Integration Idea

[Linda Loder]

Quick answer here! for a change....

What's the very best thing you've done with kids so far this year using technology for learning?

What did the kids learn?

How do you know?

[Lisa L. Ouderkirk]

I don't know if it's the best thing I've done, but I finally did a podcast with my students. They were familiar with it from Mrs. Neuschafer's class, so it only took some refresher instructions, but they really did a good job with it. I know they learned that they needed to write correctly first, or it didn't sound too good when it was recorded. We used the Developing Writing Program model to write the information first and then went to podcast. They were doing an advertisement for the novel they had completed in reading class with me.

[Darren Rodine]

Okay, I know what your up to here. I know the question is short, but now you have me thinking about all the projects that we have done so far this year. So here I sit pondering the best project we've done so far this year, and what the kids learned from it. All right, still thinking...I-moive with Similies, Metaphors, etc...The students liked it since it was laid out in a step by step process, but open to their creativity. It is a fun way to learn since they don't forget the concepts that they are to learn. (I asked them just now, they passed) While I was writing this I thought of another. I had my students reflect on their learning styles, and what they like about classes on a blogg, and what they say in response is what we are trying to push kids to do. Learing with Technology makes it revelent and fun for them. If you combine the two, they are learning, and they are retainning it as well.
Rodine

[Tracy Piepho]

We've done a few things. Jim showed us a website called blabberize.com and we used our DWP English writing progam to construct a story for Thanksgiving. We then we posted them to our blog for others to see. We learned how to navigate the web, be safe on the net, and tons of writing standards. Check out my blog http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=8480 for proof!

[Lisa L. Ouderkirk]

loved this one Tracy---trying to come up with a way to use it in my class!

[Becky Cheney]

Using technology for learning is something I see daily at TGS. Today, I am going to steal a 3rd grade project to write about. Mrs. N had her third graders go to a website to get information about the passengers on the Mayflower. The students then did graphs (pie and bar) of the males and female, boys and girls. They also did a graph of the passengers with the same last name. From the data on the graph of people with the same last name, the students figured the range, median, and mode. These graphs are displayed on the wall outside of the classroom.

[Kay Good]

Congratulations Tescott I-Team ! Lisa for responding first, Tracy for sharing his ideas, and Dr. Cheney for figuring out how to post! Hip- Hip- Hooray!

[Brandi McClure]

My favorite thing that I have done with my kids would have to be the idea that LInda and Kay gave me. I had my Family Living class write a summative paper on their visit to the mortuary. We added Rebus Writing to the paper. They added pictures for nouns, color and action for verbs and adjectives, etc. It was fun and it really made them think about how to write with description. I liked it so much that I used it with the JH class and they did great!

[Juanita Morris]

Besides the King Arthur project that you already know about, I had the freshmen make an Excel poster for introductory and background information for The Odyssey. They were assigned specific people and places and had to answer who, what, when, where, and why. They did the research for info and pics and then made the poster. Later they had to present the poster to their class. They were responsible for the classes knowledge on their section. They were very responsive to what others did or failed to do. The posters were displayed in my room - that seemed to be incentive to do well. There were many "critiques" of quality.

[kpilcher]

We responded to a "Mail Race"student from New York. What started out as a simple assignment to write a letter turned into a fun project that my 8th graders were interested in. (Fun - interested - 8th grade - not always used in the same sentence!) We used a website called city-data.com to compare our community and the community of the student from New York. We found that there were more similar things than we would have expected since his school was bigger than our community.

We moved from the website to Google Earth and the project snowballed from there. The excited atmosphere and the facts that were shared around the room were a sign that learning was taking place.

[Bob-RJ Burkhart]

National Geographic Society logo "Geo Learning"

A column by Daniel C. Edelson,
Vice President for Education, National Geographic Society

Get Involved with Geo-Education Reform

We've got a problem in our country. The rate of geographic literacy—meaning the number of people who can synthesize geographic information from a variety of sources and draw a sound conclusion—is abysmally low. On the other hand, ArcNews goes to almost a million individuals who earn their living by doing that kind of geographic reasoning every day.