My Fake Wall - A compromise?

Today's site is My Fake Wall.  I'm really excited about this site because I think it will get your students excited.  Basically, My Fake Wall is a site that imitates a Facebook wall.  There are no ties to Facebook and the "social interaction" like that of a real Facebook wall is removed.

The site can be used to create personalized Facebook walls for literary characters, historical figures, or even elements, scientists, inventors, mathematicians, and more!  Just use your imagination!  Believe me, this is more work than it sounds like.  Students who are tasked with creating a Fake Wall have to find pictures, think of the appropriate friends to add, find pictures for the friends, and then make comments and posts that would be relevant to the person and their friends.  I truly believe that this would be a worthwhile project....and one that the students would enjoy!

I spent a little time creating the beginning of a wall for one of my favorite characters: here.  Also, here are some other examples: Hermes, Ben Franklin, Cinderella.  Check it out and leave any comments telling me about any ideas you are having for how to use this with your students!

**NOTE** - This site may be blocked in your district.  If so, I would like to inform you that it was designed to be an educational site only.  There is no inappropriate content on the site.  I think that this is a great way to meet the students halfway and it would be an excellent tool to get them to analyze the important information surrounding a real or fictitious person.  To unblock the site, simply write an email to your principal, and explain that the site is educational.  They should then be able to speak to a tech and unblock the site.

NCES Kids' Zone - Awesome Graphing Tool

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has a section of their site called Kids' Zone.  It drew my attention the other day when I was shown (by a wonderful teacher) the graphing tool from the site, called Create a Graph.  I was blown away with how easy to use the tool is as well as what great graphs you are able to print from it. 

Create a Graph allows you to create bar graphs, line graphs (both of which can be turned into multiple bar or line graphs), area graphs, pie graphs, and xy coordinate graphs.  It is a simple process of working through simple tabs to set up the design, enter the data, and preview your graph.  Once it has been created, you can print it, download it as a picture file, or email it to yourself so you are able to edit it in the future.

The tool would be a great way to integrate graphing into your lessons; an important piece for students to gain an understanding of data.  Try collecting data from your own classroom and plot out the results!  How do the heights of boys vs. girls compare?  What have the temperatures been for the past week?  How many students in the class prefer pepperoni pizza over cheese?  Try it out as a class or have your students make their own!