Things to Know Before Reading Gatsby-Screen Capture with audio

I am teaching am The Great Gatsby online to high school students. Can you say CHALLENGE.

One thing that has helped is Screencast-O-Matic. (http://www.screencastomatic.com)

Here is the one that I created:
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cX6bqROh1

They are really easy to create:
1. Create a PowerPoint, Keynote, Word Document, Excel, etc.
2. Go to www.screencastomatic.com
3. Press the blue record button.
4. Drag the box with the dotted lines over your document.
5. Resize the box as necessary.
6. Press record

Current Events

Click here to download CNN Current Events worksheet.



For this worksheet:
1. Students must choose one article from each category.
2. They must write "who, what, when, where."
3. They must write a summary.
4. From their summary, they must identify parts of speech.

Venn Diagram

Click here for Venn Diagram

This is an oldie but goodie. This Venn Diagram is cool because it has a lot of space in the middle (for discussing how the two concepts are alike.) In the past, I've had problems with there not being enough space in the middle.

Tip: Try the Venn Diagram as an assessment tool. I recently used it as an assessment tool; as part of a Raisin in the Sun quiz, I asked my students to compare and contrast two of the characters. It was less intimidating than an essay question, and I got really good results. Im not throwing out essays; I am just using Venn Diagrams as scaffolding.

Hope it works for you!

EPALS-Collaborate with Students from around the world.

This is a great way for students to work collaboratively from students around the world!

Go to www.epals.com to learn more information

For detailed information about an EPALS project, global warming, go to http://globalwarmingcollaboration.weebly.com/

Nonfiction about Elephants

Download Nonfiction Article

This includes an article about elephants with questions. It also includes a research activity and a writing activity.

Free Student Websites for Teachers

http://education.weebly.com/ed-features.php

You can actually have your students create Weebly websites that YOU get to control for FREE!

And let me tell you, Weebly websites are your not your mother's websites; they are really cool, and they look really professional and polished.

The benefits are:
You can control user names and passwords.
You decide whether the website is public or private.
You can delete websites.

The consequences:
You are only allowed 40 student accounts. If you would like to add students, the price is 10 dollars per 10 students.

Students are only only allowed to create one website at a time. (To get around this, you can have the students delete the website after you have graded it. Then you can have them create a new one.)

Websites are limited to five pages.

Note: If you upgrade to Weebly Pro, you students can create up to 10 websites with unlimited pages. Weebly Pro is 39.95 per year. I'm thinking that if you really use the websites, it might be worth the investment.

Clock Partners

Click Here for Clock


I've had a lot of success with clock partners this year. It keeps the class from being so monotonous and routine by allowing students to work with a variety of other students.

Here's how it works:
1. Give each student a blank clock.
2. Have the students to find a partner for each time (12:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00).
3. The students will write the name of the partner under the corresponding time.

Make sure that you make a copy of the clocks. Students tend to lose things:)

Note: Teachers may choose to assign clock partners; however, letting the students pick there own partner has worked well for me.