Katie Blunt - Ed Tech

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Vancouver 2010 Olympics

There are some really fun resources and activities on the Vancouver Olympics site, and plenty of unofficial sites with information and activities for kids. Here are a few of them. Feel free to comment and tell me your favorite Vancouver 2010 sites!

Official Site:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Mascot Games:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/mascot

Kids Activities:
http://www.kidsturncentral.com/links/2010olympics.htm

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

WritingFix

The literacy facilitator at Midvalley Elementary is an incredible resource if you need help teaching writing. She recently showed me the site writingfix.com, created by the Northern Nevada Writing Project, that contains wonderful resources, ideas, and lesson plans for teaching 6 Trait Writing. We all know the Direct Writing Assessment is rapidly approaching for 5th grade, and every teacher at every level should be teaching the 6 Traits, so I thought this site would be particularly helpful. Check it out!

Be sure to pay attention to the following great content on the site:

Writing prompts
Writing lessons
The writing process
Reviser's Toolbox
6 Traits
Writers Workshop
Writing across the curriculum
Teacher books and resources
Poetry
Mentor texts
E-mailed writing lesson of the month
iPods Across the Curriculum

Other helpful sites linked to WritingFix include:

Listen Up! Using music and lyrics to inspire meaningful writing
Always Write
Write in the Middle

Let me know what you think of the site. Are there other sites about teaching writing you've found helpful?
(Check out other online literacy resources listed on my "Reading and Math Educational Websites" blog post.)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Skyward Review

The end of the elementary grading period is rapidly approaching. Here are some reminders/updates to help you have success using Skyward Gradebook this time around:

Print Cue - IT has added more servers and more print cues to avoid the delay in printing we had last grading period.
Safari - Using Safari instead of Firefox has solved the problem of the rows and columns not lining up on the screen. Safari has also been loading Gradebook more quickly.
Guided Reading Levels - In order for your GRL's to appear on the report card, we had to assign each level a percentage. The numbers that are now attached to the GRL's don't mean anything. They are only there so the correct levels will appear on your report cards. The percentages will not show up on the report card.
Events - You must enter at least one event in each skill area you would like to have count toward the final grade. If you only enter a final grade for a skill area without any events, the subject area grade will not calculate correctly.
Points - Grades are weighted by total points. If you want each skill area weighted equally toward the subject are grade, you must have an equal number of points in each skill area.

Visit the Canyons EMT (Educational and Media Technology) website for Skyward documentation and instructional videos. http://emt.canyonsdistrict.org

Remember to start entering your grades early! Do a test run of your report cards at least a couple of weeks ahead of time to make sure everything is showing up correctly.

Your Educational Technology Specialist will not be in your building on your February 26th EBL day due to the UCET conference. Plan ahead and get help early!
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A few more notes from Help Desk:

The explanation of guided reading levels should be correct this term.
“M” for modification is an option in all events, skills and subjects.
You should also see an option for NA this term.
5th and 6th grade report cards should show the explanation in the number boxes at the top for the letter grades A,B,C, etc.
If you have any trouble running reports or with blank fields again, please contact Help Desk or you Ed Tech.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Simple Teacher Websites

There are many options available to teachers who want to create a website for the class/classes. Here are a few options my colleagues and I have tried:

My UEN

Free
Utah teachers automatically have a my.uen account
Pre-set template
Fast, easy to use
Simple design
Content entered into boxes on the page
Tabs to navigate to multiple pages
Links to lessons on uen.org

Blog (I have always used Blogger, but there are many options for blogging.)

Free
Linked to your Google account
Choice of templates, or create your own if you know html
Can edit html
Simple, one-page design
Content entered in as posts or on side-bar
Multi-media

Wiki (I have always used Wikispaces.)

Free - educators can get a free account without advertisements
Create as many wikis as you want with the same account
Choice of templates, or create your own if you know html
Can edit html
Multiple-page design
Content entered onto separate pages that can be linked
Navigation bar on each page
Multi-media
Upload documents
Formatting of text can be a little challenging at first

iWeb

Pay through MobileMe account
Limited amount of space
Design your own layout
Similar interface to other iLife applications
Multiple-page design
Content entered like a Pages document - your choice of design/layout
Multi-media
Quickly draws on items in iPhoto and other iLife applications
Upload documents

Google Sites
Google Sites is fairly new, so I haven't actually tried it yet. I have seen it, though, and it looks simple and really great. If you have used Google Sites, please comment and let me know what you think.

Dropbox
I have had several colleagues recently tell me that Dropbox can make a nice, simple website too. Comment if you know more about it!

What have I missed? What are the pros and cons of each of these tools? Are there other ways you are creating quick and easy-to-manage teachers websites? Please comment.

I have decided that each of these tools are useful in their own way. If a teacher is looking for something that is quick and easy, I recomment my.uen. I have loved using a blog to have students contribute with their own posts, pictures, links, and movies. But, my favorite for classroom management has been a wiki. I like that I can have several pages, each for a specific purpose (information about me, parents, homework, students work, calendars, content areas, etc.), and I love that I can upload documents (worksheets, permission slips, donation lists, assignment outlines, class rules, etc.).

Here are examples of my teacher websites:
My UEN: http://my.uen.org/myuen/77889
Blog: http://bluntsixth.blogspot.com/
Wiki: http://bluntclassroom.wikispaces.com/

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Learn to Use the Mouse

Activities to help kindergarten students improve their mouse skills:
Starry Night
Catch the Apples
The Three Monkeys
Fish World
Interactive Paper Dolls
Drag and Drop Matching Game
Feeding Frenzy
Click and Drag Animals

Friday, January 8, 2010

New NetSafe Videos

UEN has new free online videos and public service announcements available to watch and download to help teach kids safe Internet use. Check it out:

http://www.netsafeutah.org/index.php

Also available on Nut Intuit:

http://www.nutintuit.com/Default/

Friday, December 4, 2009

Midvalley Elementary - ARISS Event

ARISS = Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Here are the YouTube links to the video footage from Midvalley's ARISS event:

Introductions by Mrs. Burningham and Mr. Bettinson & waiting for contact:

Students contact ISS:

After the event:

Dave Bettinson Interview:

Midvalley ARISS in the news:

Monday, November 23, 2009

Canyons Educational Technology Survey

Canyons District Technology Survey

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Podcasting

This is an outline of my podcast training. It contains the movies and links that were used and discussed during the training. As soon as it is edited and published, I will add a link to the podcast of the training. (Imagine that! A podcast about podcasting!)

Samples