Sunday, March 29, 2009

Websites I found interesting (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Websites I found interesting (weekly)

  • Engage Students in History
    With the interest surrounding the election and inauguration of President Barack Obama, the recently launched free, interactive Web site PrezQuest may be a good way to keep young people interested in the history of U.S. presidents. Participants are guided through a series of president-related games and trivia by a host via a Web cam. Cartoon presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson explain how the Electoral College works, the requirements for being president and the general election, among other, related topics. Participants then play games in which they use the information they’ve learned to score points and proceed deeper into the event. For young children who want to learn more about the history of the presidency, PrezQuest educates while still being fun and engaging. There is a home version for students and parents and a classroom version that teachers can use in school.

    tags: Presidents, interactive, SocialStudies, fun


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Websites I found interesting (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Twenty-first Century Skills (continued)

AND NOW...A bit of humor from my PLN.... ENJOY A Chuckle today!
In a discussion on 21st Century schools among Independent School leaders, Bill posted, "Just a piece of context here -- last year, I found a video in the Prelinger Archives giving instructions on using a new technology"
http://funnymonkey.com/dont-jiggle-switch-hook


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Friday, March 13, 2009

Developing your own PLN? Choose Mr. Byrne's blog!

To develop your PNL, judiciously choose valuable resources to come to your InBox.
I found out about a fun website that students can use to create their own cartoon myth story.

Sign up for your own posts from Mr. Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers. I always get just what I need, even though I didn't know I needed it!

The Myths and Legends story creator is a more than just your typical drag and drop cartoon builder. Myths and Legends allows students to create sound effects to insert into their stories.

Beyond the story creator, Myths and Legends has a gallery of animated myths and legends from history. The historical myths and legends are professionally built stories students can view. There is also a gallery of stories submitted by students.

Applications for Education
The Myths and Legends story creator could be a fun and engaging way to get students to write fiction stories. The galleries of Myths and Legends provide models that students could follow or draw inspiration from.
Post from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/03/myths-and-legends-story-builder.html

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Build a Folktale Machine

"Use the Folktale Machine to explore tales written by Rosemary Arca's Children's Literature (ENGL 8) students. About two-thirds of all the possible stories have been completed so if you get a page with no story, try again. Future students will be adding more stories until all choices are complete."

Click Start
Select Culture: African, Asian, European, Native American
Folktale Type: Cumulative, Pourquoi, Noodlehead, Wonder/Magic
Motif: Clever Trickster, Marvelous Transformation, The Number 3 or 7, Use of Magical Objects.
Find Folktale
Open Folktale

(fingers crossed) I hope your choice has been catalogued!!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Great PLN


I have a great local PLN (Personal Learning Network) here in the area. Our MAIS-TEC group meets about once a month. This past Friday we met at SBEC which is actually in Mississippi. First, we met a great Chemistry and Physics teacher who has set a goal of incorporating technology into her classes. She has done such a fine job and was a inspiration to us all. She shared her blog, how she uses her Wacom tablet, Jing, ebeam and more! Congrats on setting the bar high this year Ms. Skinner and best wishes for you and your students in the future. Your students will be well prepared not on in the subject area, but also, in how to implement uses of technology for their future studies. Best wishes!

Also, a shout out to my friends for a great technology integrators SIG. We shared great lesson ideas, Twitter friends and websites. I will share some of these resources in a future blogs. My friend Cathe shared a great lesson about using Excel to graph planets. She followed up with an email of the website and more details.
"Excel Spreadsheet on Planet Orbits. This is a GREAT lesson. The writer did a FANTASTIC job writing out all of the steps! He suggests that this is appropriate for 4th grade on up. I would only venture with a 4th grade class that has maturity and Excel experience. The 5th Graders completed this with little or no difficulties. The 5th Grade Science Teacher loved it. Even if you don't think you would want to do it with a class...I think it offers a visual picture on how planets rotate around the sun. It could be used as a visual teaching resource since it gives a visual of how planets rotate around the sun and an idea of the distance between the inner and outer planets."
Thanks, Cathe, I cannot wait to try out this lesson.

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobannon/2983755525/sizes/o/

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Websites I found interesting (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Websites I found interesting (weekly)

  • tags: squareroot

  • Math is Fun starts with the concept of squares. "To square a number, just multiply it by itself." Then introduces square roots, perfect squares, and the radical sign. " This is the special symbol that means ‘square root', it is sort of like a tick, and actually started hundreds of years ago as a dot with a flick upwards. It is called the radical, and always makes math look important!" The lesson includes lots of examples and illustrations, and concludes by explaining the guess, divide and average method of solving square roots without a calculator.

    tags: squareroot

  • 3 stars

    "Finding the square root of a number is the inverse operation of squaring that number. Remember, the square of a number is that number times itself." In four pages (called steps one through four) Math.com introduces perfect squares and how to use estimation to calculate the square root for numbers that are not perfect squares. The last step is an interactive quiz which worked for me in Internet Explorer, but not Firefox or Safari.

    tags: squareroot

  • Eureka! We've found the mother lode of printable square root problem sheets with this worksheet generator from Homeschool Math. When creating your worksheet and answer key, make choices such as only perfect squares, the number of decimals to round the answers to, the range of radicands, and the number of problems on the page. When you've found the combination you like, you can simply reload your worksheet to generate another one with the same specs. To make it even easier, six sample worksheets are provided.

    tags: squareroot

  • 4 stars

    Dr. Math explains two methods fo finding a square root by hand. The first includes three steps: guess, divide and average. Of course depending on your guess in step one, steps two and three might need repeating. Dr. Math demonstrates by showings all the steps involved in finding the square root of twelve assuming your first guess was two. The second method uses the Binomial Theorem and infinite series, and is probably not for most middle school students.

    tags: squareroot

  • Aplusmath.com: Square Root Flashcards

    5 stars

    Because math practice is so vital to learning, this online flashcard game is a sure hit. Each quiz offers ten perfect square roots to solve, randomly choosing radicands (the number under the square root symbol) from 1 to 144. Because the problems are randomized, you can play this game as many times as you like. For more math games, look in both the Flashcards and Games sections.

    tags: aplusmath, squareroot

  • Literacy, Reading

    tags: literacy, K-2, reading, phonics, betweenthelions

  • tags: tutpup, teacherresources

  • tags: bible

  • Protected Glogster environment for schools

    tags: glogster, education, web2.0, presentation, media

  • Free site

    tags: uptoten, elementary, free

  • Feb. 23
    - Light and the Reflectance Spectrometer - The Reflectance Spectrometer is a hand-held device that measures the light reflected off a surface. It’s easy to use, and students can use data gleaned from it to construct specific line graphs of leaves, colored paper, grass, or the like. It’s a “remote-sensing” light meter....student friendly! Lausanne - Dr. John Frassinelli (jfrassinelli@lausanneschool.com )

    Feb. 24
    - Google Earth Goodies - Captivate your students' attention while teaching content with Google Earth. Standard program features and creating custom files will be discussed. Gain ideas for lessons with this powerful software for multiple subject areas K-12. St. George’s Memphis - Gail Braddock (lgbraddock@gmail.com)

    Feb. 25
    - Flip Videos - Smaller than most cell phones, Flip Video cameras fit into a pocket and can capture student stories wherever they happen - in the classroom, on field trips, even on the playground. These modestly priced, yet powerful camcorders allow you to simply plug into any computer for immediate video editing and sharing. MUS - Terry Balton (terry.balton@musowls.org )

    Feb. 26
    - Show and Tell: The Digital Way - Bring Your Photos to Life with PhotoStory 3 - Photo Story 3 is a program you can use to create media presentations from your digital photos. With a single clic, you can tough-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add special effects, music, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Small file sizes make it easy to sent your photo stories in an email. All this and it is FREE! Hutchison - Whitney Miller (wmiller@hutchisonschool.org)

    March 3
    - Doc It! Google Docs Can Simplify Your Teaching Life - This session will demonstrate how to create a Google account and the process of creating and using Google Docs. We will also share ideas of how to use this to get organized and save time. A fourth grade teacher will demonstrate how she uses Google Docs with her fourth grade team for planning purposes. Jennifer Stover (jstover@hutchisonschoo

    tags: languages, interactive, learning

  • Posted: 19 Feb 2009 04:01 PM PST
    Finding kid safe videos on YouTube can be a time consuming process. Kideo Player makes it easier to locate videos appropriate for students in pre-K through second grade. Kideo Player plays a continuous stream of videos for pre-K through second grade students. When a video you like is playing, click on the the YouTube icon and you will be taken to the original YouTube source where you can find out more about each video and grab the embed code. Clicking your keyboard's space bar allows you to skip ahead in the video clips.

    Applications for Education
    As mentioned above, Kideo Player is a good resource for pre-K through second grade videos. Some of the videos have educational value like the "ABC's" video while other videos are more of a children's entertai

    tags: youtube, kideo, kids, video

  • tags: skypw

  • The Forward Thinking Museum is a virtual art museum containing more than 100 exhibitions and videos. Visitors can view image exhibitions or watch video exhibitions. The content ranges from subjects such as wildlife to architecture to people at work. The Forward Thinking Museum could keep you occupied for hours as you explore all of the exhibits. Visitors navigate through the Forward Thinking Museum by using their mouse or keyboard arrow keys.

    Applications for Education
    The Forward Thinking Museum could be a great resource for art teachers and art students. The museum could be used as an introduction to photography and videography styles. The Forward Thinking Museum could also be used as the centerpiece of a pairing and sharing activity.

    tags: museum, virtual_museum, art

  • This site was created by a voter registration organization who
    wanted to keep the young people they registered involved and engaged.
    To do this, they provided them with free online tools and raw
    materials through “America Now” and “America Then” playlists. Remix
    America encourages students to draw parallels between the present and
    the past. They hope that viewing seminal speeches and events from
    American History will inspire young people to express themselves and
    take action on the issues that matter to them.

    Teachers around America have stumbled upon the software and
    incorporated into their classroom. One teacher asked her students to
    take a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and apply it to the 2008
    election. Another asked her students to create PSAs on the issues that
    matter most to them – censorship, war, civil rights. You can browse
    through “Favorite Remixes” section to see some of these great remixes!

    tags: SocialStudies, America, digital_storytelling, media, mashup

  • NASA has done something similar to engage students in science,
    technology, engineering and mathematics. The NASA's Do-It-Yourself
    Podcast activity provides students with audio clips, video, and photos
    related to space. Students can use the NASA materials produce their
    own audio or video productions.

    tags: podcast, media, NASA, digital_storytelling

  • PrimaryAccess is a web-based tool that offers teachers and
    students access to digital images and other materials that enable them
    to construct movies using tools provided by the web site.

    Althought many of the primary source materials are photograph and
    still images, the tools provided on the website allows students to add
    motions to create a movie effect. I fist learned about Primary Access
    while listening to Glen Bull's presentation during the 2008 K-12
    online conference.

    tags: digitalstorytelling, digital_storytelling, media

  • rg

    This project is slightly different in that it not only provides
    the raw materials for students to produce a video, but also complete
    an advocacy event. The project requires schools to register and the
    topic is more focused. According to the project web site “Each year,
    Take 2 shoots 2-3 months of high definition footage in a different
    conflict region and creates extensive supporting and background
    documentation then licenses the package free of charge to qualified
    educational institutions. Participating schools will complete one
    small task to help grow Take 2’s infrastructure and undertake at least
    one advocacy event upon completion of their projects

    tags: media, digitalstorytelling

  • This website is not yet populated with lots of materials, but
    has promise in offering students free, educational, copyright-friendly
    media resources. According to the project website “Students and
    teachers around the world can access pre-made collections, or "kits,"
    of various digital assets - still images, background music,
    narratives, video and text. Each kit is built around a common theme,
    or curricular topic. For students, this becomes the construction paper
    of the 21st century --allowing them to create reports and projects
    filled with rich, immersive media for communicating their vision of
    whatever subjects they chose. AS they master the technology, they will
    progress from building projects with supplied materials to projects
    where they find or create their own resources -- a strategy that
    results in truly authentic assessment as measured by the projects
    produced."

    tags: digitalstorytelling, media, kitzu


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.