A Million Pleas

I was watching the 7pm Project tonight while i was cooking dinner and one article really made an impact on me. It was a 2 minute article about a group of students from Hiroshima, Japan....65 years to the day after the atomic bomb was dropped. The students have videoed themselves saying "Please" in an attempt to create the world's largest chain letter with the intention of sending this to the world leaders of countries that have nuclear armaments. Read the blurb:

HELP FREE THE WORLD FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

“We want to make the world’s longest video chain letter.

The video has been started by a group of school children from Hiroshima, Japan and is addressed to the 9 countries still in possession of nuclear weapons. We’re asking people from all over the globe to upload a video clip of themselves saying the word “please”. The “pleases” will then be edited into a long virtual chain letter, which will act as a petition to abolish nuclear weapons, worldwide.

The campaign is an initiative of ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons, and is being launched in this the 65th anniversary year of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Please add your voice to the campaign.” visit the million pleas
site

Approximately 160 students, staff and parents, added their voices to the million pleas campaign today. Visit the websites below, to view our pleas to world leaders to free our world of nuclear weapons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6AZ39NnGNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX-dKikKb_M



Maybe our students could make a difference.

Educational Videos

Another terrific site I found recently is called NeoK12. This website is packed with educational videos on a seemingly endless amount of topics. They are arranged by subject and most of them take less than ten minutes to view. Great lesson starters!

CarrotSticks

Another fantastic website I found... this time focusing on Numeracy. It's called CarrotSticks and it was a lot of fun to play. You can choose from all four operations and your skill level is increased by the number of algorithms you correctly answer. Carrots are rewarded for correct answers and you can competitively play against other children from around the world. CarrotSticks doesn't allow full names or a chat function so it is a safe way for students to interact while leaning. Unfortunately it does have a cost if you want unlimited play but there is a free option available for classroom teachers.

Game Classroom

I was searching for some games to play with Year One that are literacy based. I found this website. It's called Game Classroom, and while some of the activities are restricted to members only I was able to access many for free.

One of the best games I found was called Skillwise City - where students have to follow instructions to reach their destination. I played the year three version and was impressed with all the reading and processing that I had to do in order to reach my destination. There are timed or non-timed versions of the game. Give it a go with your class.

Museum in a Box

Judy and Allison recently went to an ICT in English conference hosted by Tim Wilson. To access Tim's website click here. It is full of terrific and practical uses for using ICT in English for all grades.

One of the interesting sites Tim mentioned during his presentation was Museum in a Box. This site allows students to be creative in their thinking about characters, historical events and influential people. The site describes itself as a place that provides the tools for students to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, could be put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others.

That's Rubbish!

I was reading Education Review the other day and I saw an advertisement for a terrific resource. Clean Up Australia has launched a web-based educational game called "Clean Up The River".

It is a challenge-based game to enable infants and primary students to learn more about the impact of rubbish on their local river systems. There are four levels of difficulty and the animated game is divided into two sections - the first is where students have to navigate a river while removing rubbish in order to save the marine life, and the second takes place in a recycling plant where rubbish needs to be sorted correctly. There is also a multiple choice quiz to reinforce the learning. If you have a go with your class please post a comment.

Storybird

I was searching for storytelling and writing websites that I could use with Year One and I found Storybird. This website allows students to create a story, complete with illustrations. It can be a collaborative effort with two students taking turns to create the story. The virtual tour is fabulous and explains how the site works really clearly. I think this could be a new favourite!

Too Long....

Time to resurrect this blog. I have been so busy being an AP that I have neglected the idea of having an online service for the staff. It's time to make amends. Over the last few months I have been collecting resources and adding them to my Delicious account. So... it's sharing time.

http://www.funbrain.com

A fabulous site for maths and grammar games that will have your students asking for more time on the computer.

http://www.teflclips.com/

If you want lesson ideas that have an engaging "youtube" style introduction then you cannot go past this site.... lesson plans and notes are included.

http://www.lightningbug.com.au/index.htm

Fantastic ideas for getting reluctant writers to write.

Don't forget to comment about what you thought of the sites..... it may just spark another persons curiosity!

Timez Attack

One of my colleagues sent me the link to this fantastic times tables website called Timez Attack! It is totally free and the format is very similar to a PS/Xbox game. When Judy and I attended an ACEL conference earlier this year the importance of learning through gaming was discussed at great length and the research showed that students who are regular gamers have better memory retention.

The only downside of this game is that you have to download it on to every computer (but we can arrange that). I like the way that you can set up your class and monitor their progress as they work through the different levels. I intend to use it as a drilling exercise for year 5 and 6.

Top Tips for a Differentiated Classroom

I found this resource online. It has some great ideas for integrating technology into the classroom while ensuring that differentiation is maintained. The links are easy to follow. I will certainly be using these in Literacy groups!

Kerpoof

What is Kerpoof? The answer to that is not so simple. Kerpoof is all about having fun, discovering things, and being creative. Here are just a few ways that you can use Kerpoof:

Make artwork (even if you aren't good at drawing!)
Make an animated movie (really! it's easy!)
Earn Koins which you can trade for fun things in the Kerpoof Store
Make a printed card, t-shirt, or mug
Tell a story
Make a drawing
Vote on the movies, stories, and drawings that other people have made

There is also an educators page with great ideas for using Kerpoof in the classroom.

Turn Your Pics into Puzzles

This is a cute website for students to play with. Picture Dotscan take any photograph and turn it into a dot-to-dot puzzle. I had a bit of a play with it on the weekend and it's lots of fun!

Scribble Maps

This website is an excellent resource for classrooms. The maps can be scribbled on, text can be added, countries can be highlighted and routes can be traced. Scribble maps is a versatile tool that the students should be able to use very easily. Let me know if you give it a go.

Need to Choose a Student at Random? Try this!

I found this amazing web 2.0 tool called "The Hat".
Here's the information from the website:

"I'm first!"
"No I'm first!"
"No I called it!"
"Well I'm second!"
"OK then Dusty is last because he's youngest!"
"That's not fair, I'm always last!"
Sound familiar? If you are a parent of two or more children, the answer is most likely a resounding "Yes!". Never fear, help is here!

The Hat is a simple but handy little utility that offers a fun and easy way to automatically determine a random order from a list of any amount of names. You can even use it to pick individual names for raffle and sweepstakes winners, etc. or pick pairs of names for deciding random partnerships, complete with cool animation and sound effects.

Features at a Glance
Simple, easy-to-use interface.
Add any amount of names you wish.
Import names from a text file.
Export names to a text file for later use.
Optional special effects while shuffling names.
Pick individual names one at a time or pairs of names.
Cool animation. Actually shows names coming out of a hat when picking individual names or pairs.
Fairly settle arguments between kids about "who goes first", etc.
Print or save results to a file for future reference.
Optionally saves name list between sessions.
Absolutely free!

Let me know if you try this in class. I'd love to hear about it in use.

A Good Idea for a Project

I was researching articles to read regarding the ideal arrangement of a classroom to promote collaboration and I stumbled across this little gem!

It's called "Design an Classroom!" and it allows you to have a go at rearranging your classroom space. What a fantastic idea for our students. Wouldn't it be great to see what they came up with by way of design? You can even place a budget restraint on them and use this as a maths exercise. Happy designing!

Eating The Elephant (that is ICT) and eating it one bite @ a time!

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Eating The Elephant (that is ICT) and eating it one bite @ a time!

View more presentations from rachelboyd. (tags: ict e-learning)

This presentationw as created by Twitter friend of mine. She is also a part of my Professional Learning Network through the PLP (Powerful Learning Project). Thanks Rachel.... I love reading your work!

Literacy Resource

Here is a website that I have used in the past with Years 5 & 6. It's called FFFBI - Fin, Feathers and Fur Bureau of Investigation.
It is a series of stories and challenges based around a crime that has been committed. The activities are interactive and involve online quizzes, printable worksheets and puzzle solving. There is a fair amount of reading for the students and if they don't read all the instructions they cannot move forward.
Each crime takes the students about 40-45 minutes to solve. Every time I have used this website the engagement level of the students is very high.
I will be using it with Yr 6 Literacy this Tuesday if anyone is interested in taking a look at it.

If I Ruled The World

I was emailed this website this week by Frances Manning - AP at Holy Family Luddenham. It is an online collaborative site that allows students to answer the "big questions" that are important to them in their lives.

If I Ruled The World.com provides a safe classroom environment packed with
FREE interactive whiteboard resources which enable your class to discuss the
hottest topics - from environmental issues to politics, privacy rights to
school lunches. The site also allows your class to socially network with
other classes through discussion, debate and query.
It is hosted by Promethean and could be a very quick talking and listening activity for Literacy groups. Groups could choose the topic for the day, discuss their responses and deliver their responses online.
There doesn't seem to be any age limit for the respondents so it could be used from K-6... how good would it be for even our littlies to voice their opinions?

The best thing about this site is that if you comment often enough we have the opportunity to win a REAL set of activexpression devices for your classroom!

Remember to share any successes, thoughts and challenges with the group so we all find out how valuable this site is.

GiggleIT

The International Association of School Librarianship has created an innovative and exciting project called GiggleIT

The idea of the project is to help students aged 10-14 to improve their literacy skills through an online collaboration. Children from around the world are invited to contribute to an eBook that will contain poetry, stories, jokes and cultural stories. The only rule is that they must be humourous.

It sounds like a fun way for our students to connect with others around the world, improve their literacy and have fun in an online environment. Registration is free so I think I might register my Year 5 and 6 Literacy groups. Let me know if you are interested.

teacher.tv

This website is one I found a few weeks ago. It's called Primary Lesson Starters and is run by a great group called teacher.tv. It has lesson starters designed for interactive whiteboards for primary maths, literacy and science.

Let me and others know which ones you have looked at or tried in your classroom, and share which ones are good value!