Posts tagged ‘online learning’

CurrClick just announced they will be launching a FREE Club for American Girl Doll enthusiasts.

If you’re not familiar with CurrClick already, they offer great downloadable resources and online classes for kids.

We are planning a FREE online American Girl Club for girls ages 5-12. The American Girl dolls each represent a period in American History so this club will be a history enrichment club. Each meeting would consist of a unit study, craft, snack (prepared at home by the parent), and anything else our coordinators can think of!

CurrClick is looking for parent coordinators.  If you are interested, just fill out this quick survey.

In 1918, at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, fighting ceased in World War I. Veterans Day (November 11) is a day to honor veterans living and dead who have sacrificed so much to protect our country and our freedom. This year, with our armed forces fighting enemies overseas and at home, honoring Veterans Day is even more significant.

Patriotism is a value that must be taught and modeled for our children. Devoting time to give special consideration to our national holidays will give these days a deeper sentiment to your children, a greater appreciation for our freedom, in addition to developing proud citizens of our country. Sharing a brief history of Veterans Day with your child will help them understand this is more than just a day off work or school for most.

It’s important to teach our children about the cost of our freedom. Our national war memorials are a tangible way for our children to visualize the cost of lives lost. The Veteran’s Memorial Stepping Stone will explore the Veterans Memorial Museum of the wars of the 20th century. Share the video and read the text with your child.

Hands-on activities make learning more memorable and more fun. Here are some activities to share with your child:

The Star Spangled Banner
Our Flag
Patriotic Stained Glass
Adopt-A-Vet
Lets Say Thanks

Use these worksheets, online games and other tools to teach your child about our country and patriotism.

Veterans Day Statistics and Timelines
About the Flag
Online Veterans Day Quiz
Online Games & Activities – Requires Flash
Veterans Day Word Search

These videos will further explain Veterans Days and how your family can get involved to support our Veterans.

Veterans Day 2010
Gratitude Campaign

Every day and particularly on Veteran’s Day, we should remember and honor the sacrifices of our military men and women. For more information about Veterans visit The American Legion website.

Did we miss an awesome resource?  Let us know your favorite in the comments section below!

Gone are the days of sticking to books and chalkboards in the classroom. The Internet has opened up a world of resources that teachers can use to supplement their lesson plans.

For Research

When students need to research something, whether for a report, project, or simply to participate in a discussion, the Internet provides a ready research platform. Sites like Ask for Kids and KOL make it easy for students to find the information they need, when they need it. However, Internet research isn’t just for kids. Sites like Discovery Education are great places for teachers to find information and ideas as well.

For Communication

The Internet is a powerful communication tool. Studying a particular part of the world? Students can write to email pals in that area to learn about cultural differences and maybe even make long-distance friends. Epalsis a site that facilitates student email conversations.

For Multisensory Learning

Videos, animations, and audio clips provide a good way to reinforce information learned via more traditional means. For example, students may benefit from seeing a video presentation about the mummification process or from seeing some of the marine life found in the Amazon River. Listening to a famous speech may be more exciting than simply reading it, and full-color animations may help illustrate concepts better than whiteboard drawings in some cases.

For Fun

There’s something to be said for resources that combine fun with learning. Many students will enthusiastically approach math practice that is presented in a gaming format. They also tend to enjoy interactive quizzes and similar resources that allow them to forget they’re actually working. While these resources won’t replace traditional practice, they can go hand in hand with it to bolster a better understanding.

For Display

Think of all you can do with a class website. Students can showcase their work and display projects completed as a group. Planning for a special guest to visit the classroom? The teacher can introduce the guest and provide a little background to prepare the class. This website can even be used to post newsletters and calendars–perfect for keeping parents up to date on classroom happenings.

For Learning at a Different Pace

The Internet can also be good for providing individual reading assignments, projects, and research to students. This may come in handy when a particular student is ready to move on to a new topic before the rest of the class or when a student needs a little extra time to spend on a topic before moving on to the next subject.

To See the World

Field trips are a great way to learn, but it’s impossible to travel to all the places students might enjoy. This is where online field trips can help. With an Internet connection, students can travel the world and see everything from the pyramids to the Louvre Museum, without leaving the classroom!

What else can you find on the Internet?

• Lesson Plans
• Facts and Figures
• Updated Information
• Maps
• Exhibits
• Experiments
• Songs
• Biographies
• Simulations
• Stories
• Collaborative Internet Projects

How do you integrate technology in the classroom?  We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions below!

Lesson Pathways has been designed to provide a fun, safe educational journey for you and your child.

Lesson Pathways resources have been carefully chosen and screened for their educational value and appropriateness for families teaching their children. As you travel Pathways with your child, however, remember these safety tips for keeping your child safe online:

1.  Set rules for using the Internet. Decide when your child can be online and whether you want him to visit any websites other than those that lead from Lesson Pathways.

2.  Keep the computer out of your child’s bedroom and in open, well-trafficked family areas. Your child will be less likely to view or access inappropriate material if your computer is out in the open.

3.  Instruct your child to avoid clicking on links in articles or advertisements without asking you first. While an article leading from a Pathway is prescreened for your child, other links or advertisements on websites may lead to inappropriate material.

4.  Tell your child not to download any sort of files without your permission.

5.  Teach your child what to do if he comes across objectionable material. Show your child how to turn off the computer monitor, and instruct him to let you know immediately if there is a problem.

Visit these sites for internet safety activities for your child:

NetSmartz Kids, iKeepSafe, SafeSurfingKids

6.  Install an internet filter or family safety software that will allow you to block websites or limit the amount of time your child may spend on the computer. Many later versions of Microsoft Windows already have these parental control features.

7.  Remind your child never to sign up for anything or enter an e-mail address without getting your permission first.

8.  Warn your child not to enter into conversations with strangers on websites or give out personal information (name, address, parents’ names, telephone number, etc.).

9.  Communicate with your child and help him feel comfortable enough to let you know when he thinks something is wrong.

10.  Share your child’s internet experiences with him. Explore Lesson Pathways together.  Not only does this make your child safer, but it’s also an excellent way for parents and children to spend time learning together.

Help the Lesson Pathways Community!

When each Pathway was created, every lesson and resource was chosen because it provided valuable educational content and did not contain objectionable material. Like any road or path, things change, and what was once a nice, family-friendly path may become a super highway on which you don’t want your child to travel.

If you find a website that contains objectionable materials or advertisements, please let us know!

Every Pathway and Stepping Stone page on the Lesson Pathways site has a box in the upper right-hand corner that may be used to flag inappropriate content  (see image on right).  Simply click the “Inappropriate” link while on that specific resource page and then write a sentence describing what you saw.  Our editors will quickly investigate and replace the resource with more suitable content.

Enjoy the Lesson Pathways journey with your child. Travel the Pathways together and be safe!

The BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: LessonPathways.com is now FREE for EVERYONE to use!  Please read the message from our founder, Richard Rasmus, below:

NEWS

We have exciting news to share with you about the future of LessonPathways.com!

We have decided to transform the Lesson Pathways site from a paid subscription-based service to one that is advertising- and donation-supported. As a result, if you are currently a subscriber we are canceling all paid subscriptions and invite everyone to use LessonPathways.com at no additional expense.
I know that we have many satisfied customers who are actively using Lesson Pathways with their students.  If you feel that our service is of value to you, we ask that you consider contributing to support Lesson Pathways and help allow us to continue to bring you this valuable educational resource.

BACKGROUND

When Lesson Pathways first launched in August 2009, we initially offered free 12-month subscriptions for those who agreed to fulfill Beta Tester roles.  Within a 4 day time period, over 4000 users signed up for free accounts! The feedback we have received on our service since then has been phenomenal.  Unfortunately, once we moved to a subscription based system, the number of paid purchases we received not enough to cover our operating costs.

While we are confident that we are offering a top-notch service, we are attempting to sell our service during a very difficult economic time.  We have received many emails from families who would like to use our service, but are unable to do so due to tight household budgets.

We have spent many hours trying to find a solution – something that will help us cover our operating costs AND provide an educational tool to families who need our help.  We believe we have come up with a viable plan.  However, we will need your help – the help of the Lesson Pathways community – in order to make it work.

Our new approach, called a “freemium business model” is currently being used by sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Skype.  These sites offer a valuable free service, attract a very large number of users, and receive income when users click on affiliate and paid advertisements.  Over the course of the next few days we will switch Lesson Pathways over to a similar revenue model and we hope we can count on your support!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We are hopeful that by changing the fundamentals of how we operate, we can continue to improve and expand our educational offerings. In addition to considering making a donation to Lesson Pathways, we hope you will help us in the following ways:

Share Lesson Pathways with anyone you think might be interested in our free service: face-to-face, postings in online forums and blogs, and on Facebook, Twitter or any other social or educational network to which you belong.

Support our advertisers and sponsors and buy educational and other supplemental materials by clicking on affiliate links you find on our site, such as links for Amazon books displayed with the Pathways.  Also consider shopping through the Lesson Pathways Online Shopping Mall, where you will find a variety of popular online stores.

Contribute content and help us maintain our site.  There are numerous ways to share your thoughts about our service or the sites we feature, such as commenting on our pages or flagging broken links.  We also hope that more experienced users will help newcomers by answering questions and offering support on our user forum.  In addition, we hope those of you who have a keen interest in education will volunteer to help us create new content.  This can be done by offering guest blog entries, suggesting alternative sites to feature, or creating new Pathways that reflect your own interest, knowledge, and educational philosophy.

Thank you again for your support.  We hope you will continue to be a valuable part of the Lesson Pathways community and will help us during our transition period and beyond!

Please visit our Free Service FAQ’s Page or feel free to contact our customer service department at ContactUs@LessonPathways.com if you have any questions, comments or concerns you would like to discuss.

As mentioned last Friday, each week we will be featuring a new Pathway here on our blog.  In addition, we will be giving everyone FREE access to this unit for a full week.  Each Pathway contains enough resources for a full week’s worth of learning.

This week’s Free Featured Pathway is all about Booker T. Washington.

Explore the life of Booker T. Washington in this unit. Your child will create a diorama, design a stamp, and make a collage. A map and an online story are included to help your child learn more about Washington. This unit is designed to last one week, depending on how often you teach history.

To access this Pathway, simply click the link above.  While there is no registration needed, we encourage you to sign up for a 7 day free trial to access all of our great Pathways!

*Booker T. Washington clip art courtesy of ClipArtGuide.com

We’re pleased to announce that each Friday we will be featuring one of our great Pathways found on LessonPathways.com here on our blog.

Not only will our readers get to preview each of these unique Pathways, we’ll also be giving everyone FREE access for a full week to explore and use the resources we’ve assembled for you!

This week’s FREE featured Pathway is all about Harriet Tubman.

In this unit, you will learn about Harriet Tubman, one of the heroines of the Civil War Era. Through reading lessons, participating in interactive sites, and using printouts, you will learn about this remarkable woman and the Underground Railroad. You will conduct a pretend interview with Harriet Tubman, make a timeline, create a hero card, and look up vocabulary words. This unit is designed to last one week, depending on how often you teach history.

To access this Pathway, simply click this link.  You don’t need to be a subscriber to use the Pathways we will be featuring each week, but you may want to consider signing up for a free one-week trial to have access to all of our Pathways!

While browsing through my blog reader, I ran across a great post about 3 Ways Educators are Embracing Social Technology and wanted to share!

Make sure to check out the original post HERE at Mashable.com

The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education.

Pockets of experimentation are emerging all around the world, and I hope to inspire my fellow teachers with some stories of success. From cell phones to social media, below are three schools that have chosen to go with the flow of popular technology to turn the tide for education.

Skype and Language Learning

Why force students to yawn over a textbook when a real-life native speaker is only a Skype call away? At Marquette University, Spanish students hone their foreign language skills with frequent webcam chats with their English-learning counterparts in South America.

“I absolutely fell in love with this program,” wrote one student. Professor Janet Banhidi, the brains behind the virtual language exchange, said Skype conversation gives students a surprisingly authentic experience. As a teacher (and fluent speaker), she can only give her students limited 1-on-1 attention. With Skype, every student has weekly access to a free personal tutor.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of using Skype is the radical increase in motivation. A whopping 85.3% of Janet’s students kept in touch with their digital pen-pals outside of the classroom through Facebook. “In the end, the best part of this exchange was gaining a friend who I still today talk with on Facebook” said one student. Additionally, though some of her students enroll to simply fulfill a language requirement, many participants have gone on to major in Spanish from the experience. Students who go above and beyond mandatory assignments will be more likely to remember class material and apply it when they get out into the working world.

Mobile Phones

While many schools around the country have declared all-out war on mobile devices, Wiregrass High School took a decidedly different approach, integrating cell phones into the entire educational experience. Students exchange questions and answers with their teachers via SMS and browse classroom blogs for additional instruction. Moreover, as an efficient collaborative tool, students can quickly trade notes or take a snapshot of the blackboard for later studying.

Like with any tool, students do misuse the privilege, but according to the school’s principal the number of cell-phone related infractions is “minuscule.” Perhaps this is because the policy permits students to use cell phones socially between classes, giving them a much needed digital fix throughout the day. Wiregrass’s experience pairs nicely with similar workplace-related research which shows that giving employees periodic down-time with the Internet actually boosts productivity. In the end, fighting pervasive technologies may just sap the energy of everyone involved.

Twitter

Many universities have internal e-mail systems and message boards. But getting students to routinely check these systems for updates can be a chore. As a college teacher myself, my students have been required to participate in group message boards, which is a poor substitute for genuine intellectual curiosity. As a solution, Leicester University in the UK turned to Twitter, hoping that the popular micro-blogging technology would encourage collaboration outside of class. Students were provided with an iPod touch, given instructional materials, and told they had to make a few academic-related tweets a day. Soon, a thriving community grew, complete with @replies and hashtags flying back-and-forth between participants, tutors, and even members outside of the program. Additionally, the study has become an unexpected marketing boon for the university. The Association for Learning Technology noted in its newsletter:

“One year ago, a Twitter search for ‘University of Leicester’ revealed little of interest. More recent searches reveal a growing volume of conversation between existing students, often across institutional boundaries, and also from prospective students, commenting on perceptions of the University and Higher Education in general.”

The university was impressed by the experiment and has begun collaborating with teachers and staff to extend participation throughout the campus. Leicester University joins the growing ranks of major universities, such as M.I.T., that are preparing students with technological and cooperative skills essential to real-life scientific experimentation.

Conclusion

As social media becomes ubiquitous, students prepared for technological collaboration will graduate with a much-needed edge on the competition. Fortunately, in these economically turbulent times, social media is a free and popular alternative to traditional instruction.

Click HERE to read even more about Social Media and Education on Mashable.com!

What does it mean, exactly, to use technology in teaching? The definition of what technology is changes almost daily. So what does it mean when you use technology in your classroom? Is it just the use of computers? The Internet? GPS? There’s always new software, a new gadget, or a new site to try.

It’s important to be flexible and engage your students. There are just as many ways to present technology to your students as there are ways to teach them to read. The way you use technology is going to vary with each class and each student’s interest and ability level.

As education evolves, technology increasingly becomes a channel for innovative teaching and learning practices.

In addition, technology can be used to motivate students. Each class has a wide set of children who vary in their learning style and have different interests. It is the teachers ability to figure out individual learning styles and interests of students; thus making learning more fun and meaningful at the same time. Being a teacher, I think its my responsibility to come up with creative ideas to make curriculum more interesting. It has been a proven fact that visual factor plays a very important role in learning and memorizing details. So, I have been encouraging my students to use the following digital tools :

1. A list of all the good Web resources for Education: NoodleTools

2. Online Library: Lii

3. Collaborative learning platform: FunnelBrain.
This platform is entirely user-driven. Anyone can contribute by submitting or editing or reviewing the electronic flashcards, as well as adding rich content such as photos, videos, audio voice recordings and math equations. In addition, students work in teams to create review materials, paired with video explanations, for their class and leverage a learning management application known as the “Funnel” that tracks and monitors learning progress with a spaced repetition algorithm.

source: http://teachers20.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=1uu7ck4oyjsbo

Lesson Pathways is another site I would recommend that uses technology to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles and student interests. The units there provide a multitude of resources, all available online. I can print off worksheets, assign educational games, or have my students take online quizzes. The creators of that site have taken great care to be sure their lessons will cover a range of student abilities.

Technology has no doubt changed the way we run our classrooms. It’s changed the way we operate in our daily lives. If we approach these changes in our classrooms and strive to adapt our technology use to our classrooms, we will undoubtedly have many more successful and engaged students.

This post was written by Crystal P., classroom educator and LessonPathways.com contributor. You can read more about her in the “Our People” section.

It was always a big event when the teacher pulled out the projector. You remember it don’t you?  She would pull out the big reels of film and spend a few minutes of class time trying to thread the film through that little slot and get it going on the empty reel.  I remember looking over at the reel during boring films to see how much was left.  Often times, the sound would be just a little off from where it should be in the film.  At the end of the movie, the last of the film would filter through the machine making that “flap, flap, flap” sound until the teacher turned it off.

There are also many free sites that teachers can use to provide video content to supplement their lesson plans.  The biggest hurdle that teachers face is finding videos that your particular school’s firewall or technology department will allow.  It can be done though.

This post was written by Crystal P., classroom educator and LessonPathways.com contributor.  You can read more about her in the “Our People” section.