Tech Tips, Tricks, and Tools
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Animated Hero Classics: William Bradford: The First Thanksgiving
Animated Hero Classics: William Bradford: The First Thanksgiving
In this program, learn about pilgrim William Bradford. His desire for religious freedom forces him to flee with the Pilgrims. His belief and conviction bring peace with the Indians and the first Thanksgiving.
This video is on KET Encyclomedia. You do need to create or have an account to watch it. If you need help, let me know.
Grades K-5.
Discovery Education
Living History: Living at the Plymouth Colony
Living History: Living at the Plymouth Colony
This program explores many aspects of life at the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. By viewing this program, students will find out who the Pilgrims were and what brought them to America. Students will come away knowing what the colony's houses and other buildings were like inside and out. They will learn all the things the colonists needed to do to get enough to eat. They will also get a glimpse of some of the many activities that filled the colonist's days at New Plymouth nearly 400 years ago.
This video is on KET Encyclomedia. You do need to create an account or have one to watch it. If you need help, let me know.
Grade 6-8
Discovery Education
Curriki Presents Six PBL Geometry Projects
Curriki's new geometry course features six PBL projects. Each of the projects is aligned to Common Core Standards. The course is not a self-directed course for students. The course is designed to be taught by mathematics teachers who want to incorporate PBL. The projects in the course can be used in sequence or used as stand-alone units. All materials needed for leading the projects are included available on the Curriki site. You will have to create an account and sign-in in order to access the materials. Curriki accounts are free.
Click here to go to this site and learn more about this project.
In reading over the project descriptions the one that intrigues me the most is the House of the Future project. In the House of the Future students watch a short TED Talk about the future of housing then formulate their own predictions for the future of housing design. After making predictions students use geometric modeling to design a building that supports their predictions.
Click here to go to the website.
PollEverywhere
Try this cool web 2.0 tool with your classes.
Here is how it is being used in a Math class at Holy Trinity High School.
Holy Trinity high school math teacher Matthew Dopira makes use of student owned devices by utilizing polleverywhere.com, a website which allows students to respond to polls via text message or a web browser. "As a math teacher, I've found polleverywhere.com to be an effective way to enhance instruction," Dopira said. "My classroom has a teacher computer with a ceiling-mounted projector, so it is fast and easy to write a question and post it on the wall for all to see. I typically use the website for warm-up or closure activities, but have also used it to collect data for probability or statistic lessons.
"I've found many advantages to using polleverywhere.com. Obviously, students enjoy being able to use a cell phone in class. But more importantly, I continue to use the website because many students also appreciate the anonymity of their responses. That is, I know that in a math class many students sit in fear of feeling embarrassed should they be called upon individually and give the wrong answer. But when I post a question through the website, I not only get a higher volume of responses, but they are typically more honest and thoughtful. In turn this allows me to better gauge the classroom as a whole for understanding."
Click here to link to a page that gives you a brief explanation for how it works.