Educational Resources

Larry Ferlazzo has an amazing website with literally 8000 links.  A true treasure trove for any educator.  I recently started following his blog Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day.  He is a very knowledgeable person who has made countless resources available.  The site is very well organized.  It is just massive.  You can also subscribe to his newsletter.  I would recommend starting with his Teacher page on his website. 

I really like his Favorite Games page.   I was familiar with a number of his game sites but many were new to me. I can see lots of educational connections.  There are many great learning opportunities, happy hunting.

Games for Learning

I was reading the blog K-12 Techsters. I surfed in on the review of East of the Web . I was intrigued by the description and decided to investigate. I followed the directions and built a study room.
You can use pre-made lists or you can use your own lists and content. I tested it out with some content vocabulary “Parts of a Book”. I think the games make great learning tools. Here are the links to my study room at EastoftheWeb.
Study Room Register URL:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/studyrooms/?p=user/register&studyroom=Book Nook
This link allows users to register for my study room the Book Nook.
Study Room Login URL:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/studyrooms/?studyroom=Book Nook
This is the link for users to log in to my study room the Book Nook once you are registered.

East of the Web also has lots of stories for students to read. I think it is a quiet gem, waiting to be enjoyed.

Teacher Treasures

I was reading Larry Ferlazzo's article "Giving Students Reflection Cards" His strategy of giving a student a card that redirects their thinking, reminded me of a strategy I used when I taught at Pine Hills (Juvenile Detention Center) many years ago. It worked well for me then and I gradually forgot about it.

After reading Larry's very thoughtful article, I revisited the book where I had found the original idea. It was in the book Peaceful Procedures from the Tops Learning Systems. Their science modules are great too. I still have the book and am delighted to see the company still publishing their wonderful materials.

Larry triggered my memories and I think I will revisit his reflection card strategy again. Thanks Larry.

Free Electronic Field Trip from National Park Foundation

The National Park foundation is sponsoring an electronic field trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. It is an interactive learning experience. The date is May 18, 2010 - Times 10:00 am Eastern Standard Time and 1 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Please register.

There is a companion website available http://www.brycecanyoneft.org/.

If you go to the National Park Foundation site you will also have access to past electronic field trip broadcasts.

Technology Blogs That Deliver

Kelly Tenkely writes two blogs that I am really enjoying the first is ilearntechnology and her second one is Stories of Learning. Both blogs are about sharing information and ideas with the education world at large. The first deals with technology and tools that are out there and how they can be integrated into the classroom. The second blog is about successes in the classroom. Things teachers are doing in the classroom that is working.

ilearntechnology won one of the edublog of the year in 2009. It is a very rich site. I found Fotobabble on the ilearntechnology site. Fotobabble lets you connect an audio recording to a picture and then embed it into your blog or page. What a cool concept.

Integrating it into the classroom - vocabulary (pronunciation); word walls; character development; setting; story starters; science and math concepts. I can also imagine an online scrapbook of classroom activities to share with their parents.

The 2nd blog Stories of Learning is meant to inspire teachers to try new things and find new ways to integrate technology into the classroom. One of the stories I read was from a teacher who was using to "Kill a Mockingbird" in the classroom. She had her students take the characters and built a facebook page. The students made comments as if they were the characters, they also used twitter for comments from the characters. Puts a different spin on reading a classic.

EFL Classroom 2.0 - Where One Teaches Two Learn

EFL Classroom 2.0 is a social Ning that is filled with unexpected delights. I loved the Baam games on the site. I used one as a template to make a library game for my students. I can't wait for them to play it. (I'm waiting on a piece of equipment to get here.)

As a library media teacher finding fun activities is a critical piece of the learning structure. My students are always talking about their electronic entertainment - video games, tv, movies, dvd. I believe utilizing a game format is one way to reach them - learning masquerading as entertainment. I believe games provide amusement & repetition to make learning "fun".