Online Dictionary - WordSmyth.net

When students are completing dictionary work, I will often have them working in pairs. One will use a traditional hard copy dictionary and the other will find the word online, using a laptop.

I love Wordsmyth.net as an online dictionary, because it has a beginner's, children's and advanced option. If the meaning provided is too difficult, then students can choose an easier definition for a better understanding of the word. There is also a button, whereby students can listen to the pronunciation of the word.

Student Grouping Made Easy!

I’m forever trying to think of new and creative ways to group students. Recently, I have discovered a website that will do it for me!

At Instant Classroom, once you have created a login and password, you simply enter the names of the students in your class and with the click of a button, student groups are organised for you.

If you have different groups of students throughout the day (ie. maths or literacy groups), you can have separate lists all contained within the same login. You can also upload a photo for each child if you want. And if a child leaves throughout the year or a new one joins the class – just click the edit button and add/remove the name. It’s that easy!

At Instant Classroom, it also has two additional features. The first is a ‘seating chart maker’, which will randomly allocate seating arrangements. The second is a ‘random name generator’, which will randomly select a student from the list.

It’s a super dooper easy website to navigate – give it a go!

Wikispaces in the Classroom

Back in September, my school collaborated with two other schools in the area for a Professional Development Day in order to share skills, resources and ideas. A few teachers from each school offered different workshops for other staff members to participate in. I was involved in running a workshop with another colleague and we chose technology as the focus. In particular, it was about using Wikispaces in the Classroom.

If you’ve never heard of Wikispaces before, it is basically a secure website that you can use with your class to post work, pictures and facilitate discussion. You can add pictures, video, audio and web links etc.

I’ve included some screenshots below to show some of the pages from my class’ wikipage.

As part of the Professional Development Workshop I put together a step-by-step guide on how to set up, customize and effectively use Wikispaces. I have put up all of these instructions on my Tech Tutorials page.