Hidden Gem: Lots of Bots
Usually in this space, I share a digital content collection from FCIT’s ClipArt, ClipPix, or Maps ETC websites. This month, we’ll look at a collection of robots I created for the Technology Integration Matrix website. The collection includes individual...
Spooky Stuff
Take advantage of your students’ fascination with spooky stuff this month. We’ve collected our favorite Lit2Go stories and poems along with some spooky images from FCIT websites. The items in the collection will probably give you many ideas for classroom...
Ancient Digital Content: Presentation Backgrounds
2004 is reasonably ancient in Internet Time. That’s when I started creating Presentations ETC, a website of resources that students and teachers could freely use to individualize their Powerpoint or Keynote presentations. At that time, I was visiting many...
Photo of the Month: Why Stripes?
Most students will easily recognize this zebra by its stripes. But why stripes? That question has interested scientists for a long time. And, no doubt, will interest your students as well. Too often students (and adults as well) expect all science to be...
Autumn in Verse
(Our friends from Australia and elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere will probably prefer to celebrate the September equinox with our collection of spring poetry on Lit2Go.) Most classrooms I visit in autumn have sprouted colorful leaf bulletin board borders or other...
Photo of the Month: Bonsai – Art, Social Studies, Science
This is a photo of a fig bonsai tree taken at the Morikami Japanese Garden in Delray Beach, FL. This area was once home to the Yamato Colony, a Japanese settlement in Florida during the early twentieth century. The photo raises many questions that overlap science,...
Creating “Historic” Postcards
I collect old things. Old books, old maps, old stereoviews, and old postcards. Of these four, the postcards give the most personal insight into history. I enjoy both the image side of the card and the message side. If letters of yesteryear are the emails of today,...
Photo of the Month: What is this bird doing?
This month’s photo is a mystery for your students to solve. It’s actually an anhinga drying its wings because it swims underwater to find food. Unlike other bird species, its wings become waterlogged so it can stay underwater completely and for longer than...
A Beatrix Potter Summer
Summer’s a great time for kids to push away from the keyboard for a bit and engage in some decidedly non-digital activities, but that’s not to say our digital collections can’t be a great starting point. Beatrix Potter is one of the most popular...
Seasons, Science, and Stevenson: The Bedtime Connection
Sitting out on the porch of my childhood home in Pennsylvania on the longest day of the year when daylight lingers well past nine, I started to reminisce about teaching seasons to elementary students in Florida, whose idea of seasons was pretty much hurricane season...
Four Ways To Emphasize the Subject in Instructional Graphics
Sometimes we want to emphasize some part of an image we are using for instructional purposes. Here are four methods that we can use on instructional graphics and teach our students to use when they are creating informational materials. Adding a Highlight Color In a...
Annotating the Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was born June 27, 1872. He was one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. His work frequently features a conversational tone, innovative rhetorical structure, and a colorful use of both dialect and...
Photo of the Month: A Story in Stone
This month’s photo is of Trajan’s Column in Rome. It commemorates Emperor Trajan’s victory in the Dacian Wars. Completed over nineteen centuries ago, the column is an amazing engineering and artistic work. Including the pedestal, the monument is 115...
Shadow Puppets
Any teacher who has ever done a puppet project with elementary students has experienced the amazing potential of creating and using puppets in the classroom. Students are engaged. They realize that they must really collaborate because, “The show must go...
Photos of the Month: When Blurry’s Better
Both of the photos for this month show movement. Give your students a few moments to list what is the same and what is different about the two photos. After they have shared their ideas, ask which part of each photo is in focus and which part is blurred. Also ask...
Arbor Day: 2,300 Photos and 1,800 Illustrations
On Arbor Day in 1921, my mother’s grade school teacher told the class that within 40 years there would be no trees left in the United States. I’m happy to report that the number of trees in the US has remained pretty constant over the past century. Arbor...
Photo of the Month: Controlled Burn
A photo of a burned forest may seem an odd choice as photo of the month since we are also celebrating Arbor Day in April. I remember how disturbed my fourth-graders were when we went on a field trip to a park that had recently conducted a controlled burn. At first, it...
Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare!
Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. It is traditionally believed that he was also born on same day in 1564. We’ve collected audiobooks of the Bard’s most famous works and additional teaching resources to celebrate the life of one of the greatest writers in the English...
Five Reasons To Use Audiobooks for Remote Learning
I’ve written frequently about our free Lit2Go audiobook collection. I’ll paste links to other posts at the bottom. Today, I’d like to share five reasons to include audiobooks in remote instruction. 1. Audiobooks give students a chance to rest their...
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Using Digital Content
Ideas for using FCIT's photos, maps, illustrations, clipart, video, audio, and other media in the classroom.
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Teaching and Learning with Technology
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