Tech Tip Thursday - Sumdog! Best Math Site!

I just realized it is Thursday (already!) Where are my days going?!?! I apologize for having 2 posts in one day, but I've missed a few tips and I need to catch up

Today's tech tip is the website Sumdog! I heard about it from a fellow blogger and I swear by it! Hands down the best math website! It's a math website that allows students to practice math concepts in fun game formats! To sign up and play the games is absolutely FREE....however they do have a reporting section that will give you details {reports} about how your students are doing {and what they are struggling with}. I'll be honest, I have only used the free features.

Teachers can sign up and then setup their class with individual logins for each student. I am always weary about entering my students' names into online programs. I only entered their first name and last initial. It generated passwords for each student. It's a very simple process and it's super easy to go back and add new students.  Students can play as guest, however I don't recommend this because they miss out on some of the features.

 The students are able to choose which concept they want to work on. The choices are place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, or algebra type equations. Then they can even choose which skill they want to focus on and level. I have tried to figure out how to set these particular skills so that students could only work on skills that I have set, however I haven't been able to figure it out. I can set up competitions and set the skill level there.  I'm hoping that this will be a feature they add in the future. I don't want my students to choose easy concepts, nor ones that they would struggle with.

Students then choose how they are going to play: against the computer, a random person, or a classmate. This is the best part of the site! The students get such a kick out of playing against each other and they can be playing the same game but working on different skills and levels. I even jump on a computer from time to time and challenge the kids...they really get a kick out of it.

Finally the students choose which game they want to play. There are some really fun ones! My favorite is junk pile. You have to answer questions and then pile up junk in the junkyard, but be careful or your pile could fall over.  There are about 20 games in all that keeps a variety of interest in mind.

As the kids play they not only compete against one another, but they are racking up points {coins}. The coins allow you to purchase different clothes and accessories to dress your character. They also have different animal levels. My kids really got into these rewards. My kids were so into this site that they would call each other so they could challenge one another from home. It was such a great way to get kids to memorize their facts {but in a fun way!} This website is one of the sites my kids during our Guided Math rotations.

Tech Tip Thursday - Word Ball

Word Ball is one of our favorite apps on iPad! The great news is this app is available for Droid and Nook users as well, it ranges from a free version to 1.99! It is similar to Boggle - but on speed! The balls {letters} bounce around the screen and you must create words by tapping on the balls. Words are based on a leveled point system, the more challenging a word is, the more points it receives! It also receives points for what letters are used - vowels get the smallest amount of points, but letters like Q and Z offer the most points. As time goes on the balls {letters} you don't use shrink and eventually disappear - making it more challenging to create words. Words also have to be at least 3 letters long. If a words is misspelled, it will let the play know and not award any points. When the game is finished, students can review the words they created. This app is perfect for your word work station! It is appropriate for students of all ages, even I enjoy playing it. It naturally lends itself to having students focusing on spelling patterns.

You could have different variations of this game to make it more interesting & challenging:

• Play regular - allowing students to create any words
• Create words only using a certain spelling pattern
• Each word they create they must create a word that rhymes with it
• Only words that begin with a certain letter
• Only words with a certain theme or subject {vocabulary}
• Class challenge - by keeping track of students scores

WARNINGS: The program is set up to be able to play against others, however the option must be setup. Students could potentially try to get in and change these settings, so a discussion about this may be necessary. Also on the opening page, there are options to buy different versions. It is important to make sure you have your settings in place that a password must be used to purchase apps! The free version has banner ads, as we know you never know what you are going to get with the ads!

Tech Tip Thursday: Wonderopolis- Have you ever wondered?

 

I'm so excited to share today's tech tip with you! It's a website called Wonderopolis! It's a wonderful website that answers all of your wondering questions {PERFECT for our curious students}! Like....Why do you get goosebumps? or Why do skunks stink? A new wondering is presented every day and it has already answered hundreds more that are archived on their site. There are so many ways to use this site! The question of the day is posted on front page of the site, however there is a search button, as well as a categorized list of questions that are already answered {bottom right hand side of the page}!

I love the way the site guides children to find the answer to the stated question. It doesn't come right out and give them the answer {so important!!!} There is a video that introduces the topic to get the students thinking about the question & topic. Then there are a few short paragraphs that give the students background information and facts. Students must draw their own conclusions based on the information provided {Love it!} Wait..... it gets better! The site then provides activities that the students can try that are related to the question. These activities range from a small experiment to taking a virtual field trip. It also provides vocabulary that the students should be familiar with in regards to the topic. Finally, it gives the students an option to extend and explore with their "Still Wondering" section. As a teacher, I couldn't ask for a better set up for my students to explore!! Hands down one of the best exploration resources available - and it's FREE!!! It's not surprising that it's such a great resource considering who is behind it! Wonderopolis is created by National Center for Family Literacy, as well as Verizon Thinkfinity.  Along with their website, wonderopolis also has an app for both Apple & Android.

I found this site last year at a conference. I knew I had to do something with it besides just letting my students get on it every so often. It finally came to me the other day! I have been wanting to have an Einstein's club or Mastery club of some sort - but I didn't want my students just looking up basic facts, I wanted it to be meaningful to them {insert Wonderopolis}. I think activities like this are not only good for students who finish early, but it promotes autonomous learning and gives the students the power to be in charge of their learning through choices. I wanted to jazz my version up so I came up with the W.I.S.E. crew. Wondering, Investigating, Seeking, & Exploring  {perfect words to describe Wonderopolis!} I have it set up very similar to other mastery clubs. It's broken down by subjects {Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, & Misc.} with 15 questions in each section. I plan to have different levels of mastery based on the number of questions they complete. Each level will earn the students a different recognition {Hall of Fame}. They will also be listed on our class website. I'm not going to *require* the students to complete the tasks, but I'm going to encourage and recognize those who do. I will have it set up where students can complete these tasks at home and when they have finished all other work. I am beyond excited about this program! I've done all the had work for you - you can grab my program here!

Tech Tip Thursdays - Student websites

Have you ever built a website? If you have...then you know the excitement you had the first time you built one {You're in complete and total awe that you were capable of building it!} Can you imagine how your students would feel if they had the chance to build one? If you haven't built one before, it's much easier than you think! There are some really great programs out there!

 Last year, I had a tech club that met after school. One of our first tasks was to create a website that served as our technology portfolio. The kids were beyond excited to be able to build one! Out of all of the projects that I taught, I have to say the kids were most excited about building a website. {The cool thing was that they continued working on their site even after our club ended!} This year I plan on having each of my students in class create one to serve as their project portfolio, but also so they may blog on their individual accounts.

I prefer to use the free program from Weebly. There are 2 parts to Weebly, regular service and the education division. If you sign up under the education division - you get a ton of extra services that are perfect for a classroom setup. You can create up to 40 student accounts, as well as multiple classes. {WOWSERS!!} Your account will be able to oversee and control all of your student accounts {the regular service doesn't allow for this!} You have the ability to make your students' pages public or private {so you could just keep the website within your classroom}....and you can even password protect it {how cool is that?!?}. Another feature that I like about Weebly, is that it's a drag and drop design program. You and your students don't need to know HTML or any other type of code. It's very user friendly to be able to design {here's a great intro video to the site} But hands down the best thing about weebly is it's free and NO ADS!!!

Just a few ideas to use Weebly in your classroom, besides using it for just a website/blog:

• Portfolio
• Reader's Responses via their blog/class blog
• Book Report website
• Class portfolio

On another note, something that is very near and dear to me...it might seem like common sense to us, but we need to remind our students that everyone around the world can see what we put on the internet. We need to have discussions with our students about what is appropriate to post online and how we must keep ourselves safe by not posting information that identifies who we are. 

Tech Tip Thursdays

Seeing that I just graduated with a degree in  Educational Technology...I thought I would start sharing some helpful technology tips on Thursdays. I will be posting tips for all spectrums of technology! The tips will range from reviewing apps to fun Web 2.0 tools, to ways to integrate technology in your classroom to tools to help you manage your classroom, and everything in between! I hope these tips will be helpful and you can use them in your classroom.

TIP #1: Word Clouds

Today's tip is a free online tool that has so many cool functions to it, they're called word clouds. Word clouds take words that you have entered and create a "cloud", or shape, using those words in different fonts, colors, size, direction, etc. They create a great visual that can be used in so many ways in your classroom. 

Wordle is the most common program used for world clouds. I like it because it is very simple to use and you don't need to create an account or have additional plug-ins installed. You just type in the words you want to use to create your word cloud. The more times a word is typed, the larger the word becomes. However, it doesn't save your text so if students aren't careful they can loose everything they've typed. For younger kids I suggest having students type in Word and copy+paste their words into Wordle. You can also create a Wordle for an entire website by entering the url. Once you have your text entered you can begin to play around with the fonts & colors. Unfortunately your only option is to print or create a screen shot of your word cloud. It doesn't allow you to save the image.

I like to use Tagxedo, it's another free program that creates word clouds. It works similarly to Wordle, but it allows you to save your image and choose a shape. You also only have to type the word once and it will fill it in throughout the image. I used Tagxedo to create the word cloud below.

So what can I use a word cloud for?

I've used word clouds for many things! Here are just a few! 

• Get to know you - This is one of the first "tech" thing my students do at the beginning of the year. It's a way for me to get to know the students and they LOVE this activity. You can take the image and do many things with it. I let them put it on their webpage, which is their tech portfolio.
• Notebook covers - These make great notebook covers. Your students can type in all the words that come to mind for a specific subject (for example math: division, times, fractions, money, etc). They can use these word clouds as their notebook covers.
• Main Idea - Students struggle with this concept, but you can use wordle to help you get the message across. Have a passage that you can copy the text from. Have students read the passage, then use wordle to paste the story in the program. The words that were used the most will be larger. This lets students focus on what the main ideas for the story are. (This won't work in the Tagxedo program)
• Word Banks - word clouds are a unique way to give students a word bank for their writing. 

Here are 52 other ways you can use word clouds!

How do you use word clouds? I would love to hear about it! Until next Thursday....