Monday, May 31, 2010

Online Method of Showing Student Work

A site named "Runt.ly" allows students to write information, add weblinks, add pictures or video, etc. No need to register (material is erased after 30 days if you don't register), so might be a fun way for students to create something online and a teacher to look at by simply clicking to their link. Possibly even parents, community, or other students to take a look to during the 30 days the material is up online. Lots of possibilities....

Making maps online

Here is a list of map-making sites online per Larry Ferlazzo's site. Some require registration, but several do not. Scribblemaps is in here again, but I have posted on that one separately. Have fun!

Classroom management Stuff!

I ran across a couple classroom management things of interest on Larry Ferazzo's website. First one is a blog with some great information, tips, and advice. Kind of long, but has some great stuff:


The 2nd thing I ran across was several people recommending the book: "What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things that Matter". I have not read this book, but am interested in reading it as the amount of "experts" recommending it seems to be numerous. Enjoy!

Origami fun!

A great site for Origami. Not sure where it fits educationally, but a lot of students like to do these in their free time. It does take patience, is a great way to learn to follow directions, and takes precision. Any teacher could use this to teach some of those skills in a fun way. Enjoy!

TED Talks....Can You use Them in Class?

TED Talks are something I am just learning about and starting to listen to. I just posted one by Daniel Pink. It got me thinking...are there others that teachers could use or students could listen too? Then, I came across a blog by Larry Ferlazzo with some TED Talk tools. I have listed some of these below along with a brief description of what each site does for the TED Talks.

(By the way....here is what TED Talks are: “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 400 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.”)


http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/12/23/the-best-ted-talks-well-really-the-ones-i-use-with-my-classes/ Ferlazzo's best TED Talks for schools/students/teachers


http://www.historyteachersattic.com/2009/06/ted-talks-demystified-for-teachers/ This site categorizes all of the TED talks into categories. Makes it easy to see which ones might work for your class. Love this site!


http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pjGlYH-8AK8ffDa6o2bYlXg List of all TED talks with title, brief summary and who is giving the talk.


And for teachers, administrators, etc.... http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/05/top20tedtalks.html

This link is a link to the top 20 TED Talks for busy administrators. But I think teachers can be just as busy and be interested in this stuff too, so I post it for all. Enjoy!

Daniel Pink on Motivation (Video)

Came across this in several areas and thought...why not post it. A little less than 20 minutes, but good video from author Daniel Pink (author of Drive...a book apparently educators are supposed to read!). In this TED talk, he talks about motivation and how it works....and doesn't work. Touches on rewards, etc. He talks about businesses and jobs for the most part, but it works for education too.

Best Sites for U.S. President Info

Mainly for social studies teachers, but if you are interested in finding a lot of varied resources about U.S. Presidents quickly, this link to Larry Ferazzo's site will be a huge help. Information, pictures, videos, etc. about our U.S. Presidents. Thank you for the links Larry....hopefully it can help our social studies teachers if/when they need it.

Three Common Translation Sites

We will have more and more students enter our doors who may not know any or much of the English language. As teachers, we must get better at using translator sites. Google translator, Yahoo Babelfish, and Microsoft Bing Translator are 3 of the most commonly used translation sites. This link is a link to study done on the "Big 3". Although it shows Bing and Babelfish get better and better as the passage gets longer, I think we need to focus on the Spanish/English translation where Google wins almost every time. For now, I think I will continue to use Google Translate, but am interested to hear what sites you use and how much success you have.

Education vs. Employment

Simply a great, brief site for showing how education affects employment and salary later in life. Very easy to read and interesting. Not sure who would use it outside counselors and business teachers, but good information for all to know.

Tons of Biodiversity Sites!

I was going to try a few of these sites and recommend the best, but there are so many, I figured I would just post the whole linkful of sites and let you try what you want. Anyway, the link I am pasting below is a link to Ferlazzo's blog. In this blog, he makes a list of the best resources for learning about World Biodiversity Day with a focus on endangered species around the world. Hopefully, some of these sites are useful to science teachers. Enjoy!

Having Students Visit Multiple Sites and Research? Use this!

This website allows you to make a list of websites, videos, pictures, etc. and place them all in one spot. If you want students to use one or more of 5-10 or even 20 sites, put them all in a list and give your students the link to this list and they can go to the sites from there. Maybe you want them to do a webquest and visit each of 5 sites? Put it in a list and give them the link to the list and have them begin. Lots of possibilities.....maybe even just for you to keep track of your favorite websites. Enjoy and let me know if you use it and how it works!



What if the World had just 100 People?

I have used the Village of 100 video in my Life Skills class before when talking about diversity and tolerance, but the video and stats are getting out of date. Here are some newer sites that might be better, yet still show basically the same thing. I will likely use some of these next year when talking about Diversity and Tolerance.

http://www.miniature-earth.com/ has video that has been updated for recent stats

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-09-02-america-village_N.htm USAtoday site is about our country if reduced to 100 people. Interesting stats and article.

http://www.toby-ng.com/graphic-design/the-world-of-100/ This site has posters/graphics of similar stats.

Want to show just part of a Youtube clip?

And you don't like the words, graphics, etc that are below your video and to the side? Well, Tube Chop may be for you. I just tried it out and chopped up a Youtube clip (not educational, just one of my favorite clips) and it worked great: http://www.tubechop.com/watch/71730

I have not tested the site at school to see if the TubeChop site can be viewed at schools, but you can definitely use it on your school computer and play it on your school computer to the class. I see this being a great site for some long Youtube educational videos where parts are good and parts are not so good. I am definitely going to use this site next year!

Original Tube Chop website:

Sites where students can Write and Post Book Reviews

For language arts teachers who have students read books and then write reviews, a couple of these sites might be for you. You could still read their reviews and give them grades, but these sites can give your students a bigger (worldwide?) audience. Also, some of these sites might see their preferences and suggest future books for them to read. Give it a try and tell me what you think!



Sites to learn about the Oil Spill

These links will likely change over the summer, but if you want to start the new school year learning something about the oil spill, you might want to try these sites. Hopefully, the oil spill will be "old news" by September, but I have a feeling that we will be talking about this oil spill for many years to come.

Blog site with many links about oil spill: