Portable North Pole

One Tech teacher in my PLN posted this website. Thank you, Cindy!

The site is Portable North Pole. Basically, this site allows you to create a video message from Santa to a toddler, child, or adult. It allows you to customize it with 3 pictures of the recipient as well as a picture of a gift they want for Christmas.

Here is a link to the video I made for my son this year.

Again, if you are a teacher and don't have time to create a video for each student, email this site to the parents. To create the video, you simply fill in the child's name and some personal info such as what they have been good at this year, what they need to keep working on, and age, eye color, etc.  Such a fun, easy, FREE way to get a message from Santa to a special child in your life. Enjoy! 

Learn Chinese from Real Teachers in China

myChinese360 is a K–12-approved language learning program offering for-credit online Mandarin classes. The program’s U.S.- and China-based teachers use innovative educational technologies to connect with American students in real-time, creating a virtual classroom experience. All of the standards-based courses for middle school and high school (elementary coming soon) are built around curricular materials following the five Cs (National Standards in Foreign Language Education) from ACTFL. From whiteboards to role-playing, the Web-based, teacher-led virtual classrooms have all the features found in traditional settings. Partners include the College Board for Advanced Placement and the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) Mandarin Initiative.
Click Here for More Information

Websites I found interesting (weekly)

• Photo editor online - Pixlr.com edit image

  image editing that can be used for visual literacy
  projects. It is a great tool if you need to manipulate images and don't
  want to spend lots of money on an image editor.

  tags: web2.0 photoshop editor photos image

• Kindergarten Worksheets - Free Printable Kindergarten Activities. Create Fun Lesson Plans.

  tags: kindergarten worksheets free

• Iloveturkeys - home

  tags: thanksgiving recipes pln

• Video Converter - Best & 100%FREE Video Converter | Hamster Free Download Video, DivX & YouTube Converter

  Allows you to convert between multiple formats, including WMV for Movie
  maker, and change the settings as you need. Can also strip video and
  convert audio files.

  tags: converter software free video convert

• Free Video Converter, Video Converter, AVI Converter, 3GP Converter, Free Video Downloader, Facebook Video Downloader, YouTube Downloader

  Allows you to convert between multiple formats, including WMV for Movie
  maker, and change the settings as you need. Can also strip video and
  convert audio files.

  tags: converter software free video convert

• Debt Ski | InDebtEd

  The Game DebtSki

  tags: economics finance math game financialliteracy fun

• YouCanBook.Me

  online schedule maker that is linked with Google Calendar.

  tags: Schedule conferences google_calendar

• Create Great-Looking Interactive Quizzes (in minutes) - embed in any website / blog!

  * is free.
  * is very easy to use.
  * has many uses across all age groups and subject areas.
  * could be used to monitor and assess student learning.

  tags: assessment quiz mystudiyo

• Gratitude

  tags: thanksgiving

• Podcast Generator - Open Source Podcast Publishing Solution

  "Podcast Generator is a free web based podcast publishing script written in PHP: upload media files (audio-video) via a web form along with episode information and automatically create podcast w3c-compliant feed including iTunes specific tags. It also features a comprehensive web administration."

  tags: podcasting podcast generator itunes

• thekinderkids - Reading

  tags: reading earlylearners

• WatchKnow Classroom - Make Your Own Free Video Site!

  tags: watchknow

• :: e-Learning for Kids ::

  free e-courses for kids all around the world. This site has engaging and interactive courses for kids in online safety, computer skills such as using Google, typing, and core subjects like language arts, math, and science. Most of the courses are for elementary school-aged children, and involve dynamic avatars, and are highly interactive.

  tags: web2.0 math languagearts scienceexperiments e-learning

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

Create Multimedia Presentations

Adobe has launched a new multimedia authoring tool for education. Project Rome for Education allows students and educators to create multimedia presentations that include text, video, audio, images, animation and interactivity. Its layout engine, which resembles the one found in Adobe’s professional page layout tool, InDesign, provides a full range of typeface and formatting controls, as well as paragraph controls, text flow from one text box to another and text wrap for automatically wrapping copy around images and other page elements. It also offers drawing tools and a Flash-like timeline for animating elements based on various parameters, such as opacity, position, rotation and other transformations. Adobe is looking for schools to participate in pilot programs using the software, especially those schools that have adopted Google’s Apps for Education or the open-source learning management system Moodle.
Click Here for More Information