Fresh Look Fridays - Panoramas

Today's Fresh Look Fridays website is one of my all time favourites!  I've know about this one for quite awhile now, I've just felt that I couldn't feature it until I could take the time to write a proper review and do this website justice.

Panoramas.dk is a website that does exactly as it sounds -- provides a wide array of 360 degree panoramic images.  These panoramas are fantastic -- they're all interactive in some way.  When used on a SMART Board, students can spin the image to explore previously unknown areas of the world.  Some panoramas also allow for varying degrees of zoom or an audio component.

The links to curriculum are as endless as the amount of panoramas.  I've included links to specific panoramas with a brief description of how they could be used in a variety of subject areas and grade levels:

 1. This specific panorama was taken during a peace demonstration in Trafalgar Square in 2004, shortly after Britain announced that they were joining the war in Iraq.  What an excellent example of using this site to promote discussions surrounding current events -- whether 'current' (see the panorama of Poland after the death of their president) or historical.  Use the SMART Board to have students explore, zoom in to see details and hear the message being delivered over the loudspeaker.  See if you can find the protester carrying the placard that relates then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to a well-known cartoon fibber.

2. One of the themes in many Science classes is the study of structures (obviously with varying degrees of depth and understanding depending on grade level).  Instead of looking at flat, grainy pictures or hand drawn replications in a textbook, why not have students search out panoramic images of structures around the world?  The Golden Gate Bridge and the Eiffel Tower are just a small sample of what's available for your kids to explore.

3. Obviously, the most powerful component of this website is its ability to give students the opportunity to actually see, in nearly-3D glory, any area of the world.  For example, Grade 2 students in Alberta explore Peru in their Social Studies class.  How exciting for little 7-year-olds to be able to experience an area such as Machu Picchu! What better way to get students to visualize a foreign location and make connections between this visual and the concepts they're learning in class?

4. While the panoramas available on this website are taken within the last decade or so, don't discount the impact they can have when exploring historical concepts.  Studying WWII? Why not take a virtual fieldtrip to the beaches of Normandy (pulling up a panorama of one of the D-Day landing sites on your SMART Board is cheaper than 28 plane tickets to Europe).







I've really only scratched the surface of the wide variety of ways panoramas.dk could be used in the classroom.  I strongly encourage teachers of all grades and subject areas to take time getting familiar with the website.  I guarantee that you won't be disappointed!

Have a great weekend everyone! =)

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays - Magnetic Poetry

Are your students having poetry writing blocks? Today's Fresh Look Fridays post features the fun online Magnetic Poetry site.

Students drag the virtual fridge magnets to form sentences, poems, short stories, etc.   Using the website on a SMART Board as a center gets kids up out of their desks and adds a bit of a starting point for those writers who are struggling with putting words to paper. 

Bonus tip: use the new transparency layer in SMART Notebook 10.6 (Windows only right now) to add digital ink for words that aren't on magnets, then take an area capture of the overall work and save to a Notebook page.


As a once-in-awhile formal English teacher (I could write an essay as a Social Studies teacher, ergo I could apparently teach Language Arts too), I know that poetry wasn't always the most highly anticipated unit for students.  Anything that gets students a bit more engaged with writing is great in my books.


Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays - Virtual Keyboard

Good morning!

Time for another edition of Fresh Look Fridays.  This one contains a review of 2 excellent music websites:

1. Virtual Keyboard



The Virtual Keyboard website is exactly what it sounds like -- an online, virtual keyboard that works really well on a SMART Board.  There are a number of things that I like about this website:


- It has a variety of instruments to choose from.

- In piano mode, it actually sounds like a real piano!

- Chord Mode: press the 'chord mode' button, then select a number of keys and hit 'play chord'

- The keys are large with the notes listed on each one

I think this works well with a small group of students interacting with it on an IWB.  Depending on the age/musical knowledge of the kids there are numerous ways to use this in the classroom -- for example, have students compose music on it, play a "mimic me" game where students challenge each other to repeat a short tune that they make up or use it as a large surface for a group composition then have the students write down their composition for another group to play.

2. Boomwhackers

Another great music site, but designed for little ones.  This website works essentially the same way as the virtual keyboard one above, but is simplified and provides a colourful visual reference for each note.









Curricular Links:

I could, in theory, go through the entire Program of Studies for Music in Alberta to find correlating curricular outcomes, but since these are such open-ended sites, I think I'll let the music teachers decide how these websites fit into their units.

Have an awesome weekend!

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Mix and Match Feelings

As I looked back through recent Fresh Look Fridays posts, I realized that I've spent an awful lot of time reviewing interactive websites for Grades 4 and up.  As such, I've purposefully selected a website for use in the primary classroom today:

Mix and Match Feelings is a fun website that helps Kindergarten students understand an abstract concept -- emotions.




Students drag a combination of eyes and a mouth onto the face to discover what emotion this portrays.  I think this becomes particularly effective when students pair the same set of eyes with different types of mouths.

For example, this:

 

is a very different emotion than this:

 

As always, this could be a great small group exploration activity on a SMART Board.  Students could experiment with the various combinations then challenge each other to create an emotion that is stated to them.

Looking for a curriculum link? Here it is:

Alberta Program of Studies: Kindergarten Health: Relationship Choices -- R-K.1

Have a fantastic weekend and a Happy Easter!

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Viscosity Explorer

I may be beginning to sound like a broken record, but I really do value the ideas, resources and tips that members of my PLN (both virtual and 'real life') share.

I met a great Science teacher - Julie Pereverzoff - at a recent professional development day at Muriel Clayton Middle School in Airdrie, AB, and the focus of today's Fresh Look Friday's website comes from her.

The Viscosity Explorer is exactly the type of interactive website that I try to coach teachers to find for use on their SMART Board in class.

Students must pick a liquid and then drop a ball into each cylinder to discover the liquid's viscosity.  Tamper with the temperature to see what happens when certain liquids heat up or cool off.  A fantastic inquiry based activity or for use as a virtual 'lab station'.  As always, this site works best when a small group of students get to experiment and record their results while their peers are working on a related activity.

Thanks again to Julie for this website recommendation!

Alberta Curriculum: Grade 8 Science: Unit A, Outcome 3

Fresh Look Fridays -- Maps of War

Don't let the title of this great website trick you into thinking that this is just another stagnant outline map site with large stars depicting places of battle. All Social Studies teachers vehemently deny that their entire class revolves around wall maps and colouring inside the lines of paper maps. While this is true, there is a time and place where maps DO become essential teaching tools to help provide a visual context for events.

Enter the 21st century version of such tools -- "Maps of War".  This website is a fantastic place to see 90 second flash file representations of everything from the history of religion to the spread of democracy to the imperial history of the Middle East.  These maps can be downloaded (as .swf files) and then embedded directly into SMART Notebook software for easy access in a lesson. The control features stay intact, allowing the user to pause, play and rewind the various stages of the visual.

One of my personal favourites, the history of "Leadership and War" I've embedded in this post:

These 90 second representations can spark TONS of discussion, questions and learning, but the website doesn't stop there.  Maps of War also has a library with lots of links to an abundance of other interactive map sites, grouped by region.





Spend some time to get acquainted with this site if you teach anything in a global context.  Thanks to @jfborges (from my Twitter PLN) for recommending this site.

Enjoy the weekend!
Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Word Mosaic

I am a huge fan of wordles.  They're fun, eye-catching and a great visual aid in any project or presentation.  There are numerous reasons to use them in the classroom including character sketches, identifying themes in a novel and analyzing political speeches just to name a few.

Word Mosaic from Image Chef takes the traditional wordle to a new level by adding shapes -- everything from a heart to music notes to numerous user created images.





Thanks to Brenda Dyck's posterous for pointing me to the Innovative Educator's blog which contained a link to Image Chef! Whew! Shows how valuable sharing links on your site can be, and the value of building a PLN! :)

Have a great weekend bringing out your artistic side!

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Human Body Interactive

Being a former high school Social Studies teacher, I love when I get a great interactive website outside of my area of expertise that still engages me! The Human Body Interactive, put out by the BBC, does just that.

Learn about organs, muscles, skeleton or the nervous system through an interactive placement game.  I envision this being used in the classroom as either a review session or, better yet, as a collaborative small-group inquiry session on an iwb.

Thanks to my former colleague Shannon Cederstrand (an excellent high school Biology teacher at Oilfields High School) for the awesome link!

Vanessa

P.S. As I publish this post to my blog, I'm getting ready to head out to my 5th teachers' convention in as many weeks [for those at the Central East Alberta Teachers' Convention stop by and say hi!]

Fresh Look Fridays, on a Saturday :)

Good morning,

Due to a number of circumstances beyond my control yesterday, I was unable to access the internet to publish this post yesterday.  So here is the next installment of Fresh Look Fridays...on a Saturday morning:

Modeling how to write an essay is always an essential part of any English class.  The Essay Map website is basically an interactive, digital essay organizer.

 

What I really like about this website is that it allows the teacher to easily model an outline map if displayed on an interactive whiteboard, and there's a print feature at the end that allows students to get a hard copy of their graphic organizer.

Take a minute on your Saturday morning/afternoon/evening and check it out!

Have an awesome weekend :)

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- In Honour of the Olympics

Since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver are almost officially half over, I thought I'd dedicate this week's Fresh Look Fridays post to interactive Olympics websites.  Let's face it, I'm slightly obsessed with watching events, keeping up with real-time results via Twitter, cheering on our Canadian athletes and pretty much consumed with the pride and excitement that the Olympics brings.

Today's post is not going to follow the traditional Fresh Look Fridays format.  Instead, I've compiled a list of some great interactive websites that have come highly recommended to me from my "Tweeps".  I haven't had a chance to fully explore each and every website, but I trust their judgment! :-)

BBC - Primary History - Ancient Greeks

The first site comes as a recommendation from Emily Starr (@StarrMatica).  It's a great interactive site geared towards younger students exploring the history of the Olympics.  Check it out here.

 NBC Winter Olympics Science Videos

The next website comes via an educator whom I respect very much: @ktenkely has a fantastic blog, and recently posted a description of a Winter Olympics Science-based site found here.  (please note: you'll need to find a way to view these videos if your IP address is not from the United States)

Ollie Bray's Blog

Thanks to@lamoureuxr for the next tip!  @OllieBray has a fantastic educational blog, which has featured Winter Olympics content recently.  Check it out here





Sharing the Dream

This website, put out by the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, has numerous interactive content that's updated daily. Thanks to @danbowen for recommending this site on Twitter!

The Vancouver Olympics in Google Earth

The Google Earth blog, found here, has a wide variety of interactive tools.  Thank you to @krs917 for the link!

2010 Olympics Weebly

Thanks once again to @ktenkley for the final list of Olympic websites!  Take some time to peruse all the great stuff found here.





Thanks once again to all those on Twitter who graciously answered my question a few days ago.  This blog post is just another excellent example of the power of an online PLN!!

Have a fantastic weekend -- enjoy marathon couch potato hours of watching the 2010 Olympics! Go Canada!

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Taj Mahal Interactive

As I type this Fresh Look Fridays post, I'm sitting in our Sharp's Audio Booth at the Calgary City Teachers' Convention, waiting for the day to begin.  It seems like this booth is becoming my second home during the busy convention season --this is week 2 of 8! Stop by our booth and say hi if you're at any of the Alberta Teachers' Association's conventions this season!

(thanks to my co-worker Val Fernandez for posing for this photo opp!)

And now on to today's  "Fresh Look Friday" review. Today's website is the Taj Mahal virtual tour -- a great place for kids to explore interior and exterior components of the Taj Mahal.  Simply go to www.taj-mahal.net, and click on "online virtual tour".This is another great interactive website that encourages both the use of a classroom's interactive whiteboard as well as inquiry-based learning. 

Be sure to check out the panoramic view (located in the top right hand corner)!

This website specifically helps address the following curriculum in Alberta:

Grade 3 Social Studies -- General Outcome 3.2

Happy Friday!
Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- iNudge

When I was teaching, I found that many all-staff professional development sessions focused on core curriculum only.  As a Social Studies teacher, this was great for me since I taught a 'mainstream' course, but I always felt bad for my friends and colleagues that were grouped into the category of "options teacher".  As such, I try to make a conscious effort to address specific curricular outcomes in complimentary curriculums during pd sessions that I lead.

Today's Fresh Look Friday's review is therefore a website to appease my music-teacher friends.   iNudge
was recommended to me by Mike Yuzwenko -- music teacher at Riverbend Jr High in Edmonton, AB.

The basic premise is that students can explore with creating rhythms and music with 8 layers of sound (one for each of the buttons on the right hand side).  No formal music training is necessary, but how pleasant your creation comes out depends on what instruments you select to play, at what pitch and at what time.  Simply press a square on the matrix, and it will register a sound there as it cycles through.  Play around with tempo and share your creation with friends!  A great music "centre" if set up on an interactive whiteboard in your classroom.  Thanks, Mike for a fun, yet educational, website! :)

As always, ties to curriculum are important, so here are a few areas within the Alberta curriculum that this website helps meet:

Grade 4-6 Music: Creating Strand, Outcomes 5, 9, 12
Grade 7-9 General Music: Level III Module, Performance and Structures Outcomes

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!
Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays - Astrotour

I figured by week 4 of Fresh Look Fridays it was time to bring my Science colleagues into the fold. As such, my website for this week's review is the Astro Tour



An awesome look at the solar system, it works incredibly well with small groups of students at the SMART Board. The goal here is for students to spend some time experimenting with the tools on the side (you can slow down the speed of orbits, zoom in, change the central object to follow, etc.) as well as work through the tutorial.

Yet another great example of inquiry based learning amplified by an interactive whiteboard.

Looking for curriculum ties?
Grade 6 Science - Topic C
Grade 9 Science - Unit E


Have a great weekend, everyone!
Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays - Interactive Geometry: 3D

Before I get into this week's review of an interactive website, I just want to take a few minutes to thank everyone for their hospitality this past week. I spent the last 4 days in Ontario, conducting SMART Board workshops for teachers and division office staff with both the District School Board of Niagara and the Durham Catholic District School Board. The participants in each session were enthusiastic, fun and obviously very knowledgeable, which always makes for fantastic workshops! Thank you!










My Fresh Look Friday website today comes at the suggestion of one of this past week's participants -- Lynn Jeffs with DCDSB. MathsNet Interactive Geometry: 3D is a fantastic interactive website for junior high - high school math students.


This website provides challenges where students have to replicate specific 2D images on a 3D platform. For the spatially challenged, such as myself, this is not as simple of a task as it first seems! I particularly love this site because it easily lends itself to small-group collaboration, trial and error discussions and problem solving -- all skills for our 21st century learners. Put it on the SMART Board, and work through together as a class, or make the SMART Board a 'center' with this one Geometry activity for one group of 3-5 students to tackle, while other small groups work on additional geometry challenges around the room (traditional pen and paper Math problems, building 3D models, etc.)

Thanks, Lynn for sharing a fantastic website that works extremely well in classrooms with IWBs!

As always, here are the curricular outcomes for Alberta that this site helps meet:

• Grade 9 Math, Shape & Space Strand -- S.O. 4
  
• Math 10-3, Geometry Strand -- S.O. 1
• Math 20-2, Number & Logic Strand -- S.O. 2

And what the heck, since this site came from a colleague in Ontario, here are the Ontario Education outcomes:

• Grade 9 Math, Advanced -- Measurement and Geometry
• Grade 10 Math, Advanced -- Analytical Geometry

Have a fantastic weekend everyone :)
Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Who's Who in the House of Commons

YAY politics! Ok, while most people (including students) don't tend to share my love of all things political, I've found that it's usually due to

a.) a resistant mindblock that has been socialized into them
b.) the fact that they've never been shown a great SNL political skit
or
c.) a lack of understanding of the political system.

The latter reason is why I love the interactive feature focusing on Canada's House of Commons on www.cbc.ca, and why it's the focus of this week's Fresh Look Friday. Using your SMART Board in conjunction with this site allows for the quick and easy manipulation of the data and can be used with small groups of students or an entire class.


"Who's Who in the House of Commons"

Students can interact with this chart to see great visuals of the representation within the House of Commons, broken down by party, gender and/or province, as well as specific names of MPs and their ridings. What a great platform for a class discussion on the reasons for some glaring trends (such as why Alberta only has one NDP seat?) or a visual to show Canada's election structure of representation by population! (It becomes glaringly obvious that Ontario has way more MPs than, say, Saskatchewan)

CBC.ca also has numerous other interactive activities on current events/trends to manipulate and explore, that would make for a great opening or extension activity for your Social Studies classes.

For Alberta educators reading this post, this website helps you meet the following curriculum standards:

Grade 9 Social Studies -- Specific Outcomes 9.1.4 and 9.2.6

Social Studies 30 -1/30-2 -- Specific Outcomes 3.3 and 3.5


Have a great weekend!
Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Paint Splat

I've decided to create a new component of this blog entitled "Fresh Look Fridays". My goal is to offer a link and a review of a valuable educational website that works well with an IWB.

My motivation for this is two-fold:

1. I consistently get questions from teachers about how to effectively use their SMART Board with resources outside of SMART Notebook software.

2. Let's face it -- by the end of a work week, our brains are metaphorically fried, our attention spans shorter and our ability to sort through information diminished. Aside from pre-coffee Monday mornings, this is the time of the week when I'm least likely to dive into the depths of my intellectual side, so it's probably best for me to avoid exhaustive philosophical discussions of current educational pedagogy!

Paint Splat is one of the best interactive elementary games on Peep and the Big Wide World. (It is the 3rd game from the top left)


Students need to select which tubes of paint they need to make Peep jump on in order to match the colour splat shown. Press on the hose to wash down the wall!

I've seen teachers use this as an inquiry project (students guess which colours might work), as a whole class review (the class votes on which colours should be selected) and as a small group learning center (groups of 3 - 4 students manipulate the board while others are working on other colour-related activities).

It's amusing, it's cute and best of all it's educational. And for those of you keeping track, it links to the following curriculum standard in Alberta: Grade 1 Science, Topic A - G.L.E. 5.


Happy Friday!
Vanessa