Thoughts From Jen

From Wikipedia:
Charlotte’s Web is a children’s novel by American author E. B. White…….The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams.

— The book was first published in 1952!!!
Well that means —–

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to “CHARLOTTE’S WEB!”

and here is how Discovery Education can help you extend Charlotte’s Web in your classroom:

CHARLOTTE (spiders):
Spider Web Image:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=7BB7D7AC-C458-4B1D-B961-4F3E9451CF70
What are Spiders Video Segment:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=4570899B-E828-4270-915E-C959E7E83BFF
What is a Spider Song:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=70B8FEBA-D847-46AC-8389-2D625C9F1A0B

WILBUR (pigs):
Pig Video Segment:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=D4B6FE3E-5CF4-46AD-8C74-CE4330A1DFFC
Pig Image:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=61F9CDC9-84DA-4191-87BB-C6B8C4C9C449
Pig Video Segment:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=8A2EB191-9754-4B01-A581-2759C5F6B325

TEMPLETON (rats):
Rat Video Segment:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=6852E3BB-B634-4784-8EAC-0C174799F420
Rat image:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=AC14453F-DC60-43D7-A4B5-364E121C958D
Rat encyclopedia article:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=6B9BBBF8-1610-4176-8E32-24B6AD333A60

GOOSE (goose):
Goose Video Segment:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=C7A60BDD-BEAA-44E0-9CC0-DAAD95979AD5
Goose image:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=203346D4-006B-41C5-A557-D5902D72DFBF
Goose Encyclopedia article:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=D38BD398-32B3-4817-9F22-A5CBE69BB48C

Farm Animals:
Farm Animals Video:   http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=B09D72B6-04A2-4003-86B6-96A142D3A127
Living on a Farm  Writing Prompt:  http://tools.discoveryeducation.com/writingPrompt/viewWritingPrompt.cfm?guidAssetId=47539B34-F2AB-4F1E-A46C-FD8C63A508E9&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US&strEditCopy=Copy

County Fairs:
County Fair Video Segment:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=D1B67A65-C421-4165-9BD1-20B8EE52D5E2

E.B. White (author):
Encyclopedia Article:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=3E704B6E-768E-4649-B051-CB6FCAFAF88A
Event:  July 11, 1899: Birthdate of E.B. White, author

And if you wish to join me — I am hosting a project at
http://projectsbyjen.com/Projects/CW2012/cwhome.htm
to celebrate the book and the 60th birthday of Charlotte’s Web.

Enjoy!
Jen

PS:  You do need an account to be able to view and utilize these resources at Discovery Education.  If you have any questions, please contact the Customer & Technical Support Team at 800-323-9084.

http://www.random.org

~~~~this instruction idea is from Vol. 125 of my PBJ newsletter.

Random.org

Ever so often, we need a simple online tool that just helps with randomness.

Whether it is to randomly pick a student number, flip a coin, or roll the dice…..we need something quick, simple, and free.

That is why I like RANDOM.org – it is simple, and it is free.

Once you go to Random.org you will see that their most popular “tool” is on the upper right.  The True Random Number Generator.

Ways to use this:

I use it when randomly picking winners for prizes I pass out every once and a while.
You might use it to randomly pick a student from your classroom.

All you do is put in the TOTAL number of people involved – or objects involved (if you want to start getting creative with opportunities) –  I put in 1 and 50 – and then hit GENERATE.   And I got the number 42….what number did you get??

It is very easy – very simple – and something you might be able to use often.

My favorite tool though on this page is the Dice Roller.

And personally, I use it to play Farkle and Yahtzee when I have a wee bit of extra time.

But with students, I use it for math.

Follow this link for the spreadsheet I have created:  http://www.box.com/s/gzaez7tlhv965vmx5n6h

Have your students set the dice to 3 (to use with this worksheet) and then roll the dice.

They write each die number into the square and then add the numbers up.

You can make your own worksheet and change it from addition to subtraction or multiplication.  And you can also set the dice # higher or lower based on your students skill.   And this is a very very easy program to use on your Interactive White Board.

It is simple, it is easy – and it is random math practice.   Your students will enjoy it!

I also enjoy the Coin Flipper option.

This is a very easy way to introduce your students to probability.   Learning.com has put together a lesson plan (w/ worksheets) which you can find here:  http://www.learning.com/pdfs/et/activity-35-cointoss.pdf   (feel free to adapt it to your students level)

There are many other “free” services at random.org – plus a few $$$ ones as well.

Also – some of the tools you can embed onto your blog, wiki, or website.

It is simple, it is easy – and (grins) it is free!

Enjoy!

DEN RESOURCES:
(you will need to be logged onto DE to view the following links:
Probability Darts
Determining Probability
Determining Pairs on Dice

~~~~~~
This post can also be read at:
http://projectsbyjen.com/blog/?p=2361
~~~~~~

I originally was going to make a 12 Days of Christmas from Den images — but alas, I got stuck on finding images about maids a milking….

So I started my thoughts on a different road and started to think of the holiday season in general….

and did a quick search on Christmas and — TADA — DEN has a THEME PAGE for many holidays.

The Christmas Theme page is here:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=e6b8dee6-927d-45c3-825b-5b7fa0f74042

The Hanukkah Theme page is here:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=a1275a3f-2896-4e4d-bf9c-29e93ac4255f

The Kwanzaa Theme page is here:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=c7f11afa-cd99-4e97-9cb3-d63becf28dd4

The Winter Weather Theme page is here:  http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=9785FC47-106C-4133-94DF-185EC75F8F1F

All put together for you in nice little packages.

A gift to you — from Discovery Education — this holiday season.

Jen

PS:  You do need to be a Den Subscriber to be able to see these theme pages.

When I taught 7th grade — a LONG time ago, each morning I would enter the classroom, pick up my chalk, and create 5 questions or reviews on the board for the students to answer when they first entered the classroom.

Sometimes it was diagramming a sentence or perhaps defining a word we were having trouble with in vocabulary or sometimes a riddle.   A little jump start to their morning.

You might probably  do this as well.

So, I was pleased as punch when I saw at Discovery Education the Brain Boosters:   http://school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/?campaign=DE&CFID=46409599&CFTOKEN=58887092

Provided for you to freely use!!!

Here is an example of one from the Number and Math Play category:

Walking the Dogs
	A group of kids got together and started a dog-walking business. They got lots of clients right away, so that when they all walked their dogs together, there were twelve heads and forty legs. How many kids and how many dogs were out walking?

(and the nice thing is, DE has also provided the answer for you!)

So pick up your piece of chalk…..or keyboard…..or stylus……or whatever….and start using these brain boosters to jump start your students.

….and to jump start yourself as well.

Jen

Wednesday is Densday!!

If you are anything like me, when you are searching for videos, clips, images, etc within DE — you use the search bar and then wander your way through all the resources before finding what you want.

You might categorize down by grade or topic but still a bit too generic to really fine-tune down your search to specific results.

But…by moving your mouse button down from search — less than 1/2 inch….the advanced search option just might save you a lot of time.

When you click on advanced search, you will see (on the left)

and now you can wander through ALL your options to help you find that perfect resource you need.

One of my favorite options is the COPYRIGHT option down towards the bottom.   Showcasing current information to my students is very important.  As well, being able to give them a time-stamp of publishing is important as well.

You also can sort by grade level, subject, publisher, groups, and the services you subscribe too.

Then look to the right and you will see

all the ways to exclude and include content.    One of our foreign language teachers loves this option to quickly filter in the videos he wishes to show by choosing languages.

Once you have wandered through all your “advanced search” options, click on search — and TADA, you will have a much more precise collection of resources to choose from.

So let me show you an example of using this advanced search option:

REGULAR SEARCH:  Apples  367 results
ADVANCED SEARCH: 
Services:  DE Streaming
Media Type:  All
Subject:  Science
Grade Level:  K-2
Editable Titles:  Include
11 Results

By using advanced search, you will find that you will find the exact content you are looking for in moments.

I would love to have you try this and then share your results with me regarding regular search versus advanced search.   Choose any topic and click on search and write down the results found….then type in the same topic again in advanced search and then compare those results.  And if you wish, come back here to share your findings.

Thank you
Jen

Wednesday is Densday!!

Once you get to know me, you will quickly discover that I love to laugh and I very much enjoy having fun.

So lucky me, when wandering through DE, I found FUN-damental.
( to do this, go to advanced search and set the media type to FUN-damental)

A the time of writing this blog post, there are only 19 results so you won’t be too overwhelmed with content.

I really enjoy magnets, so please click on the Electricity and Magnetism icon.

A new window will open with a video on the left and two tabs on the right.

The far right tab is your related material.   Student Worksheets and a Teacher’s Guide!!   (woo hoo!)   If you have an interactive whiteboard or projector….just show the worksheets on your screen/board and work through them as a class!!

On the far left is what appears to be a video….but it is much more — it is an interactive lab.

Click the play button……

You can choose between Magnets and Electricity — so I will stick with Magnets (grins) and click on that.

There will be a two activities for your students to interact with.  [either with the mouse or any touchpad (including IWB)]

When you are done with the magnet activity — head over to electricity!!  The interactive activity here lets you build a circuit.  (love this)

Don’t forget to use the teacher guide and the worksheets!!

And be sure to check out all the other Fun-damentals too!

Jennifer

Wednesday is DENSday!!

I love WORDLE — yep yep yep.   If you do not know, I host a daily wordle opportunity at GuessTheWordle….feel free to use it within your classroom!

So, I started exploring how I could use both Discovery Education and Wordle together.

I clicked in SEARCH and changed the CONTENT TYPE to the Theme Page.    I was happy to see that there is a NATIONAL PARK theme (because I am hosting a project on National parks during the spring of 2011) so I clicked on that option and then looked to the right and chose Teacher’s Guide.

I scanned through the teacher’s guide for something I could create into a wordle and saw Vocabulary.   — aha, use-able!!

One of the reasons I enjoy wordles if that I feel they are very good conversation starters and they are also very good for review.

I went to wordle.net and clicked on create.  (if you have not used wordle, click here for cheat sheet)

I copy pasted the first vocabulary word, definition, and context into wordle and then copy pasted the vocabulary word 4 more times so it would be larger when the wordle was created.

And achieved this:

I then continued to create wordles for each vocabulary word and when I wanted words joined together — such as San Andreas fault — I used the ~ symbol between the words to join them together.

These wordles can now be easily used with the Teacher’s Guide to compliment the vocabulary curriculum.

If you want to get all the wordles/vocabulary to go with this teacher’s guide (in Powerpoint, GIF, and PDF format), please follow this link:  http://www.box.net/shared/g59eaoy6pjhjbgj5mu15

Just another way to extend Discovery Education with another online opportunity.

Jennifer

Wednesday is Densday!!

I very much enjoy the content I can use within Discovery Education but I always enjoy pushing my limits and merging one educational opportunity with another (whenever possible).

So, I went and read the Terms of Use with DE…..and it says:
User must include citation information, including Discovery or the applicable content provider (if identified) as the source, for all portions of the Content used in any end product.

And decided to have a go at it — and utilize a few images from DE with Animoto…..and choose the Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle.

Using search…and fine tuning it down by looking for clipart and images….I quickly found some images and downloaded them at the “Large” setting to my computer and also added them to my content.   I also copied the citation information into a word document (for later use).    And I also found a few images at http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/Cycle.htm.

I could have utilized the TEXT option in animoto….but I can be  “font fussy” at times…so I quickly made a title slide, the four stages together, and individually using Paint Shop Pro and my chosen font and saved them as gifs.  I also took a screen shot of my citation list and saved it as a gif as well.

Once I had my images — I opened my account at animoto and chose the theme, uploaded my images, (rearranged my images), chose the music, and asked animoto to do its magic and mix my video.

However, I really wanted my video to be within the DE portal and not the animoto portal so I downloaded the video to my computer.   (and deleted it from Animoto).

I then chose UPLOAD MANAGER in DE and uploaded my video to the media share area.   And if all went well, you should be able to see it HERE:  http://mediashare.discoveryeducation.com/mediashare/index.cfm?event=showMedia&guidAssetId=f00a148e%2D2655%2D8579%2D7683%2D59087c05a367

The merging of two resources to equal one nice educational tidbit.   Easily done…and something your students could easily do (and you too!)

Jen