Learning Games

Games have always been a great way to learn - simply because they are teaching while the kids are having fun.  If the game is legitimately teaching and reinforcing some lesson - of math or grammar or anything - then a game is a great and subtle way for the kids to learn and strengthen and deepen their understanding, in a way that creates a natural affinity to learning and a love for learning

Timelines - Preceden.com

Timelines can be extremely useful in a classroom, especially for visual and tactile learners.  They help make events, especially in history, make sense.  They give you perspective on the bigger picture of life, people, and history.  Timelines can be a good main point review for students, as well as being a good way of condensing a lot of material.

Timelines though are certainly useful in more than just history though.  They can be used to represent eras in literature or they ca be used to represent a timeline of discoveries in the science field and much more.  They can even be used to illustrate the plot of a book you have read to your classroom.

Preceden.com provides an easy access and easy-to-use way of implementing and creating a timeline.

Google Docs

Google docs, theoretically seems like a great tool.  It's a neat way for everyone in a classroom group to access the same document at the same time, without the crowding that a tangible document, posterboard, etc might bring.

However, I personally have found a lot of stress dealing with it.  It may just be user deficiency... but until I gain greater skill in navigating and managing it, I think I would refrain from using it in my own classroom.

Meal Planning and Calories

I am not actually one for counting calories.  In fact, I avoid it all costs.  I don't like thinking about the numbers and the potential related fat cells that they entail.

However, I think that for many middle school and high school students, this would be a good way to count calories.  In a fast-paced and ready-made food lifestyle, this would be a good way to count them.

But on the flip side, I think that eating healthy is more a matter of eating more natural foods rather than eating foods with fewer or better calories.  The closer you eat it in the form that God made it, the better it is for you (obviously this does not apply to meat...).

Zefty... Thrifty? Nifty? Or Iffy?

zefty.com

Bank accounts, checks, savings, money....

It all sounds like a fantastic way to help set up your kids with the "real world" to introduce them to the world of money and finances.

But is it really?

In zefty.com, the kids don't actually control their own finances - their parents deposit any money, they have no control over how much they save.

Instead of being able to withdraw from their accounts, they have to write a check - but the check is only made out to themselves; they cannot address it to another person, a company, a church.

So my question is: is zefty.com really a helpful tool for kids?  Does it actually represent the real world of banks and money?

My personal answer would be no.

When I was a child, my daddy did give me an allowance (real money). 

I had charge of that money.  I decided to set up a savings account. 

So he drove me to the bank (the real one).  We sat up an account together (one has to have one's parent's name on the account if under a certain age).  And so I saved up.  I carefully put together my pennies and quarters.  Although I did spend some of my money, it wasn't too much - a little for the contribution plate on Sundays and sometimes a small item (a Grand Champion horse).  I learned the value of my savings account's interest.  I learned the slow process of keeping money safe.

I learned the reward of it all when I bought an American girl doll - with my own money.  And I felt independent, a small adult - all because my daddy had put trust in me in something in the real world.

It seems like something worth while for a parent to do today.

Now in a classroom, this could perhaps be useful for "special money."  You would obviously save on paper costs (instead of printing cash, you'd just keep up with it in your students' accoutns).

But it's still not as reflective of reality.

It would be a neat tool, but not something as applicable as it might be.

ToonDoo

www.toondoo.com

Toondoo would be a great tool in a classroom, especially for your artisitically inclined students, as well as for those who are visual learners.  In an elementary school classroom, you could use it very easily for sequences for science, history, and so on.
For instance, as a review, you could have each student make a cartoon illustrating the phases of the moon or the water cycle.  You could also have a summary practice after reading a story or a book in class - and have each student make a cartoon with main points in each square.
Or as a creative exercise, you could even have the kids practice making political cartoons of a character in history or in today's society!

The only problem with this (as well as with any type of computer-based technology) would be the number of computers available in the classroom.  With few computers, each project would be less effective and less do-able.

Skype to Be...

Skype is a phenomenal tool.
I have used it on mission trips, catching up with friends - it helps people to connect. 

So why not use it in a classroom?
Earlier in my posts, I mentioned a program that connected different schools and cultures and learning environments.  Skype could easily be used to connect with these foreign people and culture.

But what if I'm not in a school system that supports (or can afford) such a program?

Well, I am personally blessed with an immensely divesified family.
On my unit on Australia or marsupials, etc., I could use Skype to call or webchat with my uncle and aunt who live there.  She could show us around her spectacular garden.  They could both talk about the enviornment they live in.  The kids would love their accents.

Or when I do a unit on Civil Rights or oppression in history, I could tie it into apartheid South Africa.  I could skype with my dad who grow up in Rhodesia, another country that struggled with white/black prejudice and oppression or I could talk to my cousin who grew up during the new era of Nelson Mandela. 

The possibilities are endless - all I need is a reliable internet connection... right?

A,B,C... Easy as 1,2,3...

http://www.ezschool.com/EZSheets/index.html
What a practical website - for a teacher, parent, or student!  This website has free worksheets in all subject areas and all grades. 
My coworker, Linda, is a homeschool mom and when I asked if she recommended any websites, this was one of the first.

I love the way everything is organized.  It's clear, easy to see and easy to navigate.  If I have a student struggling in an area, it would be easy to find a worksheet (or even mroe than one) here to use during tutoring sessions.

I know some people (students, mostly...) are opposed to worksheets - that they are busy work.  But if they help the student reinforce what was learned - isn't that the whole point of education?  To discover a thirst for learning and to retain what you have found!

Googlemaps.com

Googlemaps is a very useful tool, used most often in traveling or finding businesses.

AND it can be useful in the classroom as well.

After the group presented in class today using googlemaps as a way to research a field trip, I brainstormed other ways I could use it in my own classroom.

What about teaching a unit on our town's history?  We could look up various places on Googlemaps, such as our courthouse, police department, city parks, and so on.  We could then similarly plan a day trip or even a morning trip and catch as much history as our town could provide!

And away we go!

Another Pluto Moment

Remember when some brilliant scientists discovered that Pluto wasn't really a planet?  That we had all been deceived - that we now had to come up with some new acronym to remember the planets' order - because suddenly our "mom" was no longer giving us "pizza"?

I had a similar moment the other day.

When I was in kindergarten, we each had to write our own original stories.  In those days, I still believed I could earn big bucks writing books.
I know better now.
But after I had written my kindergarten story of Nancy, the pink bear, I (and the rest of the class) were given the opportunity to "publish" our own stories.  I chose the cover and the pages and our stories were printed - in a real life hardbound book!
I also illustrated my story myself.  What an adventure for a kindergartener!

http://www.storyjumper.com/
This website is the twenty-first century version of "your very own" storybook.
Any and every child in your class can make a book - more than one.  Cost is not a factor here - only computer time!
In this creativity focused website, children can create their own books, inserting pictures, icons, and text to make it their very own. 
What a reminiscent tool of my own childhood - yet unlike Pluto, this advances education and adds to it.  Storyjumper does not eliminate books or even drawing or writing on paper. 
Rather it gives students and teachers alike a new and different creative outlet for arts and language.