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How to integrate Extreme Planet Makeover into the classroom: Extreme Planet Makeover is a neat simulation where students can design a custom planet. As they create their own custom planet, they will begin to notice what makes a planet habitable or not, and the unique features that must be in place for life. Extreme Planet Makeover can be used with the whole class using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Invite each student to make an adjustment to the planet. With each adjustment, students can describe the ways that the planet has changed. The finished class planet can be used as the base for a creative writing prompt. Set up Extreme Planet Makeover as a center activity where students can create a planet and download to save. The finished planets can be shared on a class photo stream, website, or blog where students can compare and contrast the features of each planet. In a one to one or computer lab setting, students can each create a planet that they use for a compare/contrast to an actual planet in the solar system and as a creative writing prompt. Who lives on this planet? What galaxy is their planet in? How do you get there? Tips: One of the features I really appreciate about the Extreme Planet Makeover is the explanations that pop up over each planet attribute. Students learn about how atmosphere, size, different stars, the distance from the star, and the age effect a planet.

Games to reinforce math, LA and some science skills for kindergarten and Grade 1 students. "How to integrate Gudli into the classroom: Gudli is a fun way for kids to practice learning in math, English and science.  These games make great center activities to support learning.  The games are short enough that they can be set up on classroom computers and students can take turns reinforcing learning and skill practice.  Gudli has enough games that students can play several in a lab setting where each student has a computer.  Students can choose the games that best meet their learning needs. Gudli is a great site to share with parents looking for some ways to reinforce learning over the summer!" iLearnTechnology

What it is: Inklewriter is a great digital tool that lets students (and teachers if you are so inclined) write and publish interactive stories.  Inklewriter lets students create choose-your-own-adventure type stories, story lines can come with choices and then be linked back together.  Inklewriter makes this process easier by keeping track of which story paths have been finished and which still need work.  There is no set-up required, no programming language to learn and no diagrams.  Inklewriter is free to use and easy to share with the world when it is published.  When a story is finished, it can even be converted to Kindle format! iLearnTechnology

Wordless picture books offer a wonderful foundation for creative writing. Often, students struggle with ideas and topics for writing. This genre of books offers a platform for students to develop their writing skills. In this lesson, students are exposed to wordless picture books and begin developing story lines orally and in writing. Educators can easily incorporate various instructional strategies into students' writing, such as use of dialogue, setting development, character descriptions, sequencing of events, and story development. An online, interactive story map is used to assist students in developing story lines.

Reading Bear is a free service that offers narrated lessons on recognizing and pronouncing letters and words. There are also some lessons on prefixes and suffixes. Students can control the pace of each lesson to match their needs. After each lesson on Reading Bear students can take quizzes to test their skills. The quizzes present a picture and a set of words. Students have to match the correct word to the picture that they see. Through the narrator, students receive instant feedback on each question in the quiz.Richard Byrne

Todays Meet allows you to create a virtual meeting room in your classroom. Set up a room and start a live feed of comments from your students. 

 Quicklyst is a great addition to any student (or teacher) tool box. It makes note taking a breeze, quickly importing definitions and search information into the notes. In a one to one setting (where every student has access to a computer) Quicklyst could be used by students to take notes during discussion, lecture, or any type of whole class learning activity.  In the one or two computer classroom, Quicklyst could be assigned as a student job in your classroom. During the class, the student assigned can take notes that can later be downloaded and sent to students, or printed as a study guide.  The class job should be rotated so that each student has an opportunity to be class recorder. Quicklyst is also excellent for teachers taking notes in staff meetings, professional development, or conferences.  It is such a simple tool to use and has just the right amount of extras (instant definitions) to make it really useful!

Kinetic City is an interactive science site set up by the American Association for the advancement of science. 

"Bit.ly is a url shortening service. Anytime you have a long, complicated url you can use Bit.ly to shorten it down to something much more manageable. And if you create a free Bit.ly account you can customize your shortened url to make it even more manageable. For example, it's far easier for me to direct people to bit.ly/byrnepd than it is to http://sites.google.com/site/richardbyrnepdsite/home. You can use Bit.ly by copying a url and pasting it into Bit.ly or you can try the Bit.ly browser bookmarklet. Try Bit.ly the next time you're setting up a lesson plan that requires having all of your students enter a long, complicated url." Richard Byrne

This is one of those sites that you could let kids loose on just for exploration.  Without any guidance from you they will learn plenty!  Ideally kids would explore this site in partners or on their own in a one to one computer lab setting.  If each student has a computer, headphones will be a necessity.  If individual exploration just isn't in the cards, visit the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computers.  Invite students up to the computer (whiteboard) to take turns guiding the class.  The site has plenty of interactive content to give each student a chance at the computer (whiteboard).  Unless you have a good chunk of time dedicated to the site, this is one that I would stretch out over a week.  Each day students can explore a new decade. The space exploration component of this site is amazing and could keep everyone plenty busy with learning.  With older students, discuss what the music of the decade reveals about that time in history.  What does the music tell them about people, community, values, events of the day?  Take it one step further and ask students to dig into other historical events in each decade, discussing their impact on space exploration, culture and where we are today.  One thing that I missed out on in history was all of the stories that make it so rich.  For me, history was reduced to names, dates and places.  Give your students the opportunity to put themselves into history and learn about how the events influenced each other.iLearn Technology

How to integrate the NOVA Design a Parachute interactive into the classroom: In this activity, students assume the role of engineer as they design a parachute that will slow the Mars Explorer Rover as it lands on the surface of Mars.  I like the authentic feel of this activity, students are led through the thinking process of an engineer as they consider all of the requirements the chute must meet before they begin designing.Approach this interactive as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.  As a class, get "briefed" on the requirements for the parachute design.  Discuss how these requirements may impact the parachute design.  Treat this like an actual briefing and encourage discussion (all ages like to pretend!).  Before students access the interactive, ask them to sketch their thoughts about parachute design.  This lets them think through the design apart from the pre-determined categories presented in the interactive.Students can design and test their parachutes individually in a one to one computer lab setting or take turns designing and testing in a computer center lab on classroom computers.Debrief after the interactive to discuss the parameters that were the most successful and what students learned about volume, drag, strength and stability.Extend this activity by creating a mock-up of the parachute they designed online.  Find a high place on the playground or in the building where students can test these parachutes.  What did they have to adjust for an Earth bound parachute? iLearn Technology

"What it is: IKT FOR LAGET out of Norway has created a fantastic ebook all about Energy.  This is more than just a book that happens to be online (I know we have all seen those!), this is an interactive book that is great for ALL of your learners.  In addition to the text and bold images in the book, there is an audio feature on every page that will read the text to students.  Click on the video icon to watch a related video.  Students can even download related images from some of the films for use in their own projects where they reflect or construct their own understanding. Additional resources and links are provided within the book for teachers, parents, and students.  All of the additional content "enlarges the book" into something really useful for learning and exploring.   This is a big step in the right direction for ebooks- no more trying to pass off a PDF as a digital ebook, this is the real deal. How to integrate the Digital Energy Book into the classroom: If you study energy in your science curriculum this ebook is a super resource and addition to your classroom library.  Set up the ebook on classroom computers during independent reading time for some non-fiction reading material.  The ebook is great for all levels of readers, confident readers can read the book independently while struggling readers may want to read along with the audio.  Use the ebook as a "big book" using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer to read about energy as a class." iLearn Technology

"What it is: IDroo is an educational multi user whiteboard that lets students instantly collaborate online.  Everything that is drawn or written on the whiteboard is visible to all participants in real-time.  IDroo supports an unlimited number of meeting participants, the only limitations are computer power and internet connection speed.  There is a professional math typing tool built-in making it easy to teach or work through math problems collaboratively. Best of all, IDroo can be used with Skype! IDroo is free for non-commercial use. Now for the downfall (and this is a HUGE downfall in my humble opinion), IDroo is currently only available for Windows.  I  know, disappointment for us Mac lovers. *sigh*  If you are using a Windows computer this is a great way to collaborate online! How to integrate IDroo into the classroom: IDroo would be a great app for collaborating with other classrooms around the world.  Students can use the multi user whiteboard space to work together, share ideas, and brainstorm.  IDroo would also be fantastic as a way for teachers to tutor students virtually.  Set up an "open lab" time once a week online where students can drop in and get extra help.  Virtual lab times are especially helpful for elementary students who can't dictate their own schedules and often can't stay after school for extra help. Tips: Don't forget to allow IDroo to access Skype API after you download!" iLearn Technology

How to integrate MinyanLand into the classroom: MinyanLand is such a fun way to work toward financial literacy in the classroom.  It offers students a virtual economy where they can practice real-world skills of buying, earning, investing, and giving.  I love the way that MinyanLand ties the real world to the virtual by allowing students to earn virtual MinyanMoney for real chores and jobs.Registering is free and easy enough for young students to register themselves.  A parent or teacher email address is optional for registration.  If students include a parent or teacher email address, they can earn MinyanMoney for chores or jobs that you assign.MinyanLand is one of those sites that would be great as a year-long project.  Students can visit MinyanLand throughout the year in the classroom (and at home) to learn about money, investing, spending, earning, and the economy.  It is a natural fit in the math classroom where students are already working with money and numbers.  MinyanLand would be best in a lab setting where each student has access to a computer.  If you don't have a lab for students, use classroom computers as a learning center.  Students can visit the center throughout the week to interact in MinyanLand.

How to integrate the NOVA Design a Parachute interactive into the classroom: In this activity, students assume the role of engineer as they design a parachute that will slow the Mars Explorer Rover as it lands on the surface of Mars.  I like the authentic feel of this activity, students are led through the thinking process of an engineer as they consider all of the requirements the chute must meet before they begin designing. Approach this interactive as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.  As a class, get "briefed" on the requirements for the parachute design.  Discuss how these requirements may impact the parachute design.  Treat this like an actual briefing and encourage discussion (all ages like to pretend!).  Before students access the interactive, ask them to sketch their thoughts about parachute design.  This lets them think through the design apart from the pre-determined categories presented in the interactive. Students can design and test their parachutes individually in a one to one computer lab setting or take turns designing and testing in a computer center lab on classroom computers. Debrief after the interactive to discuss the parameters that were the most successful and what students learned about volume, drag, strength and stability. Extend this activity by creating a mock-up of the parachute they designed online.  Find a high place on the playground or in the building where students can test these parachutes.  What did they have to adjust for an Earth bound parachute? Tips: The NOVA page has a great introduction paragraph about how engineers approach a problem.  Be sure to read it with your students!  Encourage students to learn more about the Mars Explorer Rover before designing the chute.  It may adjust their thinking!From I Learn Technology blog

"In a digital world where we can easily "find an app for that" to help solve many problems, rarely do teachers have a one stop shopping place for all their classroom digital needs. There are many individual tools that can aid a teacher in retrieving student's digital work, polling/quizzing students or assigning work, but each of these tools usually requires a separate account. However, there is one, free, Web 2.0 app that brings everything together that you need for your classroom, including a social learning environment. The app that does all of this is called Edmodo. Here are just a few features that make Edmodo so great for teachers and students: A place to assign and turn in work: The teacher can attach any file they may need for an assignment (rubric, worksheet, etc.) and students can upload any file to turn in their work. Links and embed codes can also be used to publish and share work easily.A calendar to help students keep up with important dates: Assignment due dates, dates you'll be out, holidays, classroom birthdays or anything you can think of to post. Studentscan also add their own personal notes to dates that only they can see. The notes the students add to the calendar are not published to the class.A digital library that will replace a student's flash drive: They can upload files into their "digital backpack" and download them when on any computer. The teacher can add necessary files to their library as well.A place to post messages--urgent or not: Only teachers and students can interact with one another, student to student messages are not allowed. This feature is the most powerful and it's what makes Edmodo a "social LEARNING network." This feature looks and works a lot like a "wall" on Facebook.A parent connection: every student is assigned a parent code so that parents can connect with the teacher on Edmodo, check grades and see posts to the class by the teacher and their child.Groups: Teachers can create groups for classes, parents, study groups

This is a great site to learn about how to tag.