Posts tagged ‘online learning’

If you asked your students what these things are, I’m betting they’d either stare at you blankly or ask if it’s the name of an “oldies band.” We are not just moving in a new direction for obtaining information. The movers have already arrived and your forwarding address is at the post office (you know, that place where you get that paper stuff called mail).

To say that the way we (and our students) obtain information has changed drastically in the last 20 years would be a dramatic understatement. Where we used to search for information, we now have to kind of “weed out” information because there is just so much available to us, literally at our fingertips.

Do you know what we did if there was a question we couldn’t answer and we couldn’t find the answer in our encyclopedias? We called the “reference desk” at the library. The nice lady there would try to answer any question you had, even if it took her a while to look something up.

So if you were researching something, you’d have to pull out a rack in the card catalog according to the alphabetized subject and flip through the cards. If you got lucky, the title of a book or a brief description would point you in the right direction. Then you had to actually find the book, skim through it, and hope that you’d find some information.

Quote: http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2007/05/information.html

The Internet is changing the way our students learn, and it’s changing the way we teach. If we don’t adapt our teaching to meet these changes, we’re going to lose our students. Those of us who are already teaching are going to have to keep up. Education students in universities are learning to teach this way. It’s not new to them. It’s already second nature. Along those lines, the kids we teach are already a step or two ahead of us when it comes to technology anyway. Kids can now study their spelling words online using sites like SpellingCity.com. Teachers use the Internet to generate their own quizzes, worksheets, and web quests.

I love that the information is so “easy” to find these days. I put easy in quotation marks because as I mentioned earlier, there is just so much out there that sometimes it becomes overwhelming. That’s one of the things I love about Lesson Pathways. When I want to find an activity or an online game or even just some reference material for a subject, it’s already there. It’s been screened for content and appropriateness. All I have to do is enter a search term into the search box and everything I need has already been found for me. I don’t want to be left behind when it comes to technology, and a site like Lesson Pathways makes it easy for me to look like I know what I’m doing–even when I don’t (which never happens…really, honest).

I’m glad information has become so easy to obtain. It gives me more time to focus on my students’ needs, and it gives my students more time to focus on synthesizing the information they have in front of them instead of spending all that time searching for a needle in a haystack.

Editors, synthesizers, and creators. That’s the new generation. They’ll no longer have hunt and gather for precious bits of information. Instead, they’ll be able to build something new and–we can hope–better.

Quote: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2140631,00.asp

This post was written by Crystal P., classroom educator and Lesson Pathways contributor.

How Did We Go From 13 Colonies to 50 States?

Who Were the Native Americans?

Find Answers to These Questions and Learn More About Our Nation with This Fun Interactive.

The United States History Map is an interactive website where kids can learn about the geographic features, regions, and history of the United States. The site is broken down into five major sections: From Sea to Shining Sea, 50 States, Indians, Colonists, and The Nation Expands. Each section provides background information on the topic, an interactive, and a timed quiz.

Product Description: “Become a geography whiz as you learn how the United States was settled. Discover how the continent was irrevocably changed by European colonization, the events that caused the wholesale displacement and decimation of the land’s original inhabitants, and how the 50 states came to be formed.”

In addition to the U.S. history interactive, you can choose from other subject areas as well, which are located in the upper right corner of the site. You can pick from a list of subjects, including math, science, language, and additional history topics.

Uses: Use this interactive to teach or supplement a variety of history topics, as well as any other subject of your choosing. This particular interactive makes a great supplement for teaching children about the 13 Colonies and Native Americans. It’s also good for use with geography lessons relating to North America and the U.S. The use of interactives makes learning about history much more fun, especially with children. Rather than pouring through books and listening to drawn-out lectures (yawn), interactives allow children to take part in the lesson, bringing the topic at hand to life and making it more interesting.

Content and Safety: This site and its content was designed for upper elementary and middle school grades. However, all ages and grade levels can benefit from and gain a basic understanding of the United States and its history. The site requires Internet Explorer 5 (and higher) and Mozilla 5 (and higher) as well as the latest versions of Flash player.

Using the Product: I had the opportunity to explore this site and found it to be quite interesting—seems you’re never too old to learn (or re-learn). In the first section of the site, From Sea to Shining Sea, kids get a chance to learn how to read and interpret a map of the United States in order to understand its geography and how it has influenced our history. They will also be asked to identify major mountains, rivers, and oceans of North America.

The 50 States section focuses on the various regions and individual states. The other three sections focus on the original inhabitants of North America. Many distinct Indian tribes originally inhabited each of the regions that are now part of the country, and you can learn more about these various tribes in the Indian section of the site. Life for North American Indians began to change with the arrival of Europeans—or the Colonists, which kids will also learn about.

Under the Nations Expand section, kids will learn how the United States grew into the 50 states, expanding from the original 13 colonies. After reviewing interactive overviews in each section, you can test your skills by answering questions relating the U.S. history map in a series of timed quizzes, which will be scored and can be printed off for review. Check out my score and yes, I could use a bit more review!

Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: I did not find any specific tutorial for the site; however, once you get there, it is pretty much self-explanatory. You simply read through the sections following the “Next” link (or arrow) located on the bottom right side of each page.

Summary: I really enjoyed this interactive and look forward to checking out some of the other ones on the site. I think children will greatly benefit from the information, and the interactive lessons are good for holding their interest. Although much of this might already be familiar to older kids, they can still revisit and appreciate our history with this site. You may even learn something new, as I did.

This post was written by Nikki P., homeschool mom and Lesson Pathways contributor. You can find this original review of this product posted at ChoosyHomeschooler.

In case you missed any of the other giveaways, there are THREE more chanced to win a FREE YEAR of Lesson Pathways!

SecularHomeschool.com is hosting a giveaway for three free subscriptions to LessonPathways.com. You can find all the details and enter HERE! Good Luck!

Teachers are always looking for new ways to engage their students. I’ve found one of the easiest ways to do that is by using technology. Kids LOVE technology. Tell them it’s time for math and they groan. Tell them we’re going to the computer lab to work tessellations on the computer, and suddenly I’m a hero! Lesson Pathways is a wonderful tool that assists busy teachers in offering Internet-based activities to their students. The best part? All the work is already done for them. What teacher wouldn’t love that?

I have personally spent hours sitting at the computer looking for a cool webquest or an online game. Sometimes I’ve looked for my whole class; sometimes I’ve looked for reinforcement or enrichment for a single student. I wish I had been able to access a service like Lesson Pathways all along. It would have saved me valuable time–you know, to fill out paperwork, call parents, attend a staffing…

Among the 36 weeks of curriculum per core subject, per grade (currently through grade 5), you’ll find a wealth of lessons, mini-lessons, hands-on activities, online games, videos, e-books…the list goes on. It’s so easy to use too! The Planner feature is such a useful tool. You can add your entire class in just a few minutes. Once that is set up, you can select the Pathways you want to assign. The part I really like is having the option to assign Pathways to individual students or to the entire class. Again, anything that saves some time is a good thing in my book.

I really like that I can use this anywhere. I can browse Lesson Pathways from home, school, the coffee shop… I don’t have to lug around those big, heavy teacher-edition textbooks. I don’t even need to have a pen with me, for that matter. That’s generally a good thing. I never have a pen when I need it. (I think I was absent the day they taught organization at my university.) I just click on the Pathway I want to use and assign it to either the whole class or just the students I want to use it. I can also print out a worksheet from home and take it to school for copying the next day. I don’t know about you, but I do my best thinking with my bunny slippers on–and well, administration tends to frown on me wearing them to school.

Differentiated instruction is one of my favorite education buzzwords, and Lesson Pathways has a handle on it. The creators of Lesson Pathways are aware of the distinct needs of individual learners and of teacher’s requirements to differentiate instruction for their students. For this reason, the lessons offered address a wide variety of learning styles and methods. The search feature on the site will allow you to find just what you need. For example, type “Mesopotamia” into the search box and 49 pre-screened and carefully selected choices will pop up. You can then filter your search further if you’re looking for, say, a video. All of the Pathways are tagged to help you find resources for special needs or instructional methods.

We all know how overpaid teachers are, right? We just love to spend our own money in the classroom and buy supplies for which we’ll never even dream of being reimbursed. Hmmm…maybe not. The good news is Lesson Pathways isn’t going to break your classroom stipend (if you’re lucky enough to get one). Compared with a tutoring service, boxed curriculum, and other learning sites, you’ll find this service is incredibly cost-efficient.

If you’re still not sure, sign up for a FREE trial with Lesson Pathways. For more information, contact one of the team members at ContactUs@LessonPathways.com.

Be sure to stop by the The Work of Childhood between now and November 4th to find out how to win a FREE one year subscription to LessonPathways.com!!!

While you’re there, check out the archives to read about their family and adventures in homeschooling!

We’d like to wish all of our Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. It differs a little from the American Thanksgiving. Sure, we do enjoy turkey, squash, and all the trimmings! We get together with friends and family for a big meal and football! However, the reason behind our celebration is different! Americans celebrate the Pilgrims traveling to America and settling in the “New World.” Canadians celebrate the harvest.

We live in a northern climate, and a successful harvest is a great blessing! American influence has played a part in the Canadian Thanksgiving. Our holiday originated from a three-fold process:

1. Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North America, farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat’s horn with fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or horn of plenty. When they traveled to Canada, they brought this tradition with them.

2. In the year 1578, the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, giving thanks for surviving the long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him– Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.

3. The third came in the year 1621, in what is now the United States, when the Pilgrims celebrated their harvest in the New World. The Pilgrims were English colonists who founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth Massachusetts. By the 1750s, this joyous celebration was brought to Nova Scotia by American settlers from the south.

(The above three points are taken from the CanadaInfo website, click here to read the whole article).

Did you know Americans did not have the first Thanksgiving?

Frobisher’s celebration took place 43 years before the Pilgrims gave thanks in 1621!

Each family has its own way of celebrating the holiday. Here are some common practices across Canada:

a) Turkey of course! We also enjoy ham, roast, and pumpkin pie! Our meals do not differ much from the American version of our feast. The Americans contributed to our traditional meal!

b) We often have the cornucopia (filled with fruit, flowers, etc.) on display around the house or on the kitchen table, honoring the European part of our tradition! It is a symbol of abundance.

c) Thankfulness! We enjoy sharing what we are thankful for in remembrance of the English navigator Martin Frobisher. Different people celebrate their thankfulness in different ways, such as going around the table to take turns saying what they are thankful for and offering prayers of thankfulness in church and at the table. The First Nations of Canada celebrate by being thankful to their ancestors.

d) Football! Football is a huge tradition here. No man is denied the practice of undoing his pants after a big meal and settling down to watch the big game! It is a tradition that began with Monday Night Football!

Did you know Americans did not have the first Thanksgiving?

Frobisher’s celebration took place 43 years before the Pilgrims gave thanks in 1621! It began in 1578 for Canadians, but on April 5, 1872, the Canadian Confederation made it a civic holiday, marking the official holiday as the second Monday of October. This was in celebration of the Prince of Whales’ recovery from a serious illness!

We have much to be thankful for, including the diversity of Canadian culture that combines so many different reasons to be thankful, into one holiday: Thanksgiving!

Here are some fun FREE on-line resources for helping your child learn and celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving:

Kid’s Turn Central: Canadian Thanksgiving
Canadian Thanksgiving eCards
Canadian Thanksgiving Printable Wordsearch
Thankful Wreath of Leaves Craft
Canadian Thanksgiving True or False
Learn about Canadian Thanksgiving Video

This post was written by Jennifer B., a Canadian resident, homeschool mom and LessonPathways team member.  The links were compiled by Christina S., homeschool mom and LessonPathways team member.

Kids Dinos is part of the Kids Know It network, a free educational resource for kids. On this site, your child can learn all about the age of dinosaurs in a fun, interactive environment. Kids Dinos allows your child to experience science, history and geography in a fun way, using hands-on activities and games, rather than relying solely on books, which makes learning more interesting.

Description of Product: “65 million years ago monstrous reptiles roamed freely across the Earth, only to mysteriously disappear. Read articles about dinosaurs, search the dino database, vote for your favorite types of dinosaurs, and play dinosaur games, on KidsDinos.com, our dinosaur website.”

Kids Dinos is part of the Kids Know It network, a free educational resource for kids. On this site, your child can learn all about the age of dinosaurs in a fun, interactive environment.

Homeschool Uses: This would be a great supplemental tool for teaching history/geography topics relating to the dinosaur age, from the individual time periods and where they lived to the different types of dinosaurs and what they ate. The flashcards, located in the Dinorize It section, make excellent study material as well. Here, your child can create a list of dinosaurs that he or she wants or needs to study.

Kids Dinos allows your child to experience history and geography in a fun way, using hands-on activities and games, rather than relying solely on books, which makes learning more interesting. Science lessons could also find their way here by studying meteors or using scientific inquiry skills to hypothesize what your child thinks may have happened to the dinosaurs.

Content and Safety: All the information on the Kids Dinos site has been thoroughly researched for both accuracy and appropriateness. I found nothing that would be deemed unsafe or inappropriate for children. In addition, there is nothing to sign up for and no registration required for using the site. No one asks for or uses any private information.

Using the Product: While exploring the Kids Dinos site, I found a neat interactive dinosaur map (located in the purple bar of the homepage) where you can click on areas of the map to learn more about the dinosaurs that were found in different places around the world. You can also click on the View Dinosaur Types to learn more about a specific type of dinosaur.

The Dinosaur Timeline allows you to choose the time period you would like to learn more about. In addition to these interesting tools, users can visit the Dino Data section to find information on all sorts of dinosaurs and interesting facts about them, including what a specific dinosaur may have eaten and how big it might have been. The site also includes a featured dinosaur on each page, and you can also vote for your favorite dinosaur on the Vote for Dinosaurs page. Finally, your child can play Dino Games or take part in other fun activities like classifying the dinosaurs, matching games, dinosaur hangman and more!

Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: While researching and exploring the Kids Dinos site, I did not come across any tutorials on using it. However, the site is fairly straight forward and does not take a genius to get around on it. All the activities, games, and other information are easy to comprehend.

Summary: I found the site easy to maneuver around and easy to understand, with kid-friendly information for younger viewers. While it’s aimed toward the elementary school-aged learner (K-5), those in grades 6-8 may also find the site both useful and interesting. Overall, it would definitely be worth a look. Let us know what you think.

This post was written by Nikki P., a Lesson Pathways contributor. This post was originally posted on the ChoosyHomeschooler blog.

I have recently fallen in love with some new-to-me websites. Before I took up this homeschooling gig in full force, I used to love browsing sites about digital scrap booking, perusing all the wonderful layouts and new scrapbook kits, and reading blogs with anecdotal stories about moms and their toddlers. I have also been known to spend hours upon hours surfing blogs about large families. (I’d love to have a gazillion children one day but for now I happily manage my three while living vicariously through others). My latest on-line obsession, however, is MATH. I’m so thrilled to have found so many resources for teaching math to children. I am also encouraged to learn that there are resources available for all age groups so as my children grow, I know that I will be able to find methods to help them at any age.

Currently, I have a kindergartner, a 3 year old and an 18 month old. Although this is my first “official” year of homeschooling, I have been teaching my children since they arrived. (Haven’t you? I mean, how did they learn to walk? Talk? Dress themselves? Say their ABC’s? Say grace before their meals? Pour themselves a glass of juice and clear the dinner dishes? Oh yeah – YOU taught them those things!) I will say, I do feel very confident about our choice to homeschool but like many moms who have started down this path of educating their own, I also have moments of breath-taking fear seize upon me. “What if I MISS something? What if I neglect to teach them something they need? What if I don’t teach them “correctly” and I mess their little brains up?” In the moments when I do start to let those doubts creep in, the things that I worry about are the things that I feel I am not strong in, and Math is at the top of that list.

Now, and I hope I’m not sounding too cocky here, I must say that I do believe that I possess the skills necessary to impart basic Math facts to my kindergartner. Ask me in a few years how I feel about it and I may be singing a different tune, but for now I’m fairly certain that we can grasp the basics of kindergarten math without having to outsource the teaching. I do, however, do lots of thinking (and fretting) over HOW to transmit those facts in an effective way. I must pause here to say that one of the beauties of homeschooling is that as your child’s personal learning coach and private tutor, you can more effectively figure out what methods best speak to them and tailor their education program to fit those needs. Math resources are all over the internet and that has done much to help me overcome my fears of not being able to “get it right.”

In the event that you share in some of my irrational fear, I’d love to share a list of on-line math resources that have been helpful to me. Some are sites that give instruction as to how to teach math, some are sites that have on-line Math games that your child can play, and some are links to sites that allow you to make your own math worksheets. I’ll start out with the instructional sites:

• LET’S PLAY MATH – This site has resources for all ages. It is written by a homeschooling mom who has taught or tutored mathematics at every level from pre-K to undergraduate physics. She encourages teaching Math in a variety of ways and making it FUN. Thanks to her “Game that is worth 1,000 worksheets” post, we’re playing lots of WAR around here. (Even my 3 year old is learning from it. When we play the card game, he is the “judge” and decides who wins or loses each round by telling whose card was worth more.) I also love her “20 Things to do with a 100 chart” post and as a result, we have incorporated the number grid in lots of creative ways. There are also links on Let’s Play Math for middle and high school students. Finally, she has a humongous list of links for other on-line resources.

• MATHWIRE – Wow. You could spend a very long time here. (Be sure you don’t have anything boiling on the stove while you’re surfing this site. Not that I would know anything about that.) They have a huge A-Z list of topics, tons of ideas for Math Games and so much more.

• YOU TUBE – That’s right, You Tube. I have found great instructional videos about how to use 10 frames, making your own notebook worksheets, and there are even videos that boast that they can teach you calculus in 20 minutes! We also like to use You Tube for short clips for the kids to watch about telling time, trapezoids, and (being Native Nashvillians) we love Sesame Street’s Number Ten from Tennessee! My daughter’s favorite Math Video on You Tube is the Polygon Song. I dare you to listen to it and not sing it for the rest of the day!

• HOMESCHOOL MATH – This blog hosts a “Math Teachers At Play” Carnival that has some great ideas for teaching Math. Different contributors can submit their math teaching methods and ideas and they are compiled into great posts that lead you to marvelous posts like this one on Using Math Journals.

Next, here are some links to MATH WORKSHEET WEBSITES that have pre-made worksheets to drill certain skills. Many sites also have worksheet generators so that you can make your own worksheets for whatever your child is into or struggling with at the moment.

The Math Worksheet Site
Worksheets at DonnaYoung.com
LizardPoint
MathCafe
LessonCorner

Finally, there are tons of fabulous sites with games that your children can play on-line while actually learning something other than how to dress up Polly Pocket or steer a hot wheels car to the finish line. Here are our Top 10 Favorites:

10 Frame Game
Interactive 100 Chart
Subtraction Harvest
Clock Game
Concentration
Dot To Dot Constellations
Crazy Pattern Machine
Counting Coins
Number Line and last but not least…
TETRIS! (OK, I admit it, I play this one

So there you have it. You’ve no excuse to be fearful now! With all of these on-line Math Resources, you will be equipped and ready to teach those pesky fractions and integers to your children with ease… and you can make it fun!

This post was written by Julie C., homeschool mom, Lesson Pathways contributor and author of the Clark Chronicles Blog.

A landmark study was published recently by the US Department of Education (ED) that should encourage families to take advantage of web-based resources to help educate themselves and their families.

Non-profit research institute SRI International conducted the study on behalf of the ED, which reviewed, approved and published the findings.  It was a comprehensive analysis of 99 studies of web-based learning programs conducted between 1994 and 2006.  The results were stunning to many, and may mark a turning point in the acceptance of online learning systems across the country.

In short, the study said that on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction alone.

You can review the report yourself here: http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf.

For those using online programs like LessonPathways.com’s program for K-5, it’s important to note that the findings apply primarily to adults.  The researchers were surprised to discover how few research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K-12 students have been published.  Let’s hope these findings spurs researchers to begin studying this question for younger learners.

However, I think there are three conclusions of this study that can be applied to learners of all ages, and we hope will encourage our audience to take full advantage of the many rich resources available online to help educate their family.

Number one: the study emphasizes that “online and face-to-face conditions generally differed on multiple dimensions, including the amount of time that learners spent on task.“  It goes on to say that “studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.”

I have heard from many parents and teachers that the flexibility that online learners have–to spend more or less time on various learning tasks according to their individual needs–is one of the key reasons that online instruction is often more effective in the long run than a typical classroom situation.

Too often, classroom management requirements put both the classroom teacher and the students in the difficult position of having each student spend the same amount of time on each task.  We all know what usually happens: the kids who master the particular topic become bored, restless, and sometimes disruptive.  Children who are struggling with the material fall further behind every day, to the detriment of their education, self-esteem, and, too often, their love of learning.

Number two: the report says “instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.“  This is important for two reasons.

For homeschoolers it explains why so many families who use online resources also make arrangements for their children to gather with others to participate in group learning activities.  Children learn in many different ways and need to have concepts and practices reinforced not only by repetition but also by a variety of methods of instruction, illustration, elaboration, presentation, and collaboration.  Such “blended learning” opportunities are becoming increasingly popular among institutions that once offered only face-to-face or online programs.

You find can a partial list of some of these innovative–and often free–programs in a report by the North American Council for Online Learning called Blended Learning: The Convergence of Online and Face-to-Face Education.  Locations of some of the the cited tuition-free schools include examples in Central Pennslyvania, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

Homeschoolers can also find opportunities to join or organize a local instructional group by contacting one of the associations you’ll find at Homeschool.com, Homeschool World, or Ann Zeise’s A to Z Home’s Cool homeschooling sites, or search for local groups at meetup.com .

For families with children in typical classroom-oriented schools, we hope this will encourage you to urge your school administrators to embrace web-based instructional programs that can help children learn at their own pace, and free their teachers to give more personalized instruction to individual children and small groups within their classrooms.

Number three: with respect to various teaching methods and learning styles, the study says “The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.“  That’s why LessonPathways has assembled and tagged a variety of resources in each pathway to make it easy to find resources that fit a family’s preferred teaching method and each child’s optimal learning style.

If you’d like to read other people’s perspectives on this landmark study, here is some of the best commentary about it I’ve found on the web.

Online learning boosts student perfomance, by Don Tapscott, September, 2009

At Your Fingers, an Oxford Don, by Steve Lohr, September 12, 2009, The New York Times.

Study bolsters hybrid, online learning efficacy by Michael Horn of the Innosight Institute, July 23, 2009.

They’re experts in their fields, but if you have taught children at home or in the classroom, we consider you to be an expert, too, in what works for children like yours.  We would love to share your experience as well.  So, please offer your comments in the space provided below.

This post was written by Richard Rasmus, founder of LessonPathways.com.