Technology and Literacy

Why is technology so important in classrooms today? 

How technology be useful and helpful in today's classrooms?

Enjoy this Prezi presentation that I put together on integrating technology into a literacy curriculum!

Fun with Graphing

Someone recently shared with me a very neat website of a graphing activity for students. There is a handout on the website that you print and give to students. Then you play one of their 15 second "stories" and the students graph what happens in the story. The items range from time, air pressure, height, balloon length, ponies in the frame, and even more! This is a great way to engage students because it is a real life connection to what they know. You can let them choose videos that interest them too. The activity makes graphing more fun than telling students "Graph the coordinates (1, 3) and (6,4)." Click HERE to navigate to the website.

Graphic Organizers Galore!

I recently discovered Education Place. Education Place has a page with a long list of graphic organizers. This website, specifically the graphic organizers page, is a great resource for teachers. These graphic organizers can be used in all subjects. I have already used a few of these graphic organizers for projects and assignments and they are very helpful to students. Take the time to browse through them, I'm sure you'll find at least one you could use in your classroom!

Teachers Pay Teachers

As all teachers know, it is not always fun to try and create a brand new lesson plan. There is a website I recently found called Teachers Pay Teachers. This is an awesome resource for teachers to find lesson plans. Teachers post their own lesson plans to the website and can decide to let people download them for free or to sell them for a small price. This way, you can make a little money for the lesson plans you've created! There are lesson plans for all subjects and ages that you can either download for free or pay a small price for. Have fun searching for new, exciting lessons for your kiddos!

Quietube!

Ever use YouTube videos to enhance your lessons? Ever worry about the ads or videos that could show up and distract your students from what you are wanting them to watch? Do you not use YouTube videos because of these distractions? There's a new website called Quietube. Add it to your bookmarks and click on it while showing the YouTube video and it will block all these distractions for you. (There are pictures to illustrate this below) It is a great tool to use, especially in the classroom!

 Go to the video on YouTube, click the Quietube bookmark and voila! This is what you get:

Literactive: "Teaching Children to Read"

Photo Credit: www.literactive.com

Literactive is an interactive website that is great for helping students learn to read and practice literacy skills. The activities can be used by single students or as a group or class on a Promethean or Smart Board. The websites provides resources and activities for teaching Reading and ESL. It is truly a great resource to be used in the classroom! It's even better because kids will love it!

Kerpoof!

Logo image from: www.kerpoof.com

I think a very important part of teaching is taking advantage of all the new technology available to teachers. This includes many interactive, educational websites. One of these is Kerpoof. I am currently observing in a Kindergarten classroom in an inner city school. All the classrooms have Promethean Boards. We use ours a lot for instruction and to reinforce students' learning through practice activities. Kerpoof is one of the websites we use for spelling. However, there are many other activities that can be used on Kerpoof. There are also activities to practice other skills like writing and drawing. Teachers can also access lesson plans, activities, and other ideas for the classroom. It is a mostly free website. There are some parts of the website that require a membership fee. It is a great tool to use in the classroom, especially if a Promethean Board or Smart Board is available.