25 More Ways to Use Discovery Streaming

Discovery Streaming is the best thing since sliced bread! Being able to download videos that match our curriculum standards is awesome. However there are many, many more features on the Discovery site. Check out our page on the wiki of 25 more ways to use Discovery Streaming.

Differentiated Instruction

I keep hearing that using technology makes differentiated instruction so much easier. Please complete the survey below and tell us how you use technology to differentiate instruction.

Where's Gilligan?

Remember Gilligan's Island? Most of our students today don't have any idea who Gilligan is. Introduce this lesson with this YouTube video. Talk about Gilligan and all the predicaments he managed to get himself and his crew in! In this lesson plan, Gilligan has been rescued from the island. He has dedicated his life to searching islands around the world in search of other castaways. Students will use Google Earth to follow Gilligan on his journey to various islands.
Ask students what islands they know about. They may not realize that Manhattan is actually an island. Just what is Ellis Island? Where is Madacasgar? These might be islands that are currently in the news or in their literature (Misty of Chiconteague, Islands of the Blue Dolphins). Find islands with strange names, such as Easter Island and Christmas Island. Are there others named after holidays? Generate a list of islands. Search for islands in wikipedia and you'll find islands in particular geographic areas. If your area of study is the United States, then generate a list of islands in the United States only.
After marking these islands on Google Earth, students choose one island to research. The gathered information can be presented in Keynote. Wouldn't it be an added bonus if students could communicate with a class on the island they chose? With ePals it just might be possible!

Seven Things You Don't Know about Me

Thanks Glenn for tagging me for the 'Seven Things You Don't Know about Me' meme. This is going to take a lot of thought since I'm kind of an open book! I generally tell everything!

#1. Have you seen the movie 'Hoosiers'? What a great movie! The home gym of Gene Hackman's team was my old high school gym. Actually I attended 5th and 6th grade and one day of seventh grade in that building which was a grade 5 - 12 building. That's when our new high school was built. Hoosier basketball pride is portrayed pretty accurately in this movie. We 'hoosiers' love our basketball!

#2. I stood in line at Walmart Sunday morning to purchase a Wii Fit! They are so popular right now, consequently very hard to find. There were about 10 of us in line and they had 11 Wii Fits. It is an amazing video game, unlike any I have ever played. I'm hoping to see a considerable difference in my fitness real soon!

#3. Excluding my husband, Rosie Skaer is my best friend. We became friends at church in Wilkinson, Indiana when we were about 9 years old. We sang in a quartet together in high school, roomed together in college at Ozark Christian College, and sang in a quartet there. We then went to Ft. Hays together, again as roomates. We were both raised in Indiana but married Kansas boys. About 5 hours in distance separated us for 28 years, but we are now living within an hour of each other!

#4. I am the youngest of six children. Mom and Dad liked the simple names: Bob, Jim, John, Jane, Joe, and Mary. It's not always easy being the youngest!

#5. I have been married to Bill for almost 27 years and we have three children. Our two oldest kids and our money go to K-State.

#6. Rosie's mom and my mom took several trips together with MaryEtta and Carol. The car was always filled with laughter (usually laughing at themselves for something crazy they had done) and never a cross word. In the fall of 2006 they all four came to Kansas to see Rosie in Wichita and to see me in Buhler. In early 2007 our mothers both died unexpectedly within 2 months of each other. Rosie and I were honored to travel with MaryEtta and Carol to Kansas City that fall where we heard lots more stories about our mothers!

#7. Two things I couldn't live without are my electronic piano and my laptop. I connect my piano to Garage Band on my Mac and have so much fun recording and editing music. My precious husband just bought me a brand new Kursweil piano for Christmas!

There you go, seven things you didn't know about me and probably wish you still didn't. Isn't it funny what our mind thinks of? When I started this I had no idea what 7 things I would choose. I'm kind of surprised the way this turned out.

So Rosemary Miller you've been tagged! Tell us 7 Things We Don't Know about YOU!

Interesting Posts Tonight

Kansas bloggers (well, 2 of us anyway) spent their New Years Eve blogging. Marcia from Maize just posted three great calendar sites with fabulous lesson ideas. The first two she posted are free. Don't forget to check out the calendar feature in Discovery Streaming also.

On the Tech Crunch blog there's a post about a larger iPod coming out in the fall of 2009. Apparently it is a 7" or 9" iPod Touch. I think this looks like another amazing Apple innovation!

A Geeky Momma blogged 10 sites to help us all become healthier in 2009. These include apps for the iPhone, sites to help you keep track of your exercise, calorie counters, and lots more.

AND I love the collage on Diane Cordell's blog which showcases her life in 2008. What a great idea!

Thanks bloggers for helping me bring in the new year!

Pages

Pages is a word processing and desktop publishing application. In our district AppleWorks has been replaced with Pages.
If Pages is not in your dock, you will find it in your applications folder, inside the iWork '08 folder. iWork '08 includes Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. If you plan on using these applications on a regular basis, you'll want to drag the icon of each application into your dock so they are handier to get to.

Do you use Keynote? If the answer to that is yes, then you're well on your way to understanding Pages. You'll see some of the very same features in both applications: the inspector, media browser, masking, shapes, tables, charts, and lots more. So learning one of these applications will automatically qualify you as an expert in the other application!
Check out the wiki on Pages which includes tutorials and ideas for using Pages. Use the table feature to create bingo cards and trading cards. Use the shapes to create Venn diagrams and for masking photos. The poster template is great for creating 8 x11 posters and 11x17 inch posters. Several ideas are listed for using posters in the classroom.

Glossopedia

Elephants are the largest land animals. They can weigh over 6,000 kg, or more than the weight of four cars! Where do orangutans live? Did you realize Bald Eagles are native to North America? This kind of information can be found very simply at Glossopedia, an extremely kid-friendly encyclopedia. You'll also find many photos on each topic and in some cases small video clips.
By clicking on 'for educators' at the bottom of the page you'll see Learning Activity Guides. These are very thorough guides which include great discussion questions, thought-provoking worksheets, and very-timely extension activities.
"How do you think science affects your life?" This is the current question that students may respond to online.
Take a few minutes and explore this fantastic resource!