April is National Poetry Month. While there are a number of online resources with activities to celebrate and explore poetry I really like the Poets.com Listening Booth .  The listening booth contains audio recordings of poet’s reading poems. You can search by poet name or poem name.  There are a number of benefits to having...
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Our district is a member of Google Apps for Education. We have started to use Google Sites for a number of initiatives. We started to use Sites for teacher websites in some of our schools. We also  used Sites to build instructional resources. Our interactive Pyramid of Intervention and  Collaborative Group Work Resource are...
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Storyline (www.storyline.com) is a website published by the Screen Actors Guild. The site features videos of  famous actors and actresses reading children’s books.  There is an index of books to select from. The videos display well on an interactive white board. They can also be used in a listening center. With most stories there...
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Consider the following standard taken from the Language Arts Common Core Standard: Writing      “The ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing—a basic form of argument—extending down into the earliest grades. “        While there are a number...
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The students in Mrs. Bock’s reading class at White Rock Elementary school wanted to work together to apply what they have learned about bullying, character counts, and the writing process to publish a book about bullying. The students and Mrs. Bock had recently been introduced to Storyjumper  through one of my training sessions. Storyjumper...
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The development of Web 2.0, or the Read/Write Web, has produced a number of free resources that allow students and teachers to publish and collaborate online. One of my favorite sites to use with students is Wikispaces.  Wikispaces is a web service that allows teachers to create a wiki in which students may contribute content....
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We all know the typical method of timeline creation in schools. “Draw a line, add some dates and document events in chronological order”.  Students will typically use poster boards, markers and possibly cut out images. The students in Mr. Papa’s grade 8 social studies class in our district are putting a new spin on...
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Tween Tribune and Teen Tribune are bringing the worlds news and events to the classroom.  Every day they post the most compelling, relevant and interesting news for teens and tweens.  The stories are selected by teens and tweens working closely with professional journalists. Students are provided with the opportunity to comment on these stories....
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Snag Films is website that provides free access to thousands of documentaries and independent films. Some of the films are published by well-known documentary makers and others are first timers. Snag allows for free viewing and sharing of all of their published videos. The videos can be saved to a widget that can be...
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The students in Ms. Reichel’s grade 2 class at Briggs Elementary School have opened their classroom by partnering with another grade 2 class located in Tennessee. Ms. Reichel had previously hosted whole class video conferences with her class in which all of the students engaged in a series of questions, answers and discussions. Although...
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