How a teacher uses SecretBuilders in her classroom

Kelly Tenkely has a wonderful video talking about how she uses SecretBuilders in her classrooms. Kelly is a 3rd to 5th grade technology teacher and technology integration specialist and instructional coach for elementary teachers in Colorado. Kelly assigned her students to interview the scientific characters in SecretBuilders since they were studying scientists as part of their curriculum. The students then wrote articles as newspaper journalists in SecretBuilders' online magazine called The Crooked Pencil.



Here is some what she has to say about SecretBuilders:

"What I really think is neat about SecretBuilders is a virtual world but it goes beyond just the play of most virtual worlds, and it actually teaches students about history and historical figures and literary figures. It does that through interaction. Kids can actually interact with the historical figures in the virtual world and learn about them."

"We were looking for a way for get kids to get involved with history and for them to really connect with it. And SecretBuilders is great because it gives them this virtual world which all of our kids are so familiar with...They're familiar with that format and that platform. So what's great with SecretBuilders is that not only is it a virtual world, but it's a rich learning world because they run into all of these historical characters and literary figures."

Check out Kelly's blog at iLearn Technology for more great teaching ideas.