lesson-ideas

=Lesson Ideas =

Combining Technology & Community Service
// (Teacher Guest Post by Mrs. Lindgern, 3rd Grade) //

Last year the students in the 3rd Grade Expanded Learning Center recorded books on CD & DVD as a community service project. The Plattsmouth Early Childhood Center was given the books on CD & DVD to be used in their listening centers. This year the 3rd grade teachers have asked the Kindergarten teachers if they would like to be the recipients of the books on CD.

This is how the project looks:
 * 1) Ask grade level teachers what books they would like on CD.
 * 2) Check out the books & assign a student to each book.
 * 3) After weeks of practicing reading with fluency & expression the students are ready to record.
 * 4) Using an iPod, iPad, or iPhone: each student meets with his or her teacher in a quiet place to record his or her book on CD or DVD. A FlipVideo was used if for recording the reader if it was to be used as a DVD.
 * 5) Upload sound file onto iTunes or video file onto iMovie.
 * 6) Organize the sound files into playlists by book title & burns onto CD or DVD.
 * 7) Put CD/DVD in a case & add to the stack to be donated.

This project required a lot of time, money, & planning. Many factors must be considered before a teacher can implement this project into his or her classroom.
 * 1) Part of your classroom budget may need to be used to purchase CDs/DVDs & the cases for the project.
 * 2) Have an awareness of how to record on an iPod, FlipVideo, iPad, iPhone & import to iTunes/iMovie. I used the VOICE RECORDER app on my iPod to record each student’s book as an audio file.
 * 3) Be able to burn a CD from iTunes & a DVD from iMovie.
 * 4) Be willing to spend a lot of your own time on this project.

This community service project took a lot of time & teacher power, but it was well worth it. Students were thrilled to hear their recordings & were overjoyed at the idea of donating to younger students. They did not even realize they were becoming more fluent readers in the process! This year we are hoping that our 3rd grade students share the excitement of last year’s students while completing the project.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Discovery Education
Check out the Teacher tab! This site provides free access to lesson plans, student adventures, & amazing photos. Discovery Education brings the world into your classroom.

e-Learning for kids
Provides free computer-based learning courses for children between the ages of 5 & 12.

Flocabulary
Flocabulary produces educational hip-hop music & engaging curricular materials to teach academic content for grades K-12. They have been featured on The Today Show, & Oprah. They offer music & videos for vocabulary, reading, writing, social studies, math, & science. Most of the content has to be bought, but they do offer some FREE songs (one from each series), videos, & services.

Here is a list of songs, videos, & services:
 * **The Week in Rap** (weekly raps over current events)
 * I Ate Eight – Math Rap: Level One
 * Know Your Twos – Math Rap: Level Two
 * Confessions of a Planet – Beats, Rhymes, & Science
 * Let Freedom Ring – Hip-Hop U.S. History
 * Middle Ages Asia – Hip-Hop History of the World (Part 1)
 * The Word Up Project
 * Transformation – SAT Vocabulary
 * The Merry Wanderer (A Midsummer Nights Dream) – Shakespeare is Hip-Hop
 * Check out more FREE material under “Free Teacher Resources.”

NBC Learn

 * **Pros**: free activities/lessons, access to archives (w/ paid), transcripts of video
 * **Cons**: subscription fee for full access, not all free videos have lessons

As one of the major networks, NBC news has been around, over time & around the globe, & their archives of historical footage are second-to-none. Combined with extensive lessons linked to national standards you have engaging teaching opportunities at your fingertips. Some videos have lessons addressing several strands or subjects, & lessons run the gambit from K-12 - some with reproducibles.


 * Samples**: //Titanic//, //Science of Football//, //Writers Speak//, //Sustainability: Water, Science// //of Innovation//.

neoK12
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A great collection of educational videos, lessons, quizzes, games, & puzzles. There are topics over,
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Science
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Physical Science
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Life Science
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Human Body
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Earth & Space
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Geography
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Social Studies
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">History
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Math
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">English

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each topic is then further divided into subtopics. The Pictures School Presentation tool is a mashup of Flickr & Wikipedia. Students can create presentations by adding images from Flickr & text from Wikipedia. The video playlists are teacher created complete with notes & lessons for the students.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Learning Network
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An online news site for grades 3-12 from The New York Times. This awesome resource is free for educators (with registration required). Daily lessons linked to past & present news items, as well as featured links to various NYT archives. Thought-provoking questions for students to respond to - many classes respond as part of their class, posting with a handle so their instructor can easily see which of their students are responding. Excellent resource for high school instructors of all subject areas; especially as you work to incorporate non-fiction reading & writing as part of the Common Core.

Wonderopolis
Wonderopolis offers “wonder” prompts over topics in science, social studies, math, & language arts. Each prompt includes a short article, a video, questions, images, vocabulary words with words challenges, activities to try out, & a short little quiz over the “wonder.” What a fantastic way to get students to discuss & explore the world around them. A free iPhone & iPad app is also available.

//Last Updated - May 2014//