Google Tours

I recently discovered a great new way to use Google Earth in the classroom....Google Tours!  A Google Tour is a series or collection of placemarks streamed together like a tour and saved as a file.  You can create tours on a variety of topics and places.  My students are currently planning a dream vacation anywhere on Earth!  Their vacation must include 10 placemarks or "stops" that includes a short description, web link, and/or photo for each stop.  I am also excited to know that the newest version of Google Earth also allows for audio narration, so that music or voices can be added to the background.  This is something I plan on experimenting with in my 8th grade classes.

Google Tours can be integrated into a variety of content areas as well.  Students could create Google Tours on the setting of a particular book in a Language Arts class or traking battles of a war in a Social Studies class.  Below are some websites that I have found particularily useful when getting started with Google Tours.  I hope this inspires you to check it out for yourself! 

My website Google Tours page
Creating Google Tours
Adding narration

'Til next time!
~TTT

Write On!!!

I have to share a fabulous resource for writing!  It was featured on the ilearntechnology blog a few weeks ago, but was first tweeted by @johntspencer.  This website http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/ is a tumblr webpage where students can go daily for new, quick picture writing prompts.  The pictures and topics are geared for middle school grades, however, some could be adapted for upper elementary grades as well.

                                           (example writing prompt)


I love the fact that students can quickly go to the website, (either using 1-1 computing or by having the teacher display the site on a projector or IWB) find their creative writing inspiration, and write away!  If students have 1-1 computers, why not have the students blog their responses instead?!?  If students do not have a blog account a simple writing notebook would suffice.  The pictures and topics are really wonderful and can inspire the most reluctant of writers in your classrooms.  I hope you find this website as inspiring as I did!!

~TTT

Geek Speak: Let the kids teach!

Is it really already October?!?  I was amazed to see this on my calendar this morning.  The first few months of school always seem to fly by.

Recently, I had to create a student achievement goal for this school year that is linked to my performance pay for the year.  Because so many of the ed tech state standards are performance based and hard to measure with quick assessments, my asst. principal and I thought it would be best to stick with something easier to assess (at least for my first year as a tech teacher).  So it ends up that my student achievement goal is linked to my 6th graders knowing various content technology vocabulary.  After choosing various words, I knew that there would be certain words on my list that would not be covered teaching my project-based units.  I had to come up with an idea to cover them all.  Then after doing a little searching and some help from Ask A Tech Teacher, my "Geek Speak" project/vocab. wall was born!

What is "Geek Speak?"  Geek Speak is just a funny coined phrase you can use instead of "technology vocabulary."  Something that middle schoolers might buy into more as well.  I chose a bunch of technology vocabulary that would act as my "geek speak" words and posted them on one of my walls in my tech lab (see image above).  (I currently just finished hanging this up.)  Next, I am going to have each student in all of my classes choose a word from the wall.  They will then have to come up with a 2-3 minute presentation on their chosen word.  You can set different parameters for their presentation, like have them try a new Web 2.0 tool to present, have them create a visual representation of the word, use powerpoint/prezi, etc.  How you want them to present is really up to you!  After each student presents (I plan on having 2-3 students present at the beginning of class each day) have the class record the word and definition in a log (either online or paper/pencil) to keep track of vocab. meanings.  All words will be covered by the end of presentations and students will have more ownership of their learning!  I am really excited to try this out...AND of course let you know how it goes.:-)

Until next time....

~TTT

Apple on the Brain!

Lately, I have really been looking into (and secrectly wishing, hoping, and praying about) getting a class set of either ipod touches or ipads for my technology classes.  I am constantly amazed at the quality of educational apps that are now available.  There are so many amazing learning opportunities my students could experience with these apps!  For a school filled with PCs and zero Apple products, it would also be great to expose my students to the wonderful world of Apple!

There is a wonderful blog out there called Learning in Hand, created by Tony Vincent, that has so many wonderful resources for using moble devices, such as the apple products I listed above, in the classroom.  Just recently, I read one of his blog posts titled Myths about iOS, iPad, iPhone & iPod touch that I found very informative for anyone with, or wanting a class set of these amazing tools.

For those of you that have ipod touches or ipads, how are YOU currently using them in the classroom?  I'd love to hear your ideas! 

~TTT

(Talking Tech Teacher)

Apple image from http://www.logoblog.org/apple_logo.php

Six Benefits to Project Based Learning and Technology Integration

Six Benefits to Project Based Learning and Technology Integration

Check out this post from Christa Love from TechnoKids.com. Fits in with my post from last week. Good stuff!

Why I love Wikis!

My love for wikis came from one of my NAU Educational Technology Master's classes called Creating Learning Environments.  I was amazed at how my professor was able to create a user friendly Master's level course with just a wiki!  No Blackboard?  No Vista?  No Moodle?....No need!  Not with a wiki, anyways.  The more my class trudged on, the more I was amazed with just how capable a wiki actually was.  The more I used our course wiki, the more fascinated I became with them.  I then decided to start using them on my own for some of the project-based assessments that I had to create for my various classes. 

Today, I still love the fact that wikis allow for easy WYSIWYG editing, easy collaboration, easy organization....and are completely free!  I now have a classroom wiki (http://misshendleysclass.pbworks.com/)  instead of a classroom website because of all the advantages a wiki offers me.  I do love that a wiki allows me to design and organize my own site however I choose.  I can upload files and images, and even embed several Web 2.0 tools to further the usefulness of my wiki.  I can make students contributors to my site as well if I so choose.

Wikis are not only useful as classroom websites, but can be great for presenting information on a topic, or a great place for a group working on a project to share ideas and documents as well.  I even use a separate wiki site as my professional e-portfolio.  Students could do this too!  I often present lessons and units on my classroom wiki for a real online learning experience.  There are many different wikis out  there to choose from, but my two favorites are Pbworks and Wikispaces.  Both sites offer educational memberships. 

I hope this post gets you thinking about using wikis in your own teaching adventures!

~ TTT
(Talking Tech Teacher)

PBL+Technology=Magic!

As I started looking into planning for this year, I knew that my teaching methods would look and feel quite different from 4th grade.  As a tech teacher I also knew I wanted my students to take charge of their own learning with me acting more as a facilitator.  Tech class is really the ideal place to use constructivist teaching to the fullest!  Because my school is also in the process of becoming an International Baccalaureate school, I also had to follow their set of goals and objectives.  I found the answer to my problems....Project-based learning (PBL)!!!

Project-based learning allows students to take charge of their learning by creating authentic representations of their learning.  Project-based learning should be linked to real life scenarios, which helps students find purpose and motivation during the learning process.

PBL should:

• be well organized, scheduled
• promote teamwork
• framed around essential questions
• provide multiple opportunities for varied assessments
• focus on skills driven approaches to teaching and learning

Give students a real life problem to solve (Essential Question), set some parameters, and watch the magic happen!  While I have only just begun to dig into this fabulous way of teaching, I have found it to be quite effective thus far.  Centering my units around PBL will help enhance student engagement and achievement.  I can't help but think of the famous quote by Confucius, "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."


Here are some resources that have helped me get started with PBL:

http://cybraryman.com/projectbasedlearning.html
http://learninginhand.com/pbl
https://sites.google.com/site/learnthroughprojects/
http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/tech315/pdfs/tech315_article5.pdf
http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=88058


~Lauren