Mr. Williams’ Class Blog

On Tuesday (5/30/06) we will be working with Tangrams. Tangrams are 7 “puzzle pieces” that can be put together to make shapes.

Here are some useful Tangram Links:
Tangram Grid – A printable .pdf grid of Tangram pieces.
Tangram Movies – Why Run? – Soccer
NCTM – Puzzle like Problems with Tangrams
134 Tangram Puzzles – (.pdf file – You need Acrobat Reader to view this file)
Tangram Puzzles – A large list of puzzles split in to categories

Today in class I used Google Earth to show where World War II battles were fought. The students found it very interesting and I told them I would post a blog about the software.

Google Earth:
The idea is simple. It’s a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route. We invite you to try it now. (From the Google Earth Website)

Google Earth is free and can be downloaded at: http://earth.google.com/
 - To use Google Earth you will need a high-speed Internet connection (Cable or DSL).

You can download “Placemarks” that show specific sites. You can also create your own placemarks and share them with the Google Earth Community.

Download the WWII battles .kml here

Click on the “Open this Placemark” link under the title. It will open Google Earth. You can save the .kml file when you close Google Earth.

The great thing about this file is that it is broken into categories. Viewing it all at once is overwhelming. You can set it to only view battles in specific countries, or to only view things like Concentration Camps, Nazi & Japanese war crimes, etc. It also has links to WikiPedia articles about each placemark. **Note: WikiPedia can be edited by anyone. Be sure to double check the information you find on it if you are using it for your projects.

Google Earth is a great resource for History and Geography because it is so visual. It is also very fun. The students really enjoy using it on the Smart Board.

I have been updating the Links and added a Homework section to the top of this blog.

The Links section is a list of good websites for review of content. It has educational (and very fun) games, video tutorials, etc.

The Homework section will (hopefully) be updated on nearly a daily basis with the assignments from that day.

These sections can be accessed by clicking on the links above the picture on the top of the page.

This week a SmartBoard was installed in our classroom. This incredible piece of technology turns our whiteboard into a touch-screen computer. We can access any of the software on the computer in front of the classroom, write & draw on it to take notes, and save everything for later review. It is very interactive, and the students in my class are already enjoying it and picking up on how it works at an improbable speed. I am very excited about the possibilities this technology brings. Eight SmartBoards have been installed throughout the school.

This blog was set up so that anyone could comment on posts and they would be available immediately.

Due to the actions of one person that is no longer available. Comments must now be approved by me before they are seen by everyone. This could mean it would take more time to get an answer to a question.

I have put up this website to be helpful. If you want to post comments that are inappropriate and not helpful, I would rather you don’t use this website.

Commenting is a way to communicate with me about the posts that are up, and questions you have about information we have covered in class. Now one person has runied that for everyone by using language that shows an inability to communicate like a responsible, educated person.

Parents, please monitor your childrens’ Internet usage.

The following websites may help:

Cox Communications Internet Tools

AOL Parental Controls

IamBigBrother – Internet Monitoring Software

CYBERSitter – Internet Monitoring Software

I have written a tutorial on how to sign up for United Streaming.

You need a passcode to sign up. You can contact me or your childs sixth-grade teacher for the passcode.

 Signing Up for United Streaming Tutorial

About unitedstreaming™unitedstreaming is a digital video-on-demand service brought to you by Discovery Education. Find out what 50,000 schools and over 20,000,000 students and teachers already know—unitedstreaming works!With unitedstreaming, you get:

• The largest and most current K-12 digital video/video clip library available today
• The only standards-based video-on-demand application shown to increase student achievement
• Practical teacher and student learning resources
• Access to a wide variety of producers—Discovery Channel School, United Learning, Standard Deviants, Weston Woods, and many more
• Unparalleled options for customization and local control
• New content and features continuously added throughout the year

Imagine having 4,000 educational videos available for use in the classroom (or home) — at any time you wish!

Today (in my Homeroom class) we used United Streaming Video to research for our Science and Social Studies projects.

Some of the students were asking about inserting video from United Streaming into Power Point presentations. We will all be learning about this during our next computer lab time. If students would like to find out before then, there is a tutorial below.

Inserting Video Tutorial -> United Streaming in PowerPoint

Most students have set up a United Streaming Account. Through this account they can log-in to United Streaming to watch & download videos. If your student has not yet set up an account and would like to, they need a pass-code from me or one of the other 6th grade teachers. Please email me for this information and instructions on setting up the account.  jwilliams {at} gesd40. org

To Log-in to United Steaming please visit the following weblink:
http://www.asset.asu.edu/asset_website_2004/auxiliary/us_signin.html