Technology+Website

=Listed below are examples of how some classrooms integrate technology into their classroom to promote student engagement:=

=Geocaching!= [] This site includes numerous geochaching lesson plans that can be used in the Middle School Science classroom. My favorite is The Earth Quest lesson plan activity which challenges students to use GPS receivers to search the schoolyard find a series of microcaches and complete challenges with an environmental theme. The goal of each quest is to raise student awareness of environment issues and provide ideas they can incorporate into their daily lives to help the environment. Each team starts with a different quest route and rotates through the quests until they have completed all eight.

What's wonderful about this lesson plan is it includes all the necessary handouts and maps necessary for the activity, and integrates Excel by using a spreadsheet to keep track of the team scores! This lesson is not only engaging, but all the work has been done for you!

=Glogster!= [] This website is a wonderful example of how you can present your lesson plans to your classroom via Technology. If you like to use Glogsters to peak your student's interest in your classroom, this is a great example they use for their 5th graders! Their lesson plans are posted on their Wiki and you need to request membership to access them, but they do have some wonderful monthly PDF worksheets that can be used in Math, Science for fun activities.

=Animoto!= [] Sixth grade teacher Shelly Goodwin created a private Google Group for her students and assigned each student a vocabulary word. The students then create an Animoto using pictures, text, and music to announce and define their word. When they are finished they post the links to a page in their Google Group and s/he chooses pictures from the Internet that represent the word, adds text to announce and define it, then chooses music that goes with the idea. After students finish their Animotos (no more than 30 seconds, she says!), they post the links to a page in their Google Group. The students use these Animotos to study for the vocabulary test. As a result of this change, vocabulary test scores have skyrocketed (98% pass rate), and students actually remember the words weeks later.



Third grade teacher Laurie Baus used Animoto to help her students learn about the planets She worried at first they were not going to be able to accomplish the technical tasks necessary, but after half a day, her worries were over. I visited her class one day to find only the sound of clicking and occasional hushed conversation over the light sound of textbook pages being turned. Every child was engaged and involved in learning. After she saw what they'd created, she posted, "I am so proud I could just POP! :-)" on our teacher discussion board.

Great Example:

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