Using Digital Content
We believe students should be creators with technology and not just consumers, so FCIT provides a wide range of digital assets for students to build their projects and, consequently, their understanding. But with well over 100,000 pieces of free digital content for the classroom, FCIT’s collections can be a bit overwhelming. The purpose of this blog is to highlight important areas of digital content and provide suggestions for using these digital “building blocks” in the classroom. Expect to find posts featuring FCIT’s clipart, photo, audiobook, and map collections among others. Your guide for this blog is Dr. Roy Winkelman.
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...
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...
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...
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 feet...
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....
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...
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....
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...
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 eyes....
Using Digital Content
Teaching and Learning with Technology