Tuesday Tech Talk #3

Welcome to Tuesday Tech Talk, bringing you some of the best web sites I’ve found recently, that you can really use! Great sites for this week include:

NASA eClips

NASA has a brand new resource for students and educators, and it’s not just about space!  Each week NASA is producing short video clips designed to help students see real world connections with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) topics.  eClips are arranged in three groups, K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.  The K-5 category has “coming soon” for many of the categories, but be sure to click on the Playlist picture link to view the 25 videos currently there.  Educator guides for teaching with eClips are in development.  While you’re at the site click on the NASA for Educators link and explore the wide variety of teaching materials available.

Crickweb

Crickweb is an interactive site out of the UK.  The site has leveled activities our students can use for independent, differentiated practice in math, reading/language arts, and science.  Since this site is out of the UK it’s split into Key Stages, not grades.  Key Stage 1 is approximately K-2, and Key Stage 2 is approximately 3-5.  However, you may want to look a level up or down, depending on the needs of your students.  At some point this year I’ll link the various activities to the appropriate Integration Resources and Student Curriculum Links.

Scholastic Story Starters

This site is courtesy of Sandy Hamm.  The Story Starter Machine provides writing prompts with a focus on character, plot, and setting.  Students can select one of four online templates for their writing, and can even include a picture.  A teacher’s guide is included to help you get started using the site with your students. It really is pretty easy to use even if you don’t look at the teacher’s guide.  However, the teaching tips in the guide are definitely worth reviewing.

This week’s TeacherTube highlight is a sixty second clip demonstrating how to turn handwriting on the SmartBoard’s Smart Notebook software into editable text. If the clip is slow to load, try back later.  Once we can unblock specific YouTube videos they’ll load much faster.

If the video doesn’t load in the blog window you can click this link to go directly to it on Teacher Tube.

If you like this quick tip, search for “:60 SEC TECH” in TeacherTube and view eighteen more quick tips. Are you looking for specific videos about our new version of Smart Notebook?  Try a search for “notebook 10.”

Now here’s a special treat… The first five Plainville teachers to leave a comment on how they can use one of the sites highlighted here will find a surprise in their mailbox soon!