Tag: websites

Jan 24 2013 January 24, 2013 March 5, 2013 NoComment by David

2nd Grade American Indian Websites

Posted in 2nd Grade, Social Studies

IndianSiteSecond graders at Laburnum Elementary are currently reviewing the American Indian tribes they’ve been studying for the past several weeks (Powhatan, Lakota, and Pueblo). So to help them review, they made websites today using CheckThis. CheckThis is a great way for elementary students to create websites because it doesn’t require a login, and adding new parts is as simple as clicking a button. To get them started brainstorming ideas, each child chose a tribe and pretended that they lived in the tribe. They gave themselves a name and an occupation and thought about what their lives would be like. Then we went to CheckThis and started writing. They wrote about where they lived, what they ate, what the land and climate were like, and any other creative ideas they wanted to add. Next we got a picture to embed. We discussed good search terms that would get the best picture (“lakota indian” would get more results than just typing “indian”). Finally, I showed them how to add a poll question that would help the reader review the American Indians. I posted all the links to a Google Doc that you can see here.


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Jan 09 2013 January 9, 2013 June 29, 2015 NoComment by David

4th Grade Review Sites by Students

Posted in 4th Grade, Math, Science, Social Studies

4thSaturnToday fourth grade students in Ms. Hall’s class at Laburnum Elementary created websites for each other (and anyone else) to help them review for upcoming tests. First I told them to pick a topic that they know a lot about. It could be from Math, Science, or Social Studies. Next we went to CheckThis which is a site I have often used with students to create webpages since it doesn’t require a login. I showed them how to type a title, subtitle (name), and their information. It’s important to finish the writing part first before going onto the fun stuff because otherwise students get too distracted. Next we did a Google image search to find a relevant picture and added the link to their webpage. I also showed them how to add a poll. We wanted to create these sites for review so we discussed what makes a good question. After they published their pages, I would usually go around and write down the last 4 digits of their websites (since the first part is the same for all of them) and add it to a GoogleDoc for sharing, but I didn’t have much time today, so I made a quick Google form that you can see here, and asked the students to enter the last 4 digits themselves. Then I published the results as a webpage with all the links. You can see it by clicking here. Try visiting a couple of sites and answering their poll questions. One last thing, in trying to take a screenshot of one of the sites for the sample picture on this post, I found it difficult to capture the whole site since it wouldn’t fit on my screen. Then I discovered a cool webtool called Site2Pic that did the trick! UPDATE 2/5/15: Here are a few more examples from a similar lesson with Ms. Bennett’s class at Davis.


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Dec 13 2012 December 13, 2012 January 23, 2013 1Comment by David

1st Grade Goods & Services Town

Posted in 3rd Grade, Social Studies

Picture 9Today first graders at Chamberlayne Elementary combined their knowledge of map skills (SOL1.4) and goods and services (SOL1.7) in a special project. Each class created their own interactive town map where you could click on a building and see whether it produced goods or services. Here’s how we did it. First we discussed what goods and services the people in a town would need or want. Then I instructed the students to choose one and design their store in Pixie. If we noticed that too many students were picking one type of store, we’d say, “We have a lot of pet stores in our town, what is something else our town should have?” I asked them to include several elements in their Pixie drawings: their names, their stores’ names, pictures of themselves, and pictures of what they sell or provide. I also asked them to highlight whether they provided goods or services or both. They exported their finished pictures as PNG files with transparent backgrounds. Next I added their buildings to a town map in Keynote (you can download the files we used for this project here). I uploaded the map to ThingLink and added the clickable hotspots. Since ThingLink sometimes has ads, I didn’t want to directly link to those, so I embedded them into Instabloggs. You can see the finished products from each class by clicking the links: Ms. Gardner, Ms. McLean, Ms. Kazanoglu. Teachers could then use these maps to review knowledge and encourage critical thinking: Is our town lacking anything? Which side of the river would you live on and why? Which direction would you travel to get from one specific store to another? Parents can also view the maps from home and leave comments!


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Dec 07 2012 December 7, 2012 January 23, 2013 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Greece & Rome Websites

Posted in 3rd Grade, Social Studies

3rdSiteThird graders at Holladay Elementary have finished their study of Greece & Rome and were ready today for a final project to review and share what they have learned. I showed them how to create free websites using CheckThis. First they had to decide which ancient civilization they wanted to review. We wrote that in the title. Next they had to pretend that they actually lived in ancient Greece or Rome and tell about their lives. They had to include facts about land features, occupations, trade, sports, art, etc. They wrote a paragraph, or as much as they could in the alloted time (you can save if you log into an account, but since we didn’t, we had to finish the website in the hour we had together). I showed them how to add a picture from the Internet, but I also just learned today that CheckThis has a webcam feature you can use to add pictures. So I was able to test it out with Ms. Marion’s class. They took pictures from classroom books about Greece and Rome. We also added a Google map of the region that was fully interactive. Finally, we wrote poll questions for site visitors to answer. You can see all the websites by clicking on the teacher links below:
http://tinyurl.com/checkthismarion
http://tinyurl.com/checkthisbarnes
http://tinyurl.com/checkthiscowart


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Dec 05 2012 December 5, 2012 January 23, 2013 1Comment by David

2nd Grade Beeclip Indian Posters

Posted in 2nd Grade, Social Studies

Picture 5Second graders at Laburnum Elementary have been studying the different American Indian tribes (SOL 2.2 & 2.4). So today they chose a tribe and made an online poster using a cool free site called Beeclip (although it was just updated to Biteslide). First I showed them how to select a background from the side menu. Then we added a title using the text button. They wrote the name of their tribe, and I showed them how to change the font, size, and color. Next we used the built-in safe image search to find pictures about the tribes. We discussed various search terms they could use to find specific photos. After dragging their pictures onto the poster, I showed them how to add frames and stickers for decoration. Some of the stickers could even be written on using a text box. Since you can’t save your posters without an account, we clicked the full screen button and took a screenshot. Then we saved those to our folders. The only problem with that is they can’t go back later and edit their work. I took all their screenshots and uploaded them to a CoMemories gallery that you can see by clicking here.


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Dec 04 2012 December 4, 2012 January 16, 2013 NoComment by David

VSTE Conference 2012

Posted in 5th Grade, Staff Development, Trekkers

Picture 8This weekend I attended the VSTE Conference in Virginia Beach. It was a great conference, and I learned lots of new ways to use technology in the classroom. I also presented a session with Alfonso Favale. The title of our presentation was “Make Meaningful Media with the Virginia Trekkers.” You can see our entire presentation here. The tool we used to create that website is actually one that you and your students could use too. It’s called Tackk and doesn’t require a login to use. It has lots of cool features like embedding videos and maps which I tried to include in our sample site. We started our presentation by sharing some of the latest updates to the Virginia Trekkers. This summer we traveled across the country thanks to a HEF grant. We went from Virginia to California, passing through seven other states along the way: Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. We added those videos to our USA Trekkers page to help 5th graders with their study of the United States regions. After telling about the updates, we wanted to show teachers how they could create videos with their students like the Trekkers do. So we gave them a variety of resources and web tools that you can find linked on our Tackk page. Try some of them out and let me know how I can help you. You might even consider entering one of your videos to our Video Contest. After our presentation, the Trekkers took a Polar Plunge into the ocean and we made a “pop-up video” using a cool web tool we learned about at VSTE called Popcorn Maker. Students can use it to add pop-ups to their videos including maps, twitter feeds, text, pictures and more. Check it out!


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Nov 01 2012 November 1, 2012 January 10, 2013 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Water Conservation Posters

Posted in 3rd Grade, Science

Tamia3Third graders in Ms. Tate’s class at Chamberlayne Elementary have been learning about water conservation (SOL3.6d, 3.9e). Today they made posters to hang around the school encouraging students to conserve water. We decided to make them online using a site called BeeClip so we could share them with others who don’t attend Chamberlayne. First the students decided which were the most important facts from their research to include on their posters. They typed them up using BeeClip’s text feature. Next they used BeeClip’s built in Google Image Safe Search to look for pictures that related to their text. Finally they selected some of BeeClip’s stickers to add decoration to their posters. In order to save the posters without having an account, the students had to take screenshots. Then we uploaded the screenshots to an online photo sharing site called CoMemories. You can see them all by clicking here. The projects turned out great, and the students were proud of their professional looking posters that will be displayed around the school.


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Sep 19 2012 September 19, 2012 November 8, 2012 NoComment by David

4th Grade Virginia Regions BeeClip Posters

Posted in 4th Grade, Social Studies

I’ve shared several ideas for projects your students could do about the regions of Virginia on this blog (search for “regions” in the search box). Here’s a new one we did today using BeeClip. One of the best things about BeeClip is the safe Google image search that is incorporated within the website. The students used that to find pictures of places, products, and industries for their chosen region. They could also upload photos that I provided for them. Then they added labels using the stickers and the text tool. Finally we entered full screen mode and took a screenshot to save it (Command + Shift + 3). Screenshots are saved to the Documents folder, so students can drag them from there to their own folders. If you would like your students to save their work online so they can keep working on it later, you would have to set up an account. Otherwise it’s free to use with no login required.


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Sep 06 2012 September 6, 2012 September 13, 2012 NoComment by David

4th Grade “About Me” Posters

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts

Here at the beginning of the year it’s always a great idea to give your students the opportunity to introduce themselves to you and to each other. There are so many different ways to do this type of project. We’ve done movies, comics, Keynote slideshows, and Pages documents. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas though, and I found a cool website called BeeClip that I wanted to try out with a class. Ms. Waggoner at Chamberlayne Elementary was all for it, so I went to her fourth grade class today, and her students had a good time making posters about themselves. This site is great because it doesn’t require a login to use it. Students can upload their photos, add text and stickers, and even search for pictures online with a built in safe Google image search. Once they created their posters we went to full-screen mode and took a screenshot of it (Apple + Shift + 3). Screenshots are saved to the Documents folder on student computers. Next I uploaded the posters to Comemories which is a great way to share photos instantly. You can see all the posters here.


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Sep 04 2012 September 4, 2012 September 12, 2012 NoComment by David

New Sign Ups This Year

Posted in Staff Development

It’s the start of a new school year, and each year I need to find a new way for teachers to sign up for lessons with me. Usually what happens is the site I was using for free goes over to a pay format. This happened with Acuity and Genbook. Last year I used Check Appointments but that got blocked by our firewall this year for some reason. So I searched again for a new one, and I’m sharing what I found with you because you might like to set up an online sign up sheet for parent conferences. I use YouCanBookMe for teachers to sign up to use the COWs (Computers On Wheels). It works great and integrates perfectly with Google calendar (you can see an example here). You might like to try it for parent conferences, but I can’t use it for my lessons since it uses set time slots. I need flexible time slots so teachers can sign up for 30-, 45-, or 60-minute lessons. I thought I found a solution with TungleMe, which also works well with Google Calendar, but that was a bit too complicated. I finally settled on SetMore. It’s simple, it allows for flexible scheduling, and it’s free. The only downside is it doesn’t integrate with Google Calendar. But I like it. So to sign up for lessons with me, please use this link or you can just go to my homepage and click the “book now” button. Thanks, and I am looking forward to another great year of working with you and your students!


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