Finding Chapter Excerpts

You'll be surprised how many chapter excerpts you can find online!  Check out these resources for a variety of reading levels and well-known reading material.

Freckle Juice

The Wanderer

Walk Two Moons

Young Adult Books Central  (EXCELLENT collection!)

One Day on the Prairie by Jean Craighead George

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

A Series of Unfortunate Events #10 by Lemony Snicket

The Great Ping Pong Ball Experiment by Phil Shapiro

Ellen the Eagle Needs Glasses by Phil Shapiro

Champion by Phil Shapiro

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George

Excerpts by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Wringer by Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Animal Adventures by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder


Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs

Beardance by Will Hobbs

Excerpts by Lois Lowry

These excerpts can be used in reading classes to hook a student on a book during read alouds, to study common writing elements and styles of authors, or to spread the resources in large classrooms.  What other ways can you use these excerpts?

Making Your SMARTBoard Brilliant - Part I

 What makes the SMART Board "smart?"  Google's definition of smart includes the following:

• showing mental alertness and calculation and resourcefulness
• chic: elegant and stylish; "chic elegance"; "a smart new dress"; "a suit of voguish cut"
• bright: characterized by quickness and ease in learning

For this piece of the Cool Tech Tricks SMART Board series, we're going to focus on the "chic" aspect.

Dr. Jamie McKenzie has done a great deal of research in how images can assist in learning and how a picture really can be worth a thousand words.  Check here for an article he wrote regarding choosing images.

Fortunately, in the SMART Board gallery, we have a wealth of images, backgrounds, multimedia tools, and interactive activities that are sure to not only engage students, but lend themselves to students physically being at the SMART Board interacting with it themselves.

Searching through the gallery is simple enough, but there are so many resources there that it can be overwhelming.  Have an idea in mind of what you need, then use the search tool.

In the above search for matter, you can see there are over 400 items that would fit this category.  Although pictures to dress up the SMART slide are nice, let me play the devil's advocate.  What are the kids going to do with that image?  In a core classroom, if it's just there for aesthetics, find something else that would engage the students in learning.  This could include labeling, matching, finding hidden items with the images, classifying, or brainstorming.

In the above example, you'll find there are 200 pictures, but 43 interactive lessons dealing with matter.  Although you can make the pictures interactive, the work is already done for you if you choose from the 43 interactive lessons.  To search through these activities, click the triangle in front of the description to open the multitude of examples.  Browse through and double click on the ones you want to use in your lesson.  They will then be inserted into the slide.  If they are items you use on a regular basis, save yourself some time and drag the item up to the area titled "My Content."  This is the equivalent of bookmarking them so you can easily find them later.

The same idea can be applied to images you've inserted to SMART Notebook from another source, like your Pictures folder or the Internet.  Simply drag them into the My Content area so that you can use them regularly.

These handy tips can help to better engage your students and can make your life a little easier.

Make your Presentations Pop (and Zoom and Spin) with Prezi

Looking for an exciting way to present information to your students this year?  Something more than just listing text for them to copy down?  A great way to spice up your presentations is to use Prezi. Prezi is an easy to use, engaging tool.  It is known as "the zooming presentation editor." In Prezi, you can zoom in on phrases, insert pictures, YouTube videos, flip, spin, and move around the presentation however you like.  Click here for an example.  

Although Prezi looks difficult to create, it's simply a matter of double clicking to add text and inserting images to let the pictures do the talking.  Check this tutorial to see how to create your presentation.

From using Prezi,  I've learned a few tips that have been helpful to me:

1. Before creating a Prezi, it is best to plan out your presentation first.  Draw and map out your ideas on a sheet of plain paper first.

2. If you'd like to use a picture as a background, it's easier to insert the picture as your first step.  You can move it backward by clicking on the "x" of the Zebra editor later, but it can save time if you do this first.  Because the presentation will zoom in very close, you'll need to use a large picture to ensure it doesn't become pixelated.  Stock Xchange is a great place to get large, royalty free images.

3. Add to the excitement of your presentation by placing text vertically rather than horizontally.  This will make the screen flip and turn. Do this by clicking on the outside rim of the Zebra editor.

4. When you plan out the presentation, think about the key ideas that are most important to your lesson.  Zoom in on those ideas, or better yet, place them right below another word, zooming in as you present.

5.  Look for creative ways to share your ideas.   Have a big point to make?  Zoom in and type that right next to the period of another sentence.  Have an idea that is a smaller piece of another point?  Look for a letter "o" in the first point, zoom inside of the "o" and type your next point there.

Using Prezi allows you to create an engaging presentation that is easy to edit and fun.  No more boring slideshows in 2011!

Using the SMART Recorder in SMART Notebook

Today's the day- you're going to teach that complicated, multi-step lesson.  You're prepared - you have created a great lesson using the SMART Board and will have the students up at the board working out solutions.  There's just one problem.  You have absent students today, and if you go ahead and begin now, you're just going to have to do it all over again tomorrow.

We've all been there. We can't just stop our classes because of absent students, but we also know we want all of our students to be successful.  By using the SMART Recorder, we can solve this problem.  The SMART Recorder can be found in the SMART Board Tools. To access, go to SMART Board Tools, Open, then choose Recorder, as displayed.

You can also customize your Floating Tools by clicking on the wheel at the bottom.  Then drag and drop the Recorder to your Floating Tools.

The SMART Recorder will open after you've selected it.  To begin recording, simply click on the red "record" button. 

It is recommended to keep videos at a length of 5 minutes or less.  It will take a great deal of time to convert videos longer than that.  As you finish up your recording, click on the blue stop button.  Your video will be named and you can choose where to save it.

Here's an example of how the SMART Recorder can benefit your classes:

(or click here for a larger version of the above movie)

This can get you and your students moving forward.  Be sure to comment with additional ways you could use the SMART Recorder!

Spicing up Your Presentations

We've all been there - we're watching someone give a presentation and feel like Charlie Brown's teacher is talking. "Mwa mwa mwa..."  I bet our students feel the same way.

There are many times we need to provide information to our students and use presentation programs, like PowerPoint or Keynote.  The rules for using text in these presentations has always been 7x7 - no more than 7 lines of text with 7 words in each line.

So maybe you're happy with your presentations.  Maybe you realize that the students just aren't "getting it," and you're ready to spice them up a little.  Here's an idea:

1.  Let the pictures do the talking.  What are people doing if you throw text at them while you talk to them?  That's right - they're reading the text.  Try finding images that could convey your information.  As students participate in the lesson, they might not take notes.  However, they will actually have to analyze the picture rather than just write down the words from your presentation.  Which of the two will leave a lasting impact on your students?

 

This also provides a great opportunity for questioning.  Take the following slide for an example of thematic lesson or unit on Veteran's Day:

The questions listed on the slide might or might not be necessary.  A teacher could just display the picture and ask the students to respond with questions.  Regardless, the questions listed should spark discussion among students.  This image means many different things for different people.  It's one of those situations that definitely causes the students to "feel" something rather than copy down someone else's words.

By teaching with images rather than words, students with reading or writing difficulties can participate fully.  The focus is away from reading someone else's ideas and instead, the students generate their own.  This can assist to differentiate a classroom for ESL students, visual learners, and even auditory learners due to the discussions that could ensue.

A great site to get great quality, royalty free images is Stock Xchange.  

Try it out!  The next time you need to develop a presentation for your students, try using visuals to enhance their thinking and spark questioning. The students will notice a difference, too!

Funding for Your Classroom

If you could dream, what supplies would you provide for your classroom?

There are many different options to get materials, supplies, and even technology for your classroom.  Below is a list of some you might like to try:

Pepsi Refresh Project: This site allows you to create a project, list your needs/wants/dreams, and others vote on what project should be funded.  Pepsi has $1,300,000 available for donations and finalists will be chosen on October 1st.

DonorsChoose: This is an ongoing site for teachers to list project ideas and the supplies necessary to complete it.  You can request technology or school supplies with this site by registering for an account and explaining your project.

Limeades for Learning: Limeades for Learning is a partnership that Sonic has with DonorsChoose.  Again, just register for an account, list project ideas and needs, then share your ideas with others so they can vote on it.  So far, Sonic has given over $255,000 this month.  Voting closes on September 30, so hurry!

Digital Wish: Whereas the above listed sites can fund anything from technology to crayons, Digital Wish is only for technology projects.  It's a great way to get a Flip camera, digital camera, or even a wireless slate.  Just get an account, list your project ideas, and wait to get funded.

I hope to see lots of our teachers trying this out!  Contact me for assistance in the type of technology to request.

Find it Fast!

Ever been searching a long document for a key piece of information?  What about when you can't find that keyword on the website you're looking at?  Mac has a solution for that.  You can use the 'command f' key combination to find whatever you need in virtually any application.  For example, by using this key combination on a webpage, I searched 'emints.' 

By clicking the "Next" button shown above, the word eMINTS is highlighted individually.  If it is preferred, by clicking "Highlight all," I can see how many times the word is used in a single webpage.

This can be a handy feature when looking for information or for students to use as they determine if words are overused in their writing.  Remember that all applications might look a little different when using this feature.  To close the search, look for a button that is either red or has an "x" near the search field.