Tech Tools Portfolio Assignment
Technology - Creating a Technology Tools Portfolio
Demonstrating Your Skills
Over the next few weeks, you will start a Technology Tools Portfolio online. The Technology Tools Portfolio requirements are:
1. A "home page" with pertinent information.
2. A total of over 22 documents that will be uploaded
3. A reflection on what you learned that will help you in the classroom and how you will use the information.
4. There are FOUR parts so be sure that all parts have been completed.
Part I : Technology Templates
http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml
Directions
You are to create 10 documents and upload them to your templates section of your web page
Part II - Graphic Organizer / Rubric Maker
http://www.myt4l.com/index.php?v=pl&page_ac=view&&tool=graphicorganizers
Graphic organizers are a great way help your students build a strong foundation of information about a topic. Create printable organizers your students can use to organize information, make connections between ideas, and even plan a project.
Directions:
More on Rubrics
Here are other sites that includes several sample rubrics that you might find useful
http://www.myt4l.com/index.php?v=pl&page_ac=view&&tool=rubricmaker
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/actbank/trubrics.htm
Part III - Spicing Up the Learning
Directions:
1. Read the following information and choose four of the 15 ways to integrate technology into your daily classroom routine.
2. Develop a index card on a web page for the four sites.
Title
Grade Level
URL
Summary of Information
Use in My Classroom
Technology Integration Made Easy
Integrating technology into the curriculum is a priority -- if not a mandate -- in most schools today. Most educational technology experts agree, however, that technology should be integrated, not as a separate subject or as a once-in-a-while project, but as a tool to promote and extend student learning on a daily basis. The challenge, of course, is in finding ways to use technology -- and to help students use it -- that don’t take time away from core subjects.
For many teachers, a lack of personal experience with technology, presents an additional challenge. In order to incorporate technology-based activities and projects into their curriculum, those teachers first must find the time to learn to use the tools and understand the terminology necessary for participation in those projects or activities.
Used properly, however, technology can be a tool for teachers as well as for students. To help teachers new to technology gain experience in using it, and to help tech savvy teachers incorporate technology more fully into their daily routines, Education World offers the following easy ways in which you can seamlessly integrate technology into your daily and weekly classroom routines. Be sure to bookmark the recommended sites, so you can find them easily and use them regularly.
1. Access an online weather forecast.
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/
http://www.weather.com/
Most elementary grade teachers begin each school day with a discussion of the date and local weather. Why not take an extra minute to visit a site such as UM Weather, The Weather Channel, or USA Today Weather, to find out what the rest of the day might bring? If you have a few extra minutes, check out weather in other parts of the country as well.
2. Include URLs in your monthly calendar.
http://kids.yahoo.com/
Each month, Education World provides a printable coloring calendar for classroom use. Before distributing copies of the calendar to your students, add the URLS of a few sites that will add to their understanding of the month’s events -- and encourage them to visit those sites. The October calendar, for example, might offer links to sites about Christopher Columbus, daylight savings time, and Halloween. (A kid-friendly search engine such as Yahooligans will help you locate appropriate sites.) Or, students can find the sites themselves as they complete a Months of the Year Project.
3. Access online weather forecasts in French, German, or Spanish.
http://www.weather.com/
Begin foreign language classes with a discussion of the day's weather. The Weather Channel provides weather information for Brazil, Germany, France, and Latin America in the native language of each country.
4. Challenge students with online mathematics problems.
http://mathforum.org/pow/
http://www.aimsedu.org/puzzle/index.html
http://www.mathcounts.org/
Add a daily or weekly mathematics challenge to your seatwork assignments, math lessons, or extra credit activities. The Math Forum’s Math Problem of the Week offers word problems in five categories -- math fundamentals, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. The AIMS Puzzle Corner Math Challenge of the Month provides a monthly math-related puzzle that's appropriate for students in upper elementary grades and middle school. Most include printable worksheets. Aunty Math's Math Challenges for K-5 Learners offers biweekly word problems for younger students, while high school students will enjoy the news-related math problems at Math Counts. Don’t like today’s problem? Not to worry! Most of the sites listed also include extensive archives. If you teach grades 3-8, extend your students’ online math experience and encourage them to match wits with students around the world by participating in the Abacus International Math Challenge.
5. Quote of the Day
http://www.quoteaday.com/
Do you write a quote on the chalkboard each day, for students to reflect on and discuss?
6. Introduce a word of the day.
http://www.wordcentral.com/
http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/wod.shtml
http://www.wordsmith.org/words/today.html
Extend students’ vocabulary by including an online word of the day in opening activities, seatwork assignments, or language arts lessons. The Daily Buzzword at Word Central provides a word of the day and related activity appropriate for upper elementary students. Vocabulary Builder offers words and definitions for students in grades 4-6 and grades 6-9. The words and definitions at A Word a Day and Word of the Day are best for students in middle and high school. In addition, students in grades K-8 can safely extend their online experience by submitting phony definitions to Fake Out.
7. Make history real.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lhistory.htm
http://www.history.com/tdih.do
For many kids, history is only a subject in a book; one that's unrelated to real people, real events, or today’s news. Personalize history lessons for those students by beginning each history lesson with a quick visit to Today in History or This Day in History.
8. Utilize online work sheets.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/hunt.shtml
http://worksheets.teach-nology.com/
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/webquest.shtml
Are you worn out from trying to come up with new and creative seatwork assignments day after day after day? Make life easier on yourself by including a few online worksheets. Each week, Education World provides an original printable Scavenger Hunt and a Writing Bug creative writing activity. In addition, Teach-nology offers lots of work sheets in a variety of curriculum areas. Or, add to the variety of your seatwork assignments by having students complete a weekly WebQuest.
9. Beef up your history lessons.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Primary source materials adds interest to any history lessons; reading Thomas Jefferson’s notes on the U.S. Constitution provides insights into U.S. history that a mere reading of the Constitution cannot. When planning U.S. history lessons, visit the Library of Congress's American Memory Collections search engine to locate primary source material for whatever topic you’re tackling. Encourage students to include primary source materials in their history papers as well.
10. Provide online reading comprehension practice.
http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/NOVA_SCOTIA/comenius_fables.htm
Add a fun reading comprehension activity to your students’ language arts curriculum. Each month, The Comenius Group provides a new Fluency Through Fables lesson. Designed for students of English as a second language, the activity is appropriate for English-speaking students in elementary and middle school as well. The lesson includes a brief fable and four categories of related activities; vocabulary matching exercises, vocabulary completion exercises, multiple choice comprehension exercises, and written discussion exercises.
11. Make the news a learning tool.
http://whyfiles.org/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm
Help students better understand current events and connect today’s news to their own lives by encouraging them to further explore the issues of the day. The Why Files, for example, uses news and current events as the basis for science, health, and technology lessons. What caused the tornado that devastated the Midwest or the hurricane that hit Florida? How does war affect those living in battle zones? What vote-counting technique is most accurate? The Why Files will explain it all. How Stuff Works also is an extensive site with information on a vast number of topics. Today's students, for example, might want to learn How Stinger Missiles Work, How Stem Cells Work, or How Hybrid Cars Work.
12. Spice up your grammar lessons.
http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml
Explore Daily Grammar's Lesson Archive to find a new grammar lesson every day. The site features nearly 450 lessons on topics ranging from adjectives and apostrophes to prepositional phrases and verbs!
13. Make science a daily event.
http://epod.usra.edu/
http://www.todayinsci.com/
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/science.html
With the current emphasis on reading and math in schools, getting in a daily -- or even weekly -- science lesson can be difficult. You might briefly discuss a scientist or a scientific event from Today in Science History or explore a Science Question of the Week.
14. Make geography a daily event.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/
http://www.indo.com/distance/
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/
For most kids, geography has something to do with maps -- and maps are boring! Extend students’ geography awareness by challenging them to answer the five daily questions posed at GeoBee Challenge. The questions are taken from the National Geographic Geography Bee. Maybe your students will get good enough to compete in this year’s event! Find the distance between any two cities in the world at How Far Is It? By the way, National Geographic’s Map Machine can even make maps fun!
15. Keep 'em guessing!
http://www.eduplace.com/math/brain/index.html
http://www.mysterynet.com/
Each week, Houghton Mifflin poses new, primarily math-related Brain Teasers at three different grade levels -- 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. Solving the problems at Mystery Net generally demands more logic than Math. That site’s features include Get-a-Clue, a daily mystery appropriate for younger students; See-n-Solve, a weekly mystery featuring USA TV's Detective Monk; and Solve-it!, a monthly mystery in which students read a mystery and then solve the crime. The latter two activities are best for older students.
16. Joke of the Day
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/archives/joke.shtml
Part IV - More Tools to Explore
Directions:
Choose two to do and add to your Tools Portfolio
Puzzlemaker: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
Worksheet: http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/worksheetgenerator/index.html
Wordsearch: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/word_search/
Timeline Maker: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/
Bingo Card Maker: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/bingo/
Technology - Creating a Technology Tools Portfolio
Demonstrating Your Skills
Over the next few weeks, you will start a Technology Tools Portfolio online. The Technology Tools Portfolio requirements are:
1. A "home page" with pertinent information.
2. A total of over 22 documents that will be uploaded
3. A reflection on what you learned that will help you in the classroom and how you will use the information.
4. There are FOUR parts so be sure that all parts have been completed.
Part I : Technology Templates
http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml
Directions
You are to create 10 documents and upload them to your templates section of your web page
- Two award certificates
- Sample Name Tag
- Sample parent welcome letter
- Three classroom organizers of your choice
- Flyer or Poster
- One worksheet
- One parent-teacher communication
- Click the template you would like to open. (These Rich Text File (RTF) templates are editable in most word processing and text editing programs.)
- After opening the template, go to File > Save As on your toolbar, and save the form to your hard drive.
- For best results, close your browser or hit the Back button before opening the editable template from your hard drive.
- Edit the template to meet your own needs; change the text and/or the art. Then save and print as desired.
- To return to Tools & Templates from any template or this page, hit the Back button on your browser.
Part II - Graphic Organizer / Rubric Maker
http://www.myt4l.com/index.php?v=pl&page_ac=view&&tool=graphicorganizers
Graphic organizers are a great way help your students build a strong foundation of information about a topic. Create printable organizers your students can use to organize information, make connections between ideas, and even plan a project.
Directions:
- Go to the website for the Graphic Organizer Maker
- Create 7 TOTAL graphic organizers you can use with a technology lesson you have download in language arts, mathematics, science or history-social science from the following sites or another one.
- Math: http://score.kings.k12.ca.us/
- History: http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/
- Language Arts: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/welcome.html
- Science: http://scorescience.humboldt.k12.ca.us/
- Create a rubric for your lesson. And post it online.
More on Rubrics
Here are other sites that includes several sample rubrics that you might find useful
http://www.myt4l.com/index.php?v=pl&page_ac=view&&tool=rubricmaker
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/actbank/trubrics.htm
Part III - Spicing Up the Learning
Directions:
1. Read the following information and choose four of the 15 ways to integrate technology into your daily classroom routine.
2. Develop a index card on a web page for the four sites.
- Copy the card below and insert into a separate document for your portfolio.
- Fill in the information.
- Print out the cards and add to your Tools Portfolio.
Title
Grade Level
URL
Summary of Information
Use in My Classroom
Technology Integration Made Easy
Integrating technology into the curriculum is a priority -- if not a mandate -- in most schools today. Most educational technology experts agree, however, that technology should be integrated, not as a separate subject or as a once-in-a-while project, but as a tool to promote and extend student learning on a daily basis. The challenge, of course, is in finding ways to use technology -- and to help students use it -- that don’t take time away from core subjects.
For many teachers, a lack of personal experience with technology, presents an additional challenge. In order to incorporate technology-based activities and projects into their curriculum, those teachers first must find the time to learn to use the tools and understand the terminology necessary for participation in those projects or activities.
Used properly, however, technology can be a tool for teachers as well as for students. To help teachers new to technology gain experience in using it, and to help tech savvy teachers incorporate technology more fully into their daily routines, Education World offers the following easy ways in which you can seamlessly integrate technology into your daily and weekly classroom routines. Be sure to bookmark the recommended sites, so you can find them easily and use them regularly.
1. Access an online weather forecast.
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/
http://www.weather.com/
Most elementary grade teachers begin each school day with a discussion of the date and local weather. Why not take an extra minute to visit a site such as UM Weather, The Weather Channel, or USA Today Weather, to find out what the rest of the day might bring? If you have a few extra minutes, check out weather in other parts of the country as well.
2. Include URLs in your monthly calendar.
http://kids.yahoo.com/
Each month, Education World provides a printable coloring calendar for classroom use. Before distributing copies of the calendar to your students, add the URLS of a few sites that will add to their understanding of the month’s events -- and encourage them to visit those sites. The October calendar, for example, might offer links to sites about Christopher Columbus, daylight savings time, and Halloween. (A kid-friendly search engine such as Yahooligans will help you locate appropriate sites.) Or, students can find the sites themselves as they complete a Months of the Year Project.
3. Access online weather forecasts in French, German, or Spanish.
http://www.weather.com/
Begin foreign language classes with a discussion of the day's weather. The Weather Channel provides weather information for Brazil, Germany, France, and Latin America in the native language of each country.
4. Challenge students with online mathematics problems.
http://mathforum.org/pow/
http://www.aimsedu.org/puzzle/index.html
http://www.mathcounts.org/
Add a daily or weekly mathematics challenge to your seatwork assignments, math lessons, or extra credit activities. The Math Forum’s Math Problem of the Week offers word problems in five categories -- math fundamentals, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. The AIMS Puzzle Corner Math Challenge of the Month provides a monthly math-related puzzle that's appropriate for students in upper elementary grades and middle school. Most include printable worksheets. Aunty Math's Math Challenges for K-5 Learners offers biweekly word problems for younger students, while high school students will enjoy the news-related math problems at Math Counts. Don’t like today’s problem? Not to worry! Most of the sites listed also include extensive archives. If you teach grades 3-8, extend your students’ online math experience and encourage them to match wits with students around the world by participating in the Abacus International Math Challenge.
5. Quote of the Day
http://www.quoteaday.com/
Do you write a quote on the chalkboard each day, for students to reflect on and discuss?
6. Introduce a word of the day.
http://www.wordcentral.com/
http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/wod.shtml
http://www.wordsmith.org/words/today.html
Extend students’ vocabulary by including an online word of the day in opening activities, seatwork assignments, or language arts lessons. The Daily Buzzword at Word Central provides a word of the day and related activity appropriate for upper elementary students. Vocabulary Builder offers words and definitions for students in grades 4-6 and grades 6-9. The words and definitions at A Word a Day and Word of the Day are best for students in middle and high school. In addition, students in grades K-8 can safely extend their online experience by submitting phony definitions to Fake Out.
7. Make history real.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lhistory.htm
http://www.history.com/tdih.do
For many kids, history is only a subject in a book; one that's unrelated to real people, real events, or today’s news. Personalize history lessons for those students by beginning each history lesson with a quick visit to Today in History or This Day in History.
8. Utilize online work sheets.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/hunt.shtml
http://worksheets.teach-nology.com/
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/webquest.shtml
Are you worn out from trying to come up with new and creative seatwork assignments day after day after day? Make life easier on yourself by including a few online worksheets. Each week, Education World provides an original printable Scavenger Hunt and a Writing Bug creative writing activity. In addition, Teach-nology offers lots of work sheets in a variety of curriculum areas. Or, add to the variety of your seatwork assignments by having students complete a weekly WebQuest.
9. Beef up your history lessons.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Primary source materials adds interest to any history lessons; reading Thomas Jefferson’s notes on the U.S. Constitution provides insights into U.S. history that a mere reading of the Constitution cannot. When planning U.S. history lessons, visit the Library of Congress's American Memory Collections search engine to locate primary source material for whatever topic you’re tackling. Encourage students to include primary source materials in their history papers as well.
10. Provide online reading comprehension practice.
http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/NOVA_SCOTIA/comenius_fables.htm
Add a fun reading comprehension activity to your students’ language arts curriculum. Each month, The Comenius Group provides a new Fluency Through Fables lesson. Designed for students of English as a second language, the activity is appropriate for English-speaking students in elementary and middle school as well. The lesson includes a brief fable and four categories of related activities; vocabulary matching exercises, vocabulary completion exercises, multiple choice comprehension exercises, and written discussion exercises.
11. Make the news a learning tool.
http://whyfiles.org/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm
Help students better understand current events and connect today’s news to their own lives by encouraging them to further explore the issues of the day. The Why Files, for example, uses news and current events as the basis for science, health, and technology lessons. What caused the tornado that devastated the Midwest or the hurricane that hit Florida? How does war affect those living in battle zones? What vote-counting technique is most accurate? The Why Files will explain it all. How Stuff Works also is an extensive site with information on a vast number of topics. Today's students, for example, might want to learn How Stinger Missiles Work, How Stem Cells Work, or How Hybrid Cars Work.
12. Spice up your grammar lessons.
http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml
Explore Daily Grammar's Lesson Archive to find a new grammar lesson every day. The site features nearly 450 lessons on topics ranging from adjectives and apostrophes to prepositional phrases and verbs!
13. Make science a daily event.
http://epod.usra.edu/
http://www.todayinsci.com/
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/science.html
With the current emphasis on reading and math in schools, getting in a daily -- or even weekly -- science lesson can be difficult. You might briefly discuss a scientist or a scientific event from Today in Science History or explore a Science Question of the Week.
14. Make geography a daily event.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/
http://www.indo.com/distance/
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/
For most kids, geography has something to do with maps -- and maps are boring! Extend students’ geography awareness by challenging them to answer the five daily questions posed at GeoBee Challenge. The questions are taken from the National Geographic Geography Bee. Maybe your students will get good enough to compete in this year’s event! Find the distance between any two cities in the world at How Far Is It? By the way, National Geographic’s Map Machine can even make maps fun!
15. Keep 'em guessing!
http://www.eduplace.com/math/brain/index.html
http://www.mysterynet.com/
Each week, Houghton Mifflin poses new, primarily math-related Brain Teasers at three different grade levels -- 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. Solving the problems at Mystery Net generally demands more logic than Math. That site’s features include Get-a-Clue, a daily mystery appropriate for younger students; See-n-Solve, a weekly mystery featuring USA TV's Detective Monk; and Solve-it!, a monthly mystery in which students read a mystery and then solve the crime. The latter two activities are best for older students.
16. Joke of the Day
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/archives/joke.shtml
Part IV - More Tools to Explore
Directions:
Choose two to do and add to your Tools Portfolio
Puzzlemaker: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
Worksheet: http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/worksheetgenerator/index.html
Wordsearch: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/word_search/
Timeline Maker: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/
Bingo Card Maker: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/bingo/