This week, I have been reinforcing to my Grade Two students the importance of correctly using full stops and capital letters to form sentences. I have found that primary students of all age groups tend to need constant reinforcement of these concepts. My students defined a sentence as “a piece of writing that makes sense […]
Tools, Sites, And Apps
Another Cool Blogging Tool
I found out about the site Page Plugins on Mary Ellen Lynch’s classroom blog. It is another fun tool to add something different to blog posts. On the site, you can create all sorts of visuals from glittering text (above) and Easter Bunny notes (below) to embed on your blog. There is also a range […]
Tech Tools for Teachers # 6 – Word Magnets
Each week Simon Collier and I collaborate on a weekly email newsletter to inform teachers of great online tools. Find out more here. This week we review the site Word Magnets. http://www.triptico.co.uk/resources/word_magnets/WordMagnets.html Word magnets is a tool that allows you to paste in some text and then change the text into word tiles like fridge […]
A Vision of 21st Century Teachers
I heard about this You Tube clip via a few different people on Twitter. The 4 minute video involves 18 classroom teachers “speaking out” on the topic of tech integration and 21st Century skills for students. It’s a really interesting insight into what the technology in the classroom can look like in all curriculum areas […]
New Page: Embedding Web 2.0 Tools
I’ve just started a new page with a list of some Web 2.0 tools you could use on student or class blogs. When I first started blogging with my class, I simply used text and images. As I got the hang of it, I started using different forms of media to make the blog posts […]
Kubbu: Make Education Games
I recently came across the site Kubbu. This is a site where teachers can make games and online activities for students. The activities can be made available to individual students or groups of students and the teacher can view and analyse results. Kubbu is free for teachers although is limited to using with 30 students […]
Blogging: Teaching Commenting Skills
I am currently in the process of introducing my Grade Two students to blogging. Our 2KM class blog is proving to be very popular with students and families. As I have previously blogged about, I like to follow these steps when introducing blogging to students. This is my third year of blogging with young students […]
Tech Tools for Teachers – Newsletter #1
As I have previously blogged about, I am collaborating with a fellow teacher Simon Collier on a weekly email newsletter for teachers called Tech Tools for Teachers. I aim to post these newsletters on this blog and have created a page where you will find PDF versions of these newsletters and find out more about […]
Digital Natives
Many people talk about the divide between digital natives and digital immigrants in today’s society. Digital natives are said to be those people who have grown up in a world of computers and 21st centuries technologies. People who are considered digital immigrants grew up before the digital age and have had to learn how to […]
More about blogging!
I am currently in the process of introducing my new Grade Two students to blogging. As this is a new concept for many students and parents I have prepared two handouts to send home to families. They are an Introduction to Blogging note and Guide to Getting the Most out of 2KM’s blog note. Feel […]
Blogging in 2010
The school year begins here on the 1st February and for the third year, I will embark on the blogging journey with my new Grade Two class. As my class will still be called 2KM, I have decided to keep my 2009 2KM blog and customise it to my 2010 class. If you are setting […]
Social Bookmarking: Delicious Vs Diigo
Always looking for ways to make my life more organised, I became a fan of social bookmarking a year or two ago. In case you are unfamiliar, social bookmarking is a way of storing, organising and sharing your favourite websites. Instead of having your favourite sites listed in your Internet browser, they are stored online […]
Teaching Technology Post “Noughties”
For a while now I have been questioning the curriculum that is seen in many primary school I.T/ICT/Technology/Computer classes. Many primary school students spend an hour each week in a computer lab learning about Office programs and the like….”how to make a PowerPoint, Word Document, Photo Story etc”. Now that we have left the “noughties”, […]
Global Connections
My class blog has been a central part of our classroom this year for reflecting on and publishing student work while celebrating the students’ achievements in their Grade Two year. Making global connections has been one of the most rewarding parts of the blogging experience for me and my class. Two particularly worthwhile connections we […]
Christmas Sites for Primary Classrooms
As we’re now getting into “Christmas mode” at school, here are some sites that might be useful in the primary classroom. Primary Games has a wide range of flash style Christmas games for kids. Great to use on an IWB or classroom computer. North Pole is a great site for kids and teachers. There are stories, games and […]