Technology for Teachers K-12

Shutterfly Birth Announcement

2012-01-03T07:38:00.001-05:00

Check out the announcement made on Shutterfly! There is a sale going on to receive 40% off!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Holiday Activities for Motor Skills

2010-12-21T14:07:00.002-05:00

There are several online holiday activities that work well for reinforcing motor skills with young students. Here are just a few:

Interactive ELL Practice: Great for Vocab on the Promethean Board!

2010-06-24T18:14:00.008-04:00

Learning Chocolate is a wonderful resource for teachers who teach English as a Second Language Learners or any of the primary grades and want to reinforce basic vocabulary. If you have a Promethean board or an ActivSlate in your room, even better. These activites work well on the board AND you do not have to make anything! First, choose a category of basic vocabulary words. I chose "Animals 2" for the example below. Then you have a chance to review the vocabulary words: view a photos of the words, see them written out, and hear them pronounced (click on sound icon).

Then move on to matching. Click and drag the vocabulary word from the bank below and drag it into the box next to the matching photo. The best part?? The site is SELF-CHECKING! Just click the "complete" button and it will mark your work with red Xs or green check marks.

Next, another matching activity appears. But this time you click the sound icon from the bottom of the page, listen to the word, and drag it to the matching picture. Click "complete" to check your work.

Then students have a chance to type in the vocabulary word into the matching field under the photo. Click "complete" to check your work.

Next is the dictation section. Click the sound icon. Listen to the word pronounced. Then type the word into the field. Click "complete" to check your work.

There are many different categories of words on the site for teachers to use immediately in their classes. Don't reinvent the wheel. Check Learning Chocolate first!

Do we need textbooks anymore?

2010-04-29T14:53:00.001-04:00

Word Magnets: Great for Promethean Board Vocab Activities!

2010-04-29T12:56:00.006-04:00

Word Magnets is a free resource where you can type in words and then move them around the page against different background templates. You can use this idea to create phonics activities, vocabulary and sight word practice, timelines, Venn Diagrams and more! When you get to the home page, click the big arrow at the bottom that says, "Use the resource". On the next screen where it advertises the upgrading to Word Magnets 2, wiggle your mouse and another arrow will appear that says, "Next". Finally, you will arrive at a text box where you can type or paste in a list of words that you want to move around the screen. Then click "next". In the example below, you can see I made a simple sorting activity with long vowel words and short vowel words.

Here I made a sorting activity that would be appropriate for ELL or primary kids learning sight words. If you click on a color before you choose a word, the word will change to that color. Now you can visually differentiate words as well. There are several different template backgrounds to choose from: Venn Diagram, Webs, Timelines, Ordering, etc. Check it out!

Chemistry Education Digital Library

2010-04-29T10:21:00.006-04:00

The Chemistry Educational Digital Library is a wonderful resource to Chemistry teachers and students! There are 3 main areas on the site. First, there is a video archive of science videos where you can investigate what you are seeing and why it happens. Practice being a scientist! Then there is an interactive periodic table (see below.) While this is not my favorite interactive table that I have seen online, it's still another resource that may appeal to learners.

Finally, there is an area where you can view animated models of different common molecules.

At the top of the page, click on Collections and Community for additional links and resources.

Related Post:

Periodic Table 2008 Style

Conjugation.com - Perfect for ELL Classrooms

2010-04-29T09:23:00.003-04:00

Here is another great resource for ELL or ESL teachers. As anyone might know, conjugating verbs can be difficult when learning languages, especially in the English language. Conjugation.com is a website that will conjugate verbs in English for ELL learners. Type in your verb, and press "Conjugate". You will see a screen similar to the one below. Notice the tabs along the top of the screen. You can see the affirmative, negative, interrogative, definition, and examples of the verb.

For the tech geeks out there, you can also embed Conjugate.com into your teacher website or blog so you can have this feature built into your site! Cool! Thanks, Conjugate.com!

Sepia: Comparing Photos of Places from Then and Now

2010-04-28T12:14:00.005-04:00

Sepia Town is a website that allows you to compare historical photographs from selected major cities (see below).

Basically, you click on a city. Then you zoom in to see thumbnails of the photographs. Once you choose a photograph, click "Then/Now" button to see a side by side comparison of the present day photo to the historical one. In addition, users can upload their own historical photos to the site. While there are limited cities right now, I would imagine this site would grow over time so check back often.

Quick Translator Helpful for ELL Teachers

2010-04-27T14:51:00.002-04:00

Quick Translation is a site that teachers with ELL students will find helpful, I'm sure. Copy and paste (or type) in the words that you want translated and then simply pull down the window to choose what language to auto detect. For example, if you wanted to paste in Spanish text, choose to have the site auto detect "Auto Detect Spanish to English". The site will then translate for you and check it against Google and Microsoft Translator. Two heads are better than one!

Google Maps: Use "Earth View" for 3D Maps

2010-04-27T14:47:00.005-04:00

Most people are familiar with Google Earth, but it seems as if the Google team has now integrated Google Earth features into Google Maps. When you click on Google Maps, you now have the option to click on "Earth View" to fly to different 3D maps. Once you click on "Earth View" a random list of 3D places will appear for you to fly to! Here I have flown to Reichstage, Germany. Notice the building is being viewed from the side, and I can see buildings behind it.

Google Maps: Use Street View for a Virtual Tour

2010-04-27T14:43:00.003-04:00

Are you on a budget? Can't afford to travel to places with your class? Consider using Street View in Google Maps to virtually explore areas you can't otherwise visit. While this feature is not yet available everywhere, I was surprised to see it offered as many places as it is. Street View allows you to move the little "Google Man" from the compass rose directly onto the map to get a view from street level. Real photographs are strung together to create a "walking tour". Look around the photograph, turn around, walk forward, or walk backward within this view. How do you do this? Navigate to Google Maps. Zoom in to the city of the area that you are interested in. (If you don't zoom in close enough, this won't work.) Click the Google Man and drag him onto the map. If the street you choose is not available in Street View, it will tell you.

If the street is available, you will see a preview of the street above the Google Man's head. Drop him in place! When you are finished, click the little "X" in the upper right hand corner to exit this view.

Forvo.com: All the World's Words - Pronounced!

2010-04-21T15:23:00.003-04:00

Forvo.com is a great resource for foreign language and ELL teachers. Choose your language. Type in the word you want to hear pronounced, and the site will read it to you. I'm not talking about one of those robotic voices that doesn't sound anything like a human either. Forvo.com has realistic, human voices! Think of how this can be beneficial to ELL students as they try to learn pronunciation!

See and Spell: Practice Vocab or Spelling!

2010-04-21T15:04:00.002-04:00

Remember the old See and Say toy from years ago? Now there is a website called Spin and Spell based on the same idea, but this time children practice their vocuabulary or their spelling online! (There is no string or cord to pull to make this work! Ha!)

Basically, you start off by choosing a category of words: animals, transportation, food, clothing, and home. The virtual board will populate with pictures. Students click the picture to make their choice, and then "spell" the word they chose clicking the letters on the see and spell wheel. When they are finished, they can check their work.

If you're students are not ready to spell yet, use it to teach vocabulary! Click the picture, and then instead of spelling it, choose 'Show me the word". The picture will appear with the corresponding vocabulary word.

This is a wonderful site to use with ELL students or primary students, depending on what your focus is. Enjoy!

8 Wonders of the Solar System

2010-04-21T14:58:00.003-04:00

I stumbled upon a new site called "8 Wonders of the Solar System". It has breath-taking artwork from artist Ron Miller. and is structured to read like a tour guide if you were to visit these places. Some of the stops on this virtual field trip: the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's Red Spot, Valles Marineris - Mars, Geysers of Enceladus, Geysers of Triton, and a few more for you to discover!

Multiplication Fact Practice on Interactive Whiteboard!

2010-04-15T10:23:00.006-04:00

Learn Your Tables is a website from the UK that works well with interactive whiteboards or Promethean ActivSlates. There are 3 different ways to practice multiplication facts: Drag and Drop, Enter the Answer, or Assessment. If you choose Drag and Drop, your screen will populate with multiplication facts on the left and the answers on the right. Use the Promethean board to have students drag and drop the multiplication fact onto the corresponding answer. (See below)

If you choose to "enter the answer", you will presented with one fact at a time, and a keypad in which to enter the answer. This view also works well with the Promethean board. (See below)

Vimeo: Video Hosting Site

2010-04-15T09:27:00.003-04:00

As you may have read in an earlier post, I have been piloting Kidblog.org with an 8th grade English class. The teacher wanted the students to interview each other as a historical literary character and post the videos to their blogs in Kidblog. However, we were finding that we were quickly tapping out our 100M of space allotted by Kidblog. Even if the site manager increased our space, we still would not be able to host all of the videos on the kidblog platform. At the suggestion of the Kidblog site manager, we decided to try hosting our videos on Vimeo.com so that we do not take up our blogging space and we can then embed our videos directly into the post. We were pleasantly surprised to find Vimeo very easy to use. In addition, they grant you 500M of space a week! If you decide to upgrade to a paid account, you can get as much as 5G of space a week. One of the features that appealed to us the most was that the teacher could choose to make the videos private so that only select Vimeo members can view them. Another option was to make the video password protected so a user would have to enter the password in order to view the video. This feature works well with Kidblog since the students have to login to Kidblog to view the student posts anyway, and then they can enter a password to view the embedded video. This helps with keeping the video secure. If you choose to make your video password protected, the embedded video player will no longer have the "share" button enabled so others cannot embed the video into other sites. Very nice!

Why is Promethean an Effective Teaching Tool?

2010-04-07T13:06:00.002-04:00

Safe Student Blogging at Kidblog.org

2010-03-30T14:14:00.004-04:00

Check this out! I ran across this site through my Twitter account yesterday. Kidblog is a site that looks to be a solution to classroom teachers who want their students to have their own individual blog, but don't want to have to deal with the student email addresses tied to the accounts, especially in elementary and middle schools. It's FREE and it allows teachers to create an account (with an email address), add classes and students. When a student is added, the child has access to their own private blog that is accessible though a username and password assigned by the teacher. No email addresses or private information is needed! The student blogs can be completely locked down so that class members can login and view the posts and comments on them, but the posts will remain hidden to the public. Teachers have the option to approve comments AND posts before they are added to the student blogs. Also, teachers can comment on student blog posts and make it private so that only the author of the post can read it. This is perfect for teachers who want to leave feedback on the writing process directly on the blog! There are more things that this site can do, but these are my favorite features!

Create Jeopardy Games Fast and Easy!

2010-03-18T18:32:00.002-04:00

Jeopardy Labs is a website that has an amazing Jeopardy game builder. It was built by Matt Johnson, an undergraduate students at Washington State University. His website allows you to build interactive Jeopardy games without PowerPoint and it is MUCH easier than PowerPoint. You do not even need to create an account in order to build your game. As Matt explains on his website: "When you save your template, you are given a URL to play the template. Something like jeopardylabs.com/play/your-title. You are also given a URL to edit the template, something like jeopardylabs.com/edit/your-title. Just type that into your browser when you want to edit."

Creating a game is super easy. Simply click on a category and type in the word to describe your category. Then click on a question with a point value. You will be given a screen where you can enter the question and the answer. Jeopardy labs puts it together to make it pretty. When you are ready to play the game, you can enter in the points of each team manually into the site before proceeding to the next question. Easy! I don't usually recommend Jeopardy because of the time it takes to create within PowerPoint, but this site takes care of that!

Quickly Post Student Work with Embedit.in!

2010-02-12T19:59:00.004-05:00

I was skimming over Larry Ferlazzo's blog when I came across his post mentioning Embedit.in for posting student content online. This immediately grabbed my attention since it is a question I receive a lot from teachers. Here are the highlights of Embedit.in:

No registration or account is required. Embedit.in asks you to verify who you are through other popular accounts such as Google, Twitter, Wordpress, etc.
Upload a document and receive an embeddable widget code to embed into your website or blog
The widget allows you to scroll to see the document, zoom in, or see it full screen.
You can choose to add annotations over your document before you create your widget
There are privacy settings: choose whether you want the document to be downloaded, saved, or printed
Finally, Embedit.in has built in analytics! Track to see how many people have viewed, saved, or printed your document and where they are from.

This is definitely a website that educators will find helpful as they build websites!

Children's Audio Books Online

2010-02-07T18:13:00.004-05:00

Check out the "Stories" section of the AOL Kid's website! They have famous children's books for kids to listen to online. Each word highlights as the narrator reads the story. They have some of the Arthur book series, famous fairy tales, and rhyming books. This would make a great learning center for teachers who still have a computer station in their classrooms. Plug in a headset, listen to the story, and complete a follow-up activity.

A Ruler, a Protractor, and a Compass, Oh My!

2010-02-02T12:10:00.006-05:00

I found s great interactive ruler, protractor, and compass online the other day. The site appears to come from the UK, and has basic tools that would work well on the Promethean board. Click the Compass tool, adjust the size, and draw a circle on the screen. Click the Protractor to measure angles, and the Ruler to measure lines. Use Pencil tool will let you draw straight lines on the workspace while the pen will let you write free form. I like that the ruler actually portrays the 1/2 line accurately. As Promethean users might already know, these tools are also located within ActivInspire, but many teachers have issues with the way the ruler looks in Inspire. It is not the same ruler they expect kids to use in math class, but the ruler on this site provides a good alternative.

60 Second Recap: Like Cliff Notes, but in Video Format!

2009-12-20T20:41:00.005-05:00

Secondary English students will be delighted to find this new resource called 60 Second Recap.

What is 60 Second Recap? According to the site, they want to "help teens (yes, teens of all ages!) engage with literature. We want to help them see it not as some chore to be endured, but as -- dare we say it? -- the gift of a lifetime. How? Through the language of our time -- the language of video. Video that's focused, engaging, informative ... and short enough to hold just about anyone's attention."

Users will find videos on major works of literature here broken down by chapter, in 60 second increments. Need an overview? They have it in 60 seconds. Need chapter one? They have it in 60 seconds. You get the idea. Novels such as Fahrenheit 451, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, Jane Eyre, Lord of the Flies, and Hamlet are featured.

In addition, the site also gives students tips on how to write papers so as "not to bore your teachers". That's something everyone can appreciate!

As of right now, the site is free. You can sign in if you want to post a question or leave a comment, but if you just want to view the videos, it's free. I hope that it stays that way...

Behold: The LiveScribe Pen has Educational Applications

2009-12-20T20:17:00.003-05:00

I recently received a LiveScribe pen for demo through work. Shortly after, the vendor came out to show how this pen could be used on a basic level, and how it could integrate into a classroom setting.

What is a Livescribe pen? The pen contains a small camera to record your movements as you write on special dot paper. The dots are almost invisible to the naked eye. You can purchase notebooks, notepads, and journals for your pen, as long as you don't duplicate the notebooks. For example, if you already bought and used "notebook one", don't purchase another "notebook one" unless you want to overwrite all of your previous work. Each notepad has different dot paper that the camera records. You can also print out extra dot paper from the LiveScribe website if you like. Within the dot paper, there are small controls that are embedded into the page: most notably: record and stop.

This is how it works:

Click record on your page during a lecture or presentation.
Start using your pen and notebook to write notes during the lecture
Click stop when you are finished.
If you "tap" any of the words you wrote during the lecture, you will hear what was being said in the room at that point in your notes.

No - the pen does not "speak" your written notes. It is not text-to-speech. No - the pen does not turn your messy handwriting into digital print (handwriting recognition). But imagine - you don't have to worry about writing EVERYTHING down during lectures anymore! For example, what if you decided just to write the main ideas and record the rest of the "details" using the pen? It would save your fingers from endless scribbling during class, and you will have captured everything you need to study. Upload your audio and notes to your computer so you can play the audio back on the computer instead of just through earbuds. Click a button to upload these notes online, get a URL to your recorded notes, and share your notes with colleagues, friends, or guests.

So how could this be used in the classroom? Think of all of the ways this pen could be used in the primary classroom.

Talking Books: Make your own living books! Glue a small piece of dot paper on a story book, draw a dot on the page as you record your voice reading the text on the page, and voila! Now students who have difficulty reading can listen to the book and follow along without an assistant.
Talking Word Walls: Ever have kids write the wrong word down even if they used your word wall as reference? Now record your voice saying the word on the bulletin board. When kids click the word, they will hear the word being read out loud. It takes the guesswork out of "which word do I need?
Singing Notebook: embed songs all in once place - in your notebook
Running Records: Record kids reading for fluency for playback for parent conferences or so you can code the passage more accurately later in the day.
ELL Vocab: Do you teach English as a Second Language students? Do you have objects labeled all over the room? Use the pen to record your voice on each label, so kids can hear the word instead of just see the word. Great for pronunciation practice!
Make up spelling tests: Absent kids take a spelling test with the pen, instead of you.

Do you want to see more ideas? Check out this wiki for amazing screencasts and ideas.

Flip Video Camera: Converting File Formats

2009-12-20T19:59:00.005-05:00

When the Flip Video camera originally hit the market a few years ago, our school system jumped at the chance to put them on the county bid list. It provided our county a solution to not having firewire on all computers since the Flip allowed users to download video clips via USB connection. Several hundred Flip Video cameras are now in our system. Teachers loved the fact that they could shoot video, connect the camera to the computer, drag the video onto the computer, drop it into MovieMaker software, and create multimedia videos easily.

We were stunned to find out that the Flip Video changed their file formats recently. One school I work for ordered over 40 Flips this fall and recently began complaining that the video clips no longer work with MovieMaker. I was stunned. Upon closer inspection, I realized the second generation Flips now exported their video clips as .mp4 instead of .avi or .wmv. MovieMaker does not support .mp4 clips!

After a brief conversation with tech support, I found out there was a convoluted way to convert the .mp4 clips into .wmv clips within the Flip Video software itself. I was slightly annoyed. Now instead of dragging and dropping the videos into MovieMaker, teachers would need to have their technology coordinators download the Flip Video software so they could convert their videos before they could use them in MovieMaker. I promptly made documentation on this new process.

Then two weeks later, Flip pushes out a new software upgrade that will automatically prompt users when they open the software to upgrade. Once they upgrade to version 5.0 or higher, they will quickly realize that Flip Video has taken out the feature to convert .mp4 clips to .wmv clips.

Really?? Does this make any sense? MovieMaker users no longer can use Flip Video to create movies. Thanks, Flip Video. We'll be looking at other video cameras for our bid list now. I hope you didn't need the business. You just took 3 giant steps backwards.

Interactive Numberline

2009-11-18T14:47:00.003-05:00

Ambleside Primary has done it again! In addition to their hundreds chart and their multiplication chart, they also have an interactive number line. The number line comes with 7 colored squares that you can use to cover the numbers so that students have to calculate what number is missing. This would be great on a Promethean board, too! Notice at the bottom of the site, there are blue buttons with options for different types of number lines: 1's, 10's, 100's, 0.1's, 0.5's, -5 through 5, or create your own under the section entitled "Make a line". Just specify the number you want the line to begin at and the increments to count up by and click "Go". You end up with your own personalized line! If it the site allowed you to display more than 11 numbers at a time, it would be even better.

The Math Worksheet Site has a number line generator, but instead of it being a digital, interactive image, it creates a worksheet that you can print out. The site does not limit the values you can put into the number line, so some number lines may print out very small. This is a nice option for teachers to know about who use number lines to teach basic math. If you have a Promethean board, you can generate the number line, and then use "Annotate Desktop" to write over the number line at the board.

Interactive Hundreds Chart

2009-11-18T14:31:00.006-05:00

Since many teachers in my schools use Promethean boards, I was interested to see if there were any hundreds charts available for them to use with math instruction. (I noticed Promethean offered an interactive hundreds chart from Promethean Planet for $7.50. I wanted a free alternative.) I found this site below:

Ambleside Primary Hundreds Chart

I really enjoy this one. Even if you do not have an interactive whiteboard, you can still project it from your computer and use it with your class. The site will allow you to add 3 different types of counters: circles, squares, and triangles. Drag them onto the chart to show multiples or practice counting.

Ambleside Scribble Table

The scribble table is multiplication chart from the same place, Ambleside Primary School. Instead of chips, use your mouse (or pen on the Promethean board) to "scribble" on the chart to make your annotations. This is a nice tool for quick multiplication or division practice.

Houghton Mifflin Hundreds Chart

The Houghton Mifflin Hundreds Chart is another option for classroom teachers. By clicking the paint can on the top left side, you can choose 4 colors to add to your numbers: red, yellow, green or blue. Now you can color code the numbers by multiples to help children see patterns. Click the empty can to erase color from a number, and finally click the broom to completely clear the board to start again. Even without a Promethean board, this can be an effective teaching tool when projected and used during math instruction.

Promethean Flipchart Bling!

2009-09-27T17:48:00.000-04:00

Did you know you can add animated .gifs to your Promethean flipcharts? I discovered this quite by accident as I was browsing the forums on Promethean Planet. If Blogger allowed animated .gifs, you would see the blue font above ("Flipchart Bling") would be sparkling and moving. But don't despair! Instead, add your animations into Promethean flipcharts to add some spice to your pages. Where can you get some .gifs? Try these sites below:

Glitter Your Way: Spice up your font

GlowTxt: Spice up your font again

Discovery Education Animated Clip Art: Be sure to read the license agreement.

Related Posts:
Promethean Baby Steps
Promethean Calculator Tip
Importing Promethean Resource Packs
Promethean Pen Troubleshooting
ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color
Teacher Led for Whiteboard Activities
Base 10 Games for the Promethean
Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies: Division online
Tic Tac Toe in 3D

Virtual Graphing Calculator

2009-09-25T17:46:00.001-04:00

I had a math teacher approach me this week with a Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus graphing calculator. He is an avid user of the Promethean board and hates to change to the document camera to show his students how to enter problems into their graphic calculator. "You'd think Texas Instruments would have a virtual calculator that teachers could use on their computer so they could show students how to enter their problems," he said to me. I decided to look around, and sure enough, there IS a virtual TI-83 calculator that you can download and use with your class. It looks just like the real calculator, and you click the buttons on it just like you would on the real thing. (Don't forget to click the power button on the image, or the calculator won't turn on!)

Where did I find this? At Video Math Teacher! Check it out, secondary math teachers.

Assistive Technology Software Worth Noting

2009-09-17T13:57:00.001-04:00

While at the MATN conference in Columbia, MD today, I had the pleasure of listening to Dan Herlihy speak on "Using 21st Century Tools to Promote Teaching, Learning, and Providing Support".

He mentioned two new Web 2.0 tools that I have never heard about before.

i-Lighter is a site that allows you to highlight within an existing webpage. The program can be downloaded as extensions within Internet Explorer or Firefox so that you always have access to the tool. It will also store your highlights online!

The second one is the Non-Visual Desktop Access program. This is a screen reader that allows you to point your cursor to words and have it read out loud to you. The best part of this program is that it's small enough to fit on a flashdrive and run from there! Yippee!

Vi.sualize.us to bookmark images

2009-08-16T19:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Hillary Andrlik's post on The Teaching Palette blog, I now have a favorite web 2.0 tool. Go to her post for a detailed description.

Basically, my new find thanks to Ms. Andrlik, is a site called Vi.sualize.us, which is similar to delicious.com. Vi.sualize.us lets the user bookmark and share images that you find on the web instead of websites. As Hillary mentions, this is great alternative to saving images on your computer and filling up its hard drive. I just signed up for an account and can't wait to try it. I'll post again later in the month when I have had time to review it.

Promethean: Using the Revealer to Control Information

2009-08-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

Within the ActivInspire software, there is a revealer tool that allows teachers to black out the screen, much like pulling a shade over a window. Using the ActivPen, the teacher or student can "reveal" the information by pulling the revealer from the bottom, top, right or left. Most teachers feel the need to pull the revealer up like a shade, but this will reveal your information in reverse order (see below).

However, by pulling the revealer down from the top, you can reveal your information in order and control how much your students see at one time. You can explain the first point before revealing the second one. Try it!

Promethean Baby Steps
Promethean Calculator Tip
Importing Promethean Resource Packs
Promethean Pen Troubleshooting
ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color
Teacher Led for Whiteboard Activities
Base 10 Games for the Promethean
Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies: Division online
Tic Tac Toe in 3D

Promethean ActivInspire: Calculator Quick Tip

2009-08-14T20:37:00.001-04:00

I found a cool new trick in Promethean ActivInspire today quite by accident. First, activate the on-screen calculator. Type in your problem and click "equal". Once the answer is displayed, you will also see the math problem typed out in small font along the top of the calculator. Click on this problem and drag it off onto the flipchart. You can now display the problem automatically that you entered into the calculator this way. This is great for recording multiple steps as you arrive at your answer.

Related Posts:
Promethean Baby Steps
Importing Promethean Resource Packs
Promethean Pen Troubleshooting
ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color
Teacher Led for Whiteboard Activities
Base 10 Games for the Promethean
Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies: Division online
Tic Tac Toe in 3D

Baby Steps: Promethean Style

2009-08-13T18:45:00.000-04:00

For the last two days, I have been working at a middle school undergoing renovation. Many teachers are going from having an overhead projector to a short-throw Promethean board, laptop, CPS remotes, flip video cameras, digital cameras, DVD players, and more. The staff has been receptive to the new technology, especially the Promethean board, as I introduce them to ActivInspire.

How did these staff members cope? They are learning Promethean software by taking baby steps. Each staff member is excited about different aspects of the software. They leave with their own little gem, each one different, and they will cling to it until they can add to their knowledge once this is digested.

What did the teachers take away? Here were some of their gems:

Typing text on a flipchart and using the fill tool (paint bucket) to color code text. This is great for categorizing words or phrases quickly in a variety of educational settings.
Count Down and Count Up Clock: using these tools to keep students on track and practice for timed tests.
Revealer: Using the revealer to reveal objectives, warm up questions, or tasks one-by-one.
Using interactive websites to enage kids at the Promethean board. Need a starting place? Try here or here.
Annotating over the desktop and word documents to utilize existing documents.
Math Tools: there is nothing like a virtual protractor, ruler, dice, and compass
Promethean Planet: Knowing there was a site for existing resources. Let's not reinvent the wheel!
Using white ink on a white background to create hidden messages or hidden answers to matching activities. Fill in the background with another color to reveal the "hidden" message or answers.
Utilizing resources in the resource library: interactive Periodic table and color wheel was a big hit
Grids and backgrounds: Just changing the background to graph paper, grids, or lined paper can create the setting for interactive success

Sorry for the delay....

2009-08-13T18:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting to the blog for the past 6 weeks. I took a short break from technology to get married and travel. Surprisingly, I didn't miss the technology while I was away.

Back to the real world now...

NECC: Stories from the Worldwide Scratch Community

2009-06-29T12:42:00.000-04:00

NECC Session: Stories from the Worldwide Scratch Community

Mitch Resnick of MIT discussed how teachers can help students learn to create, build, and invent in the digital world. Digital natives are comfortable with interacting with technology, but they tend to need support to create and build things with technology tools.

Scratch is a free download from the Internet where you use building blocks of programming to create stories, games, and animations and share them with the web. By utilizing the programming blocks, students do not spend weeks and weeks writing code. Instead, the focus of Scratch projects is on creating content instead of programming code. Most of the users are between 9 – 16 years of age and have uploaded a variety of projects to the Scratch website such as Barack vs. McCain games, advertisements, announcements, science simulations, birthday cards, games, and remixes of other scratch animations. But the best part of Scratch comes with the collaboration among users. By posting animations and creations to the Scratch website, users can take those animations and remix them into a new creation.

Before I attended this session, I toured different student Scratch projects in the Student Showcase section of the conference. I was amazed that I saw students as young as second grade explain how they create their projects in Scratch. The only disheartening piece that I heard from them is that most of these students learned about Scratch in after-school programs or Saturday school clubs. Ideally, I’d love to see Scratch integrated into the school day so that this program is available to all students.

NECC: Authoring Books with CAST Book Builder

2009-06-29T08:21:00.000-04:00

At NECC I had the pleasure to attend a session called "If You Build It, They Will Read It: Authoring Books With CAST Book Builder" by Loudoun County Public Schools in Virgina.

The technology specialists presented about Book Builder, which is a FREE tool that allows you to create books online to adapt to the needs of your students. It is a free online authoring tool for educators and students. Book Builder has three characters to guide student thinking as they read the book: Pedro, Hali, and Monty. Pedro engages the affective networks by prompting readers to actively think about the text. Hali engages the strategic network by providing hints. Monty engages the recognition network by offering models of expert strategy use and think-alouds. The best part about the coaches is that you can customize them to make them say whatever you want to help children with their reading strategies.

Book Builder was created with the "design for all" concept of Universal Design that focuses on three principles: Representation, expression, and engagement. A teacher creates one account but multiple students can use to create their own books. Multiple users can create separate books on the same accounts with no problem. In fact, if students want to work on the same book at the same time, they can as long as they are on different pages. Book components can include: text, pictures, and recorded sound. There is also a multimedia glossary and 3 coaches (described above) to guide students' thinking as they read. The iTRTs that presented student books from Book Builder also passed around the book once it was printed out. They added symbols to each word in the story in a binder so that kids could have a print copy and not just a digital one.

Tips for Authoring on Book Builder

Explore Books on Book Builder

Post any thoughts you have on Book Builder to the presenters' AT Tips Blog. For a link to their presentation, visit their website. There is also links to handouts of fold out pocket mods and videos on how to use it.

I'm Quoted on Common Craft's Site

2009-06-26T16:47:00.001-04:00

A few months ago, Lee LeFever asked for teacher educator feedback on his Common Craft videos that feature different technology tools. I enthusiastically responded since our county has been using Common Craft as part of our county-wide trainings over the last two years. One of my teammates saw that my comment was posted on Common Craft's website and forwarded it to me:

http://www.commoncraft.com/files/video_factsheet/Fact_Sheet_Twitter_Search.pdf

Having said this, I highly recommend using Common Craft videos to help explain technology tools to other people. Enjoy!

Promethean ActivInspire: Importing Resource Packs

2009-06-16T15:06:00.001-04:00

If you have downloaded resource packs from Promethean Planet and are having trouble importing the resources into Inspire, follow these directions to correct the problem:

On the top menu bar, choose File > Import > Resource Pack to My Resources.
Then browse to your resource pack and open it. You should see your resources appear in the “My Resources” section of the resource library.

I chose to have you put the resource pack in “My resources” instead of “Shared Resources” because you will be able to find them easier. Once the pack is imported into Shared Resources, you may not have control over which folder your resource pack goes to, and then you have to click through several folders to try to find it.

Related Posts:

Promethean Pen Troubleshooting

ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color

Promethean Pen Troubleshooting

2009-06-16T15:01:00.000-04:00

Please be sure watch your Promethean Pens carefully. It's actually a good idea to lock them up in a safe place when you are not going to be in the room. Also, when students come to the board to use the pen, be sure to check the tip of the pen for the nib. (See picture above) Students can actually yank the nibs out if they pull hard enough on them. Without the nib, the Promthean pen is disabled. If you find yourself in a situation where you have missing nibs, call Promthean at 1-888-652-2848 and they will send replacements free of charge. *Please note: it is better to call Promethean directly than to email them using their support address. They rarely repond to emails.

Photo Story: Adjusting Music

2009-06-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

There is an option in Photo Story to add music to your slideshow. However, some users have discovered that if there is already spoken narration added to the slideshow, the addition of music can overpower the narration. For the most part, it is recommended that you do not include music if there is narration in the show because it can be difficult for some individuals to hear. But if you find that both narration and music are necessary, here is a tip where both can be used in harmony. On the "Add Background Music" step in Photo Story, be sure to slide the "volume slider" down to the "low" end. Then preview your slideshow. If the music is still too loud, slide the volume slider even closer to the "low" end. The volume slider will only lower the volume of the music, not the spoken narration.

Photostory: Saving as a project vs. final form

Digital Storytelling with Microsoft Photo Story 3

Spice Up My Slideshows!!

2009-06-08T20:41:00.000-04:00

Are your students bored with regular lecture slideshows? Or even worse, are you trying to integrate technology by having your students create digital content, but you are stuck in having the kids create PowerPoint presentations? Time to spice up your digital content!

Alternatives to PowerPoint:

Promethean Flipcharts: For those of you with Promethean boards or ActivSlates, you should make use of downloading pre-made flipcharts from Promethean Planet, or better yet, make your own. Remember to incorporate interactive features so that students are interacting with the board.
Prezi: Unlike anything I have seen before, this site boasts that it is the "zooming editor for stunning presentations". Create your presentation online, and zoom into different parts of the lecture to create an interesting visual display.
Slide Rocket: This online tool allows you to upload photographs and present them in a unique way. It reminds me a bit of Cool Iris.
My Plick: Upload your PowerPoint file, add audio, and sync the audio to your slides to make an audio narrated slideshow. This is a good alternative for teachers teaching other teachers, or to make presentations that you want to post online for students to review content.
SlideShare: Upload your PP to slideshare so that you can embed them into websites, wikis, and blogs.
Show Beyond: Upload your slideshow and add audio narration.
Bubble Share: Slideshows from your pictures
Rock You: Add pictures, text, and music to these slideshows and embed in blogs, wikis, or webpages

Want Students to Create Digital Media?

One True Media: mix your photos and video to create a masterpiece
Photostory: Free download from Windows. Create picture slideshows, add audio narration for a better way to convey information. Students don't spend their whole computer lab type retyping their research into PP slides. Instead, they can record their voices to add their information.
Stupeflix: Turn your video, pictures, and text into professional looking videos.
MovieMaker: Capture footage from a Flip Video Camera or edit some editable footage from Discovery Streaming to create movies around a content area. Free with Windows - check your computer if you have a relatively new one. You probably have it already.
FreePath: Mix slides, videos, web content and more.

There are many, many more options, but these should get you started! Do you have a favorite tool for slideshows or presentations? Leave your comment to keep the ideas coming!

Photo from flickr.com - by scragz.

12 Essential Technology Tools for Education

2009-06-08T20:34:00.000-04:00

I found this article last week about the "Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration" by Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers. He includes free sites for:

creating documents and presentations
communicating
creating collaborative projects
alternatives for YouTube

This is a digital article which means you can turn the pages right on your laptop, zoom into the pages to read them full size, and click the links Mr. Byrne has embedded into it.

I tip my hat to you, Mr. Byrne, for creating a concise, informative document that many teachers will find beneficial.

Pixie Quick Tip: Gluing Stickers onto the Background

2009-06-08T15:45:00.000-04:00

Are your students frustrated that stickers are moving around in Pixie when they want them to stay in place? You can use the "glue bottle" feature to glue things to the background of your painting. Once a sticker is glued into place, you can now erase parts of the sticker or draw and paint on top of it. To glue a sticker into place, first add a sticker to your canvas.
On the sticker above, you can see that the green handles are activated when you click on the sticker. This means that the sticker is currently floating on top of the canvas. Any drawing or painting you will do will go behind this sticker. To glue it in place, click the sticker to select it and choose the "Options" tab on the right. On the options tab, click the "Glue Bottle".

Once you click the glue bottle, the sticker is stuck to the canvas so you can erase parts of it or draw on top of it. Now when you click the sticker, it will no longer have the green handles since it cannot be selected (See below) because it's stuck to the canvas.

ActivInspire: Using the Fill Tool to Change Font Color

2009-06-08T15:43:00.001-04:00

Did you know you can change the font color with the fill tool (paint bucket icon) in ActivInspire? As long as you choose a big, chunky font, you can change the color of the font of an ENTIRE word by clicking on any letter in the word with the fill tool. This is an easy method to make plain text on a flipchart into an interactive activity for kids. Have the kids color code text for:

Parts of Speech
Main idea/detail
Characters, setting, problem, solution
Keywords
New Vocabulary and Definitions
Prepositional phrases, clauses
Etc.

History in Pictures

2009-06-07T19:40:00.001-04:00

The American Image: The Photographs of John Collier Jr. is a site where you can see how photographs have changed since the 1940s. Also users can create their own propaganda to study how propaganda is used in the public within this site.

Picturing the Century is sponsored by the National Archives and spans over 100 years in history. In addition to browsing the pictures online, you can order reprints from their catalog.

The Way We Worked: a site that documents in photographs how the workplace has changed since the 19th century. Pictures of how we worked, where we worked, what we wore to work, dangers at work, and more are displayed.

Life Magazine: Photographs show current issues as well as historical events.

Create Stories Online: Digital Storytelling Sites

2009-06-07T19:12:00.001-04:00

Myths and Legends Story Creator is a great site for kids who love to create stories. Not only can you create stories with several backgrounds and clip art pieces to choose from, but you can also read and listen to stories that other students have written. Click "Play" to play the story and watch as the stories animate and you can follow along with the narrator. Try making your own and sharing it with friends!

Story Top story creator is an online application similar to Myths and Legends (above) but with fewer choices. The website utilizes a drag and drop interface where you choose backgrounds, characters, and objects. Add text to your story. Choose to save it to the Story Top account or send your story to a friend when you are finished.

Related Posts:
Read, Write, Think: Comic Generator
Audio Books Online
UDL Book Builder

Summer Math Practice

2009-06-02T20:25:00.000-04:00

The last post was about summer reading practice, so it only makes sense to follow up with summer math practice! Parents often ask me how they can practice basic skills with their children over the summer. Begone, worksheets and workbooks! Look online for some of the best math practice and manipulatives to help you work on your math skills:

Arcademic Skill Builders: Mostly math games for elementary kids
Fun 4 the Brain: games for multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division
ABCya!: Addition Games
Ghost Blasters: Practice your multiples
Mavin's Math Mysteries: Solve math mysteries
Kids and Cookies: Practice division and fractions
Base 10 Block Game: Fun!
Primary Games: Math practice, as well as other subject areas
Math Playground: manipulatives and games
City Planner: Practice with fractions
Division with 2 Digit Divisors: great for modeling to children
Division with remainders: related to the site above, but with remainders
Interactive Clock: Best practice for helping your child tell time

Summer Reading Practice

2009-06-01T21:24:00.000-04:00

Are you looking for sites to encourage your students to read, listen, and connect with books over the summer? Here are a few to get you started:*

*(As with any site, preview it before you decide if it is age appropriate before you give it to your students).

Speakaboos: Kids' stories, songs, games and educational activities

Storyline Online: An online streaming video program where Screen Actors Guild members read children's books

Big Universe: Read, create, and share children's books

Tumble Books Online: While this is not a free site, often public libraries will subscribe to this site so you can get the access code from them as well

Audible Kids: Listen to books online

Free Classic Audio Books: Listen to your favorites online

Loud Lit: Listen to classics online

Fun Brain Reading: Play madlibs or read online

Guided Reading Practice with Roy the Zebra: fun reading games

Childtopia: stories to read online

UDL Book Builder

2009-06-01T21:11:00.000-04:00

The UDL (Universal Design for Learning) Book Builder is a site where you can read, explore, create, and share digital books that build reading skills for your students. UDL Book Builder also provides three coaches that you can build into your books. (See the 3 little characters at the bottom of the book page?) When you click on a character, the character will speak (and show a text bubble) as it guides the students through different reading skills, such as predicting, clarifying, reading for meaning, etc. In my opinion, this feature alone is what sets this site apart from the rest. I haven't seen any site like this that allows the user to create the book, add images, and add reading coaches! UDL Book Builder provides links to free text, free images, free reading strategies, etc that will help you create your book. You will need to sign up for a free account to fully explore the site, but it's worth it!

Games for Elementary Kids

2009-05-24T16:58:00.001-04:00

With summer fast approaching, are you looking for educational games to recommend to your students? Here is just a partial list of some of my favorite sites that reinforce basic skills:

Arcademic Skill Builders: Mostly LA and math games
Brain Training Games: Keep your brain in shape
Fun 4 The Brain: math, LA and science games
Free Rice: For every correct answer, rice is donated to a hungry family
Math Playground: math games
Scrabble Online
Statetris: Like Tetris, but with geography
Spelling City: spelling practice
KidZone: games in many subjects
Kerpoof: great for comics and digital storytelling

Teachers: Be Very Afraid

2009-05-13T21:11:00.000-04:00

There are teachers who are resisting technology integration in their classroom because they don't want to change their teaching style and see no need for it. However, there is no denying that today's generation of children are completely different from previous generations. Reluctant teachers do not want to admit this because if they acknowledge that students are different, that means they will have to change they way they teach. This site is for all of those teachers who think they can continue with paper and pencil activities and still reach today's youth. Reluctant Teachers: BE VERY AFRAID. This site is actually called "Be Very Afraid". To summarize the site, I have taken a quote directly from their home page:

"Each year a selection of ingenious students - from primary to university age - are invited along to BAFTA in London's Piccadilly to show and talk about the extraordinary things they are doing with new technologies in their learning. During the day the students explain just what it is that they are doing. Each year is more ambitious; each year poses real questions for policymakers and parents as the ambitions of these 21st century learners, together with their ability to deliver on these ambitions, becomes apparent."

While browsing through some of the video clips from the conference, I saw some AMAZING examples of students using technology. A few things that I saw:

Students from elementary school through college using technology
Special needs students using technology (learning disabled, autistic, and MR)
Movie Maker for student made videos
Google Sketch Up for building design
Cell Phones in education
Satellite technology
Clay animation
Web Design in Flash, Director, Dream Weaver
Gaming in education
Pocket PCs

And this was just the first page!!

Is there really any argument for not using technology in the classroom? I think not.

Vote in Doodle for Google's Contest

2009-05-13T20:07:00.001-04:00

Between May 11 and May 18, you can vote for student created Google designs in Google's national "Doodle 4 Google Contest". Logos are broken down into age categories, and students were challenged to design a Google logo based on the theme "What I Wish For The World". It's definitely interesting to see how the younger generation views world issues. The winning logo will be displayed on Google.com on May 21st. Good luck to all the finalists!

Photovisi: Create your own desktop collages!

2009-05-12T19:34:00.000-04:00

Photovisi is a website where you can upload photos from your computer or import them from Flickr to create your own personalized photo collages for your desktop. There is no need to create an account or login to the site to use their services. They do not store your photos in their site. Just upload anywhere between 1 - 30 photos, choose your template, and Photovisi does the rest. Download your creation in three standard desktop wallpaper sizes, apply to your desktop, and you're done! Impress your friends! Now teachers can quickly showcase pictures from a field trip or special event.

Prezi: A New Way To Present Information

2009-05-11T20:08:00.000-04:00

Prezi is not your mom's presentation tool! Prezi does not just create linear presentations, but it also allows you to create a path between the information that you create, linking it in any order that you want. Zoom into the information for details, or zoom out for a global view of the presentation.

Link to a very quick prezi presentation that I made: http://prezi.com/64909/

I signed up for a free account, which does not offer me an option to make my presentations private. However, there are paid subscriptions available that has this feature. My free account comes with 100 Mb of storage. This is a great tool if you have key ideas or pictures that you want to focus in on quickly instead of having lots of text on a screen.

"Web 3.0" by Kevin Kelly

2009-05-11T19:20:00.000-04:00

It's coming - web 3.0. Are you feeling overwhelmed that you don't even know web 2.0 very well and now technology is moving on without you? It just might be! Kevin Kelly, from Wired magazine, talks about how the Internet will change over the next 5,000 days. It's worth pondering, especially if you are an educator resisting integrating technology into your classroom. It's painfully clear that teachers will be hard pressed to reach children coming into their classroom unless they adapt their teaching methods accordingly.

If YouTube is blocked at your school, copy and paste this video link and view it at home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J132shgIiuY

Animal Web Cams

2009-05-11T17:52:00.000-04:00

Looking for animal web cams to enhance your science instruction? Here are a few to get your started:

Animal Cams at the Smithsonian National Zoo
This page from the National Zoo has many cams to choose from including: gorilla, lion, panda, octopus, tamarin, leopard, flamingo, and more! One of my friends told me about this site, and now I can share it with you!

Monterey Bay Aquarium Web Cams
Monterey's site includes cams that feature otters, a kelp forest, penguins, and a live view of the bay underwater.

Biodiversity Research Institute's Eagle Cam
This is one of my favorites. You can choose to go to this page and watch 15 second updates, or you can click the preview window to see a live feed (recommended). I used this site with my class and we were able to watch a pair of bald eagles feed their babies!

RELATED POSTS:
SnagFilms
Biology Resources for Teachers
Food Chain Games
Make a Wild Animal
Way Cool Science Sites
Science Videos on Vimeo

Digital Avatars for Website: Oddcast PhotoFace

2009-05-08T17:07:00.000-04:00

Oddcast PhotoFace is a website I came across the other day that allows you to upload a headshot of your face and it will turn it into a digital avatar for you that can be posted to Facebook, downloaded, or embedded into websites. Once the image is uploaded, you can change your race, facial expressions, hair color, and facial hair (for men). In addition, you can add audio with a microphones, text-to-speech, or call it in by phone.

Multicultural Sites for Kids

2009-05-03T21:39:00.000-04:00

Kids Around the World is a site that allows you to "meet" kids from all countries, listen to their interviews, and see pictures of how they live their life in their part of the world.

Hello, World! is a site designed to help children learn foreign languages. Start with simple phrases and vocabulary and work your way up to games and activities to reinforce your skills. Some of the languages that are featured are: Spanish, Italian, French, Arabic, German, Russian, Chinese, and more.

MICCA 2009: Presenting on Web Blender

2009-05-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of presenting a poster session at MICCA 2009 in Baltimore, MD on April 23. I showcased different ways Web Blender is used in the elementary classroom by teachers and students. Since Web Blender creates interactive presentations and primary websites, it can be used in place of PowerPoint for students, and can be used as an interactive presentations for teachers trying to explain a difficult concept. Here are a few ways Web Blender was highlighted in this session:

Life Cycle of a Frog (Web Blender can show the cycle using action buttons)
Water Cycle
Student Poetry
Animal Reseach Reports

Do you want more resources on Web Blender? Check out these links:

Tech4Learning's Home Page

Recipes4Success (tutorials on the program)

Trading Post (search for lessons using this program)

Creative Educator (magazine from the company)

Microsoft's Surface at MEEC

2009-05-01T17:54:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of going to MEEC today (Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium) in Baltimore. While I was there, I visited Microsoft's booth in the vendor area where they were demonstrating a new product, called "Surface". Essentially the Surface is a small interactive tabletop where a group of people could gather around it for sharing or learning. Touching the surface of this device reads the location of your finger, so if you touch an object, it orients toward you. If the person on the opposite side of the table touches the same object, it orients towards them. This eliminates having "bad seats" around the Surface. I could completely see this being used in elementary classrooms. It's the perfect size for little ones and for small group instruction. It will be interesting to see how this device plays a part in education in the future. The only disadvantage I see right now is cost. It looks like a complete unit plus installation costs $14,000. Check out a demo at the Microsoft's official site. I also have footage from MEEC of the Surface highlighted below. What do you think about this tool?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4MpdH5efis

Teacher Led: White Board Activities!

2009-04-29T13:38:00.000-04:00

I just came across a website called Teacher Led and it's one of the best sites I have seen to use with interactive whiteboards in a long time! One of their pages is a list of interactive activities that were designed to practice basic concepts on the interactive whiteboard. At this time, most of the activities are designed for math, but there are a few for reading and social studies. "I don't have an interactive whiteboard!" you might complain. These activities would work well on eInstruction chalkboards or Promethean ActivSlates as well. Don't have those either? If you have a computer connected to a projector in your classroom, these activities can be just as effective. Let's take a look at some of these:

The first one is an activity where you have to find common multiples using a Venn Diagram. When you have sorted all of the numbers, you can start over with a fresh batch of numbers to practice with.

The second one allows you to explore the concept of symmetry. Use shapes or draw and color with the pen tools to make a design. The activity will automatically fill in the other 3 quadrants as you draw. This makes a difficult concept very easy to illustrate.

The third one demonstrates the concept of prime factorization. You have the option of choosing a number, and the simulation will break the number down into its factors. Remove the "leaves" over each number to see if you were correct in your guess.

These are just three examples of many activities that Teacher Led has to offer. I highly recommend this site to classroom teachers looking for ways to illustrate difficult concepts.

Related Posts:

Interactive Whiteboard Links
Games for the Interactive Whiteboard
Kids and Cookies
Division Online

Kidspiration Resources from the Company

2009-04-24T21:39:00.000-04:00

(I received this comment on an earlier post about Kidspiration 3 that is worth sharing with everyone. Thank you, Molly, for the great information and resources! ~Amy)

Amy,

We are happy to know that you are enjoying your experience with Kidspiration! If you are looking for new Kidspiration ideas, lesson plans or examples, please do not hesitate to contact us, or visit our website. You may be interested to know that we have several complimentary professional development Kidspiration webcasts that are archived and available for viewing at: http://www.inspiration.com/Educators/Trainer-Resources#archives.

We also have an upcoming Kidspiration webcast on May 14 - Keep Your Students Learning Till the Final Bell with Kidspiration 3 - http://www.inspiration.com/Educators/Events#Webcasts.

Thank you again!

Molly O'Hara

Inspiration Software

Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Administrators

2009-04-23T19:35:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of hearing Chris O'Neal, from the University of Virginia, speak this week at MICCA on the top 10 web 2.0 tools administrators should be modeling in their schools. Thanks, Chris, for a great session this week!

Here was Chris O'Neal's top 10 list:

Google Docs and Google Apps

Blogs

Wikis (see Chris O'Neal's wiki that corresponds with this presentation here)

Delicious (check out his delicious account online)

Creative Commons

Slideshare

Skype

Audacity

School Tube

Twitter

Photo by tsuacctnt

Kidspiration 3: New Features

2009-04-23T18:54:00.001-04:00

Kidspiration 3, the primary version of Inspiration, will be coming to FCPS as of this fall! Let me sum up some of the new features that will make a good program GREAT!

Improved Record Option (so that you an record your voice longer on every textbox, and not just one per page)
Easier to add text boxes
Improved Teacher Control: on the teacher enabled menu, teachers can lock items into place so that they are not accidentally moved and placed on top of other items.
Expanded symbol library of clip art
Symbol search: now you can search for clip art by keyword like in Inspiration
Word Guide: Look up word for definitions, synonyms, antonyms
5 New Math Tool Views!! (This is my favorite part): Color tiles, base 10 blocks, pattern blocks, fraction tiles, fraction boxes
Math Text boxes: write fractions, division, and vertical math notations
Step Work Space: allows teachers and students to show steps of a math problem in an easy to ready format
Cross-out stamp: allows you to "cross out" items when showing subtraction, division, or regrouping
Multiple Page feature: Now you can click through pages easily with up and down arrows, which allow you to open multiple documents in one window at a time
More curriculum content, lesson plans, and teacher tools

The best improvement by far is the addition of the math tools. You can easily model equivalent fractions, or multi-step addition and subtraction with regrouping. The base 10 blocks can be color coded to show the top and bottom number of an addition problem. Use the "group" tool to group 10 ones together to make a rod. Use the "break apart" tool to separate rods into ones and flats into rods. No need to use physical manipulatives when you are teaching! Think of how easy it would be to clean this up after math!

I summarized some of these features from Peggy Wood, a Technology Resource Specialist from Cecil County, that I saw speak at MICCA this week. She has resources on her page. Thanks, Peggy, for one of the best sessions that I attended at MICCA!

Discovery Education Goes Green

2009-04-14T20:04:00.000-04:00

Discovery Education has partnered with Waste Management to bring teachers and students the "Think Green" website, which they hope will people the rewards of recycling in real terms. With Earth Day approaching, this site couldn't come at a better time.

Teachers: check out the teacher resource section where you can find lesson plans on recycling, renewable energy, electronics recycling, composting, landfills, and the 4 R's: reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. Teachers will also find teaching activities, video assets, worksheets, puzzles, and more powered by Discovery Education.

Students: search the student site for puzzles, videos, and interactive activities that bring them closer to the world around us.

Games for the Classroom

2009-04-13T16:33:00.000-04:00

Looking for an educational way to fill a few extra minutes at the end of the lesson? Need an engaging, educational warm up? Maybe these classroom game websites can provide you with what you need! Many of the games on these sites also work well with your eInstruction Chalkboard, Promethean Board, interactive whiteboard, or Promethean Slate.

Novel Games

Novel Games is a site that promotes healthy, non-violent, educational games that the whole family can enjoy. There are several categories to choose from, and the best part is that the games can be embedded into your website, blog, wiki, or social networking site.

Eclipse Crosswords

Eclipse Crosswords is a software download, and there are many counties where teachers are not able to download software on their school computers. However, keep in mind you can download this software on your home computer and create your crossword puzzles there. This software makes it incredibly easy to create a crossword puzzle. Just enter in the words and the clues, and the software does the rest of the work for you!

Brain Training Games

Brain Training Games requires you to create an account with an email address, but this is so the site can track your progress. Login to the site, play the brain games, track your progress, and play against friends. This is a fun and easy way to keep your mind healthy and give it a work out.

Fun 4 the Brain

Fun4theBrain is a site for elementary students to practice basic skills in addition, multiplication, division, subtraction, and English. The site creator is constantly adding games to the site, and students do not need an email address or account to play the games.

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Earth Day Activities for K-8

2009-04-10T17:57:00.000-04:00

With Earth Day approaching, I found two sites that are appropriate for K-8 learners.

The first is Earth Day from Scholastic. Here you will find activities for K-8 including:

A Water Experiment
Recycling Game
Earth Day CyberHunt
Earth Day Math Hunt
and more

The second site is also from Scholastic: Kids' Environmental Report Card. This is a chance for kids to make their voices heard as they vote on topics that are important to them. You can also see the results from last year's Environmental Report Card to compare how issues are changing.

The World Wide Web in Plain English

2009-04-10T17:54:00.000-04:00

Another gem from Common Craft:

This is a YouTube video found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZoMbBzqxyc

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Siftables: A New Way to Interact With Digital Content

2009-04-10T13:55:00.000-04:00

According to the Siftable website, siftables "are cookie-sized computers with motion sensing, neighbor detection, graphical display, and wireless communication. They act in concert to form a single interface: users physically manipulate them - piling, grouping, sorting - to interact with digital information and media. Siftables provides a new platform on which to implement tangible, visual and mobile applications."

All I can say is - WOW! Where and when can I get some of these??

Pixton Comic Creator: Privacy for Educational Platforms

2009-04-10T13:13:00.001-04:00

Wow! I just came across a new comic creator called Pixton. (See video trailer embedded in my last post for more details.) Pixton allows you to create comics with the following features:

Make comics without having to draw and share them with the world or your private community within Pixton
Design and customize your characters according to skin color, hair color, facial expressions, body type, and clothing style
Add props, scenery, and backgrounds
Remix comics that already exist
Animate characters
Automatic language translator - 20 different languages currently available

If this isn't enough, Pixton realized the need for a private, educational space where students can post and view comics in a safe environment. As with any web 2.0 tool, there is always the danger of children coming across something inappropriate. Many comic creators that have been released in the past do not currently offer a privacy options to keep kids safe on their site (like Toondoo). Pixton's educational privacy settings is a paid feature, which runs about $1 per student per month and offers:

Reinforcement of literacy skills
Lesson plan banks where you can share lesson ideas with other educators
Private, virtual classroom
Password protected
Collaborative environment
Easy login - students DO NOT need emails to have an account
NO software installation
Unlimited storage
FREE upgrades
Customizable to add your school colors or logo
Teacher - student messaging
Permissions available to set exactly what your students can do
Fully customizable comic editor
Download comics as PDFs or embed them on sites online
Automatic Language Translator

I think Pixton will pave the way for other web 2.0 sites in the future. Check it out!

Pixton: Take A Tour of the New Comic Creator

2009-04-10T13:09:00.000-04:00

SnagFilms Film Widget

2009-04-02T21:48:00.001-04:00

SnagFilms allows you to place documentary widgets on your blog or social networking site. The one I have embedded into my blog is about Great White Sharks. The movies are shorter than the original ones that aired on National Geographic, but they are still high quality.

Pros:
You can link to documentaries using widgets on your blog.

Cons:
The widget links directly to the site itself and does not play within your blog.
The video will play 1-2 short commercials before the documentary that you cannot skip.

Biology Resources for Teachers

2009-04-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

ARKive

ARKive's mission is to bring together the best photographs and video footage of threatened species around the world in hopes of having a concise, organized database of these organisms. They partnered with some of the best wildlife photographers in the world so that teachers, students, and the general public may learn more about these threatened species and act to save them. You can search for species by their classification (mammal, amphibian, insect, plant, etc), and each threatened species you click on provides detailed information about that species.

There is also an educator section of ARKive, which I was pleasantly surprised to see has FREE multimedia resources on topics such as: plant life cycles, adaptations, food chains and webs, habitats, ecosystems, predator and prey, natural selection, and much more. The resources are PowerPoint presentations with embedded videos on the topic. This is truly a worthwhile site!

Biology in Motion

Biology in Motion is is a site dedicated to providing short animations to explain biology concepts such as: enzyme characteristics and intestinal gas. In addition, there are several interactive activities and simulations that give students practice with concepts like: Meiosis, Mitosis, evolution, digestion, enery, cell division, and the cardiovascular system. While this site is not as extensive as ARKive, it is a helpful supplemental site if you are teaching one of these concepts.

"Shift Happens": Remixed and Updated Again

2009-03-31T20:35:00.001-04:00

I think I have posted all of the "Shift Happens" videos, originally created by Karl Fisch. Here is another remix that emphasizes the statistics that reinforce why we need to teach students 21st century skills. Everyone involved in education should watch this - teachers, parents, and administrators.

Practice Grammar with Grammarman!

2009-03-31T19:48:00.000-04:00

Grammarman is a site where you can follow the story of the hero Grammarman, who saves the world from the evil villian, Sammy Colon. There are 6 stories written in comic strip style where you can choose to read the comic on your own, listen to the author read it to you, or watch it as a short movie on YouTube. This is great for English Language Learners! The comic, as you might notice, is filled with grammatical errors, which you have to find. Check your answers at the end of the comic to see if you identified all of them! I must admit this site is a lot of fun, and the creator of the site is a published children's book author and English teacher. Check it out!

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Kidspiration: Customizing Clip Art

2009-03-09T14:45:00.001-04:00

Did you know you can customize the clip art colors in Kidspiration? Why would you want to do this? Well, if a student is looking for a picture of a child or an adult to respresent themselves or someone they know, they may not find a good representation in the clip art library. When you add the clip art to the page and select the clip art, the colors that are used for it will be listed along the bottom toolbar (see below).

Once the colors appear at the bottom, click the skin color or the hair color to see a color palette so you can choose a different color for your clip art. This allows you to personalize clip art to be more realistic to what people look like. (see below)

Scholastic Keys: Spell Check

2009-03-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

When teaching students Max Write (primary version of Microsoft Word), remember that spell check works a little bit differently. For example, in the regular Microsoft Office when students are presented with a red squiggly line underneath of a word, they know that they have spelled the word wrong. Right-clicking on the red squiggly line would give the student choices of correct words to choose from. Right-clicking on the red squiggly line DOES NOT WORK in Max Write. When students see the red squiggly line in Max Write, they need to click the "spell check" button on the top toolbar to activate spell check.

**Please note: the spell check button is not available in Max Show (PowerPoint), even though the red squiggly line appears underneath the misspelled word. Max Count (Excel) and Max Data (Access) does not offer any spell check features at all.

Concrete Poems and Shape Poems

2009-02-27T17:42:00.000-05:00

One teacher asked me how to create a shape poem on the computer. The closest thing I could think of was with the poem builders online.

The concrete poem builder from the UK has many different shapes for kids to choose from or they can draw their own shape with the crayons. After the shape is added to the board, add the words to your poem onto the textbox so you can place them in the shape. When you are finished, print the poem.

The shape poem builder comes from one of my favorite sites, ReadWriteThink.org. While this site does not allow children to draw their own shapes, it does give them the option of adding text in an easier manner. The shape poem builder also has the option to print the poem when finished.

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Pixie Quick Tip: Exporting Paintings as .JPEGs

2009-02-22T18:39:00.000-05:00

When you save a painting in Pixie by going to "File" and "Save picture as", most users do not realize that the painting is being saved as a .pxi file (Pixie file). Therefore the picture you created will only open within Pixie software. (See picture below for what a Pixie file looks like.)

Instead, you will need to export your painting as a .JPEG, a picture file that will open in any application that takes pictures, such as Photo Story, Movie Maker, Microsoft Office, etc. To do this, click the "Export" button on the top toolbar and click 'Export'. Then click 'Export' again in the pop-up window so you can choose a folder and a drive to save it to. You're finished!

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Word Games for Elementary Students

2009-02-22T18:22:00.000-05:00

Are you looking for a fun way to practice word skills with your students? Here are a few sites that practice important concepts in a fun way, especially if you have an interactive whiteboard to use in your class.

Punctuation Paintball: Use the paintball guns to shoot correct punctuation onto the sentences provided. If you click the website and it asks you to register, choose "Maybe Later" to go directly to the game without adding any personal information. There are 3 different levels of difficulty to choose from.

Other games that can be used to practice word skills:

Quiz Hub: Homophones
Construct-A-Word (choose beginnings to match an ending to create a word)
Synonym and Antonym Game
Suffix Game
Prefix Game
Contraction Game
Spelling City
MadLibs Online
Roy the Zebra interactive word games

Base Ten Block Games

2009-02-21T18:26:00.001-05:00

Learning Box has wonderful base 10 block games that work well with your Promethean Board, Polyvision Board, or chalkboard. The first one practices making numbers between 1-999 using base 10 blocks. The student drags the blocks onto the mat, and when the correct number is made, the website cheers and the blocks dance around. (See picture above)

Learning box also has an estimation game with base 10 blocks. As you know, estimation is a difficult concept to teach to elementary school kids, but this is a nice way to show another strategy to master this concept.

Another base 10 block website to practice adding or subtracting numbers is from Arcytech. Even though the graphics are not as refined as the websites from Learning Box, this site has something that Learning Box does not: a hammer a glue bottle. Use the hammer to break apart a hundreds flat into ten rods, or use the glue bottle to glue them back together again. This lends itself to teaching addition and subtraction with regrouping. Check it out!

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Food Chain Games for Kids

2009-02-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

I just came across a food chain simulation by searching other people's bookmarks in delicious.com. Sunny Meadows provides an overview of the food chain, and then allows you to play a game to simulate what would happen "in the meadow" depending on how many predators, prey, and plants you decide to add. As the years tick by, you can watch as the population of animals increase and decrease based on their food supply. This is a great way to teach this concept. Even though the graphics leave much to be desired (see below), the idea is superb and so far its the only one I have found to illustrate this idea.

Here are a few other good food chain games:

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Science Videos on Vimeo

Visit Planet Science!

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Astronomy Sites for Classroom Use

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Earth Guide

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Make a Wild Animal!

Turning Off Overlays in Google Earth

2009-02-10T12:08:00.000-05:00

There are many different layers that can be turned on in Google Earth to provide your students with additional information. For example, Rumsey Historical Maps will overlay a historical map over the current image of the earth for you to compare. There are NASA satellite images that you can overlay on top of the earth as well. However, once they are turned on, how do you get them off? I tried clicking the link, "Hide this layer", but the overlay didn't turn off. (See picture of overlay below)When you activate an overlay, the overlay moves from the "Layers" window pane to the "Places" window pane. Once you find the layer in the "Places" window pane, uncheck the box to the left of the layer, and the overlay will be removed. (See below)

Photostory Quick Tip: Saving as a project vs. Saving as a final movie

2009-02-09T15:48:00.000-05:00

Many teachers are confused about the 2 different ways to save in Photostory. Let's take a look at why would need to save in different ways in Photostory.

1. The first way you can save is as a "project", which indicates you are NOT done with the Photostory and you need to come back to it at a later time to finish it. You can save a project at any time in the program by clicking "Save Project" at the bottom of the screen. (see below)

The file will have the extension .wp3, which stands for Windows Photostory 3, and it has the Photostory icon attached to it (see picture below). This is a signal to you that you have NOT saved in final form. This file cannot be opened it Windows Media Player; it can only be opened in Photostory. Therefore, you should only save in this form if you want a back-up of your project or you think you are going to edit it at a later time.

2. The second way to save is in final movie form. This will transfer your Photostory project into a Windows Media Video file (.wmv). You want to save in this format when you are finished because all of the media becomes part of the final movie and you can now show the movie on any computer that has Windows Media Player. It won't need Photostory software installed to play. To do this, you need to click "next" to arrive at the screen that says, "Save Your Story". See screen below.

At this point, it will default to saving your Photostory movie in "My Documents" in "My videos" unless you browse to a different folder (See step one). It will also default to naming your movie "Photostory 1" unless you change the name of it here (see step 1). If you have a whole class saving to the same folder, it's important that they change the name of their Photostory, or everyone will overwrite each other's movies. After you have named the movie and browsed to the appropriate folder to save it to, you need to click "Next" to finish the process. You will see the final movie with the extension .wmv and the icon will look like the Windows Media Player icon. (See picture below) When you double click the file to play it, it will now open in Windows Media Player, and not Photostory.

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Pixie Quick Tip: Opening a Folder of Pictures in Pixie

2009-02-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

You can open a folder of pictures at one time within Pixie software. As a teacher, this a great feature! You can have your students make pictures within Pixie, save them to the Student Drive in the SAME folder, and open them all at once. Once you open your pictures all at once, you can view all the pictures as a slideshow within Pixie. If you have a prejector in your room, this is a quick and easy way to share your students' work at once time. So how do you do this?

1. Open Pixie and click the "Share" button on the top toolbar. (See below)

2. Then click the "Open a folder of Pictures" button in the lower right-hand side of the screen. (See below)

3. Browse to your folder and click "Open". When you open your pictures, the blank slide will still be there. To get rid of it, right click the blank slide and choose "Close Picture". Now you can click "Start" to begin your slideshow.

Quick Tip: Recording Sounds in Pixie Software

2009-02-09T15:30:00.001-05:00

Did you know you can connect a microphone headset to your computer and record your voice in Pixie software? Many teachers and students overlook this powerful feature. Recording sound on your Pixie picture is a wonderful way to narrate a digital story, add sound effects for a descriptive paragraph, or practice fluency and expression. To record a sound, connect your microphone, click the red record button, speak into the microphone and click the "stop" button when you are finished. (See picture below) Now you can press "Play" button to hear your sound. However, if you click "Share" and view your pictures as a slideshow within Pixie, you can view your pictures in slideshow format and your recorded sound will play automatically. ** Please note: If you export your Pixie pictures as a .jpeg or other file format, you will lose the ability to play the sound. The sound is only attached to "Pixie" files: .pxi files.

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Movie Maker Quick Tip: Taking a Still Picture from a Video

2009-02-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

Are you frustrated that you can't find the perfect picture for your multimedia project but can find the image in a video segment in Discovery Streaming (United Streaming)? If you download the video and import it into Movie Maker, you can take a picture from the video! To do this, import the video. Drag it on the storyboard. Play the movie until you reach the frame that you want to take the picture of and pause it. Once the video is paused, you can click the button "Take Picture" on the lower right. Movie Maker takes a picture from the video, saves it automatically in "My Pictures" and imports it into Movie Maker all at the same time. Sweet! So if you can't find the images you want, make your own!

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Quick Tip: Importing Videos into Movie Maker

2009-02-08T18:05:00.001-05:00

Teachers often complain that they cannot import a video clip as one whole segment in Movie Maker. In order to get your movie to import as one segment, be sure to uncheck the box that says "Create Clips for Video Files", then import your video segment. (see picture below)

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Quick Tip: Muting a Video Segment in Movie Maker

2009-02-08T17:59:00.000-05:00

Why would you want to mute the audio to a video segment in Movie Maker? As a classroom teacher, this makes it easy for students to take a video segment from Discovery Streaming and record their voice over it with the facts that they have researched in class. To mute the audio of a segment, you need to be in timeline view. Then select the video, click "Clip" --> "Audio" --> "Mute". If you have more than one video segment, you will need to repeat this process multiple times. (See picture below)

Quick Tip: Converting Slides to .JPEGs in PowerPoint

2009-02-08T17:53:00.000-05:00

Did you know you can save your PowerPoint slides as .jpegs instead of a PowerPoint presentation? Why would you want to do this? Well, you would be able to import your slides into Photo Story and Movie Maker since both programs accept images. Keep in mind when you turn your PowerPoint slide into a .jpeg, you lose all functionality of the slide (No effects, transitions, or animations are saved). Essentially, you are taking a picture of your PowerPoint slide. To do this, create your PowerPoint slide. Go to "File" --"Save As". At the bottom of the window where it says "Save as Type", pull down the window and choose "JPEG File Interchange Format". Now you can import the .jpeg into any program that supports picture files.

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Interactive Dinosaur Websites for Kids

2009-01-27T14:10:00.000-05:00

Smithsonian's Virtual Dinosaur Dig is the perfect way to introduce kids to Paleobiology and fossils! Once you launch the game, students begin by unearthing the fossils by chiseling them from the ground. After carefully packaging the bones, they get shipped back to the museum for assembly. Kids put the bones together like a giant puzzle to see what they have found. Then you can read all about your dinosaur! Very cool. Fun, fun!

Discovery Channel's Dinosaur Central has many different interactive dinosaur sections that would be motivating for children. Besides an extensive video clip selection, Discovery also features different areas that let kids explore dinosaurs on their own. For example, there is a place to "explore a dinosaur mummy" where the fossils are on display and the student can zoom into different areas of the skeleton for more information. The "dinosaur viewer" is a definite place to investigate since there are several dinosaurs to choose from to learn about how they looked (3D 360 degree view!), how they moved (animated!), how big they are compared to an average person, and when they lived. There is a Prehistoric Beast Quiz and a Cretaceous Quiz to test your knowledge. Last, check out their dinosaur puzzles!

Interactive Art Sites for Kids

2009-01-26T20:39:00.000-05:00

smART Kids

smART Kids is a site by the David and Alfred Smart Museum at the Univserity of Chicago. There are sections for kids, parents, and teachers. For the kids, they can choose to learn art vocabulary, be an art detective, learn to view art in different ways, and go to an artist's studio.

The Artist's Studio

The Artist's Studio is sponsored by the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. The toolkit is an interactive experience that teaches students about line, color, shape, balance, space and movement. In addition to short video tutorials, there are sections where kids can practice what they learned and create their own art.

Inside Art

Inside Art is like an interactive story about a person who "falls" into art and experiences it firsthand. It's similar to a choose-your-own-adventure story.

Art Express

Art Express is sponsored by Harcourt Express and appears to have been created to correspond with an art textbook. There are different units to click on (see numbers in picture above) where the student and teacher can then choose a variety of different art concepts that are interactive. There is a lot to this site and is worth exploring.

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock is a site dedicated to the artist of the same name. It is an interactive page that will let you create art in Jackson Pollock style without the mess of really throwing paint around a canvas. Simply click your mouse and shake it around to make your art!

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Image Blender Software by Tech4Learning

2009-01-19T20:08:00.000-05:00

Image Blender is one of many programs offered through Tech4Learning. Image Blender is a digital photo editor that allows you to combine layers and different photos, text objects, shapes, and special effects to create new images. By utilizing their "cool word" feature, students can place an image in the background and type text over it. The result is the image shows through the text, creating a "cool word" (see example in slideshow). Cool words would be great for visual learners studying vocabulary. For example, if a child is learning the differences between sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock, why not put images behind the vocab words to help the student make a visual connection?

Teachers who work on their school yearbook also find Image Blender helpful for editing pictures and creating interesting effects before publication.
BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Primary Resources: Historical Documents for Classroom Use

2009-01-18T18:39:00.000-05:00

I found two different websites that are perfect for using primary documents for history class.

The first one is Footnote. As described on their website, "Footnote.com is a place where original historical documents are combined with social networking in order to create a truly unique experience involving the stories of our past." Users can upload their own primary sources that they may have in their family history, and post accounts of different historical events as it happened from their point of view. The site includes teacher resources and print resources for using it with your classroom lessons. I found one particular section to be very interesting on the USS Arizona. Footnote provides an interactive monument where you can click on the names of the deceased, and insert information about that individual (photo, personal info, etc.) to make it a more personal experience. Even though Footnote is a paid site, there are many free sections that are worth checking out. However, if you are a history teacher, it may be worth your money to invest in this site.

The second site is called 100 Milestone Documents, which posts copies of 100 primary sources important to U.S. History such as: The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Bill of Rights, and all the way to The Voting Rights Act of 1965. The site has print resources and teacher resources for using these documents in the classroom. I was a little disappointed that some of the primary documents were difficult or impossible to read online. However, there is an option to download a hi-res copy of the document you want to view. Nice touch!

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The Interactive Constitution

2009-01-18T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Interactive Constitution is a website based on on The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda R. Monk.

The Interactive Constitution has three sections: Keyword search (search the constitution for keywords in the text of the constitution for in-depth explanations), Explore by topic (discover how the constitution is linked to more than 300 indexed topics), and Supreme Court Cases (search the text of the constitution by supreme court cases).

I looked at one of the articles in this site, and was impressed that it is broken into a split window. The actual text from the constitution is on the top, and the explanation for what it means is on the bottom.

This is a very in-depth site to help students understand basic fundamentals of our government.

Egypt Websites for Kids

2009-01-16T17:48:00.001-05:00

The Tomb of the Unknown Mummy by National Geographic Kids

The Tomb of the Unknown Mummy is geared more for primary kids than the second site. The user is given 5 lanterns to explore in the tomb. Every time the user finds a sparkle of light, click on it for a clue. By collecting all of the artifacts, the user should be able to conclude who is in the tomb.

Egypt's Golden Empire by PBS

Egypt's Golden Empire by PBS is designed for middle and high school students. The site is based on the corresponding series, which is available on DVD, but there are many sections that are worth exploring such as:

A Timeline: explore 500 years of the new kingdom with artifacts, video, and images
Virtual Egypt: explore key sites in the new kingdom in 360 degree panoramas
A Day in the Life: what was it like to be different members of society at this time? Take a look!
A Virtual Library: View primary sources related to the new kingdom

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Text-To-Speech Readers

2009-01-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

Special education teachers will be happy to know there are several FREE text-to-speech readers on the Internet that they can use for their students.

The first one is called ReadPlease. It allows you to copy and paste the text into the window, choose a voice, and then sit back and listen. There is a free version as well as paid version, but I have found the free version to be adequate.

The second one is called NaturalReader. This program also has a free and paid version, but it has more flexibility than ReadPlease. The voices in NaturalReader sound more natural as well. You do not need to copy and paste text into a window to use NaturalReader.

The last one is PowerTalk. Be sure to scroll down the page when you click the link to find the download button for PowerTalk. PowerTalk is free, and different from the first two programs because it has the ability to read text from a PowerPoint slide.

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Create Picture Cards Fast and Easy

*Picture by suchitra from Flickr

Create Picture Cards Fast and Easy

2009-01-10T16:48:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Riley's site called "It's in the cards" is a new online program still in Beta that lets users create picture cards. For special education teachers who are familar with Boardmaker, Mrs. Riley's site is easy and free. You can try the program without an account, but you'll need to register if you want to save or print the cards. In addition, you can keep the cards that you have saved as "public" or "private". Why reinvent the wheel if you can use someone else's cards that are stored on the site, right? For now, this site is free, but in the future it may be a paid site once they have a faithful following. However, if they keep their prices lower than Boardmaker, they may be able to keep their followers.

The History of the Internet

2009-01-10T16:21:00.000-05:00

The blogs are abuzz today with a new video that came out on Vimeo on the "History of the Internet". I first saw this video mentioned in Learning and Teaching in the 21st Century and then again in Free Technology for Teachers. As part of the National Student Technology Standards, one of the objectives that students are expected to know is all about the history of the Internet. As a teacher, I would have a difficult time explaining this concept to my class. Not anymore! The video below was created by Melih Bilgil, a graphic designer in Germany.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.