Time
for Timeline
Carl Sannito
As the computer
teacher for an elementary school, I often have difficulty purchasing
software for my students and teachers. Teachers at my school have
different needs each year depending on what they are trying to accomplish.
It also depends on what the students need. Some schools have new
teachers on a regular basis and the new teachers don’t follow
the protocol of their predecessors. You can see how trying to stay
on top of software is quite a task.
Another problem
is selecting software. Here a few things you should consider:
- You
have to select programs that cover the content that your students
need to work on.
- The
software has to be engaging, yet still educational.
- You
have to anticipate student needs for years down the road, because
you don't want to purchase new software every year.
- You
may have to purchase software for classroom teachers, this means
anticipating their needs as well.
Once
you know what your needs are for your school,trying to find software
that lives up to its claims can be a chore too. If this sounds all
too familiar, then this article is for you.
One of my favorite
pieces of software for students of all ages is TimeLiner.
This software was created by Tom
Snyder Productions. I have to say that although I am in no way,
shape, or form affiliated with Tom Snyder Productions, I am a big
fan of their software. Everything that I have purchased from them
has been wonderful. For starters, they are all easy to install and
come with well-written and complete manuals. The softwares use sound
and graphics to keep the children engaged, but there were plenty
of opportunities for small groups and collaboration. None of the
software was so complicated that it scared me away; I found it all
to be very intuitive. As for pricing, most quality software isn't
cheap; however, this was well worth the money. You can check out
prices on their website.
TimeLiner is
a very simple piece of software that does what its name suggests:
it helps you create timelines. The timelines can be simple or complex.
You have the option to create a timeline that runs in increments
of minutes (if you wanted to create a chart of the events of a particular
day or a schedule) or days or even years. You might create a timeline
of events in a story to create a graphic organizer. You could easily
use it to simplify events from a history book.
The timelines that you create can be printed out on banner paper
or regular 8 ½ by 11 paper (although you’ll have to
tape them together). You can even get fancy with them and change
fonts, explore different colors, shift events around and even add
graphics!
One thing I like about the software is its versatility: special
needs teachers can use it as well as general education teachers,
it is simple enough to use with fourth and fifth graders, but not
too easy for middle school students. And once the middle school
students learned how to use it, TimeLiner became another tool in
their tool belt. They found new applications for it in the classroom
and turned their teacher on to those applications. The program can
also be used with younger children, but you might want to use it
in a whole group lesson. With my students, I might work with a projector
for a whole class assignment. Alternatively, I might work with a
small group at one computer. The interface is somewhat complex for
primary students, but the idea of creating a timeline works with
every grade.
My favorite lesson was this January when my students created timelines
about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I searched the Internet
for photos from his life and I saved the image files on the students’
computers. Then we discussed important events in Dr. King’s
life. (This part tied in nicely to what the classroom teachers were
already doing.) We had to type in the events and dates, but we didn’t
have to do it in chronological order because the computer did that
for us! The students had to determine which events they felt were
important enough to include and which photos matched the events.
Once the students were finished, I printed out the timelines and
presto! we had wonderful graphic organizers which helped students
synthesize a great deal of information.
Tom Snyder Productions has a great website with resources
for users of TimeLiner. There is even a monthly
challenge which you can take. They draw monthly winners for a free
copy of TimeLiner. There are plenty of lesson plans and ideas in
the documentation that accompanies the software.
If you’re looking for something new to try with your students
or something exciting to try with your teachers, check out TimeLiner.
You can e-mail Carl at carlsannito@yahoo.com. |