So we have a spankin new iMac computer lab in our building and I'm really chuffed! (British for freakin excited!) 30 brilliant new iMacs all lined up & shiny...ready to do some cool stuff with the kids! (and yes, throughout this post I'll be showing off the pics - your hard-earned tax money at work - please notice the Think Different Apple posters laminated & stapled to the wall - don't hate! Thanks RiptideF for the link)
Facebook, Farcebook, and Fakebook Templates
Miss Wallen - one of our coolest teachers is using the iMac lab with her kids to do a mock Facebook page for Latin American Historical figures like Pizarro, Cortes, Bolivar, and Hidalgo with her 7th grade Social Studies kids!
Using the downloadable template I shared from our favourite NerdyTeacher none other than Nick Provenzano the kids are using our databases and links Miss Wallen found to do their research and then become the character filling in the Facebook template.
What's so cool is they can write on their walls as if they or another historic character left a message such as: "I Founded a city...I'm calling it Ciudad de los Reyes, which means "City of the Kings" It's royally AWEsome...I'm a Winner!" Even though in real life Pizarro never learned to read or write... with this template kids can really get a different glimpse into his life, political struggles, adventures, and accomplishments!
My teacher librarian friend, Barbara Randolph, passed along a cool link to a Teacher's Discovery resources Blank Farcebook Poster Set of 30 for $19.99 - which can be laminated & written on with dry erase markers for when the computer lab is being used for month long standardized testing (starting next week!). Taking that idea...I've got it in me heid to create a comic life version - making several changes - I'm gonna call it Fakebook and post it to my Comic Tutorial gallery & ya'll can print em out for free! Stay tuned for that!
But I AM gonna buy from that company a really cool set of NOVEL CHARACTERS FARCEBOOK (TM) POSTERS SET OF 8 for...[gulp!] $39.99! Described as: "Characters from your favorite novels come to life on these Farcebook posters. Learn what book Ponyboy Curtis likes to read and what Frankenstein's monster's favorite song is. Does Scout Finch really belong to the group "the Maycomb Legal Defense Fund"? Is Odysseus really interested in spelunking? Find out these fun facts and more. Your students will recognize this format and will love finding all the hidden information. 11 x 17 inches each, printed on glossy card stock, middle school/high school. "
Check out that cool chick Juliet & her page...has she friended you yet?
Read, Write, Think! Profile Publisher
Another suggestion from Barb Randolph, Profile Publisher, which is a Flash driven site that creates profiles that look a lot like old skool MySpace pages! Black and white PDF's are easy on the toner but still
"Students can use the Profile Publisher to mock up or draft online social networking profiles, yearbook profiles, and newspaper or magazine profiles for themselves, other real people (including historical figures), or fictional characters. The tool could also be used for profiles of nonhuman living creatures, inanimate objects or abstract concepts (e.g., profile of an amoeba, an historical monument, or friendship). See a completed sample Profile for a fictional character based on Christopher Myers' Wings to see what a student profile might look like."
So, when our 7th grade social studies kids finish the unit & we check out all their pages we'll be posting some of them on our learning wiki! I love the idea of these Fake Facebook pages for historical or fictional characters - it get's the kids excited about research - it creates a dynamite disposition to learning with total student engagement and is also relatable!
What do you think? Do you have any other resources or sites like these that use Social Media to tie into student projects? Please comment! Loves me some comments!
---
iMac lab photos by Gwyneth Jones
Comments
Post a Comment