Thursday+Roundup!

Hey Guys,

Here's a place where we can post our links for the Thursday Roundup - Abbey :)

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3

Week One - 10.February.2011
 * The International Children's Digital Library** - http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

This website has __tons__ of great online story books that cover a range of different cultures. This site allows you to personalize your search from the length of the book (short, long, medium) to the types of characters in the story (animal characters, people characters, etc.) I have found this site to be particularly helpful because it not only is convenient and easy to access (as it is online!) but it opens a world of diverse stories and backgrounds to the classroom.


 * Illuminations** - http://illuminations.nctm.org/

This website is a really helpful math tool that was created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. It has lesson plans that you can search for by grade or topic, online games, and great resources linking to other math related websites. The thing I like about this site is that kids can use it, as well as teachers. It is both fun and engaging, while still teaching the content.


 * The Education Podcast Network** - http://www.epnweb.org/index.php

This website is filled with different podcasts on a wide range of school subjects. This site is constantly being updated with new podcasts that discuss anything from art education to computer/technology skills. What I like about this site is how organized and easily accessible the information is. These podcasts could easily be played as part of a classroom activity and it could act as a great introduction into creating podcasts about whatever unit is being studied.


 * Academic Earth** - http://academicearth.org/

This site is not just relevant to teachers, but it is relevant to a number of different subjects. Academic Earth is a series of videos that contain lectures on different academic subjects (Art, History, Education, etc.) given by well respected professors from universities like Harvard and Yale. This site is really cool because it allows for you to follow a specific series of lectures or a specific topic. These are not exactly kid-friendly, but they are very informative and geared towards many interests.

Week two - 17.February.2011
**Parentella - [] ** This website is actually a privately-managed social media site that aims to help teachers bridge the gap between schools and families. The main selling points of this tool is that it is completely free, completely private, and really facilitates parent-teacher and parent-parent communication. While I have not used this website personally, the only downside that I can see is that parents who do not have Internet access will not be able to access this site.

**The Teaching Math Video Library**- []

*Be sure to enable pop-ups from this sight!* This website contains 53 free videos that give some great examples on how to teach a variety of math concepts to children between kindergarten and fourth grade. The videos were created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. They may seem a little outdated, but the content of the videos have really helped me understand how to teach math from a conceptual point of view, as opposed to the procedural point of view that is overly emphasized in textbooks. This page also has links to mathematics video libraries for grades 5-8 and 9-12. (Note: click the little “VoD” icon to pop up the video that you want to watch.)

**EME4401 Spring 2010 Inquiry Projects**- [] This wiki was created by myself and my peers as part of a final project for an educational technology class. Each student answered a specific question about integrating technology into the classroom or using technology to solve a specific problem in the classroom. Each answer contains a screencast, justifications, best practices, and several resources relating to the question. While not all of these may be quality resources, a majority of them are extremely helpful regarding educational technology, whether the technology involves teaching students how to use the Internet to conduct research or integrating cell phones into daily instruction.

**National Library of Virtual Manipulatives**- [] In the age of interactive white boards, this website is an essential piece of my toolbox. This site contains hundreds of virtual math manipulatives organized by grade level and topic. Each manipulative simply pops up on the screen. Teachers can display the manipulatives on a SMART Board so that students can use their hands to physically manipulate the manipulatives, or students can use the manipulatives independently on a classroom computer or at home.

100 Inspiring Ways to Use Social Media in the Classroom -[|100inspiringwaystousesocialmediaintheclassroom]
 * {Sadly, someone beat us to using this one. :( - Rai } **

This is a great resource to spark ideas using social media to enhance your student's next learning experience. It provides an example for each of the 100 ideas and conveniently breaks them up with these categories: Class Projects, Communication, Ways Students Can Use Social Media, College Classrooms, K-12 Classrooms. GREAT resource. Enjoy :)

Week 3:

**Is Google Making Us Stupid** //- http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868///
This article is about how the availability of resources and information is affecting the way that the world thinks. It talks about how search engines keep us from memorizing smaller details of information, like dates and names because they are so readily availble to us at any time. The author goes on to deatil his feelings on the subject and shares his perspective of how his thought process has shifted as technology becomes more prominent in every life.


 * Wix** //- [|Wix.com]//

This website offers users a place to host and edit websites. There are tons of templates, editing tools, and how-to tutorial videos that are user-friendly and very intuitive. This website offers tons of options for kids to create their own personal websites because the videos are self-explanatory and the directions are clear.

In the words of the researchers, "This project works to address this gap with a targeted set of ethnographic investigations into three emergent modes of informal learning that young people are practicing using new media technologies: communication, learning, and play". The report has already been completed, and the results are very informative for teachers and administrators. Their major findings are that "youth use online resources to extend friendships and interests" and "youth engage in peer-based, self-directed learning online". While this may not be news to our generation, the implications of these findings are really interesting in terms of how our teaching needs to change to address the changing needs of students.
 * Digital Youth Research: Kid's Informal Learning with digital Media -** []

Week 4

March 17, 2011 3rd Grade Team For this week's Thursday RoundUp, the Third grade team decided to showcase some of the many reasons why we have all decided to embark into the field of education, because we love kids and all the wonderful things that they do.

This is the commercial that Volkswagon premiered at the Super Bowl this year and shows the wonderment of child determination. It is a classic example of how children can make us all smile just by being their wonderful, innocent selves.
 * [|Volkswagon Commercial: The Force] **

This site is focused around children's efforts to conserve our planet's valuable rain forests. It is a blogsite started by a girl living in Costa Rica whose mission is to help preserve places like her home. She has links for a number of activities, project ideas and the site also contains links to articles published that relate to rainforest conservation. It is perfect for motivating students to ignite their own personal passions and also provides information on rainforest animal rehabilitation.
 * Kids Saving the Rainforest - []**

This article tells the story of an amazing little boy who worked to stop child labor in Pakistan. Students could read his story for inspiration on making a difference or as a biography/personal hero story.
 * Iqbal Masih: Amazing Little Boy Who Worked to Stop Child Labor - []**

This link leads to an NBC Nightly News story on a group of children working to end hunger around the world. The story is a video and would be an interesting study on the impact of children on the world. It really parallels what we are trying to accomplish with our social media project in this class.
 * Kids Stopping Hunger Around the World - []**