Thursday, September 30, 2010
Martin Institute Presentations
Just got this email from Clif Mims, Director of the Martin Institute, where I am doing three presentations tomorrow.
"I wanted to make you aware that nearly all workshops and presentations during the Martin Institute Fall Conference will be streaming live to the Internet at http://bit.ly/micon103. The theme is Teaching for Tomorrow, and the keynotes, workshops, and activities will focus on promoting 21st century skills."
~~Enjoy either tonight or tomorrow!
~~GB
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Free History Poster
I just saw this!
~~Enjoy!
~~GB
"Are you a K-12 U.S. history or social studies teacher, librarian, or teacher educator? Looking for ways to promote thoughtful, critical reading of primary and secondary sources in the classroom? Teachinghistory.org now offers a poster to help you out!"
"Our double-sided color poster features definitions of primary and secondary sources and guides students through the process of historical inquiry. What questions should you ask when examining a primary source? Where should you look for reliable secondary sources? How do you use the evidence you've gathered to make an argument?"
Monday, September 27, 2010
Change the World
The money will be donated to a charity that site visitors, Twitter-folk, and Facebook friends decide on when they vote for the charity of their choice the week following November 25th. There is no catch or gimmick. This is a way for me to give back and hopefully inspire others to help me do the same.
Click here to watch a quick video explaining the whole concept.
We would love your help to spread the message in any way you can. If you have a blog or website you can grab the Change the World badge and embed it on your own blog or website.
Click here to grab the embed code for your site.
If you are on Twitter and/or Facebook make sure you tell your friends/followers to go to www.eduTecher.net between NOW and November 25th to help make a difference.
I appreciate all your help in getting the work out there
and make a difference as we Change the World.
Great Internet Safety Resource
It website was worth my paying my own flight to Denver!
This website offers an animated lesson on cyberbullying and an animated lesson about online safety. These lessons features our favorite ol' friend Garfield. Students watch a cartoon, take a quiz, then attempt to apply their knowledge to scenarios.
As you know, student should receive lessons about Internet safety. Here in Tennesse, Internet Safety lessons are required. Internet Safety With Professor Garfield provides a wonderful set of student lessons, and also Teachers can download a teaching guide and individual printable certificates of completion for their students.
There are more resources available through this website that will help with language arts and math skills.
This is a great resource for parents and teachers to use with their children.
Enjoy and use it!
~~GB
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Websites I found interesting (weekly)
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iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Um-bloom-ra Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Keyboarding Games for Kids - Learning to Type Games for Kids
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Progressive Phonics - Progressive Phonics
Free Phonics books
Progressive Phonics is a free series of ebooks that teachers and parents can use to help their students learn to read and write. Progressive Phonics offers free ebooks that cover everything from learning the alphabet to learning to write to learning the construction of words and sentences. As the name implies, Progressive Phonics arranges the series of free ebooks to build upon each other. You do have to register for the service, but once you do you can download the ebooks. -
Myers Briggs Personality Test MBTI Personality Types
tags: myers-briggs personality MyersBriggs
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Solve Puzzles for Science | Foldit
Apparently so. A crowd-sourced game-based effort to figure out how proteins
fold. You should definitely have students in your school who are interested
in biology take a look
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
New Parent Place
Today we launched our new Parents’ Place webpage filled with resources and information about television, electronic media and online safety. We also link to other sites with great information for parents. For just one example, click on the link to Net Cetera for practical tips for talking to your children about being online.
We have three categories of online resources:
• TV and Parental Controls – Learn about children’s television; how to use TV ratings, how to block objectionable programming, and how to report obscenity as well as indecency and profane language on broadcast television and radio.
• Children’s Safety – Discover information about protecting your children online. Visit OnGuard Online, learn how to discourage your teen from distracted driving, learn about Amber Alerts, and more.
• Media and Childhood Obesity – This page includes fun links to LetsMove.gov with challenges to get kids moving and information on good nutrition. You can also click on Sesame Workshop where you’ll find entertaining ways to teach young children about health and good nutrition.
Want to find television programs for your kids? Type in your zip code to find local broadcast instructional and educational programs in your area. We also have a link to PBS - so you can find the local times of your child’s favorite PBS show.
We encourage parents to share their practical ideas and insights related to children and communications. So the website provides a forum for parents and caregivers to share practical ideas about online safety, safe driving and blocking inappropriate content. Let us know if there are other topics you would like us to add to the discussion list.
If you want to dig deeper, take a look at the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, especially the chapter on education. And make sure to check out the video of Chairman Genachowski talking with Elmo about the importance of high-speed internet access. Elmo wants the Internet to be fast, fast, fast!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Google Issues Family Safety Center
You can probably tell I am on a theme of finding good Internet Safety Resouces. I have a few more to share!
Enjoy!
~~GB
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Websites I found interesting (weekly)
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paper.li – read Twitter as a daily newspaper
"paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag.
A great way to stay on top of all that is shared by the people you follow - even if you are not connected 24/7 !" -
Google Apps Marketplace - Grockit Learning Platform
"Free through the end of 2010 to K-12 schools and universities. Normally priced at $99.99 per student. "
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a great blog with historical recipes and information about them that can support a unit of study, or be given as homework so parents and students can cook (and learn!) together
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Google Historical Voyages and Historical Events
Also sent a collection of projects being done by different schools; some use
Google Earth; others use Google Maps.
The site has had over 15,000 visitors. You might want to use it. Schools
are from several different states and different countries.
Some of the topics include explorers, history of students' local communities
(very popular), heroes and courageous people.
Some of the GCT's have submitted projects to this site.tags: google googleearth socialstudies history earth voyages
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Download details: "Own Your Space--Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online" Digital Book for Teens
"Help teens ‘own their space’ online. Whether you are a parent, caregiver, or educator, you can keep up with the latest computer and online safety issues and help kids learn to avoid them. In partnership with security expert and author, Linda McCarthy, we offer a free downloadable version of her new book, “Own Your Space – Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online.” Written for computer and Internet savvy “tweens” and teens specifically, this book is also a useful resource for the adults they rely on."
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Rethinking Student Motivation Free Download from the Authors of Disrupting Class
Posted by The Innovative Educator
Thursday, September 16, 2010
More Constitution Resources
September 17 is Constitution Day. All public schools that get federal funds are required to have an exercise about the Constitution. That makes it a teachable moment for other schools as well as there is
going to be publicity starting this week about the event.
Here are some links to lessons and activities and free resources to help:
http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/constitution-resources.html
videos about the Constitution:
http://www.watchknow.org/SearchResults.aspx?SearchText=constitution
More Constitution Resources
Constitution Day Lesson Plans
National Constitution Day is coming up (September 17th). It can be challenging to come up with something for Constitution Day. For one thing, it kind of sneaks up on you right at the beginning of the school year when you are still getting classroom routines under way. This is why I am bringing it up a bit early here, so you have time to get prepared. For another, lesson plans on the constitution tend to be (quite properly) serious lengthy things for older students, not the equivalent of making paper models of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria for Columbus Day. All educational institutions receiving federal funds are required to teach lessons on the constitution on National Constitution Day (Pub L 108-447), but that doesn't mean that your classroom will actually be studying the constitution at that time, or that it would fit into your curriculum to do so. Accordingly, I'm going to offer you some links to brief lessons that you can jigsaw in on the 17th, and hark back to when it is appropriate.
TCR's U.S. Constitution Thematic Unit is another excellent choice for elementary school classrooms. Here is a sample from the book in PDF format. If you don't already have a copy, you might like poster of the constitution for your classroom. Finally, here are the words to Schoolhouse Rock's "I'm Just a Bill," because that is one of the most frequent requests for Constitution Day. Dave Frishberg certainly had a hit on his hands with that one. Here is the whole script, and a link to a YouTube video of it. Here is a lesson plan to use with it. These are awesome resources from a blogger, I used to follow when I was at a different School. WOW! |
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Constitution Resources from Thinkfinity
Great Resource on a Great Topic from a Great Company!
~~Enjoy!
~~GB
Monday, September 13, 2010
Free Download of ebook on Online Safety Issues
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=87583728-ef14-4703-a649-0fd34bd19d13&displayLang=en
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Websites I found interesting (weekly)
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Facebook (7) | Using Facebook with Students Becomes A Global Conversation via CNN
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tags: internetsafety cybersafety cyberbullying digitalcitizenship
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.instructions, templates, and best practices for creating a professional educator portfolio
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YouTube - SesameStreet's Channel
I ran across this today. Youtube has a moderator page on the top of
their website to ask Elmo questions.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SesameStreet
First, how cool to introduce kids to moderator.
Second, how cool to embed a moderator page in Youtube
Third, I want to know how to customize moderator to be able to embed
Youtube videos also :) -
New!
Google Earth for Educators -
Apple - iWork - Pages - Create beautiful documents in minutes.
Mac Only
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Stanza: a Revolution in Reading | Lexcycle
free, Mac and Windows
Reading revolutionized.
Forget carrying around stacks of books for school, work, or vacation. Stanza on your iPhone/iPad/iPod lets you hold a lifetime’s worth of reading in your pocket or handbag. Whether on a plane or waiting in line, your books are only a tap away.
Browse.
The built-in Lexcycle Online Catalog contains links to over 100,000 books, from classics to contemporary works. From Austen to Zola, the world’s greatest literature is all at your fingertips.
Share.
Have an existing collection of electronic books? Have documents you want to view on your iPhone? Move them onto Stanza iPhone/iPad/iPod by dragging them into iTunes on your Mac & PC.
Read.
Font sizes and colors, portrait mode or landscape, justification, line spacing, and hyphenation. It’s all under your control. Customize Stanza with your preferred style and enjoy distraction-free reading.
A million readers can’t be wrong.
Stanza is the most popular electronic book reader for a reason. Intuitive ease of use, unmatched customizability, and powerful library organization features all blend together to make finding, obtaining, and reading your books a joy.
Browse Online Catalog.
Browse from many online sources of books, and pick from over 100,000 books to download.
Flowing Covers.
Browse your library in glorious color with cover flow to bring the realism of a bookshelf to your fingertips.
Worth 1,000 Words.
Don’t like your book’s cover? Looking up other cover artwork is a breeze using the “Cover Lookup” feature.
Book Summaries.
Find out about the book before you download and read it.
Read Away!
Print-quality resolution, soft backlighting for nighttime reading, intuitive screen taps to turn pages. Immerse yourself in your book.
Find your Favorites.
Browse by subject, language, and author, or perform free-form searches for books.
Organize your Library.
Sort by title or author, or create custom collections to create reading lists and keep track of all your books.
Save your Place.
Stanza always remembers wh -
ePub Bud - Publish, Convert, Store, and Download free children's ebooks online for the iPad!
free, web-based converter
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Epub2Go - Convert PDF to EPUB - iPhone - Ebook - Stanza
free, web-based converte
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free, Mac / Windows / Linux
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Baby Connect: Track sleep, diapers, feed, nursing, milestones, medicine, growth...
a new app my cousins are using to track the activities and development of their first child.
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Copy of BrandCo Theme - Newsletter - Google Docs - Annotated
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Blog, Wiki, Docs?
This is a great explanation of each type of web document. There are some great examples at the bottom of the chart (Google Spreadsheet).
Here is a direct link to the chart: https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddnzwcn8_15g3jrbpdf
Sorry for the short post: It is my birthday. This Link is REALLY a good one, though!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Know a New Middle School Teacher?
Here is a post in her honor:
Our Special Resources for New Teachers
http://www.middleweb.com/mw/
We continue to add new resources to our special page for teachers who are just beginning their classroom careers. Among recent additions: Links to Teacher Magazine's Teaching Secrets series; ideas for new math and science teachers; and real-life videos from a U.K. series
for novices. Check back often.
from Middle Web newsletter
Monday, September 6, 2010
Google Phone Calls
Phone calls from Gmail
Now you can call any phone right from within Gmail. Dialing a phone
number works just like a normal phone—just click “Call phone” at the
top of your chat list, and dial a number or enter a contact’s name. At
the moment, this feature is only for Gmail users in the U.S. Calls to
the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of 2010, and
calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates.
http://www.gmail.com/call
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Websites I found interesting (weekly)
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Wordle
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Space Lesson Plans with Google Sky | My Fresh Plans
"Space Lesson Plans with Google Sky"
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Beth Newingham: Take Your Students to Typing Camp! | Top Teaching
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CyberSmart! Student Curriculum
tags: InternetSafety cyberbullying cybersmart
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book.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)
tutorial on how to use Diigo - good to send to teachers. excellent example of how to use voicethread for tutorials
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Free online typing test with touch typing tutorials.
10 minutes/day for 2 weeks
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TypingTest.com - Free Typing Test & Typing Games Online
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eLearning – Keyboarding with 4th and 5th grade students | School Technology Solutions
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eLearning – Teaching Keyboarding to 2nd and 3rd Grade Students | School Technology Solutions
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Keyboarding with 1st Grade Students | School Technology Solutions
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Learn2Type.com - learn to type online FREE typing exercises and typing tests - Typing for Tots
Start after Halloween after they have really learned their letters.
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Welcome to the iPod & iPad User Group Wiki
iPod & iPad User group wiki
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Curriki - COPYRIGHTANDOPENCONTENTWHATDOYOUKNOW_0
Open-licensed content gives an option for free, legal content that can be
remixed. I've found that middle schools students are very engaged in this topic, in part because they are content producers and copyright holders themselves. (See http://www.k12handhelds.com/blog/?p=188 for a discussion of this.) -
Educational Equity Center at AED >> Science: It's A Girl Thing
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YouTube - How to Use Knuckles to Recall Number of Days in Each Month
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Free Technology for Teachers: Comprehensive Lesson Plans for Teaching Copyright
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FedFlix : Free Movies : Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
hosted by the Internet Archive, is a collection of nearly 2000 films produced by the US government during the 20th Century. The topics of these films range from presidential speeches to agricultural practices to public health and safety. Some films are instructional in nature, for example there is a film for police officers on how to arrest someone. Other films are more informative in nature and some films are flat-out propaganda films. All of the FedFlix films are in the public domain so feel free to reuse and remix them as you and your students desire. The films can be downloaded or viewed online. Films can also be embedded into your blog or website.
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an option similar to Google's for finding Creative Commons licensed images. When you search for images using Yahoo's image search tool, you can select filters to refine results to show only images that are licensed under Creative Commons. The filters allow you to select filters for images that can be used for commercial purposes or images that are licensed for remixing and building upon.
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a great place to find thousands of images that are in the public domain. These images can be used in any way that you and your students see fit. There are twenty-two categories of images of which the largest collections are of animals, birds, and sunsets.
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more than 75,000 images that teachers and students can use in their academic projects. All of the images can be used under a Creative Commons license that requires you to give proper attribution when necessary. You can find images by using the search box or you can browse through more than 800 portfolios and groups organized by subject.
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Pictures of Animals -- Animal Photos!
a great source of Creative Commons licensed photos of animals. All of the photos are categorized by animal. Each image indicates the type of Creative Commons license associated with the picture. Animal Photos also offers advice on giving attribution for each photo.
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morgueFile free photos for creatives by creatives
free photos with license to remix. The Morgue File photo collection contains thousands of images that anyone can use for free in academic or commercial presentations. The image collection can be searched by subject category, image size, color, or rating. Morgue File is more than just a source for free images. The Morgue File also features a "classroom" where visitors can learn photography techniques and get tips about image editing.
tags: photos morguefile graphics
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a video website designed and maintained by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The purpose of Art Babble is to provide a place for people to learn about the creation of art, artists, and collections through quality video productions. Visitors to Art Babble will find videos related to many forms of and formats for art. Browse the video channels and you'll find videos covering a wide array of topics including abstract art, European Art and Design, African Art, graphic design, glass, sculpture, surrealism, and much more.
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Copyright Criminals - For Educators - ITVS
Here is a link to free, downloadable lesson plans and video modules for the
film Copyright Criminals, including a module about Clyde Stubblefield's
famous "Funky Drummer" drum roll: -
Educational Technology and Life » Blog Archive » Quick and Easy Mail Merge in Google Docs
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The power of video to inspire and move us in less than three minutes is amazing. This video by Nick Vujicic ("Are You Going To Finish Strong?) can help anyone get some perspective on their life and day, as well be inspired.
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Day 1 experiences with a class blog on 21classes « Moving at the Speed of Creativity
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Free Technology for Teachers: BlogBooker - Turn Your Blog to a PDF Book
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is a free service that allows you to turn your the contents of your Blogger blog into a PDF. Using BlogBooker is a fairly straight-forward process.
BlogBooker walks you through each step of the process except for the very first step which might sound a little too "techy" for some Blogger users, but it's actually quite easy. The first step in using BlogBooker is to export the contents of your blog as an XML file. This is actually easy to do in Blogger. Step one is to open the "settings" menu of your Blogger blog. Step two is to select "export blog" under "basic" menu. Step three is to click "download." Don't worry, exporting the contents of your blog will not remove any content from your blog. After you've completed the export process, jump over to BlogBooker and follow their directions for completing the transition from XML file to PDF.
A quick note about the process on BlogBooker, you might want to consider turning off some the additional BlogBooker such as "ToC" and "Header/Footer" unless you want to save that data. -
Critical thinking In the classroom
From Microsoft
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tags: wikis blog docs GoogleDocs
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Plagiarism: Avoiding, Stopping and Detecting
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Free Researh Skills Guide
Reposted from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/08/developing-critical-thinking-through.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Today I got an email update from Larry and WatchKnow. It included mentioning in this Resource Shelf blog:
"Finally, one more freebie that we love not only for the content it aggregates but also for its search. WatchKnow from Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of Citizendium) and many volunteers including librarians.
Here you’ll find free educational videos from a number of sources plus added metadata that helps make the content more easily discovered and retrieved. Even a quick look at the homepage shows how easy it is to search and/or drill down into the growing collection. You’ll also see that using a slider you can narrow by age group. Links to other sources (like TeacherTube) are provided and limit to “school accessible” material that will remove results (just to be safe from YouTube and Google Video). To keep current with new videos as they’re being added we suggest subscribing to this RSS feed."
If you have not logged into Watch Know, do it now. It is a super great resource for teachers. Their videos are excellent and can be seen behind the "You Tube blocker."
Go there now! Register and upload your own videos!