This “Craftsmanship Rubric” is a great visual to use to help your students to see what your expectations are for their artwork. Kathleen O’Malley, the creator of this neat chart, recommends that you produce your own text to describe each picture. Another thought might be to ask your students to help you to come up with the descriptors for each level.
I saw Tribbs Lite reviewed on the Appitic site under Multiple Intelligences, and decided to give it a try. For students who love math, this free app for the iPad is a great brain exercise. I am putting it in the Grades 3-12 category because, as an adult, even I found it addictive. My third graders tested it out today, and enjoyed the challenge. Basically, you are given a target number, and have to find three numbers that will make that target number by using any of the operations. The number choices are in a grid, and you have to choose numbers that are neighbors. You get more points the faster and more accurately you solve the puzzle.
I read this article on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog, and experienced the same reaction he apparently did when he first realized he was missing a key piece to student’s reflections in the classroom. I have been trying to incorporate more self-reflection into the school day, and now I see that I’ve forgotten a vital part of this. Read Larry Ferlazzo’s article to find out what you may be omitting, too!
I found out about this site on KB Connected right before the holidays. Karen’s site recommends to “use it to introduce: Historical figures, characters from a book, famous scientists, figures in pop culture etc.” I tried it out myself, and was impressed, so I showed it to my nine-year old daughter – who became obsessed with it! The Akinator tries to “figure out” which character you are thinking of by asking you questions. It slowly narrows down to the correct answer based on the answers you give to its questions. The character can be one from fiction or non-fiction. Of course, there is less of a chance that obscure ones will be guessed correctly. But, you may be surprised by what The Akinator knows! My daughter was thrilled when it guessed the character from The Fablehaven series she had in mind. In addition, if The Akinator guesses incorrectly, you have the option of inputting information about the character to help it to “learn” more.
Be aware that the site does request a name and age. I would recommend that you have your child or student use a nickname, but give a close approximation to his or her real age. The questions change a little for adults and might be considered inappropriate.