Weekend Website: Hunger Games

I’d like to welcome Michelle Mano as my guest blogger today. As a former classroom teacher who understands the importance of creasting a community of 21st century learners, Michelle is a strong advocate of technology in the classroom She has a great lesson plan and activities to share with you-all today, based on The Hunger Games:

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened in theaters on November 22 and has taken the world by storm, already grossing almost $600 million internationally. This adaptation of the bestselling young adult series by Suzanne Collins has captivated middle and high school students with its story of a futuristic government that rules through fear, subjecting its people to a deadly annual tournament. With equal parts adventure, suspense and romance, it’s clear why this trilogy has achieved such widespread appeal.

But what about its educational potential? Is it possible to use such a popular work of fiction in the classroom to generate excitement for learning?

Teach.com and Hunger Games Lessons have recently released “Sparking Their Interest: Engaging Students with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire“, an exciting guide that examines the role of popular culture in education and offers great ideas for incorporating The Hunger Games into your everyday lessons. Hunger Games Lessons was started by Tracee Orman, a high school English teacher who recognized the series educational value. Teach.com is an educational resource dedicated to discovering, discussing and encouraging great teaching around the world. They work closely with USC Rossier Online, a top-ranked teacher preparation program delivered online from the University of Southern California, to foster innovation and creativity in teachers. Both share a vision of empowering educators to prepare students for 21st century learning, particularly when it comes to getting young students excited about school. According to the Hunger Games guide, “keeping your curriculum relevant is the key to student motivation…when placed in the context of 21st century skills, utilizing popular movies, television and literature allows students to become technologically adept, culturally aware and motivated to learn.”

Weekend Website 40: NORAD Santa

It’s the time of year when inquiring young minds want to know–Where’s Santa? Here’s a great website to answer that question.

Track Santa on Xmas Eve

20 Programming Websites for K-8

December 9-15, Computer Science Education will host the Hour Of Code–a one hour introduction to students on coding, programming, and why they should love it. It’s a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify “code” and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, an innovator. They’ll include a variety of self-guided tutorials that anybody can do, on a browser, tablet, or smartphone. No experience needed. Watch this “how to” video for more information.

In honor of the upcoming Hour of Code, here are a list of websites to practice everything from basics to advanced:

28 Halloween Sites for your Students

Here’s a short list of fun Halloween websites for your students. Enjoy!

1. Ben & Jerry
2. Billy Bear’s
3. Carving Pumpkins
4. DigCit and Halloween–video
5. Enchanted Learning
6. Funschool
7. Halloween videos–nicely done
8. Meddybemps Spooky
9. Pumpkin Toss
10. Save Ed
11. Signing Halloween–a video
12. Skelton Park
13. The Kidz Page

Dear Otto: What about blogging?

Do you have a tech question?

Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Charlie:

Jacqui, I’m curious about one aspect of blogging with students as a computer lab teacher. That aspect is efficiently managing so many students blogs. I teach grades 2 and 3 which adds up to over 600 students in 25 classes. When you only see each class once per week, blogging could easily be the basis of the entire year’s curriculum. We are a GAFE district but Blogger is blocked. For that reason and ease of management I decided upon Kidblog. So, I am curious how you manage the different classes and numbers of students as a lab teacher. Do you for example have the “all posts must be approved before going live” turned on? What is your username/password convention? Do you use the invitation method of registering student accounts or bulk upload? BTW, do you have a reference that you utilize/like in terms of the teaching progression for teaching blogging?

Hi Charlie

Truth, I don’t break my students into classes. I want them to be a community, to interact with all students. I ask students to organize posts by tags so they can quickly find other posts on a like topic.

But, I understand with 600 students, that probably won’t work as nicely as my 150 students do (4th/5th graders who I also see once a week). Kidblog allows you to set up multiple classes under your teacher log-in, then add students to each. That would break them into a tighter community for you.

I do approve all posts before publishing, as well as comments. It doesn’t take as long as it sounds like it should (though, again, I have less students blogging than you). I added all grade-level teachers as Admins on the blog and collaborated with them to review-approve posts/comments relevant to their inquiry. This worked well as teachers started using the blog posts/comments as formative assessments, assigning topics that dealt with their inquiry.

UN/PW–I keep those simple, especially important with youngers. Since I’m approving posts/comments, there isn’t a high risk that a student will hack a classmate’s account. If they do, I’ll know who did it. Yes, there are clever ways around that, but most 2/3 graders aren’t that savvy. Once the student successfully logs on, they can change their password. I allow that, but let them know it’s their responsibility to remember. They track the myriad PWs in binders. If they forget their PW (which they will), Admin members can reset, which would be you or any of the teachers you added to the list.

I do the bulk upload to get students started. No special reason, though. I am always looking for opportunities to put tech in front of students, so the invitation would work for that also. My 5th graders are on wikis and I often invite them to join (especially when they can’t find that pesky ‘join’ button!).

I use blogging as an educational tech tool, not so much a skill. I show (demonstrate rather than teach) students the log-in, layout, how to add text, media, but let them do a lot of independent discovery on the richness of the platform. I post articles on my blog that, say, include YouTube videos and hope that inspires them to ask, How did you do that?. I use blogging for many Common Core standards–publishing, sharing, collaborating, understand the perspective of others, visual learning, demonstrate independence, respond to the varying demands of audience/task/purpose/discipline, comprehend as well as critique (via comments). It truly is one of those tools that fits throughout the curriculum.

Here are a few more ideas:

How Blogs Make Kids Better Writers Good Guidelines for the Younger Blogger 10 Things my Blog Taught Me

How do you-all manage blogging in your classrooms?

To ask Otto a question, email me at askatechteacher@gmail.com

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.

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9 Kids News Websites

Here’s a list of student-oriented news websites to get students interested in current events:

1. BBC News for kids
2. BBC News—Day in Pictures
3. CNN Student News
4. Gogo News
5. Kids News – Current Events
6. Newspaper for Kids
7. TeachingKidsNews
8. Youngzine
9. Yummy Math—math news

I update it every few months here.

Weekend Website #119: 4 Great Website to Teach Letters

Helping munchkins learn their letters is one of the most frustrating–and rewarding–tasks in Kindergarten. Te ability to decode words leads to the vastness of the universe available through reading. If you’ve every met someone who can’t read, you know first hand the pain and embarrassment that dogs them every day in a world where literacy is expected not exceptional.

Anything to make this process fun is a good thing. Here’s a great list of websites that do just that. Students can see the letters, trace them on the screen with their fingers, play games with them, and suddenly find A to Z as comfortable as their favorite teddy bear.

• Find the letter–easy, medium, hard
• Find the letter
• Bembo’s Zoo
• Starfall Letters

Dear Otto: What’s a typical lesson

Do you have a tech question?

Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Lisa:

Hi there! Wondering what your typical classroom stucture is like. For example, I will be teaching k-5 in 50 minute classes.

Hi Lisa–I just did a webinar on that topic over at CSG so I’ve put a lot of thought into this. When I teach tech, I want students to be as independent as possible, have fun, and not be intimidated. Here’s how I accomplish that:

I break it into 2-3 pieces. I start with a warm-up, ala Responsive Classroom (if you’re familiar with that). It can be keyboarding, a quick student presentation. Something like that. Then, I do the primary goal of the lesson–a tie in with classroom inquiry, skills training. I wind down with free time on inquiry-based websites I make available on the class start page. Students can pick one of their choice from a list.

Here’s a link to a typical lesson.

A couple of bullet items you want to be sure to cover in your lessons:

• Differentiate for learners. Show multiple ways to an end so everyone gets it.
• Maintain order–no walking around the classroom. No changing stations because ‘my computer doesn’t work’. No going across the room to get help from a best friend. Stay in seats. Figure out how to solve a tech problem. Get help from a neighbor.
• Rules–collect rules from students at the start of the year and follow them.
• Clean up before they leave–get students used to leaving their stations as they found them.
• Have enrichment available—websites, keyboarding, other. Students don’t always finish at the same time. Have enrichment websites available on the class internet start page so they can quickly move on to those. They can even be games and simulations that tie in with inquiry.
• What to do when it all falls apart (equipment doesn’t work, network is down)—embrace problems. Pause, get student thoughts on fixing things. Be flexible. The goal of technology is critical thinking, problem solving. That is never more evident than when ‘Things Fall Apart’.
• Keep lessons as independent as possible so students can move forward with as little assistance
  • teach them to be problem solvers
  • keep a To Do list either on the Smartscreen or the class internet start page

Every lesson has three strands woven through whatever else you do:

• Problem solving
• Vocabulary
• keyboarding

Even when ‘things fall apart’, you can pursue those and have a successful day.

What do you do in your tech class?

To ask Otto a question, email me at askatechteacher@gmail.com

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More tips for running your tech class:

5 Free Digital Tools for the No Budget Classroom

How to set up your tech classroom

163 Websites for Teachers to Integrate Tech into Your Classroom

Dear Otto: How do I teach keyboarding in a 25-minute class?

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.

Dear Otto: What’s a good kids website creator?

Do you have a tech question?

Dear Otto is an occasional column where I answer questions I get from readers about teaching tech. If you have a question, please complete the form below and I’ll answer it here. For your privacy, I use only first names.

Here’s a great question I got from Laurie:

Do you know of any websites where teachers can create a free web page for their classroom? But I’d like to have my students maintain it, so they would need accounts and then I approve and publish the material?

Hi Laurie

The easiest free answer is to use KidBlogs as a website, but they are limited because they’re sanitized for kids. Edublogs (another blog that could be used as a website) is popular, though I have never used them. I love WordPress and use one as a website. It’s very flexible. Kids could certainly maintain it. You’d have to set up a static first page, then blog posts for the information. Maybe not as good as Google Sites or Wix or Weebly.

More of a traditional website is Wix and Weebly–both nice. They are fairly intuitive (my 4th graders used them), but they aren’t geared for kids so the free pictures are all ages. I didn’t see any bad ones (and I was looking), but their purpose isn’t to be G. For teacher use, I think you’d love Wix. There are some beautiful templates. There’s also Google Sites (comes with Google Apps for Ed–not to be confused with Blogger)

Any of these, kids could maintain. It’s simpler to have multiple users with blogs because you make them contributors with appropriate privileges, but websites are close to being as simple.

To ask Otto a question, fill out the form below:

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.

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Weekend Website #117: Co-Teaching Wikis

Last chance to join the co-teaching wikis. By the end of this month, they will be private, unviewable without a membership. Drop over and check them out:

• K-3 grades
• 4th grade
• 5th grade

With Teaching Wikis (K-5 only), you follow along as a tech professional teaches each lesson in the SL K-5 curriculum textbooks.  Presented in a comfortable wiki format, you can ask questions as the lesson is presented, start a discussion with other teachers using the curriculum, access additional resources. It’s your mentor, your sidekick, your best friend in the tech ed field.

If you own any or all of K-5 Structured Learning technology curriculum (5th edition), you have free access to the grade-level teaching wikis. Just look on the front page of the book for a code. If you don’t own the curriculum, you can purchase access on a yearly basis here.

Questions? Contact me at askatechteacher@gmail.com

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.

Weekend Website: Great (Free) Training Videos

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. Here’s one that I’ve found effective online tech training.

34 Categories–Over 500 Links–of K-8 Links for Your Classes

I’ve spent a good chunk of time this summer updating my link collections so they are easier to wander through and reflect more topics you’re interested in. Here are 34 categories. K-MS are also subdivided by topics with age-appropriate links. The themed categories mix all ages together. I’m not sure which is better. It’s awfully difficult to differentiate by age considering the varied skill levels of students. Please forgive me if the grade-level categories don’t always hit the mark for you!

Remember: Any time students visit the internet, remind them of their rights and responsibilities, and the obligation to be good digital citizens.

Enjoy!

Kindergarten

1^stGrade

2^ndGrade

3^rd Grade

4^th Grade

5^th Grade

Middle School

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Animals

Art

Collections

Digital Citizenship

GIF’s (animated images)

Holidays

Human Body

Images

Keyboarding

Math

Mouse Skills

Music

News

Poetry

Programming

Publishing

Reading

Research

Science

Simulations

Special Needs

Study Guides

Stories

Virtual Tours

Visual Learning

Word Study

Writing

93 First Grade Websites That Tie into Classroom Lessons

These are my 93 favorite first grade websites. I sprinkle them in throughout the year, adding several each week to the class internet start page, deleting others. I make sure I have 3-4 each week that integrate with classroom lesson plans, 3-4 that deal with technology skills and a few that simply excite students about tech.

Here’s the list:

1. Aesop Fables—no ads
2. Aesop’s Fables–audio and visual
3. Alphabetic order
4. Animal Games
5. Animal Games II
6. Animal homes
7. Animal Homes II
8. Audio stories—read by actors
9. Audio stories—speakaboos
10. Brown Bear Typing 
11. Build a Neighborhood
12. Build with Legos
13. Childhood Stories
14. Children’s Stories–MagicKey
15. Classic Fairy Tales
16. Clifford
17. Clocks
18. Clocks II
19. Color US Symbols
20. Comic Builder
21. Create a story
22. Dino Fossils then and now
23. Eco-friendly house
24. Edugames at PBS
25. Edugames from BBC
26. EekoWorld
27. Egyptian Madlibs
28. Fairy Tales
29. Fairy Tales and Fables
30. Fairy Tales–signed
31. Forest—Walk Through a Forest
32. Games that make you think
33. Garfield Internet Cyberbullying
34. Geography—find msg around the world
35. Great Websites—can’t get thru all
36. Greece-Rome—Winged Sandals
37. Groundhog Day Games
38. Groundhog Day Video
39. Hangman
40. Holiday Elf Games
41. Holiday hangman
42. Holiday Hangman II
43. Holiday—Design a Gingerbread House
44. Holiday—match game
45. Holiday—Math Facts
46. Holiday—Math Facts
47. Holiday—North Pole Academy
48. Holiday—North Pole Academy
49. Home of the Future
50. Interactive storybook collection
51. Internet safety–read-to-you book
52. Kerpoof
53. Keyboarding—Hyper Spider Typing
54. Language—parts of speech
55. Learn to Type—Big Brown Bear
56. Listen/read–Free non-fic audio books
57. Magic Schoolbus
58. Make a Face
59. Make another story
60. Make Believe Comix
61. Make your own Story
62. Math Games
63. Mighty Book
64. Money flashcards
65. Money—counting
66. Mouse Click Skills—gorgeous
67. Mouse skills
68. Mr. Picasso Head
69. Museum of Modern Art
70. Music with Hands
71. Music—Quincy & Magic Instruments
72. My Garbology
73. Number concepts
74. Number Order
75. Ocean Tracks
76. Online typing practice
77. Pharaoh’s Tomb Game
78. Rainforest collection
79. Rainforest Websites Videos
80. Rainforest—3 games
81. Rainforest—great but a bit of reading
82. Rainforest—Jungle Journey
83. Reading games
84. Science websites
85. Starfall
86. Stories for children
87. Stories from PBS
88. Stories—MeeGenius—read/to me
89. SumDog—free reg
90. Where is Santa?
91. Wild on Math—simple to use
92. Word games—k-2
93. Writing games

Do you have any to add?

To sign up for Weekend Websites delivered to your email, click Weekend Websites here and leave your email.

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

169 Kindergarten Websites That Tie into Classroom Inquiry

These are my 120 favorite kindergarten websites. I sprinkle them in throughout the year, adding several each week to the class internet start page, deleting others. I make sure I have 3-4 each week that integrate with classroom inquiry, 3-4 that deal with technology skills and a few that simply excite students about tech.

Here’s the list:

1. Aesop Fables
2. Aesop Fables—no ads
3. Alphabet Animals
4. Alphabet Doors
5. Animal Games
6. Animal Games II
7. Animal Homes II
8. Audio stories
9. Barnaby and Bellinda Bear
10. Bembo’s Zoo
11. Build a car
12. Build a car–abcya
13. Build a Neighborhood
14. Car puzzle
15. Clock games–many
16. Clocks
17. Clocks—set the time–BBC
18. Color US Symbols
19. Counting Money
20. Create Music
21. Dino collection
22. Dino Fossils then and now
23. Dino Games
24. Dino Games II
25. Dinosaurs
26. Dinosaurs II
27. Dinosaurs IV
28. Dinosaurs V
29. Dinosaurs VI
30. Dr. Seuss
31. Edugames at Pauly’s Playhouse
32. Edugames—drag-and-drop puzzles
33. Endangered species collection
34. Fables–beautiful
35. Find a dog
36. Game Goo—wacky games that teach
37. Games to teach mouse skills, problem-solving
38. Games to teach problem-solving skills
39. Geogreeting—find letters around the world
40. Great Websites—can’t get thru all of them
41. Groundhog Day
42. Holiday Elf Games
43. Holiday music
44. Holiday—Design Gingerbread House
45. Holiday—match game
46. Holiday—North Pole Academy
47. Holidays–various
48. Interactive sites
49. Kerpoof
50. Keyboarding—Hyper Spider Typing
51. Kindergarten Links—Science, etc.
52. KinderSite—lots of kindergarten websites
53. Learn to Read
54. Learn to read—Teach your monster to read
55. Letters—find the letter
56. Letters—find the letter—caps and lower case
57. Letters—sort by sounds
58. Literacy sites
59. Magic Keys–stories for youngers
60. Make a Face
61. Make a Monster
62. Make a Scary Spud
63. Make a Story
64. Math for K
65. Math Games
66. Math/LA Videos by grade level
67. Mighty book storybooks
68. Mr. Picasso Head
69. Museum of Modern Art
70. Music—Quincy and the Magic Instruments
71. Ocean Currents—video from NASA
72. Ocean Safari
73. Ocean Tracks
74. PBS Stories–Between the Lions
75. Puzzle
76. Reading games
77. Recycle—Michael Michael Go Recycle
78. Shapes and colors
79. Sid the Scientist
80. Signed stories
81. Spring Garden—click for flowers
82. Starfall 
83. Stories–Animated
84. Stories—CircleTime—international
85. Stories—MeeGenius—read/to me
86. Stories—non-text
87. The Learning Planet
88. Time
89. Time clocks
90. Transportation alphabet
91. Transportation games
92. Transportation matching
93. Transportation Sequence Games
94. Transportation video–BrainPopJr
95. Turkey websites
96. Valentine Sudoku
97. Valentine mouse skills
98. Line up the hearts
99. Dress up the heart
100. Valentine unscramble
101. Valentine typing
102. Valentine puppy jigsaw
103. Valentine drag-and-drop
104. Valentine match
105. Valentine tic-tac-toe
106. Valentine projects from Winter Wonderland
107. Write in a heart
108. More heart writing
109. ‘I love you’ in languages Afrikaans to Zulu
110. Valentine’s Day apps
111. Valentine Day games and stories
112. Valentine coloring book
113. Valentine Day poem generator
114. Valentine rebuses
115. Valentine rebus game
116. Virtual Farm
117. Virtual Zoo
118. Word games—k-2
119. Writing games
120. Ziggity Zoom Stories

Technology

1. Audio books—Ms. Noor–free
2. Bees and Honey
3. Clicky’s Web(safe) World
4. Clicky’s Web(safe) World II
5. Computer basics
6. Computer Basics II
7. Computer puzzle
8. Computer safety
9. Cyber-bullying video
10. Day in a digital citizen’s life
11. Disney CyberNetiquette Comix
12. Drag and drop games–visual
13. Drag and drop puzzles
14. Drag and drop skills
15. Find the Technology
16. Garfield internet safety
17. Internet—what is it–video
18. Internet safety games
19. Internet Safety Site –Disney
20. Internet Smart Princess
21. Jigsaw puzzles
22. Jigzone–puzzles
23. Keyboard Climber
24. Keyboard Use Video
25. Listen/read–Free non-fic audio books
26. Monitor Use Video
27. More Mouse Skills
28. Mouse and tech basics–video
29. Mouse Click Skills—gorgeous
30. Mouse exercises–for olders too
31. Mouse practice
32. Mouse practice—drag, click
33. Mouse Song
34. Mouse Use Video
35. Mouse—Tidy the Classroom
36. Mouse—Wack a Gopher
37. Mousing around
38. My Online Neighborhood–video
39. NetSmartKids–read-to-you–net safety
40. Odiogo—read blog posts to students
41. Organize technology (drag and drop)
42. Parts of the computer
43. Parts of the computer—BrainPopJr
44. Princess who knew how to UYN–video
45. Surf Swell Island
46. Tech Training—basics
47. Tidy the classroom
48. Videos on Computer Basics K-6
49. Webville Outlaws–internet safety

Weekend Website #133: Embeddable Puzzles

It’s the time of year when children are looking for entertainment and parents want something fun to keep their cerebral fires burning. Entertainment-cerebra–that’s not an oxymoron. Check this website on States, and then check out the other topics available on Quiz Factor.