2+Using+Tech+in+Differentiated+Instruction

=Bloggi**ng**=

**"****It’s great when kids get so caught up in things they forget they’re even learning." ~ anonymous USD240 teacher**
Blogging engages students in writing for an audience. If the teacher follows up with comments on each piece of writing and encourages students to comment to each others' writings, it can be positively amazing to see the results as students develop the practice of writing online.

Easy sites to use to create classroom blogs:

Class Blogmeister http://www.classblogmeister.com/ Blogger http://www.blogger.com/ ePals School Blog @http://www.epals.com/ WordPress @http://wordpress.com/

=Wiki=

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There are two great places to learn about wikis. One is by using this wiki to share with the rest of our district teachers! The other is found at another wiki site, which is all about educational wikis: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Articles+and+Resources======

=iMovie=

Creating videos can help students who learn best visually. Try some of these, adapted to the age and ability of your students.
Public Service Announcements ‘Paid’ political ad or announcement Advertising Ad with no voice – text on pics plus music Reports - any topic or subject Demonstrations - 'how to-' do something, experiments, etc. Digital Story with narration Digital story with visuals and no words; music track to set the mood and carry message across Video your own presentations, then critique and improve upon – for speech, for any powerpoint you present, any time you are demonstrating what you’ve learned

=Podcasting and GarageBand=

Many learn best by listening and/or speaking. Take advantage of Podcasting and using GarageBand to help these students learn better.
Listen to podcasts Create their own podcasts Use built in text-to-speech functions to read e-materials aloud Create visual + voice learning pieces with free web 2.0 tools like VoiceThreads, Voki, Blabberize, others Record students reading aloud, turn into podcasts

GarageBand – Advertising Public Service Announcements Political ad or announcement Mashup music – from at least five different types of music - to demonstrate knowledge about a subject (think Adolph Hitler – what types of music would demonstrate his beliefs, his control over thinking? What types of music would reveal the South during the Civil War? What types of music would stir patriotic responses on the 4th of July?) Write original jingles and set to music tracks to define math terms, science terms, the problem-solving method Write and perform a rap about a country, about a time in history, about a historical figure Record self playing instruments or singing (or both!) Work with groups to create original performance, record and edit; podcast or videocast

=Excel=

Excel Spreadsheets can be used in a multitude of ways by both teachers and students. Here are just a few:
Create a spreadsheet to monitor any gradable activity; use the graph wizard to create visuals of student progress.

Use a spreadsheet for your classroom inventory; update yearly.

Use a spreadsheet to monitor class work when students are working in groups. You can have a checklist of what they are doing to monitor each group and each student. You can also easily remix the names when you start a new project; just save the spreadsheet as a different named file.

Students can create a spreadsheet on their laptops to monitor their own progress in your class.

Students can learn about data using spreadsheets and the functions that are available to manipulate the data that is inputted to the spreadsheet. Also can learn to create charts and graphs that display data in easy-to-understand formats. Examples: Create a hypothesis regarding expected results from a student survey. Using actual survey results, create a spreadsheet. Calculate the percentages using formulas, then create various charts and interpret the results.

Use M&Ms or other candies that come invarious colors. Count the number of each color candy in the bags; input into spreadsheet, compute ratios and percentages, create graphs and interpret the results.

Create timelines in Excel; use labels and colors to highlight time periods; add pictures or clip art to enhance.

Learn about currency conversions by researching the current exchange rates for various currencies, entering the correct formulas into spreadsheets that enable them to do the calculations.

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Here are the directions for creating a great poster using Microsoft Excel: Open Excel - select new spreadsheet Go to View, select Normal Go to View, select Zoom, select 50% Click OK Go to File, Page Setup, click on Margins tab Set Top, Left, Right and Bottom Margins to .5”, set Header and Footer to 0” Click OK Highlight the area you want to use (top four pages dotted lines) Go to Format, Cells, Click on Patterns Pick a color, pick a pattern if you wish Click OK Reselect the colored pages Click on File, Print Area, Set Print Area Now you see the area you have for your poster. This will print on four pieces of paper and you will add what you want To shape pictures - click View, Toolbars, Drawing Select a Basic Shape, Starrs and Banners, Callouts, or Block Arrows - need to be somewhat ‘open’ Drag it to the size you want - keep it ‘selected’ On the drawing toolbar, click the bucket, click Fill Effects, then click Picture on tabs Click Select Picture and find a pic on your computer, choose it, Click Insert Click OK Select WordArt Make a title or slogan You can also add text boxes, whatever SAVE your work Print Trim edges that will go on top - use the other white edges for gluestick to put together AFTER dry, you may laminate DO NOT USE TAPE - it will melt in laminator!

=Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations=

Let's just go to the source for information. The following link is a site for educators giving ideas about how using google docs, etc.
@http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcdn7mjg_72nh25vq