MindMup - http://www.mindmup.com, is a web-based and free mind mapping software. MindMup links to your Google Apps account allowing users to save mind maps in your Google Drive account. Once saved in Google drive users can share their Mindmaps.
Mind Maps have a number of uses such as planning or organizing your thoughts prior to writing or making connections between topics or events. An extensive list of graphic organizers that serve a similar purpose can be found here. Having the ability to share your maps within Google Drive allows students or teachers to collaborate on the development of ideas.
Teachers may collaborate with students on Mind Maps or review student progress. Maps created by students may be shared with their teachers via Google Drive. Teachers may then publish those maps on a class Smartboard for class discussion.
Providing students with graphic organizers or mind mapping resources to organize their thoughts is a classroom intervention with numerous benefits. Having the ability to access and share these maps over the web adds a new layer of interactivity and accessibility that makes MindMup worth exploring.
A number of established and best practices in education emulate the principles of inclusive education. Educators today are better equipped to facilitate meaningful and inclusive education for students at risk. However, a holistic and comprehensive school plan is an integral component of a school wide effort to provide all students with the education they are entitled to receive. We must continue to enhance and expand the continuum of options available to our students. Principles of this systematic plan include staff that is trained in successful instructional strategies, committed to teaching and progress, reflective on student performance, and responsive to the needs of all students.
In looking at instructional strategies, a comprehensive review of the lesson framework and the selection of strategies and practices contained is the first step. We can best meet the needs of our students by designing a classroom environment that provides opportunity for all. Do we design lessons that provide individuals the opportunity to connect prior learning, assess their understanding of content, collaborate with peers, ask questions and explore new learning?
When designing instruction to meet the varying needs of our students the instructional strategies we select are the first step to level the playing field. My colleague and I have designed an interactive pyramid of intervention to provide a toolbox for teachers. This toolbox aides in lesson design, instructional strategies and targeted interventions. An exploration of the interactive Lesson Framework provides teachers with a toolbox of instructional strategies for each area of the framework.
How can we provide individualized instruction, independent learning opportunities, targeted review and supports?
These are the questions and the demands of today's classrooms. How can we differentiate, facilitate learning and utilize technology to simplify the process. The Flipped Classroom Model of instruction is one example.
Student and teacher made tutorials or recorded lectures can be used to provide the supports needed in today's classrooms. The Khan Academy is the model example of how web-based recorded tutorial/lectures can meet the needs of many of our learners. The Khan Academy provides concise video screencast tutorials for topics in math, science, and humanities. Many of the videos also link to independent practice exercise that students may progress through.
There is a feature called "coach" in which a teacher registers themselves as a coach. The students may then login to Khan academy with their Google Apps user name and password and link themselves to a coach. This allows the teacher to monitor their progress. This provides an opportunity for enrichment were students may progress beyond the current topic to more advanced topics that they are ready for. I have written about the Khan Academy in previous blog posts. I would like to provide some examples of how this can be used immediately with students.
1. Flip the classroom - Students watch the instructional video for homework on their computer, ipad, ipod touch, or any other web enabled device. When they return to school the students apply what was in the video to class problems and projects. The teacher acts as the facilitator in the room to assist students who need help. Students may work in groups to apply and discuss what was learned.
2. Extra- Help and Support - Teachers may provide links to a tutorial on their class website or Moodle course. Students may access this tutorial at home or during class time from a class computer, personal cell phone or any other web-enabled device. Students may pause, rewind and fast forward depending upon their needs.
3. Test review - Teachers may link to a tutorial on their website to provide a review opportunities for students.
4. Enrichment - Teachers may assign students who have a strong grasp of the content the opportunity to create their own screencast tutorial using free recording services such as Jing.
In our district teachers have been successful utilizing our Moodle course management software. On Moodle, teachers can create topics within a course. In those topics they provide links to tutorials, discussions, work submissions and quizzes.
By utilizing these resources we not only provide the type of individualized learning necessary, we also incorporate technology which results in increased student engagement and college career readiness.
Below is a screencast tutorial the introduces the Khan Academy.
The students in Ms. Johansson's grade two class at our Cozy Lake Elementary School are taking their book talks around the country. Today the students in Ms. Johansson's class hosted their first online book talk with a grade two class in Dillwyn Primary School located in Buckingham County Virginia. The project was organized by myself, Ms. Johansson, Mrs. Stephanie Cotsifas (Coordinator of Staff Development/ITRS, Buckingham County Schools) and Ms. Gillispie (Grade two teacher Dillwyn Primary School).
The students in each class read the Magic Tree House Book: Mummies in the Morning. Each class developed a set of questions and conversation topics to share during the online book talk. We used Skype to connect the two classes. Below is a short clip of the event.
The book talk was a great opportunity for our students to engage in an authentic exchange of opinions, ideas and perspectives. By connecting our students to classrooms around the country and our world we expose students to collaboration and the opportunities that exist by connecting with technology. It is really interesting to hear the perspectives and exchange of information from schools around the country. We are looking forward to more connections in the future.
There is a new phenomenon occurring in classrooms, workshops and meetings. It is called back channeling. This refers to participants in a event communicating and collaborating with technology to take notes, ask questions and reflect in real-time.
A great tool to accomplish this is the website Today’s Meet. In order to get started you visit the site, create a room and send the link to the room to the other participants. The link to the meeting room can be posted on the board, linked to a teacher website or emailed to a group. The participants can immediately start a live chat. The results of the chat stay online for the period of time specified. They can also be copied to a Google Doc and shared with the rest of the class.
This technology could be very useful as a way for a class to take collaborative notes and pose questions while viewing a media clip, a speaker or a class lecture. Instead of having students sit and watch a media clip or longer video they can be engaged and interact with it. The teacher may post a couple of thought provoking questions for the students. While watching the video the students may use Today's Meet or a Google Doc to document their answers to the questions. By adding Q1 or Q2 to the start of the response, the teacher and students will be able to identify what they are responding to. Students may also comment on what they are viewing and add questions and reaction that they have.
Typically it is difficult to get students to take notes. When using this technology and asking them to multitask the students actually respond. As a result, the online documentation of the collaborative conversation allows the teacher to see what the students understand, what they do not understand and what topics require further discussion.
Today's meet could also be used during video conferencing sessions with other schools or subject area experts. Students from both classes may take detailed notes regarding the event. These notes are then viewable online for everyone to review. They may also post questions that the speaker may access and address during the presentation.
Many schools have utilized student owned electronic devices to maximize student access to back channeling. In some classrooms , that have only a couple computers, a few students are assigned the role of "class scribe" for the day. They are responsible for collaborative note-taking. These notes are then available online for the class to share and discuss.
I have recently been involved in a initiative in Jefferson Township Schools to design and develop an interactive Pyramid of Intervention. The pyramid is used to supplement our district work on PLC's. The goal of the pyramid is to provide an interactive resource that teachers can access to uncover instructional strategies and specific interventions for students. It was designed by Eileen Daggett, Supervisor of Special Education K-12 and myself.
The pyramid has three tiers. Each tier has an acoompanying form that teachers will use to document their progress with individual students. The requirement is that all teachers must utilize the resources in the pyramid and document the results of strategies and interventions. A student may not be referred to our I&RS committee without this documentation.
I utilized Google Sites to design the pyramid. You will notice that all of the content in the pyramid is interactive. The information is organized in an intuitive design. Teachers may located the information that they need with just a click. Tier one of the pyramid contains instructional strategies that should be used for all students and documented in lesson plans. Mrs. Daggett organized these strategies in a number of ways. Most notably you will see a Lesson Framework that has links to strategies for each component of a lesson. Tier 2 is designed for students who are not finding success in the classroom even with the strategies that are implemented. In Tier 2 you will find specific interventions that may be utilized for each student.
The pyramid of intervention is a very powerful tool for teachers. The availability of various publishing resources on the web as well as the access to the web that is ubiquitous makes such an initiative possible. We are very proud of this project. It is still a work in progress. We will be adding content frequently. If you have any comments about this project or would like to share some resources please leave us a comment.
Have you been to the Google Docs template gallery lately. If you have, you will notice that the available templates are continuing to grow. I recently searched for a template that could be used to create a fictitious Facebook Profile. The first returned result ended up being exactly what I was looking for.
Take a look at this Google Presentation template below.
Creating a Facebook profile is a great project idea for all grades and subjects. Students may create a profile for a historical figure, a scientist, philosopher, mathematician, or any other person of interest. You can start creating a Facebook profile using this template by accessing the Google Docs template gallery or by clicking here.
I came across these two websites recently while working on an interactive curriculum portal for our Language Arts Department. Both sites contain interactive activities and games for teaching Grammar.
Learn English was developed by the British Council. It is designed for ESL students, but the activities can be used in any elementary language arts classroom. There are a number of interactive activities that would present very well on a Smartboard. They can also be used in centers on classroom computers or on the Smartboard as well.
Road to Grammar Jr and Road to Grammar both contain a number of online quizzes, activities and games that can be used in an elementary classroom.
There are a number of websites on the web with interactive grammar games and activities. I found these two to be a couple of the better ones I reviewed. If there are others that you enjoy using with students please share them in the comments section. Enjoy
Story Jumper is a web 2.0 site that allows students and teachers to create their own page turning, online story book. You can make adventure stories, fairy tales, treasure maps, photo books, calendars... whatever you can imagine! The software is easy to use and comes with a complete set of directions.
As a teacher you can setup your classes to access story jumper from home or from school. The classroom edition provides:
An interface to manage and review student work
Enable kids to share stories between the classroom and home
Maintain strict privacy controls over student information
Enable educator discounts when ordering books
When a teacher created his/her account they are able to create a class password as well as user names and passwords for each student. The software provides the teacher with a printed handout for each student that will supply the directions and information for accessing the software at home and at school. There is even settings to control the duration of time that the students may login.
Upon completion of the storybook the student may share and view online. He or she may also order the book in printed form. Discounts are available for class purchases. There is also an option to print a paper copy of the book for free.
If you would like to see an example of a Story Jumper book click the link below:
Story Jumper is a great resource to allow students to publish their writing for an audience. Students will be able to author their very own children's book and share it.
Students in Middle and High School may write a book that teachers younger students about a topic. An example might be a book that explains what composite numbers are or the life cycle of the plant. Research has proven that students better comprehend material when they teach it to someone else.
Teachers may use the software to write stories that can be used to teach reading skills. These books may be read on a Smartboard or individually in a center activity.
As part of the universal design for learning framework, students may be given the opportunity to create a Story Jumper book on any assigned topic in order to demonstrate knowledge of a topic/subject.
Lit 2 Go is a website developed by the Florida Educational Technology Clearinghouse. It contains a collection of audio books all posted in MP3 format. The site allows you to search by Author, Title, Reading Level and Subject. If you have Itunes installed on your computer you can download the Audio book directly into it. Many of the books have the chapters broken up into individual file.
An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.
You can:
Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go
Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer
View the text on a web page and read along as you listen
Print out the stories and poems to make your own book
Educational Uses
Audio books can be setup as a listening center
Links to the books can be posted on a teachers website for students to download and listen to at home.
By providing multiple sources for students you are supporting the Universal Design for Learning framework.
Students can use excerpts from the books for digital stories such as:
Audio or video book reviews
Mock interviews of book characters
Podcasts
Audio Snippets can be incorporated to any class instructional activity. They can be uploaded to Smartboard lessons, PowerPoints, or Glogs.
The audio tracks can be trimmed and modified using Audacity and then used in lessons and projects
Have you ever thought about introducing comic strip writing into your classroom? If you haven't you may change your mind after you take a look at http://www.makebeliefscomix.com. Make Beliefs Comix was introduced to me by Dan Papa, MS Social Studies teacher in our district. After spending some time exploring this new resource i felt compelled to share it with you.
Click on Images to Enlarge
This site allows any user to create a multi-strip comic. There are a number of characters, emotions, thought bubbles,speaking balloons and background colors to choose from. Students can organize the characters on each strip and add text. They have some controls with regards to layout of the characters within the strip.
After adding the content to the comic the students have the option to print the final comic or email it. By using the print screen command on the keyboard the students can also paste the comic into word or PowerPoint.
Have students create a comic as a first day back project to discuss their summer.
Students create a comic that depicts a conversation between characters in a story or historical figures.
Teachers create comics with various emotions to teach behaviors to special needs students.
Students create a comic to kick off a creative writing assignment.
Students create a comic using new vocabulary words that are being taught.
Students in a world language course may create a comic that contains text written in the language studied.
Have students create a comic to demonstrate knowledge of life skills such as speaking with a bank teller, ordering at a restaurant, speaking with a doctor or going on an interview
I hope you enjoy this great resource. I would like to thank Mr. Papa for introducing it. If you use this site please let us know how you used it by leaving a comment below.
>I learned about this next site from Larry Ferlazzo's Blog. He Teaches English Language Learners. My thoughts are that this site would be a great resource for not only ESL Students but also any struggling readers.
Here is a quote from Larry's blog:
My own books is a fantastic site for fostering reading skills and thus, English language acquisition. It was created by Anne Pemberton, a retired Special Ed. teacher and she has done a marvelous job. Students simply chose a story they want to read. Then, they put in their own name and BINGO! The story is all about them! You can print or read on the screen with pictures to support comprehension. Really cool and I suggest students print these out and share their stories. A great way to create a classroom , personalized library!
