Teachers2Teachers: Parental Involvement

Here comes the BOOM!

2010-06-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Slideboom that is! Presented with the challenge of having a Power Point presentation I wanted to make easily accessible on my web page and in a Moodle, I was faced with the issue of converting my Power Point presentation into a Flash presentation. Being a Mac user (and having NO regrets there), I began searching the web for a means to do so, but was worried my options would be limited.

Looking over multiple links, I found several companies (whom I won't support by providing their link), who wanted to charge me for this ability. In comes Slideboom to the rescue! Within minutes, I had uploaded my presentation, converted it to flash, and had an embed code ready for my website and my Moodle!

Though there is an option for a paid account, the free account provides you with plenty of opportunity to increase the accessibility of your presentation and share it with others, if you like. Additionally, Slideboom gives you access to the presentations of others and allows you to tag, rank, and comment on presentations. As an educator I found this to be a powerful option for those times when I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, but want to find something that will grab student attention. Being able to search presentations by popularity could expedite this process. If presentations are your thing and you want to move them beyond your desktop, I think Slideboom is the way to go!

Yodi, Yodi, Yodio!

2010-06-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

In preparing sites for students and trying to make them more accessible, adding audio to either compliment or repeat text can be very powerful. This is the case especially for students who have difficulty with reading or when trying to simplify vocabulary that may be included on the site the students is being directed to. Additionally, having an audio stream or a podcast for your audience can be more engaging and, in the case where you update regularly, draw them back for more.

The problem with the podcast, is that many people are intimidated by technology. Though some may get as far as utilizing a drag and drop website service, such as Weebly, adding something such as a podcast may prove to be too daunting. Recording, editing, then embedding, can be a bit of a challenge with some programs and presents differently with different operating systems.

In steps Yodio! A free, create via phone, podcasting service, which allows you to create a podcast from your phone, add a picture from your computer, then put them together as an audio file that can compliment, supplement, or replace the content you're wanting to share. You can share the file on your web page, social network, or even email it to share it more privately. Yodio does offer more features for those who want to get more commercial use out of it, but as far as educational use goes, the free membership is great! Check it out!

Read, Write & Think!

2010-05-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Looking for engaging ways to introduce your students to reading more or to encourage them to write outside of the classroom? Here is your answer—all of the materials at this site are created by experts to be fun, educational, and easy to use outside of school. readwritethink is an online literacy learning center. Its mission is to provide educators and parents with access to the best quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials. Every lesson plan on readwritethink has been aligned not only to the IRA / NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts but to individual state standards as well.

You will be able to engage your students in online literacy learning with these interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals. It helps students from organizing their thoughts to learning about language, all while having fun!

Furthermore, it has a complete section devoted to parents and afterschool professionals so learning can continue outside of the classroom.

"What if...? and What should we do?"- Resource for Parents

2010-05-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

As a teacher you learn quickly that most parents are wanting to or trying to do what is best for their child. There are an endless number of questions, "What if...? and What should we do?" that they ask of you. Now you have a great resource not only for parents but you as well. Education.com provides parents of school-aged children with free access to information and resources to give them the answers they need from school issues to home issues such as bullying and learning difficulties to child health and divorce.

The site has been developed by experts to bring the best information to parents located in one spot. Here is what it says it offers to parents;

In using Education.com, parents:

Have free access to thousands of articles. We’ve teamed up with the world’s leading teachers, psychologists, universities, non-profits, and research organizations to offer highly credible parenting, developmental, and educational information that is current, well organized, and easy to understand.
Can print hundreds of activities — sorted by grade level and topic — to help make learning at home more fun.
Have the ability to get support from and share advice with Education.com’s community of thousands of parents and experts.
Can use our SchoolFinder tool to learn more about their current schools or research new ones.
Have access to “best of breed” academic services including online tutoring services, math programs, educational games, and online early reading programs.

For teachers if offers lesson ideas as well as information.

Parent Teacher Association - Every Child, One Voice

2010-05-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

The National Parent Teacher Association is a great way to continue learning how to integrate parents into their child's education. As they state on their website, "Academic achievement has always been paramount. But, in today’s changing economy the need for advanced skills and technical knowledge is growing. Showing our children that we value learning and education is important and will pay off in the long run as they mature. When parents are involved in their children's educations, student achievement improves.

Student academic achievement starts with you helping your child succeed by providing a home that encourages learning and supports your child’s physical, mental, and emotional development. Use these parent resources to help your child achieve success in school."

This is a great organization to join to learn how parents are feeling, how to communicate more effectively with parents, and how to get parents involved in their child's education. I encourage you to continue to try to develop meaningful parent communication and involvement inside and out of the classroom.

On a side note, the PTA website gives you a lot of different fundraising ideas, ideas for giving thanks to others teachers (you could also use these ideas for thanking your parent volunteers) and websites and ideas for lessons and uses at home.

Facebook & MySpace - Wait, What?!

2010-05-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

Teachers, do you use Facebook and/or MySpace on a weekly basis? Like many teachers, I'm sure your profile is set to private (kudos to you if you aren't; you're braver than me!) But, unlike many teachers, I'm sure you may know how important social networking is in your life now, and probably will play a key role in the future, as well. Keeping this in mind, have you ever thought about setting up a professional Facebook or MySpace page? Kids would LOVE to be "friends" with you on Facebook. I'm sure you'd have a huge following! BONUS: After a couple of years you might have more than 1,000 friends! (How many people can boast that?)

But, on a more important note, Facebook and MySpace are becoming prominent means of communication in your students parents' lives, as well. I witnessed just last week a post by a parent who wrote on the wall of her child's 3rd grade teacher, "If possible could you let Meghan sit closer to the front. She says she is have trouble seeing things far away. We are going to make her an appointment with the eye doctor. Please feel free to contact me for any reason. Thanks." You might be thinking, wow, couldn't she have sent that on email? Yes, probably, but she felt comfortable letting her know on Facebook, so now Meghan sits closer to the front because of one simple communication.

Facebook and MySpace can be used for a variety of different objectives. For example, on Facebook you can create a Mrs. Jones Parent Group, where your child's parents sign up and you can message out to them about special things going on in class, field trips they can volunteer for, and other miscellaneous things such as when supplies are getting low. You can also create a Fan Page for your class, as well. You can post student work on both Facebook and MySpace, and you can "tag" the parents in the work so that they can brag to their friends. I'd bet you'd have a lot more parent involvement!

Summer math help without the cost?

2010-05-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

For the most part, yes! Though the first two sites posted on the list I'm about to provide a link to are paid sites, the rest provide at least SOME free material that could be useful to you as a parent or to the classroom teacher in looking for ways to supplement what's been taught or to assist in keeping skills fresh over the course of the summer.

I'm sure most have heard of the Sylvan learning Center or Sylvan Learning, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Sylvan is a franchised tutoring company, which offers tutoring services to students aged 4 1/2 through high school, with "personalized learning programs." Well Sylvan was kind enough to compile a list of what it considers to be the "Top 10 Math Websites" out there!

Though I don't wish to blow the lot of my math resource websites on one post, I was somewhat surprised that Sylvan was willing to provide these links for free, which made me think (pleasantly) that they're not just out there to make extra money. Where I may be giving a lot of resources in this one posting, and limiting my ability for future math specific website postings, I'll gladly have resources to other links covering other academic supports in the near future.

Anyway, going back to the top ten links...the first two links are pay/subscription links, so they may not be of interest to everyone. The number 3 link Coolmath is one I'd blogged about previously and it has no subscription/fee requirements and my students find it to be quite fun!

Moving down the list, there are some other sites, with the option to purchase materials, while at the same time providing some free resources. Sites range in creation from being produced by a South African community (though it looks very US), to one created by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, to another by the BBC! The initial BBC link is broken, though if you click on it, there are five links below it, which are functional.

Though all sites are math based, they all bring something different to the table and will definitely keep your child/student practicing his/her skills. Obviously it can't be expected that the kids will just voluntarily go to math sites without some nudging, however a smooth introduction to the site, along with some guided demonstration may go a long way in developing an interest in math, that doesn't seem too much like doing work over the summer!

Vocabulary Builders

2010-05-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

When you mention the words "parts of speech" or "spelling vocabulary" do your students get that glazed over look in there eyes? Hopefully those days are soon over. There are a couple of engaging interactive websites that not only support your curriculum but are fun to use.

Elementary to Secondary teachers here is a educational website designed to build your students English vocabulary. Vocabulary.co.il is a fun educational website created for the purpose of building ones reading, phonics, or English language skills. They offer free online word games which are specifically designed to motivate students to learn by having fun while practicing spelling, phonics, and vocabulary.The vocabulary games include an online word search, crossword puzzle, and hangman (hangmouse). It focuses on having the student make connections between words and ideas and between words and pictures in order to build vocabulary skills. As you know those connections make the process of building vocabulary skills faster and more efficient.

Vocabulary.co.il is not only for the general education teacher but ESL teacher as well. It has vocabulary games dedicated to the ESL student. They range from common foreign language phrases to specific vocabulary lists, including numbers and colors.

SpellingCity .c om is a terrific site to enhance your students spelling skills. Their slogan is, "SpellingCity.com has transformed spelling practice from a chore to something fun and it's free". The best part of this site is that the students can enter in their current spelling list to practice and then test themselves. It also has corresponding handwriting worksheets for the Dolch word lists. The downside to SpellingCity is that to fully utilize all it has to offer teachers need to buy a membership.

Parents and students are able to use both of these website effortlessly. It is ideal to use for a school to home connection because you can suggest certain educational games for the student to play that corresponds to the curriculum you are currently teaching.

Math can be fun?????

2010-05-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Of course it can! As a resource room math teacher at the middle school level, I've definitely come across my share of kids who are either "done" with math or they believe that it's some horrible thing that's going to keep them a prisoner to number their entire lives. For those of you parents out there who may have a child who needs to improve his/her math skills or a child who needs incentives and loves to play games online, www.coolmath-games.com may be just the thing you're looking for. It doesn't replace the need for instruction, but it can be a fun way to practice math skills, without trying your patience.
Where their motto is "Come for the games...Stay for the lessons," your student is sure to be engaged in an experience they'll want to replicate over and over. The site is full of a wide range of games for a wide range of ages and interests. I've found myself enjoying some of the games the students do!

My students and I both love Bloxorz (a game which requires you to move a rectangular block along a path until you can stand it on end to drop it into a whole), that requires a good amount of focus and math reasoning. Even my students who are challenged with the ability to focus have admitted to spending a lot of time playing this game.

Though I'm not a big fan, the kids love Bloons Tower Defense 3. In this game, the students have to manage their money, to make sure they have enough to buy items to pop the balloons and keep them from making it through a path. Where getting your student to manage money may be a challenge, this could prove to be a good starting point. I've had students beg me for the opportunity to play this game and extra for a longer break, just to continue playing.

These are just two of the many games offered on the site, which claims to have games in all of the following areas:

Board, colors, jigsaw, logic, mazes, memory, numbers, pictures, quiz, shapes, skill, and strategy

The site is also updated frequently, so boredom shouldn't become an issue. So if granting random computer time, to play senseless games isn't your thing, try this site out. You can gain some peace of mind in knowing that your student is doing something meaningful and you might find something entertaining to do in your "spare" time, which will hone your math skills too! :)

Stories Read Aloud Online

2010-05-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

Early elementary teachers, have you heard some of your students complain that they have no one at home to read to them? Sad to say I have more times than I could have ever imagined. Storyline Online is a free on-line streaming video program featuring Screen Actor Guild members reading books. Using this program students can see and hear books read directly to them via the computer. Also, they can check out the books in the library so that they can read along with the actors.

One of my favorites is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. Not only can the books be read to them but each book is accompanied with activities and lessons that they can do by themselves or (hopefully) with parents. It makes a terrific listening center for a classroom too!

TextMarks - Breaking Through the 21st Century Divide through Text

2010-05-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Teachers, do you find it's difficult to get ahold of your students' parents, or communicate on a daily basis with them? How easy would it be to send one mass text to your parents every day letting them know what homework your students have? Not so easy, you say? Not anymore!

With TextMarks, sending a free text message to all subscribers is simple and easy. After you create a FREE account, all you need to do is create a "group keyword", announce it to your parents and tell them the simple directions to sign up for your daily text (they text the keyword to 41411 and are automatically signed up). You login everyday to TextMarks and send a text. Simple, easy and fast. The most important part? Most parents text and would appreciate that daily text. It doesn't cost them anything (only if they don't have unlimited text - they would have to pay their own standard text messaging fees). TextMarks does NOT charge any fees, but they do send ads in the text. A short ad at the end of the text to have better instant communication with your students' parents? I'll take it.

Sign up today and simplify your life! You can even embed a widget on your website that sends the text to that widget, so parents can just check your website every day if they don't want to receive the text.

Says Jeromy Sumner, a Sixth Grade Teacher in Springfield Public Schools,

"Textmarks helps me to reach my students on their level! I am able to forward my homework assignments to the entire class with one click. Parents even signed up so that they could receive homework lists and special announcements from me. Every classroom should use this service - it has helped increase the percentage of homework turned in each day, as well as reminding students of school events, library day & to bring in that field trip money!”

BBC Languages

2010-05-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

World Language Teachers,

Do you feel like you're always looking for a good way to invovle the parents but maybe give them "a little more" so that they're more interested in learning the language, as well? Or maybe your students' parents really want to help with homework but don't understand a grammar concept or correct pronunciation. Look no further! BBC Languages gives the parents these concepts in "Plain English". In other words, they don't have to sit in an hour-long class to "get it".

With BBC Languages, students and parents can work together to not only reinforce their knowledge of the language, but also includes beginner courses for parents who want to "catch up" to their beginner or intermediate student. It would also be great to use for students and parents when they tell you they're going on vacation to a country that speaks a language other than English.

BBC Languages provides not only grammar concepts and correct pronunciation in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Chinese but also includes audio and video such as a conversation between two students in Madrid, which helps reinforce certain important words, such as greetings and good-byes. It gives you the weather in different cities in the language, along with a beginner program called 'Steps' that allows learners to take a free class for 12 weeks and then BBC gives them a certificate for their achievement.

One really cool aspect is that BBC Languages offers what they call a "Quick Fix" which offers important, emergency vocabulary and phrases in 36 different languages.

All in all, BBC Languages is a great resource you can give to parents to help them with their student's learning as well as brush up on their own language skills!

Quizlet - Vocabulary & FlashCard Games

2010-05-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for a way to get your parents involved at home, without it being a big hassle? Want students to practice vocabulary in their spare time, but need it to be a very specific vocabulary list? Using Quizlet, you can search for flashcards made by other users, create your own flashcards for class and at home, and even share everything you create with your fellow educators and more importantly, parents! it's incredibly easy to get started, just a quick and easy (and of course, free) registration and then you are on your way! Quizlet takes the hassle out of studying for vocabulary quizzes, practices world language vocabulary, and even can make it engaging! It automatically creates games such as Scatter, where you have to drag words and definitions on top of each other to make them disappear, and (my personal favorite), Space Race, where you write the word or definition before the word races off the screen. It's easy, automatic and free!

It is a great way to utilize this with parents who are having a hard time finding time to study vocabulary sets with their students. Just create, send, and watch magic happen when your students tell you how "FUN" it was to "STUDY". ( The words "fun" and "study" have never been in the same sentence before now!) Needless to say, if you want to engage even the parents and really get them involved, Quizlet is definitely a great way to get started!

Health Resource for Students and Teachers

2010-05-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Over the last few years, I have been working as a long-term substitute primarily in grades K-2. Often, I am looking for online resources to assist students in many areas of learning. Through my searching, I found a terrific site for students and teachers who would like information on health called BAM! Body and Mind. It was developed by the CDC. It is designed to be a health information resource for students and their teacher so sections of the site deal with nutrition, exercise, disease control, and staying safe while enjoying all kinds of sports and activities. Other topics include emotional issues, social issues (bullying) and puberty.

The site also offers a teacher's section with lesson plans, activities, and down-loadable resources available in printer-friendly pdf format.

Everyone knows that time is limited in class so this would make a terrific student and parent resource to use outside of the classroom. This way both student and parent are learning together.

A math dictionary online?

2010-05-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

Being a teacher of math at the middle school level, for students who have difficulties in the area of mathematics, one of the things I've tried to do is make my students more aware of the vocabulary that goes along with mathematics.

So whilst I was trolling through our district website, looking for the district technology plan, I came across the Technology Blog. Though I figured the plan likely wouldn't be in the blog, I was still tempted to look. In doing so, I came across the following math vocabulary page:
http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/
If building vocabulary in math is something you need to do, make sure to check it out!