Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How Technology Affects our Lives

How Technology Affects our Lives
This is a huge topic, and one that First Graders are learning. How do dwindle this down to a manageable size. How about how Technology Affects our School?

Card Catalog From Card Catalog to Computer Searches! Flat Screen

  • Library: Let’s look at the library, no longer do students search through the card catalog for books, instead they find a book by using a computer and search by keyword, author or title. Books are scanned with a computer and barcode, allowing the librarian to keep track of records with ease.

  • Lunch:  Lunch count sent to the cafeteria by a computer to minimize wasted food. Students don’t have to carry money around, they have an id card to scan to keep track of their bills which parents can pay in advance!

  • Storing Information: Teachers are able to store lesson plans and student records for years. No longer is it one handout that you can’t change, digital resources can be manipulated to fit different students. Attendance tracking throughout the school and even across a whole district now is made much easier with computer software.

  • Communication: Emails from teacher to teacher, and home to parents make communication fast and efficient! Teachers and schools have websites where they can share information of upcoming events and even post newsletters instead of always sending home paper copies.

  • Collaboration: Students and teachers can share files and resources with each other. Share thoughts and ideas through digital journals and blogs. The sky is the limit with how much technology collaboration a class can do with others.




As you are thinking of how Technology Affects YOUR life. Consider the following questions:
 How do you retrieve information from technology?
 How can technology be used to organize your thoughts?
 How can you use technology to demonstrate ideas?
 How can technology be used in measurement?
 How can technology be used to solve problems?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Animal Webcams!

Ocean Life


Take advantage of a chance to do a virtual field trip!  Take your whole class to a tiger's cave, or underwater without leaving your classroom!  Check out these fantastic webcam resources:

National Zoo http://nationalzoo.si.edu/


n  Live web cams to specific animals at the zoo.


n  Also has links for kids.


WEBCAMS http://www.lisd.org/technology/itswebs/elem/curr/webcams.htm


n  See live webcams of animals in various habitats.  Choose from Africa came, Sea Otter, Kelp Forest, penguin, Tiger, Ocean cam and much more!


San Diego Zoo  http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kids/index.html


n  Has a kid territory with FAQ and answers.  Some great images, science projects


Seaworld  www.seaworld.org


n  Has some videos and lesson ideas for teachers


Kidport Science  -- Life in the Sea http://www.kidport.com/GradeK/Science/SeaLife.htm


n  Images and information on various sealife



Wildlife Channel -- www.hancockwildlifechannel.org  
 
 n  Has fabulous cameras set up in bald eagle nests.  Thanks Ms. Ludden! 


The following is a home video shot from whale watch on the Navatek off Oahu, Hawaii, 02/10/07. Blows, dives and breaches! Mother with calf. 


 


Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Awesome Interactive Math Sites

Ok, you caught me, I was playing games on my computer.  Math games.  Check out some of these cool Math sites, would be great on an interactive white board, or having individual students on a computer.


Great Interactive Math sites to check out!




Interactive Fraction sites:




Friday, March 6, 2009

PicLits

www.piclits.com  This is a cool site and great way to have students get creative with poetry, complete sentences, keywords and more.  Users have a chance to matches images with carefully selected keywords or can write "freestyle".  Check it out with your students, and create your own PicLit!
PicLit from PicLits.com
See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It's Science

In honor of Science Fair week here at Gattis Elementary, I thought I would share some science sites that are full of great ideas!:


Experiment of the Week: Sign up for a science experiment of the week.
If you have the time for the science lesson, but not enough time to research and find a steady supply of really engaging science experiments, sign up for a science Experiment of the Week. Each week, a new science experiment will be e-mailed to you.

Bubbles! Do bubbles have sides?  Find out more about Bubbles: http://www.sci.mus.mn.us/sln/tf/books/bubbles.html

Yucky Body Site http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/body/
This site let's you know why all those want to know where eye gunk comes from, what is a funnybone, and what causes bad breath.  Those human bodies do some crazy stuff!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Technology I'm Thankful for

 I was talking to my five year old nephew, Caleb this weekend and we started talking about inventions.  What was an invention, why did someone make them, then we started taking turns saying an invention we liked and why we liked them. That conversation inspired this blog:

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Technology I’m Thankful for:



1.     Cell Phones: One price for a call to someone down the street as someone in Conneticut or Kansas, fantastic!  I remember when as a college student I got calling cards to call anyone out of the city I was living in.  Now I can call and text to so many people and afford it!  And when I’m at the store, I can call the house and get grocery ideas.


2.     USB: The number of peripherals since the invention of USB has become incredibl.  No longer is it get one type of cable for one device.  USB has introduced us to a whole new world of computing options. Digital cameras, scanners, web cams, all of these fantastic things would not be nearly as widespread as they are today without USB.


3.     Digital Cameras: What a fantastic idea!  Now I can share pictures with my friends and family via email or facebook, or shoot them a cd chuck full of pictures.  When my nieces and nephews are born and I’m not in town, I can see them the same day!!  Remember the days of film camera?  I would never get a great shot, or have film for a year before developing it.  Then if someone wanted copies, another trip to the store and cost.  I love digital cameras!


4.     Inexpensive Internet: I feel like everything is at the tips of my fingers with internet. It’s so much easier to communicate with others, and the ability to find resources is amazing!  What does a word mean? Why is my washing machine leaking? What recipe can I make with bananas, cornflakes and chocolate chips? Being able to find and share resources quickly has opened the doors to so many possibilities.  And even non-geeks can afford it!


5.     Online Travel Agent:  I used to call a travel agent, or would be with my Dad at the airport to book tickets. Now I can go to Kayak.com and put in the days I want to fly and ask for a buzz and everyday I get an email telling me the cost of flights on the days I requested.  Being able to compare prices quickly I think helps keep the prices down (in some ways).


 


 


My final invention is not a technology one, but one Caleb and I both agreed on.  Chocolate Cake!  The invention of chocolate cake was actually begun as a catalyst for eating chocolate in 1674 in Europe.  So to all my nephews and nieces; Caleb, Joshua, Evelyn, Julia, Nathan, Amberly and Jacob, I look forward to talking about more inventions (or eating chocolate cake) next week at Thanksgiving! Love you à, Aunt Angie   


To everybody else, Happy Thanksgiving!




Here are the cousins all together.  I talk to each through cell phones, they are all snapped with many digital cameras, have parents that blog about them & do lots of plane rides to see each other!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

More than Just the Facts

http://www.factmonster.com/


Factmonster has been a favorite kid friendly educational site of mine for years!  It has so much information, you can create a webquest about things you find just on this one site. From dictionary, math games, quizzes, world news, people facts and other cool stuff! 


Here’s what I learned in just 4 minutes:


1.       Today  in History, November 13, 1942 they changed the minimum draft age from 21 to 18?


2.       Adeline Whitney invented Alphabet Blocks in 1882


3.       Money around the world: Ethiopia has the birr, Peru the Nuevo sol, Mongolia the tugrik


4.       I didn’t know as much about Turkeys as I thought after taking the “Turkey Day Quiz” at http://www.factmonster.com/quizzes/thanksgiving1/1.html


5.      “Raining cats and dogs.” Came from Norse mythology.  The dog is associated with wind and the cat with storms. This expression means it's raining very heavily, nothing to do with pets at all!


What can you learn in 4 minutes?