Group items tagged

A world of conversation starters to choose from. Check out our list of 250 conversation starters, or choose a topic from our interesting conversation topics page. Good for ice breakers or team/class building.

Get some weird and wonderful story starters. Just click on the button to view one of the million starters.

Get some weird and wonderful story starters. Just click on the button to view one of the million starters. There is also a junior version for younger writers at http://www.thestorystarter.com/jr.htm.

Scholastic posts "daily starters" for review and practice in language arts and math skills. Teachers can select grade levels and even reveal answers. New skills and activities are posted every day!

The Science Explorations link doesn't work.

Get a new maths question to solve every day of the year with this superb site. It's great for lesson starters and the answer and explanation can be shown with the click of a button. Search questions for other dates by clicking the link at the bottom of the screen. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Great resources and starter PDF sheets for several web2.0 programs

Downloadable guides to many of the popular Web 2.0. Tools. Includes Google Forms, Mixbook, Animoto, Voicethread, Wikispaces, Mindmeister and Bizzword among others

Some great ideas for class starters.

A nice little animation that can be used as a discussion starter about monitoring children's use of Internet. 

"1- Story Starter"

Does Edmodo's Digital Citizen Starter Kit handle the challenge of educating kids to be good digital citizens? The answer is "Yes!" according to Bianca Hewes, a high school English teacher in Sydney, Australia who's also been doing awesome things with Edmodo since 2009 (including connecting 30 of her students with registered Edmodo teachers in the US, South America and England to mentor their individual writing projects). "Edmodo is a social network with training wheels," says Bianca. "By introducing it at a young age, teachers are able to develop the habits of the mind that are essential for students to be good digital citizens. Students learn to use appropriate language, to speak kindly and with compassion, to be supportive rather than critical, and to ask thoughtful questions."

Digital magazine from Stanford University highlights interesting and challenging stories of innovation. Could be a great kick-starter for project-based learning or to engage kids in innovative and critical thinking.

Great ideas for 6th grade response to literature discussion and writing.

I haven't taught sixth grade for 3 1/2 years now, but if I ever go back to ms, I'd incorporate this into my weekly plans. One way I get my second graders to grow their thinking is by having them respond to one another using the following prompts:  I agree with the part about…  Going back to what you said about…  One thing I noticed…  One thing I pictured…  It reminded me of…  I am not sure what you are saying. Could you say it in another way?  I agree with what you are saying because…  What you just said matches what is in my mind because…  I hear what you are saying, but I see it differently because…  If what you said is true, is it not also true that…  That is true, but… Or - That is true, and…  Could you say more?  Could you give me an example?  I would like to add on to what _________ said.  I have an example of what you just said.  I wonder why…  I was surprised to see…  Another thing that goes with that is…  So are you saying…

Questions require pupils to multiply two given fractions. Plenary or starter game based on the tv show catchphrase. Pupils must correctly answer the question on one of the rectangles to reveal part of the 'catchphrase behind'. A great way to engage pupils and check understanding. Easily adapted to suit other topics or abilities. See the other versions I have shared - all with a different catchphrase. Picture behind could be changed to something more personalised to the class.

"So What exactly are Google Lit Trips? The short version is simple. Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about "real world" references made in that particular portion of the story. "

Historical photos from the New York Times.  Great for story starters or to begin a history lesson.

This links to an empty binder. Could you please send me the live link? Thank you!

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=441748?gname=diigoineducation just extract the correct URL from the link ;-)

A great site that provides documents in law, history and diplomacy to use as primary-source-based conversation starters.

Similar to Voicethread, however it has more features to help guide/scaffold discussions around media content. You can embed these discussions into a CMS or blog page as well.

Vialogues (which derives from "video dialogues") is an online discussion platform that permits videos to act as powerful teaching resources and the conversation starters. It provides a space for users to hold meaningful, dynamic time-stamped discussions about videos. Excellent resource for educators and others interested in using popular culture resources of all sorts as conversation starters with students...

Creating Short Flipped Lessons.