Engaging Educators Monthly Newsletter
Inside: Page 2 From the Classroom: A great project idea that incorporates reading, writing, and technology
Page 3 Fresh and New:
Issue 1 May 1, 2011 More online at EngagingEducators.com
Some newly discovered sites to spice up your teaching
Page 3 Head to Head: Which Word Cloud generator is best for you?
Page 4 Blog Spotlight: This month we look at a must-follow blog for teachers of writing
Page 4 One Thousand
Blog Spotlight: Page 4
WordClouds: Page 3
Words: Digital Image Search Engines You Can Trust
PhotoSource: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10585013@N00/281659324
Monthly Manifesto: Sharing is Caring If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.
Despite countless warnings about daring
an educator who cares deeply about
to assume, if you’re reading this I’m
improving the lives of children. Which is a
automatically assuming a few things about
good thing.
--Margaret Fuller
already knew that) is strong and getting
you: You blog. You tweet. Your PLN (Personal Learning Network, but you wider every day and this makes you very happy. How’d I do? I’m going to make one more assumption
So, riddle me this: when’s the last time you shared what you know? I’m not talking about with your twitter followers or blog readers. I’m talking about with a colleague who doesn’t know what an RSS reader is. Or a teacher who is unaware of
about you, reader. And that is that you’re more on
2
Follow us @engaginged Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/85441961
From the Classroom: Tech Integration At Its Best One of the most successful children’s
reviews. This will combine multiple
workshop, the students will read
television shows of all time was
skills from the subject areas of
their stories and create scripts (i.e.
Reading Rainbow. The first few notes
reading and writing.
summaries) for their books.
One challenging skill to teach upper-
Students will then record themselves
elementary students in writing is the
performing their scripts in front of a
use of voice. These thirty-second
green screen. Using a picture of the
book reviews are full of voice. It
book and iMovie’s Advanced Tools,
sounds like children are talking
the students will look just like the
One of the more influential aspects of
directly to you. The idea of voice will
kids on Reading Rainbow.
Reading Rainbow was the children
be the main focus of our writing
book reviews at the end of each
workshops during this project.
of the theme song will have people of all ages singing along: “Butterfly in the sky. I can go twice as high. Take a look, it’s in a book, a Reading Rainbow.” Can you hear the song?
segment. This week my students are using our classroom library, cameras donated through www.donorschoose.org, a green screen, and iMovie to create their own Reading Rainbow inspired book
Monthly Manifesto Continued from Page 1
Reading, writing, and technology tied together to form a truly
A reading consultant whom I respect
engaging project. Check our blog
greatly once told me the best way to
and website this month to see how
have students improve in reading is
the projects turn out!
to improve their ability to summarize. For this project, in reading
could help an eager edtech novice. Sometimes I think we share more with the members of our PLN that
takes is a lunch period or two. Try not to assume that others don’t want to learn from you. Don’t assume that you can’t help drive change.
the individualized professional
we’ve never met than we do with the
development that twitter can
teacher across the hall. I know I’ve
After all, you don’t want to be one of
provide. The list goes on and
been guilty of this. So this month,
those people that assumes, do you?
on. There is no end to the
take the time out to sit down and
things you could share that
share a little of what you know. All it
In our next issue: *Summer Reading *Global Collaboration
Fresh and New Sites Check out these sites that were featured recently in our blog’s Fresh and New Friday series:
*ISTE11 Preview *More From the Classroom *Science Interactives
•
Popplet—Notetaking, Brainstorming, Mind-Mapping, and more!
•
Toonlet—an easy to use online comic creator.
•
Sumo Paint—create drawings or edit photos…all in your web browser.
•
dropdo—upload your file to the web, receive a URL, share the link with others
*Much More!
Be sure to subscribe to our blog to have Fresh and New sites and much more delivered straight to you!
Head to Head: Word Clouds Word clouds are not only fun and
sweet. Plus no registration is required.
visually appealing, but they have
Also, a plug-in called Silverlight is
educational value, too. Make a word
required for your browser. We had to
cloud, for example, out of a student
download it, which is a minus if you’re
writing sample or a famous speech and
working in a school environment.
you’re able to analyze word choice in a whole new way.
Wordledoesn’t require registration either, but you don’t get to turn your
There are a few websites out there that
cloud into a cute shape like Tagxedo.
generate word clouds for you. We took
However, its interface is very easy and
a look at three of them to determine
we like the accessibility of the
which would be best for general use—
“Randomize” button for making
Wordle, Tagxedo, and Wordlings.
changes.
Our conclusion? Wordle by a hair over
Wordlings only lets you create a cloud
Tagxedo. Here’s why:
if you have a twitter or facebook
Tagxedo allows you to turn your word clouds into shapes, which is pretty
account. That doesn’t lend itself to
NOT In our next issue: *Editorial: In Defense of Standardized Tests *Blogs, Who Needs Them? *Students Speak Out: We Want Less Fun *Head to Head: Pencil vs. Pen great and the clouds themselves take a long time to make.
ease of use. You can make shapes with
Hope this helps you make up
this site, but the interface isn’t that
your mind.
Blog Spotlight: Two Writing Teachers If you’re an English or Language Arts
about teaching writing, or one of the
teacher and you don’t follow Two
best memes on the web—Slice of Life
Writing Teachers, you are missing
Tuesdays—Two Writing Teachers is a
out. Two Writing Teachers was
blog you absolutely must subscribe
created by Stacey Hubitz and Ruth
to.
Ayres. They are both…wait for it…writing teachers…and have been blogging since 2007.
Engaging Educators Visit us on the web: http://engagingeducators.com Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/engaginged
Two Writing Teachers was one of the first blogs we ever followed, and as someone who tries to help young
If you’re an English / Language Arts
writers improve their writing, we
teacher of any grade and you’re
can’t help but recommend it to the
looking for insightful analysis, tips
world.
Learn. Teach. Engage
One Thousand Words: Digital Image Sites You Can Trust Tech integration can be so easy. And
themselves.
so free! One of the quickest ways to make your lessons more engaging is by using digital images. Whether it is for a writing prompt (write a poem about what you see) or a reference point (teaching estuaries? show a picture of one), images capture students' attention for sure. And with a few safe, legal photo search engines in your edtech toolkit, students can become empowered to do the image finding
We discovered one of these search engines this morning in a post by
sources and proper reuse of web content. Four others that we recommend are:
the folks at SimpleK12. It's called MorgueFile, and it's full of the rich,
•
FlickrCC
vivid images you would want from a
•
TagGalaxy
photo site.
•
CreativeCommons
•
ookaboo
Now is a good time to say that using images is a great gateway to a
Have fun exploring these and
discussion of copyright. We
integrating images into your
encourage you to teach students that
teaching!
the Internet is not just a grab bag of things for them to "borrow" for their
Tutorials Galore!
own work. Using sites like MorgueFile and the others we're
Visit EngagingEducators.com
sharing that offer only images
Check out our resources tab!
licensed for free use allow for you to teach your students about citing
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75655221@N00/13102066