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!

How do you share book info and activities?

Do you ever assign projects and activities to go along with the books your students read in class?

Do you ever share information about the author of those book?

What about projects other students have done related to that book?

I enjoyed sharing that type of information with students when we were working with a book. I think knowing the background information and seeing how the book was interpreted by others adds to the comprehension ability.

I did have trouble deciding how to share all that information. At times, we used journals, posters, powerpoint presentations, and even 3-ring binders. If I had new things to add or needed to make changes to what was there already, then I ran into issues. Then I started just adding links to a webpage or a wiki (but that did not look very nice ... or as nice and colorful as I wanted it to).

I found that with GlogsterEDU, I could pull all of my ideas and links together in a creative and colorful way. There is a free teacher account available. Below is an example of a project page I used with my students. The pink circles that show up on some pieces are links.

I was able to add a video from SchoolTube that I found. I added links to information from the publisher about the story elements. I added instructions and links to activities for the students to choose to complete. I added background information on the author and the setting. I feel like I was able to pull things together using this type of presentation. GlogsterEDU was just the tool that I used for this project. There are many other great ones you could use to pull together the information you want to share.

Because it's Cute ....

... is not a reason to use a technology tool. 

There should be an educational reason and purpose to use technology.If the teacher wants to use GlogsterEDU, their reason shouldn't be "because it's cute".  What would be some good educational reasons to use GlogsterEDU? Let's look at a couple:

• NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology Skills K-5.TT.1 Use technology tools and skills to reinforce and extend classroom concepts and activities.
• NETS for Teachers: 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments - Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to
  maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers.
• NETS for Students:1. Creativity and Innovation - Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.  

Teachers plan using their curriculum goals and objectives. So, if the teacher was going to teach Science Grade 2 Goal 1: The learner will conduct investigations and build an understanding of animal life cycles, they could decide a good tool to use would be GlogsterEDU. The teacher didn't decide to use a tool just "because it's cute". They were meeting goals, objectives, and technology standards. 

I believe these are excellent reasons for using tools to enhance curriculum, don't you?

Update: I was reading through Twitter and came across this blog post by Michael Gorman (@mjgormans) and wanted to post a link here. Ten Steps to Transforming Past Lessons for 21st Century Learners.  I feel that his #2 and #3 steps fit very nicely into this blog post. Please go and read this post for more information.

Image: 'give a hoot' http://www.flickr.com/photos/83156837@N00/5151942206

How many ways can we journal?

Journal writing was something I strongly encouraged in my 4th grade classes (so many benefits). Some years we (me and students) would write in journals for 15 minutes at the beginning of writing class. There would be music playing and students knew that this was a time for thinking and working not asking questions. One year, I had students write in journals at the end of the day about things they had learned or things that had happened that day. Students had to share those journal entries with someone each night (in an attempt to avoid the "What did you do at school today" and "Nothing" conversations). My last year in a classroom, my students used blogs as "thinking logs" or as a type of journal. Journals can take many forms, and, as much as I like to encourage writing, they don't even have to be in written form.
I got to thinking about all the ways students could do journals after watching my 4 year old daughter walk around the house carrying a Flip camera. According to her she was making a video to send to a family member. When I started listening, I noticed that she was telling about her day, her toys, the weather outside, and a little about herself. Those are the things I remember writing in a diary or things my students wrote in journals. I guess my little girl was making a type of video journal ...
Realizing that caused me to think about the ways various technology tools could be used for "journals":

• GlogsterEDU could be used to create "A Day in the Life" posters or even a "What happened this week" poster
• Student created blogs could easily be used as a replacement for the spiral notebook journals in my classroom ... as a teacher, I used blogs to keep track of the things I tried in the classroom that did or did not work
  
• The "A Picture Each Day" project many participate in could be seen as another type of journal ... pictures could even be posted on things like VoiceThread where narration could be added
• Programs like Animoto or PhotoPeach could be used to pull together photos to be used as a visual journals
• Interactive Timelines could be used used as journals

I am sure my short list is not very comprehensive. What other things can be used for journals?

image created using Wordle.net

Using EDU Glogster in the Social Studies Classroom

I had a workshop a week ago for some Social Studies teachers. They wanted to know how they could use EDU Glogster in their class with students. They also wanted to know why they would want to use EDU Glogster in their classroom.

So, I created a glog on Using Glogster in Social Studies. The workshop went well. We talked about ways to use EDU Glogster and I showed some examples of how other people have used it in their social studies classroom. One of the ways I use EDU Glogster is as a teaching tool. I usually show my glog to workshop participants and teach from the glog. EDU Glogster is a great introduction to a lesson also.

In the Department of Instructional Technology, we are creating "About Us" glogs to post to our department's web page and on our department's blog.

SMART Board Basics

I have been going out to schools and conducting staff development on SMART Boards. As I was conducting the staff development several teachers asked if there were handouts for them to refer back to when they got back to their classroom and tried to remember what I had gone over. This got me to thinking about how I could get them information in non-traditional ways. The first thing I did was upload several Quick Reference Guides from SMART Technologies into my wiki for workshop attendees to open and view. Next, I created a glog from Glogster EDU on SMART Board Basics and embedded it into my wiki. Below is the glog I created.



I then created a postcard in Microsoft Publisher that had all the url's that they would need to find my glog, Quick Reference Guides, information on SMART Response Systems, and SMART Slates. I passed them out in yesterday's staff development and showed them how to navigate my wiki. I think the teachers were pleased.

EDU Glogster Presentations

EDUGlogster has two new features for premium users. Presentations and Portfolios. I put together a couple of Presentations from Glogs that I had previously created or that someone else created and I added to prepared Glogs. The Presentations are listed below.





To create a Presentation, gather similar glogs together, for instance staff development, reading, social studies, etc. Even if you didn't create them yourself, you can add to prepared glogs. To add to prepared glogs: click on a glog and scroll down to find the "Rate It" box. Within this box you can Add to Favorites, Embed it, Edmodo it, and Add to prepared Glogs. Now you can combine like glogs together to make a presentation. You can then look at an individual glog by clicking on the page that is showing.

Connecting EduGlogster and netTrekker Search?

I have been focused on ways students can use the information and images they find to create glogs (multimedia posters) with EduGlogster. Students can use colors, shapes, images, videos, and audio recordings to share the knowledge discovered after completing research using netTrekker Search. I was looking today at the netTrekker village forum. I had seen a thread about glogster/eduglogster before but had not really looked at the comments. Teachers talked about the ways they could create followup assignments by linking various activities found on netTrekker. Something clicked in my mind about all the things that are possible pulling together these two great sites.

I have used EduGlogster as a way to pull together links to share with students and as a way to share resources with teachers in workshops. I have used EduGlogster to pull together information about the ways netTrekker Search can be used to aid a teacher's instruction. I am not sure why I did not put those two ideas together ...

What other ways can EduGlogster and netTrekker Search be used together?

Lots of Resources for Searching

I recently found this EduGlogster and thought it would be a great resource to share with both teachers and students. Have fun exploring!

(Hint: When you mouse over the poster above, each time you see a pink circle, that is a link to that site).
Poster from School Library Journal

Creating a Glog

Thanks to a member of the NC Ed Tech Chat Skype Group, I discovered a Prezi on Creating Glogs on Glogster created by Dorene Bates! I am a big fan of Glogster and EduGlogster. I have not used Prezi too much although I have seen some great examples. Here are some other Glogster Resources I share in workshops. Now I will need to add this presentation to that list! Thanks Dorene!

Creating a Glog on Prezi

"Tweaking" a Project that was "Tweeted"

I regularly find good ideas on many of the blogs that I follow, but some of the blogs, like Digital Tools for Teachers, share great resources almost all the time. When I looked at Stephanie's blog (@artysteph26 on twitter) a few days ago, I was not disappointed. One of her recent posts was about a Character Scrapbook Project that she found on Scholastic. The project provides a way for students to analyze characters from the books they have read. I am a big fan of "Reader Response Projects" where students are asked to "do" something with the information they have read (something more than just answering comprehension or recall questions). I think challenging students to create something encourages a deeper of level of thinking.
I posted (tweeted) about this Character Scrapbook Project on twitter yesterday since I wanted to share it with others. Today someone (@lisamonthie on twitter) sent me a message that she took the project I tweeted about yesterday and "tweaked" it by using the idea to create a glogster project. Information about that "tweaked" project can be found on Lisa's blog, Learning 2.0 in a post called "A Few Twists on a Great Lesson". Since I am also a big fan of glogster, combining a reading response project with a glog only made it better in my book! I taught glogster workshops at an elementary school a few weeks ago, and I can't wait to share this project idea with those teachers (and you)!
By the way, look at the various forms of technology communication that were involved in the creation of this project: I used my RSS reader to read a blog about the character project, then I tweeted about the project, someone read my tweet about a project someone else found, then used that information to create another project which she wrote about on her blog, and then sent me a tweet on twitter to let me know. Who says teaching is independent work? I have never met any of the people mentioned in this blog in person but we somewhat unknowingly collaborated to create a project to increase critical thinking skills for students!
I feel so fortunate to learn from others!

image from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/scrapbook/

Don't know what to do without technology . . .

This week, I have spent several days at an elementary school in Winston-Salem. After seeing EduGlogster at NCTIES, a member of the staff wanted to learn more about that great tool. NCTIES is a great opportunity to see and experience new things.

At this school, there is a strong level of support behind using technology to support students and to aid in instruction. They want to integrate technology seamlessly into the classroom practices for both teachers and students. I overheard several teacher laughing about not knowing what to do without technology when the power went out for a little while one day.

At the beginning of the year, these teachers moved into classrooms that really did not have much in them other than technology ... there was no dry erase board, overhead, or even textbook. Although I am sure there was a little bit of grumbling at first, the teachers had to learn how to make the technology work for them in those classrooms. It was a "Sink or Swim" way to start the year. Now towards the end of the year, these teachers reflect on those "early days" and are so glad they had to learn the technology because now they don't know what they would do without it.

While I was visiting this school, I sat in on Single School Culture Meetings. At the beginning of each of these meetings (for 2 days), I presented a brief overview of EduGlogster and showed lots of examples. Sometimes when a technology tool is presented, it is received with the "oh another thing I have to make fit in" attitude. That was not the case for those two days. I could barely get through the presentation before teachers were already sharing ideas of ways teachers and students could use this for projects and lessons. The Single School Culture Facilitator thought of several ways to use EduGlogster to help out all the teachers with the Essential Standards and resources. This staff saw opportunities for learning something new and being able to use it almost immediately. That is pretty powerful learning.

I overheard many of these teachers saying, "I don't know what I would do without the technology in my classroom." I hope they would still teach the students, but I understand what they are saying.

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaljingsr/3914729343/

"Books are not dead . . . "

Gail Lovely led a session at NCTIES 2010 called "Books Are Not Dead . . . Using Technology to Enliven Your Literacy Program" that I was unable to attend. However through the power of twitter, I learned about some of the ideas and resources she shared in her session. The snippets of information that "leaked out" made me want to go find out more, so I checked out both her website and her NCTIES Site. All kinds of great reading resources can be found at her site, which made this "Reading Teacher" smile! Her presentation from NCTIES also brought a smile to my face since it showed so many ways that technology and reading can be combined seamlessly. Key to reading comprehension for students is the interaction that takes with books before, during, and after reading. Really reading something involves more than just being able to just call the words correctly. Being able to use what you have gained to create something else is a better measure of learning. Gail Lovely shows how various technology tools can be used to make all of these things possible.

This presentation ends with a statement that I think summarizes it very well: "Reading is STILL a cornerstone. Books are NOT dead . . .don't make reading deadly!"

Books Are Not Dead By Gail Lovely

View more presentations from glovely.

Save Paper and Assign an Educational Glog!

Are you in a mood to save trees and promote creativity in your students? Check out http://www.glogster.com/edu/. Click register and fill out the information. Open your email and click the verification link. Click "create a new glog" to make your own. But first let me tell you what a glog is. A glog is an online poster that can include graphics, text, images, video and sounds. To start your own glog you will want to add or create a background or wall as they call it. Then add your text, graphics, pictures, videos and sounds. Students can create glogs about things you already have them do in class. Instead of writing what they learned on a piece of paper have them create a glog. You might be pleasantly surprised at what they produce for you. When they are finished with their glog, they can email it to you as a glog gift. And just think; you won’t have any papers to carry home!

Creating Online Posters at Glogster.com/edu

Are you in a mood to save trees and promote creativity in your students? Check out http://www.glogster.com/edu/. Click register and fill out the information. Open your email and click the verification link. Click "create a new glog" to make your own. But first let me tell you what a glog is. A glog is an online poster that can include graphics, text, images, video and sounds. To start your own glog you will want to add or create a background or wall as they call it. Then add your text, graphics, pictures, videos and sounds. Students can create glogs about things you already have them do in class. Instead of writing what they learned on a piece of paper have them create a glog. You might be pleasantly surprised at what they produce for you. When they are finished with their glog, they can email it to you as a glog gift. And just think; you won’t have any papers to carry home!