Topic Box

Topic Box is a wonderful website to help out primary teachers.  It offers countless links to free websites that teachers can use to teach their students on their interactive whiteboards.  It offers quick and easy access to any topic a teacher would need to teach on. It is excellent to have free links to Elementary schools resources right at your fingertips.  There are links to English, Mathematics, Science, Foundation Stage, Art and Design, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Music, French, Spanish, and Religious Education. I will highlight one of my favorite links under each subject for examples of the multiple available links on this website.
Under English, there is a spelling game that helps children understand how to make a word longer by adding "ed" or "ing".  This is a fishing game called adding ed to words where the children fish for the correct version of the word shown.
Under Mathematics, there is a game for children to understand odd or even numbers called blast the odd numbers.  There are ghosts with odd and even numbers on them, and they students need to "blast" the odd numbered ghosts.  This is a great game for a whiteboard or smart board.
 Under science you can chose either life science or physics.  Under life science, there is a link to "build a child's mouth." Children can learn where in the mouth different teeth are found and whether they are in the upper jaw or lower jaw.
Under Art and Design, I found a link to self portraits and there is something called Abstract Portraits. Here children who like art can create a Picasso head themselves!
Under Music, there is a note naming game where students can review which notes are where in the treble clef.
Topic Box is a wonderful resource for teachers as it helps them find games, activities, lessons, examples, and anything else they need for any subject very quickly!

Purple Mash

  Purple mash is a set of online tools for students to use, encompassing hundreds of different options for them to create and share with others. Actually quite a few of these are available for anyone to try out.  However, the rest will be available on subscription.  Purple Mash did have a website last year, but it has added so many features since then.  There are too many resources to talk about all of them, but I will highlight some of my favorites.

There is something called the purple mashcam, which allows you to take a picture of your face and insert it into a series of different pictures.  Then you can add your own text.  For example, you can put your face in an astronaut, a doctor, or a witch for Halloween, or so on. There are also many different drawing templates which allow students to create their own stories, characters, gingerbread men and much more. The texture pens are really fun as well.  All of these projects and resources can be saved to a student’s own online space and then shared with others.  Schools can manage their student’s logins and teachers can access the work of their students in their own online area.

There are also 3D modeling tools which let students design objects, such as cars and houses, and then print them out on net paper so they can be cut out and modeled in 3D.  This is very convenient for design and technology classes.  Students can also create a 3D maze game.  They have control over their monsters, rewards, and the look of the maze.  They can even write instructions in a text box to explain how the game works to others. 

 There are educational games as well, such as math games.  There are also grade levels you can choose and then appropriate games and activities are displayed for each age level. 

Purple mash is a fantastic product and can be used for multiple school subjects!

Pixie 3 and Share

Pixie 3 and Share allow you to collaborate and share information very easily!
Pixie is a creative, exciting software that students use to share their ideas and comprehension through text, artwork, voice narration, and images.  They can work alone or in a group as well.  They can work separately or simultaneously.  While one student is drawing a picture, the other can be adding text, and yet another can be recording narration as they work together to tell a story.  Pixie helps students develop collaboration, cooperation, and communication skills. It encourages cooperative learning that contributes to a whole group project.  Pixie 3 has a really good quality for delivering content.  Students can present their information using the entire screen. Also, it makes drawing easier and quicker because objects can be cloned and makes creating copies much simpler.  Pixie is a great tool for self-expression and it motivates a wide variety of students of all ages.   Pixie also helps students learn as technology encourages thinking, creativity, and communication skills.  Pixie helps students collaborate information and supports group projects.
 If you post it what you created on Pixie on Share, it creates a strong school-to-home connection.  Students can publish their work online from home.

Share makes presentations such as PDF, Flash files, and websites easy. Share lets students combine text, pictures, animations, and movies to show understanding.  Share allows for students to efficiently create customed websites with pictures, text and sound.  It can show classroom schedules and assignments as well and can be used as a classroom site. Students can use Share to make portfolios that illustrate what they learned through writing doucuments, voice reflections, and videos.
Today, students have access to so much information.  Creating using Share requires students to think and analyze information, make it into something new, and then communicate their ideas in a 21st century format.

 

Online Whiteboards

Online Whiteboards are very useful as they can be used on your computer, laptop, or smartphone to easily draw sketches, collaborate them with others, and share them around the world.
One of these online whiteboards is AWW or a web whiteboard.  This one is very basic as you only get to choose your pen color and thickness.  Yet this could be very useful if that is all you need to write or make a sketch because it's very simple and easy to use. 
A more complex online whiteboard is Dabbleboard.  This site helps you visualize, explore and communicate ideas.  With Dabbleboard you can make shapes, textboxes, and free-hand any drawing you'd like.  You can replicate anything you've made as well.  It is fast because you don't need to spend time constantly changing the tools on your toolbar.  It is flexible becaue everything you make can me moved, resized, deleted and replicated; even your free hand drawings.  You can also re-use previously made drawings from your library and copy it do your current drawing.  You can also share your drawing around the world. 
Another online whiteboard is Scribblar.  Her the users can collaborate on their own online whiteboard.  You can make lines, write text, shapes, and more.  Images can also be uploaded and you can edit them and others can comment on them. Also, there is a chatbox to communicate with other users, and a voice chat could be used as well. Scibblar is very useful for shared writing, and it is handy for teachers to upload images and ask students to analyze them.  All of these online whiteboards are free as well.
  I personally like Dabbleboard the best, because it is quick and efficient and there are alot of options.   However, each online whiteboard has its own positives and negatives, and each can be used for different circumstances.  AWW is simple, Dabbleboard has a large variety, and Scribblar is good to communicate with others!
  

Let them Doodle

Is doodling beneficial for learning? This is a question many teachers are now asking.  Liz Dwyer wrote the article “Good education” and recently indicated that, “People are more apt to remember something if they write it down, it makes sense that drawing further stimulates the brain’s ability to recall information.” She says that letting children doodle in class, which most teachers usually forbid, actually helps the kids remember the information being taught better. This isn’t just careless scribbling, however.  If a science lesson is being taught, the kids would draw a picture of the content. For example, if they are learning about planets and their locations, they would draw the planets and label them. Kids will be more likely to retain content if they draw what they understand. Also, it is proven that children who doodle during science class actually enjoy the class more than those who don’t. Some researchers say that along with reading, writing, and speaking, drawing should be a part of the education curriculum for sciences. “The most striking thing was the effort that students would apply to learning about science when they read and then drew what they could understand from the text, and how much enjoyment they derived from doing this,” researcher Shaaron Ainsworth says in More Doodling Makes for Better Learning. There are plenty of opportunities for doodling not only on paper, but also on whiteboards and mobile devices.  On the Ten Great Art Resources for Your Interactive Board website, there are different and beneficial drawing experiences for students.  There is Crayola for younger students, where they can choose from a selection of crayons or pens to draw with.  And  there is Jackson Pollock as well where kids can paint without the mess.  All they need to do is click to change the color.  Another great tool is Daddleboard. It is an online whiteboard that features online collaboration.  It helps students visualize, explore and communicate ideas.
I believe that doodling in class for learning benefits is a wonderful idea.  A lot of kids are not audio or visual learners, but are kinesthetic learners.  These kids need to be able to learn the way that is best for them, which is hands-on learning.  Drawing is a great way to reatain information and I support the idea of using these online whiteboard tools for students to draw on.  Learning through drawing can be both effective and enjoyable!

First Trial

Hi my name is Jaclyn and this is my first blog.