APP Time: Presidents vs. Aliens

Yes, that's the name of this app.
In a way, it seems all sorts of wrong to follow up a tribute to Mister Rogers with something so absolutely silly. However, with the presidential election this fall, students will have a lot of interest in the presidents and the fun facts about them. So, for $0.99, the app Presidents vs. Aliens (from the same developer of Stack the States)will help your class learn about past and present commanders-in-chief, all while taking out some alien creatures.
The app asks students questions about a president and shows four pictures of the presidents (with their names) to choose from. The questions range from identifying the president, quotes, nicknames, or facts about the president or time period. You can adjust the level of difficulty and types of questions by clicking on the question mark on the main menu. I'm adding that because I had trouble figuring out where to go to adjust the level at first. This way, you can use this app for younger students who may need to work on just identifying the presidents, to really upping the ante for your "big kids" (such as yourself).
 You will be shown the correct answer if you are wrong (which is good, because some of those questions are down right hard), but if you touch the correct president, the fun begins. You will get to take the president you have correctly selected and shoot him at the mass of aliens that has infiltrated the Washington, D.C., landmark in the background. It requires a little bit of strategy, but it's great fun to send the president airborne into a sea of little neon creatures. When you have taken out all the aliens, your score will show and you will "earn" a new president for your collection. Once you collect all 44 presidents, you can proceed to the bonus games Executive Order and Heads of State, already included on the app.
Presidents vs. Aliens also teaches your students test taking skills and inferencing. For example, one of the questions might be "Who was president during the Wright Brothers' first flight?" showing the date as well. They have to use logical thinking based on the four presidents shown to determine the best answer for the time period. This is a super app to start off the countdown to Election Day in November and learn fun facts about the exective office. Hail to the chief - but watch out for that alien behind you!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presidents-vs.-aliens/id427418941?mt=8

My Thoughts about Mister Rogers

"One of the greatest gifts you can give anyone is the gift of your honest self." - Fred Rogers
Even though you're probably one of the 3 million people that have seen this video by now, I felt compelled as a techKNOW teacher to share it with you. If there is any one person outside of my family that I want to emulate in my teaching, it may very well be Mister Rogers. The creativity and adventures he shared with his young viewers impacted and engaged many of us growing up. I'm sure that you (as well as myself) can recall at least one episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" you watched as a child - how to make crayons, anyone? His kindness and gentle nature give me hope that those of us who aren't so loud and verbally outspoken can impact the education and the conscience of our students.
Television in the 1950s and 1960s was what the Internet is today - new, "cool," and a commercial medium. Fred Rogers took an interest in using television programming to enhance the lives of and teach children, without advertising and leisure entertaining (I added the word "leisure" there because Mister Rogers was both educational and fun to watch). For many, his show modeled a safe and loving home, a caring father figure, and how to pretend play without the zing of cartoon characters or video games. I, for one, loved, loved, loved Mister Rogers' puppets! He saw the potential to use new technology to impact those around the world, children he would never meet but would nonetheless nurture. In a way, you could say he's the original techKNOW teacher.
My favorite thing about Mister Rogers is, like the quote I began this post with, he remained true to himself. He didn't become loud and flashy to attract young viewers to his program. In fact, Fred Rogers may have been seen (and especially would be today) as an unlikely television star - a guy with great ideas, but not the persona to pull it off on camera. Yet it was the fact that he was calm, gentle, and soft spoken that set him a part from the rest. It not only made him unique - it made what he taught his young audiences about life stick. He walked the walk, proof positive the volume of your message isn't measured in decibels.
So, enjoy this "jazzy" version of a beautiful song that encourages all of us to be curious, make believe, and grow the great ideas inside of us. Perhaps if we as teachers instill these values in ourselves and model them in our teaching, our students will absorb them, too.

TrackStar

So, this summer I'm going back to school - sort of. I'm taking some online technology classes through WVLearns because 1) they are free and 2) I don't know everything. I may be the techKNOW teacher, but if I want to stay that way I've got to stay on the up-and-up on how to do things. Otherwise I'll run out of things to blog about. The classes I'm taking have to do with creating WebQuests and virtual field trips. I utilize these in my classroom, but I want to be more skilled in how to make my own "stuff" to tailor to my own classroom.
One of the gems I have found to help me organize websites for virtual field trips is TrackStar. There are many fabulous web tools accessible through 4Teachers.org, one of which I reviewed two posts ago (RubiStar). I thought TrackStar was going to be too similar to Portaportal to be something I would start using, but it definately has its own place in the techKNOW classroom. You use TrackStar to group - or track - websites, online videos, Vokis, and interactives so they can be accessed by your students all at once for the purpose of a virtual field trip.
It's super simple. Once you create your free account (everything on 4Teachers.org is free, I believe), you will go to your account page and select the "Make New Track" button. Give your track a catchy title and a description, so your students as well as teachers who search for other tracks on TrackStar know what this grouping of resources is all about. You also choose what "type" of track this is going to be (I'll let you read that for yourself, as it's pretty self explanatory) in addition to the subject area.
Make a few other choices on that page and you're off to enter your online resources into your track. THIS is what makes it cool. You enter a title/topic for your website, paste the URL below, AND THEN...you can annotate! Yeah, I know, what's so great about annotating? LOTS! You can give your students an exciting description of what they are about to view, provide background information, or give questions for them to answer as they view the resource. It makes your virtual field trip something that can be done completely independently!
After you enter your websites and annotations, submit it and BOOM you have your track! On your account page, you will see the title of your track along with a number. You can have your students go to the computer lab and search for your virtual field trip by typing in this number OR...make a folder on Portaportal for your TrackStar creations and store the direct links to your tracks there! All your students have to do once they are on the track you have created is click "View in Frames" (my preference, you can view in text as well) to begin their virtual field trip adventure! When you view in frames, the links appear on the left hand side; all your students have to is click on them and the online resource will appear in a frame on the screen below your annotation. In other words, no clicking back  and forth to the list of resources.
It's great to see it all put together! If you want to experience a track yourself, you can view my virtual field trip on the Underground Railroad here. You can also search for other tracks that have already been created by keyword. As long as you don't choose that your track is a default (which is deleted after a week), it will remain on TrackStar indefinately. You can create virtual field trips to use this upcoming school year and beyond! Have fun!
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/index.jsp
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ts/viewTrack.do?number=442504

Classroom Collaboration Series: ClassChatter

Got that Portaportal page set up yet? Even if you don't, I'm moving on. I had a fabulous (or at least I thought so) series of posts a few months ago all about grant writing. My next "series" of posts which I will feature this summer will have to do with online collaboration for the classroom. I can't guarantee what day of the week I am going to post them like I did for my grant writing series because I'm on "island time" for the next 10 weeks and  four days (whatever - you counted, too) but they will appear weekly.
One of the wonderful things about using web tools for classroom collaboration is that it often makes your life a tiny bit less paperless AND it plays into your students' growing interest and understanding of how to use the Internet to communicate. We all know that  outside of school many of our kiddos chat online, e-mail, and social network, whether they are of age to do so or not. And although there are steps you can take to make sure parents and students know what's safe and appropriate, there's no stopping the access  your students have once they leave your classroom. That's why it's good - almost necessary - to give students web tools to display and communicate what they know and what they need to say so they learn the proper way to communicate online - for learning and social purposes.
The first item to add to your virtual toolbox (which is hopefully housed on your PORTAPORTAL page) is ClassChatter. I have used ClassChatter for several years and have found it to be teacher friendly and student adored. This is a way for you to create FREE, password protected blogs for your classroom. Your students can learn to blog in a safe environment that cannot be accessed by anyone else except the teacher and classmates. You create student accounts under your teacher account so that you see whatever the students write. There is also a "cMail" teacher account where the students can send messages to you without the entire class reading it.
As the teacher you can create topic blog posts for students to respond to - I usually make these anything from introducing yourself to the class to current events - and then (my favorite) you can create assignment blogs! This is where you create an assignment for students to respond to under your original post. Students can work on it and come back to it, checking the finished assignment button when they have completed their post. As the teacher you can see who is still working, who has finished, and who hasn't even started yet (Grrr!). I've made my assignment blogs anything from listing the factors of a selected number, to researching a volcano, to creative writing prompts. Each student automatically gets their own blog page when you create their accounts as well. You can set the purpose for this or encourage your students to create their own blogs about things that interest them - a great way to get your cherubs to WANT to write! You also get your own teacher blog page as well to keep the class informed about whatever you'd like.
What ClassChatter lacks in "pretty" - there's no changing the colors, theme, or overall look - it makes up 110% in functionality. In a way, it's good the students (and the teacher for that matter) can't really mess with the appearance because it makes you focus on the content over the bells and whistles. My class has always been so into "we have a blog" that they've never brought up what it looks like. Oh, you will see some advertisements to upgrade to ClassChatterLive, but the free version provides you with plenty to get your class blogging safely and purposefully. Check it out and consider setting up your account for next year!
http://www.classchatter.com/

A Few of My Favorite Things

Hey, there! It's been a while!
Sorry, but you know how it is. I was sucked into the giant vortex called the End of the School Year, but have managed to emerge victorious. I survived! You survived! And now (sound the drums of anticipatioin)...it's Summer Vacation - even though there are a few weeks of spring left. If you are not able to share in our summertime joy yet, I apologize.  It's not my fault Old Man Winter took snow season off. But please, stay in the techKNOW this summer - because now is as good of a time as ever to organize, plan, and recharge for next school year.
So, since many of you are still recoiling from the craziness or are still embroiled in it, I've decided to dedicate this post to the basics. Now is the best time to take stock in what went right this past year, what went wrong, and what wasn't really right or wrong - just could have been a bit better. The sites I'm going to list are oldies but goodies - but if you are about to embark on a teaching career in the Fall, you may want to acquaint yourself with them. Now. Get organized NOW - or at least after you've soaked up some sun and sleep.
Here are a few of my favorite techKNOW things - the "trusty blue jeans" of resources that you can always count on and can't live without:
Portaportal - Yes, that's right. Portaportal. No, not port-a-potty, althought that would be pretty funny. Make a (free) account on here, and you'll never have to worry about writing a website on the board for your students to visit or forgetting the name of your favorite sites again. Portaportal allows you to save all of your internet bookmarks to your own page so you can access them from ANY computer at ANY time. Not only that, you create a username for your page that your students can type in to access your bookmarks. That way, you can take your class to the computer lab, have them find the link on your page and BOOM they're there - no more trying to type in the website character for character. It saves you and your students tons of frustration and valuable time. You can create folders and subfolders for all of your links to make it ultra-organized. Every website I use in my classroom is on my Portaportal page - it's almost like my online classroom! And since there's no limit to how many bookmarks you can put on your page, you can do that! You can even bookmark other teacher's Portaportal pages! If you want to be a true techKNOW teacher, this is the first step to saving your sites as well as your sanity.
Rubistar - Want to make a rubric for assessment fast? Go here. In record time, Rubistar allows you to make a rubric for just about anything with very little effort on your part. Choose the type of project or subject area, select the areas you want to assess, and BOOM (again) you get an awesome rubric with preset performance indicators you can choose to keep or modify. You can print your rubric out or download it to your computer so you're sure to have it for future use. If you want to search other teacher's rubrics for similar projects, you can do that, too. Best of all? You know me - it's FREE.
Pete's PowerPoint Station - Not quite sure who Pete is, but he's pretty amazing for this collection of HUNDREDS of awesome PowerPoint presentations and games. Any subject, any topic, any grade level - you will find the PowerPoint for your lesson. If you have just been bestowed the awesomeness that is an interactive whiteboard of ANY kind, this is the first place you want to go (right after you make your Portaportal page!) to find ways to quickly techKNOW-logized your classroom. Sometimes they aren't perfect and you have to modify to meet your needs, but the PowerPoints you find on this site will save you all kinds of time. And there all FREE!
SMART Exchange - If you have a SMART board or are about to get one in your classroom... Here.You. Go. You could easily spend your entire summer on this site searching for incredible, already created templates and interactive presentations. From cool ways to take attendance to hands-on lessons on the parts of speech - tailor you search by grade and subject level and BOOM (one more time!) your SMART notebook files await for you to preview! Once you create a FREE account, you can even download them to the computer connected to your SMART board so you can access them later.
These resources alone could keep you busy all summer long, so check them out now before I load you down with more ;-) And if you all ready know your stuff and use these cool tools...good for you. But don't worry, there's more coming - because I'm out of the vortex and back on the blog.
http://www.portaportal.com/
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
http://www.pppst.com/
http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0

APP Time: Story Writing Apps

I've been on the hunt for sometime looking for writing apps for my classroom iPads. My goal has been to find some things that would entice students of different ability levels to write and share. Here are three that I think fit the mold.
Story Maker HD (a FREE app) allows students to design characters and scenes to "illustrate" their stories. They type their text on to the page along with their illustration, then name their story after it's completed. Students can then access the "gallery" where they can read each other's work. While simple, fun (the kids will love making the characters) and to the point, one thing I don't like about this app is that you can't add "pages" to your story - one scene and text is it. It would be great for a poetry unit for students to write a poem and then add their images. Students in the lower grades or with limited writing ability would be best served by this app. For $0.99, you can download add-on story packs (Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz, and Little Red Riding Hood), which provide you with more character and image choices for students to recreate a classic fairy tale - great for a unit on teaching point-of-view or for writing fractured fairy tales!
A similar app is Story Patch ($2.99). Although it's not a free app, you get what you pay for with this one. Like Story Maker, students can select characters and scenery for their stories. You have the option to add pages to your writing so it reads more like a book. After students save their stories, other students can go back and read each others writings straight from this app. You can also convert your story to a pdf with a touch of a button and e-mail it to yourself or parents - a great way to share student work. The one thing I didn't like about this app was, while you can change the size of your characters and image and move them around the page, you can't change the direction they are facing. I know that's silly, but I like my people looking at each other, that's all. Story Patch could be utilized at any grade level K-5.
This next app actually involves no writing at all - and that's okay! Toontastic (FREE!!!) lets students choose a scene (or draw one), select characters, THEN - instead of writing the text - you move the characters around the screen and use your own voice to bring the story to life! Basically, students are creating their own animated cartoon! And...they get to pick the background music to set the tone for each scene!!! Too cool!  It's really like making your own cartoon - hence the name! Student creations are saved so they can be viewed later on the app. You can also go to ToonTube through this app to watch Toontastic creations from all over the world! I got a lot of ideas for how to use this app just by watching those alone. What I LOVE about this app is that it take students through the parts of a story, from the conflict to the resolution (even showing them a diagram). What I don't like is the limited number of background scenes there are to choose from - like, there's four. You can purchase additional scenes for $1.99 each, or $9.99 for an entrire set. Any grade level would benefit from this app. This would also be a good app for speech therapy.
Hopefully you decide to add some of these apps to the next chapter of your iPad use!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/story-maker-hd/id428879894?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/story-patch/id388613157?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toontastic/id404693282?mt=8

FREE Financial Literacy Resources from Visa

Here's a way to gain some economics resources...without spending a penny!
Practical Money Skills, a program sponsored by Visa, provides teachers with fun, interactive ways to help students learn to be smart spenders and savers. All you have to do as a teacher is go to their website and order the materials you would like for your classroom - and it's FREE. I've know about this one for a few weeks, but I wanted to wait and post about it until after I had received my order - and I can tell you that neither you or your students will be disappointed! Here's a rundown of some of the resources from Practical Money Skills that I think you'll want to check out:
Marvel Comic Book - With the movie coming out this summer, your students will enjoy reading about Spiderman and friends as they learn about managing finances...and save the world while they're at it! It's definitely geared more for upper elementary and middle school. There's also a free teacher's guide to download as well.
Money 101 Booklet - This handy little guide teaches your students important facts about saving and spending, with some fun facts and websites thrown in the mix, too. After viewing it, I'd like to get enough for each student in my class.
And now for the games!!! I was most eager about getting these to try out, because...well, you're never too old to learn to play new games. Each game came on separate CDs to run on the computer. The games run directly from the CD (you can't download them to your computer, but that's only a minor inconvenience). All of them ran perfectly and were high quality, interactive, and beneficial to learning about money and finances.
Peter Pig's Money Counter - Eh, this one was okay...if you teach K-2 (third graders might like it at the beginning of the year). Upper grades...no. Just no. However, for learning the value of different coins and counting change, this is a super resource. Students have to move the coins on the screen as they count and represent different amounts of money. I can see this being great to use on an interactive whiteboard as a class review or as a station.

Money Metropolis - Very cute (in a cartoonish sort of way), very interactive. My girls especially like it. After designing your character, your students choose a financial goal (from buying a game to going on a trip). They then have to buy and perform chores around town (which they choose from an interactive map) to meet their financial goal. The "chores" are all interactive, from mowing the lawn to sorting books at the library. You get paid if you do your job accurately and in a timely manner - another great concept to get across.
Financial Football - Oh, my. Every fifth grade boy's dream game. It looks and sounds like the NFL, right down to the background music and the animated players. You can choose your NFL team and the opposing team, as well as the level of difficulty ("rookie" is the suggested level for ages 11-14; the age levels go up to high school). As you make your plays, you answer questions about financial literacy. Best of all, there's a free app for Financial Football you can download to your iPad that's just as cool as the computer version. It's so authentically football that your students will forget they are learning.
Financial Soccer - Okay, I liked this one better than Financial Football simply because I understand soccer better than football. It's very authentically done in the style of the Soccer World Cup (which I don't know much about but my students were pretty impressed). The same concept of Financial Football is there, except it's a different ball game. There's a little more strategy with Financial Soccer though; the harder questions are closer to the best shots for the goal. Both Financial Football and Financial Soccer would be enjoyed by students in grades 5 and up, up through high school.
These are just a few of the resources available on Practical Money Skills. Check it out and choose a few things for your class! You literally have nothing to lose!
http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/resources/free_materials/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/financial-football-hd/id387095643?mt=8