site also references Sosigenes, the astronomer who consulted with Caesar on the calendar and invention of Leap Day.

I really like the lists of books available from these sites. The science focus could also be a great connection to make with some of the STEM resources now available.

image source

Civil Rights Movement

Bus that started civil rights movement

Last year Melissa Edwards and I blogged about resources for Black History Month. You can find her blog here, and my blog here. This year, I had a 4th grade teacher ask for resources for the Civil Rights Movement. Here are some of my favorites from what I found.

What is a Civil Right? This is from one of my favorite sites Wonderopolis. This wonder of the day talks about Dr. Martin Luther King, what a civil right is, and has vocabulary words to go with this lesson.

Freedom Songs. This is an extension lesson from the above wonder at Wonderopolis. There are vocabulary words, students can listen to the songs that were sung at lunch counters, and view artifacts from the Civil Rights movement.

Who Was Dr. Martin Luther King? This is another wonder of the day. Learn more about Dr. Martin Luther King and what he did for the Civil Rights movement. A cool science lesson to go with this wonder is Groups We Belong To. This talks about groups we were born into and groups that we can join.

Here is a list from EDSITEment on Black History Month Resources. By scrolling almost to the bottom of the page, you will find a list of Civil Rights lesson plans.

We are the Freedom Riders. This is a lesson plan from ArtsEdge. Find out what singing did for the people who were marching for Civil Rights.

We Shall Overcome. This is a listing of historic places of the Civil Rights Movement.

Here are other links for Civil Rights Museums and web pages for kids that you might find useful:

National Civil Rights Museum: http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/
International Civil Rights Center and Museum: http://www.sitinmovement.org/
Library of Congress Civil Rights Era: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html
The Civil Rights Movement: http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Civ%20Rts.html
American Experience: http://pbskids.org/wayback/civilrights/
Civil Rights Movement: http://www.neok12.com/Civil-Rights-Movement.htm
Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmheroes1.html
The Civil Rights Movement for Kids: http://global.wisc.edu/peace/readings/cambridge-civil-rights-for-kids.pdf
LBJ for Kids: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/lbjforkids/civil.shtm
Civil Rights Lesson Plans: http://americanhistory.mrdonn.org/CivilRights.html
Civil Rights Timeline: http://www.factmonster.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html
The Civil Rights Movement in American Literature: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/thismonth/civilrights/index1.html

Image: 'the bus that started the civil rights movement'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/91218927@N00/3888190955

Crazy Adventures ....

Last week my daughter brought home a picture she drew after her class read a Curious George book in the media center. While she was telling me all about her picture, I realized she was giving me a pretty good summary of the story. (She also told me the list of words on the side of the picture are words you are supposed to find in the picture on the other side of the picture .. but that is a topic for another post). I later found out from the teacher that they were focusing on setting and characters when they completed this activity.

I wondered if I could find other things related to Curious George that might interest her. I went to one of my favorite resources, Thinkfinity.org, to do a search and found a great k-2 lesson from ReadWriteThink:

Taking Photos of Curious George: Exploring Character Through Images:

What would Curious George do if he visited your school? What crazy adventures would he have? These and many other questions provide the framework for students to create a digital class book about Curious George’s adventures in their school. In this lesson, students begin by exploring a familiar character (Curious George) by using books, a website, and a graphic organizer. Students extend what they have learned by imagining what George would do if he visited their school. Students work in pairs to discuss locations in the school George might visit and what he might do in each location. Next, students take George on a trip to each location and take a photo of him posed in a humorous way. After taking pictures of the funny monkey in a variety of poses and locations, students work together to create a storyboard and then a digital "book" that tells their story.

I see ways the ideas in the lesson could be used with other storybook characters besides just Curious George. Have students think about the main character in the book he or she just read and consider some of the questions listed in the description above ... and then build off of that.

The  ReadWriteThink  lesson plan pulls in the possibility for using many technology tools (adapt this lesson to use the idea with the tools you have):

• digital camera 
• computer with internet access
• digital storytelling sites
• presentation resources/sites
• websites 

Many of the ideas in this lesson go along with the Information and Technology Essential Standards as well as the ISTE NETS for Students, while also meeting various reading and writing standards.

Think about all the creative thinking this would encourage ... and even require. In my mind, creative thinking is a form of critical thinking as well.

Just because this lesson is designated as a k-2 lesson, that does not mean that it would not also have wonderful results with older children. This could be used as a great prompt for the creation of a story and some digital media.

Imagine all the crazy adventures that story character could have with students ...

Read ... Write ... Think ...

My daughter is in Kindergarten. She amazes me each day with the words that she says (and uses correctly). I know that her verbal vocabulary is much greater than the words she can read and write. She also has a very active imagination (hmmm ... wonder where that comes from?).

After talking with her teacher, it is clear that she has a good understanding of letter knowledge. She can the identify letters and tell you what sound that letter makes individually. It is when you put the letters together to make words that is causing a bit of trouble right now. We need to work on her ability to put those sounds together. She also really enjoys the way words are spelled. She will "read" a string of letters to me to find out what word they spell.

So I have been looking for some ways to work with her. Since my job is in Instructional Technology, it would make sense for me to look for some technology options (I also have a background in Reading Education).

The other day I came across some information on Thinkfinity about Puzzle Me Words from ReadWriteThink:

Puzzle Me Words is an exciting new interactive from ReadWriteThink.  Students in grades K-1 learn about language by combining letters to form words based on the pictures that they see.  A talking school bus named Scootie reads the words aloud and further reinforces letter sounds for young learners. With each new round that is completed, students earn a new puzzle piece toward their prize puzzle: a coloring sheet they can print, color and display proudly at home or in school.  Try it with students today!

Although I thought that description was interesting, the way that I saw and heard my daughter interact with this activity made it so much better. I think it would be great to use with students in a classroom.

ReadWriteThink is more than just a website; it's a community of educators working to improve literacy learning for every student. ReadWriteThink is sponsored by IRA (International Reading Association) and NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).

I wonder how Puzzle Me Word and many other resources from ReadWriteThink would be on an Interactive White Board (IWB) in a classroom for a small group of students as a center activity?

image source

Hop on the Bus with Rosa Parks!

Do you know why we celebrate Rosa Parks on December 1? Do your students?

Rosa Parks was not born on December 1, but she did something on December 1 for which she is remembered.

If you need any ideas for things to use in the classroom, check out the available resources from these instructional sites:

• Scholastic.com shares information: Rosa Parks: How I fought for Civil Rights.
• The Library of Congress shares an American Memory of Dec. 1, 1955: Today in History: Dec. 1.
• The My Hero Project has information on a Freedom Hero: Rosa Parks.

Here are some resources I found from searching in Thinkfinity:

• On the calendar of information on EDSITEment, December 1 features information, lessons, and resources to learn about Rosa Parks.
• Rosa Parks is also featured in the Eyes on the Prize series by PBS.
• Wonder-of-the-Day #241 on Wonderopolis: "What does it mean to stand for something?" highlights Rosa Parks.

Here are some videos from Learn360:

• Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement (2004, Mazzzarella Media)
• Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement (2000, Sunburst Visual Media)
• Famous Americans: Rosa Parks (Mother of Civil Rights) (2008, Worldwide Academics)
• Stand Up For Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement in America (2008, Mazzarella Media)
• Daily Almanac: December 1 (2009, Slim Goodbody)

Here are some resources I found from searching in netTrekker:

• Rosa Parks: The Woman Who Changed a Nation (provides biographical information on civil rights activitist, Rosa Parks, along with updates of services that she continued to perform until her death in 2005)
• Spartacus Educational: Rosa Parks (provides biographical information on the story of Rosa Parks as well as an interview from 1977 in which Ms. Parks remembers the bus incident)
• Henry Ford Musuem: Rosa Parks Bus (an absolutely fascinating tale of the actual bus that Rosa Parks was riding in that sparked the Civil Rights Movement) 

Image Source

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?

Instructional Resources and Picture Books !!!

What is your favorite type of book?

I am a big fan of picture books for children or all ages (even adults)!

According to the School Library Journal, a group of authors and illustrators have banded together to declare November 2011 as Picture Book Month:

Picture Book Month is an international initiative to encourage and celebrate literacy with picture books, says founder Dianne de Las Casas, an author and storyteller, who along with authors/illustrators Katie Davis, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Wendy Martin, and author Tara Lazar have joined forces to spread the word that picture books are alive and well, especially in this digital age where an unprecedented amount of picture books have been made into ebooks and are on ereading devices such as the iPad, the Nook, and the Kindle.

I decided to look at a few of my favorite resources (these are all content partners of Thinkfinity)  to see what they have related to picture books:

Wonderopolis

• #254 Why don't all books have pictures?
• #340 How many different ways can you read?
• #376 Where is the Hundred Acre Wood?
• #226 How can you become a better reader?
• #210 Who was Mother Goose?
• #150 Who was Theodore Geisel?

ReadWriteThink (I was surprised how many resources I found for middle and high school)

• The Children’s Picture Book Project
• Picture Books as Framing Texts: Research Paper Strategies for Struggling Writers 
• Using Picture Books to Explore Identity, Stereotyping, and Discrimination
• Creative Writing Through Wordless Picture Books 
• Inclusive Stories: Teaching About Disabilities With Picture Books
• Using Picture Books to Teach Setting Development in Writing Workshop
• Using Children’s Literature to Spark Learning
• Postmodern Picture Books in Middle School 
• Females in the Spotlight: Strong Characters in Picture Books 
• Comparing and Contrasting: Picturing an Organizational Pattern Using Picture Books as Mentor Texts
• Preparing for the Journey: An Introduction to the Hero Myth Using Picture Books

ArtsEdge

• Set a Poem to Music:  After exploring a “singable” picture book as a class, each student examines a personally selected poem for rhythm to determine its musical meter. Using previous musical skills, students set the poem to music. As a final reflection, they create a two-page spread of a picture book that contains their “singable” poem.
• Map it Out:  Explore how illustrations contribute to the telling of a story by creating illustrations to accompany text, and then creating text to accompany illustrations. Students will explore picture books (without words) and discuss the specific elements of the illustrations that "tell" the story. They will learn to "read" illustrations as they look at the ways in which pictures reveal information about the characters, setting, and plot of a story.
• Animal Habitats: Pre-readers are introduced to animal habitats through story, song, and dramatic play using children’s picture books. Students use chronological ordering and phonics to reinforce beginning literacy skills. Students explore a non-traditional method of book illustration and create their own story page

I was pleasantly delighted with what I was able to find when I went to various instructional resource site and simply searched for "picture books" since there were so many interesting finds! Besides the few sites listed above, here are the search results on Thinkfinity, netTrekker, Shmoop, LEARN NC, and even Learn360!

Let's Celebrate Picture Books this month and all year long!!


*I created the image at the top by copying and pasting a list of picture book title to make a word cloud using Wordle.net (I used a tilde ~ between words to keep the words in the titles together)

Puzzle Pieces?

Last week I was fortunate to attend Thinkfinity training. Thinkfinity is a free collection of lessons and resources for in the classroom, afterschool, home, and even professional development. This great site is sponsored by the Verizon foundation. They offer general things and specific resources for states based on their guidelines. When searching by standards, I noticed lots of resources for Common Core and 21st Century Skills.

In my opinion, one of the best things about Thinkfinity is the Content Partners they work with. I think of their partners as puzzle pieces working together for teachers and students.

"Verizon Thinkfinity Content Partners produce the program's nine discipline-specific, standards-based Web sites. Each site includes lessons for teachers, activities to use in and out of the classroom, games for young children and teens, adult literacy resources and reference materials for anyone in the education field, as well as for parents and afterschool practitioners."

• National Geographic Education
• Science NetLinks from AAAS
• econedlinks from the Council for Economic Education
• readwritethink from the International Reading Association and NCTE
• ArtsEdge from The Kennedy Center
• Smithsonian's History Explorer
• Illuminations resources for teaching math from NCTM
• EDSITEment! from the National Endowment for the Humanities of Art
• Wonderopolis from NCFL

The teaching resources available from these Content Partners are aligned to National Education Standards.

I think that Thinkfinity has found lots of puzzle pieces to encourage, support, and engage learning experiences for students and teachers!

image by Patrick Hoesley found at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60057912@N00/4579775685/

Learning About Government Can Be Fun!

At a workshop this summer, a teacher was creating a lesson for her students talking about the different areas of government. A couple of days later, EDSITEment posted a lesson plan with the title of "Balancing Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances. This gave me an idea for a blog post. I decided to find some other lessons about Civics and Government and put them into a Glog. I have written about Glogster EDU quite a few times before, but find it a great way to "posterize" lesson plans to share with others. Below is my Glog on the Three Branches of Government.



Some more websites are listed below:

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids (K-12) You choose the grade level.
SAS Curriculum Pathways (6-12)
My Social Studies Diigo Links


Hope you enjoy these lesson ideas and web sites!

Spooky Lesson Plans

On Thursday nights this summer, Wonderopolis created Camp What-A-Wonder on Twitter from 8:00 - 9:00 ET (follow #WonderChat). Each week is on a different topic. The first night was about camp memories, the second Thursday about bugs, the third Thursday favorite or worst camp recipes, and last night we talked about spooky stories. Wonderopolis shared a couple of lesson ideas from their partner site Thinkfinity, and that got me to thinking. So, I created a glog on Spooky Stories with links to lesson plans from Wonderopolis, EDSITEment, ReadWriteThink, and ARTSEDGE. All are partners with Thinkfinity. 

These look like very interesting lesson plans to help promote literacy, comprehension, and reading. I don't quite understand it, because spooky was never my favorite genre, but young people love reading scary stories. Why not give these lessons a try?

Is a Tall Tale really tall?

Recently a Wonder-of-the-Day from Wonderopolis really got me thinking (but I guess that is what it is supposed to do): Why do they call it a "Tall Tale"?

Focusing on reading genres, like Tall Tales, was something I really enjoyed when I was in the classroom. We would do genre studies where we would explore many examples of a certain genre type and then talk about the similarities and characteristics we found. I also liked to introduce a variety of vocabulary words that could be associated with the genre. Wonderopolis has done a great job of pulling all those thing together! I could have used their help several years ago when I was trying to do all that. :)

I did a search on ReadWriteThink to find resources on Tall Tales:

• A lesson plan: Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing
• A tall tales booklist
• A writing rubric for students to provide evidence that the stories they have written contain elements important in a tall tale
• A sequencing activity: Did Paul Bunyan gouge out the Grand Canyon before or after he dug the Great Lakes? Students create a life-sized timeline showing the sequence of events in this tall tale.
• A podcast: Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and the characters in these four tall tales have plenty of unusual gifts to keep you reading all winter. Listen in to hear about them and to meet Ingrid Law, the author of Savvy and Scumble.

I also searched for Tall Tales resources on ArtsEdge:

• Tall Tales Today: Where have all the heroes gone?
• Exploring American Tall Tales: What can our tall tales tell us about the American spirit?

*Wonderopolis, ReadWriteThink, and ArtsEdge are all Thinkfinity Content Partners!!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/65172294@N00/4285640113

Summer Technology Workshops ... A Reflection

This past Friday, June 17 and Monday, June 20, the Instructional Technology Department held a 2 day, 10 hour collection of technology workshops. They were all a big success! I really liked how the workshops built upon each other.

My workshop was about an overview of Thinkfinity. Thinkfinity is a web site that has lesson plans, multimedia, interactives, e-sheets, and professional development webinars. Everything within Thinkfinity and its partner web sites can be accessed from home or school by teachers, students, and parents. All of this is free! I have written several times about Thinkfinity before and it can be found here.

Resources that I used for this workshop can be found on the Thinkfinity Partner Sites on the WSFCS wiki page. You do not have to have access to the wiki in order to view our pages. Some of the resources that I used are pdf's that show how to navigate around the different partner sites within Thinkfinity.

So why do you care about this great web site? Thinkfinity helps to differentiate learning, is aligned with North Carolina Standard Course of Study and National Standards, there are lots of interactives for students, meets standards of the new Teacher Evaluation Tool (McREL), and meets NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology Skills. A couple of the standards that I pulled out of the Teacher Evaluation Tool are: I c - "Teachers lead the teaching profession.Teachers strive to improve the teaching profession. They contribute to the establishment of positive working conditions in their school. They actively participate in and advocate for decision-making structures in education and government that take advantage of the expertise of teachers. Teachers promote professional growth for all educators and collaborate with their colleagues to improve the profession"; and IV e - "Teachers help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Teachers encourage students to ask questions, think creatively, develop and test innovative ideas, synthesize knowledge, and draw conclusions. They help students exercise and communicate sound reasoning; understand connections; make complex choices; and frame, analyze, and solve problems."

My absolute favorite partner site from Thinkfinity is Wonderopolis. Wonderopolis has "Wonders of the Day" that can get families to research, share, and discuss together. You see commercials all the time talking about family game night, now they can have family wonder night! A couple of my other favorite sites are National Geographic Education, and ReadWriteThink.

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Exploring Some STEM Resources

Having a strong Reading and Language Arts background, I don't normally share many resources for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). I have decided that needs to change. I need to explore those resources more myself.

I am going to start my journey by gathering a list of possible STEM resources for me to explore and share. I think Thinkfinity would be a good place for me to start. If you have some good STEM resources, please let me know!

Here are some Resources and Tools I found:

• Invention at Play from the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (How many different ways can you help the ball reach its goal?). This reminds me of Fantastic Contraption.


• Weekly Science Updates "Quirky, entertaining and informative, these 60-second features cover the latest discoveries in science, technology and medicine."


• Patch Tool from Illuminations (grade PreK-5) Spin, flip, and snap together the shapes to fill in the outline with geometric figures.


• Marble Mania from Science NetLinks (grade 3-5) "The randomness and probability of marbles being pulled out of a "bag" are calculated automatically and for trials up to 500."


• Calculation Nation from Illuminations (grade 3-9) Play math strategy games to challenge yourself or test your skills against other online competitors.


• Coolest Engineering Job Ever! from Xpeditions (Resource): "Tony Baxter is Senior Vice President of Creative Development for Walt Disney Imagineering, A.K.A. Chief Imagineer. Read how he was inspired by the hoodoo geologic formations of Bryce Canyon, Utah, to design the popular Thunder Mountain ride, and how other aspects of Disney parks reflect thematic geography."


• Geography Action!: Mapping Europe from Xpeditions (grade K-12): "Students K-12 learn fundamentals of mapping and data-layering in these pre-GIS activities. The continent of Europe is the context for analyzing cultural and environmental data, from animals and protected areas, to tourism, to acid rain. Learners of all ages will have fun assembling and interacting with giant maps of Europe; educators will love watching students work collaboratively to interpret charts and develop map keys and symbols."

Here are some Lesson Plans I found:

• Powerful Patterns: Playing with Patterns from Illuminations (grade PreK-2) "Create repeating patterns using the interactive Shape Tool, and then recreate them with your voice, your movements, or other objects."


• How Does My Garden Grow? Writing in Science Field Journals from ReadWriteThink (grade K-2) "Students work together to plant a garden and then record their observations in"


• Animal Adaptations from Science NetLinks (grade 3-5) "Students visit a website to learn about how animals adapt and hold classroom discussions about whether or not the animals have adapted well to their natural habitats."


• What Does a Scientist Do? from Science NetLinks (grade 6-8) "Students develop an understanding of the diversity and nature of various science disciplines."


• Don’t Freeze the Engine from Illuminations (grade 9-12) "Do you know enough about percents to find the right mixture of antifreeze to prevent freezing?"

Have You Ever Wondered ...?

I have been invited to attend the 20th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy. I am very excited about attending this conference. One of the things they have asked me to do was to send digital images of blogs, wikis, etc. to share at the panel presentation I will be a part of. This reminded me that I hadn't written a blog post about Wonderopolis™. I wrote a blog post about Thinkfinity resources for Black History Month, one for Smithsonian's History Explorer, and Thinkfinity from Verizon.

Wonderopolis™ is a brought to us from the National Center for Family Literacy. According to their website; "Wonderopolis™ engages and inspires families in the pursuit of education and learning together." I really love the use of engages and inspires families. As I go through the daily Wonders, I see lots of things that I have wondered about. Some of my favorites have been #20 What Makes Popcorn Pop; #21 What Fairy Tale Ending Would You Change; and #149 How Many Peanuts are in a Jar of Peanut Butter. I like #20 and #149 because I like eating popcorn and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (separately, not at the same time). #21 I like because I have shared with teachers the ReadWriteThink lesson plan resources on Fractured Fairy Tales and this fits right into those resources. 

Some other things that I like about the wonders of the day:

There is always an introductory video. This is always a good lead into a lesson or activity.
Questions are listed of what people have wondered about. These would be good "Essential Questions" to start out with.

The "Did You Know" section and "Try it Out" section gives you an explanation of the wonder and some extension activities to try.
The two that I like the best are: vocabulary words and lesson plans attached to the wonder. These are huge! We are always trying to get our students and children to build their vocabulary. If a teacher has an interactive white board, they could take these vocabulary words and make activities for students. Then, they could create extension activities using the lesson plan attached.

One of the past wonders (on dictionary's I think) had a great idea for vocabulary. It said to go to a daily word website, write the word down on an index card, write the definition, draw a picture to illustrate the word, and then share it with someone. Instead of writing the word down on paper, another idea would be to create a Glog (using EDU Glogster). The students could do the same thing on a Glog as on an index card, but it would be digital and could be shared with other classes.

Why don't you go and check out Wonderopolis™ and view the wonders of this website.