Part+1+++WRITE

Dictionary and Thesaurus - Necessary Tools for Learning
===[|Wordsmyth] and [|Lexipedia] are two highly recommended tools. Where Wordsmyth offers a beginner's picture dictionary along with a full dictionary, Lexipedia makes using a thesaurus fun. Take some time and explore these two tools. If you want to learn about more of these type of resources, visit Richard Byrne's Six Visual Dictionaries and Thesauri. Visual dictionaries can be particularly effective when using an interactive whiteboard. Once you have finished go to your blog page and write your thoughts and ideas for using these tools within your classroom. ===

**Writing - Creative and Fun!**

There are many sites to make writing creative and fun. One favorite is Wordle. With Wordle you can quickly create word clouds from chunks of text. Once you add the words you can customize the size and color scheme. A neat feature of word clouds is that the size of a word increases with frequency.

//Teacher beware//: as with any web 2.0 application this is a public site. Items in the Gallery may not be appropriate for viewing by your students. By sticking with "Create" you will enable your students to safely use nice, free application. Also note that there is not a "Save" function in Wordle. You will want to take a screen shot to preserve their efforts (Command > shift .4 on the Mac). This saves it as a .png file which can then be added anywhere you would insert a picture.

Other sites to create word clouds are Word it Out and Taxedo Each is slightly different, so try them out and see which you prefer.

Critical thinking with Word Clouds

48 Interesting ways to use Wordle in the classroom

Ceating word clouds to support 21st Century Learning

**Pic-Lits**
Pic-Lit.com is a creative writing site. It matches beautiful images with a combination of right words placed to capture the essence, story and meaning of the picture.

**Explore**!

Try your hand at this site. On the Learn It page, you can:


 * Write It by having fun with words, writing a simple caption, creating a compound sentence or write a paragraph
 * Rhyme It like a rapper, feel it as a poet or be creative with a simile
 * Master I t poetic devices defined, illustrated and explained

Extra Credit! Try out One Word - Sixty Second Word Prompts

**Google Docs**


Google has many tools that benefit educators, but one that is especially useful is Google Docs. With Google Docs, you can create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets online, share and collaborate documents, safely store and organize documents, and control who can see those documents. Many people are now opting for these free productivity and collaboration tools in lieu of the pricey Microsoft Office (Word).

**Google Docs in plain English.** This video explains the concept behind Google Docs. You'll also want to learn about some new features.

If you do not already have a <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">Google Account you will need to set one up in order to use Google Docs. (If you are using Blogger you already have a Google account.)

<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">**Create basic documents from scratch or <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #1111cc; padding-right: 10px;">[|start from a template] .** You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. And it's free.

<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;"> **Upload your existing files.** Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files.

**Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze.** Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, indent, change font or number format, change cell background color and so on. The format is very similar to the Microsoft Word format.

Not sure how to use it in an elementary setting - check out this third grade Halloween story.


 * Extra Credit!** Check out <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">this page where you can learn how to organize your docs list, edit documents (including using templates), learn about sharing, collaborating and publishing, and uploading and exporting documents.

There are alternatives to Google docs, such as the Zoho suite of tools.

Glogster
**<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #002aff; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; visibility: visible;">[|Glogster.EDU] is one of those tools that opens dozens of lesson ideas. No more will we have poster boards dropping off the walls in the hallways or students covered in Crayola markers down their arms. With Glogster, teachers and students can create interactive posters for research, websites, presentations, reflection, and more. **


 * Explore**!
 * 1) <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Before we begin, watch this <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">Glogster How-To Vide by TracI Blazosky.
 * 2) <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">You will need to register at Glogster Registration You will be asked to create a nickname and password. View this for creating a safe password. media type="custom" key="6775663"
 * 3) <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> For school related websites, using the same login name (as much as possible) and the same password will help you to easily remember these logins. Once you have created your account and they send you an email, print it out and start a folder of your online website accounts. Also you will need to select the number of student accounts - sign up for the full 200 student accounts - you may not use them all but it's better to start off with too many.
 * 4) Traci has also created a step-by-step Glogster Tutorial which you will use to create your own glog. Click here to open Traci's tutorial. Print it out so you can refer to it as you create your glog.
 * 5) Think about a curriculum unit that, in the past, your students created posters to illustrate their learning (biographies, animal habitats, about me, etc.) and use one of those to create your glog. Follow Traci's tutorial to create your glog and if you need additional help, play her video again. You can't "break" anything on this site so click on all the tabs and see what you can do within them. Part of this year long process is trying new things and part of the fun of learning these tools is "clicking" here and there and seeing what happens!
 * 6) When you are done, print it out.
 * 7) ===<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> Once you have finished go to your blog page and write your thoughts and ideas for using this tool within your classroom. ===

Once you have completed your glog, embed it into your own blog. Yikes! what is embed and how do I do it? Traci's last step of her tutorial explains how to embed your glog. Try it on your own and as always if you are having trouble, ask your technology coordinator to help you with this step.
 * [[image:20imac1__61196.jpg width="40" height="40"]]Extra Credit!**

**Pages**
Most of us are attached to using Microsoft Word for creating documents but there is a world outside of Microsoft and it's pretty easy to use. Apple has a product called Pages. When you open Pages, there are a number of templates that are available:


 * letters
 * envelopes
 * forms
 * reports
 * outlines
 * newsletters
 * brochures
 * flyers
 * posters
 * certificates

Click here to watch an introductory video about Pages. If you'd like to learn more, you can go back to this page later when you have a few moments to watch the other videos. Apple Video Tutorials are very informative. Often when learning a new Apple application, the videos are an excellent resource as you can stop them as you are viewing them, try it out within your own Pages document, and replay them if necessary.

Time to try Pages by creating a newsletter to send home to your parents!
 * Explore**!


 * 1) Open Pages - if it is not on your dock, you will be able to find it under Applications>iWork>Pages.
 * 2) Select **Newsletters** under **Page Layout** and by then choosing one of the several templates that are shown.
 * 3) You can click on any of the text boxes to type in your own words. Just remember as you go along to save your work. You can do so by going to File>Save> and naming it. A great short cut for saving once you have named your document is to hold down the apple/command key [[image:command_apple.jpg width="63" height="38" caption="Apple"]] and hitting the S key. This is often referred to as apple s. This is a great shortcut to learn and will "save" you lots of time!