Sunday, October 31, 2010

Another Tool for Printing Internet Pages

Just another tool you can use to print webpages without all the junk like ads and boxes, etc. I haven't tried it yet, but apparently it does not print the Internet ads that might be beside or around the article that you want printed. If you try printing a website and just can't get what you want, try Joliprint and see if it works. Let me know what you think!


Type Notes on a Webpage to Help Students or Parents See Key Items!

Another great tool that I found.....Webklipper. Using this site, you can put your comments on any webpage or highlight any material and then save it. Your new webpage will look the same as the original, only now it will have your comments and highlights saved on it. This would be great for students to show you what they learned: they can highlight the online article they are reading. Or maybe they can put sticky notes on the website to show you what they have learned. Can you imagine putting an animal picture on there and having students label the parts? So many uses, it boggles my mind! Anyway, here is the site where you can get started, very simple! After the site, I placed another link which is where I sticky-noted and highlighted my blog site just to show you how you could use this Webklipper tool.



Five Minute Videos That Teach Us How to Use Technology in the Classroom

Teachers: Heads Up! Here is a site that attempts to teach us all how to use all sorts of technology and computer tools in the classroom. The best part is that the videos are all about 5 minutes or shorter! I haven't watched them all, but this might be a nice bookmark in case you are attempting to use some of this technology in the classroom.

click here:

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Resume Maker Online

Quick post for any teachers or students who want to make their resume and need help getting started. Might be useful in a Careers Class or something similar.


Put Powerpoints Online

I recently used SlideShare to put a presentation for my Dad's retirement online. Pretty cool. Didn't have to worry about saving it, about if the presentation computer was compatible with my format, etc. Just post it online and present at my Dad's retirement party (but you have to have Internet). Once online, many of these sites let you add your own audio and voice. Basically, you can record your notes to your presentation and hit play....maybe a great idea if you are gone and a sub is in charge? Other than that, this is another place where students can put their powerpoints and share with others. I am going to have my students put their Inspirational Person powerpoints online for all to see and for me to grade.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day for this monster list of websites where you can post powerpoint presentations online.

Make a Booklet Online....or Other Items!

I have only played around with this site a little bit this morning, but I can definitely see some value for projects. You could have the students make a children's book, have them make an informational booklet, or simply a pamphlet. Pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it and I had some fun trying some things out. When all was said and done, I only produced what you see below. Work to do, so I didn't play around with it much, but would love to try it more. If any of you try it out, let me know what you think!

Culture and Diversity Sites

More for Kim and I than anybody, but thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day, here is a great list of web resources and sites that would be useful in studying, learning, or talking about world cultures.

Click here for his blog entry.

DragONTape Getting Better

For teachers who like to show lots of Youtube Clips quickly and easily, again, I recommend DragonTape as a site to use. You go out and find the videos and paste them to this site. This site places all the videos in one continuous stream and plays them back to back to back, etc. No need searching for videos or having multiple windows open to show the videos. Use this site and put all your videos into one long video chain. The update to this site is that you can now post your video chain to a blog or Facebook. Cool!

Click here to make your own mixed tape.

Here is a simple sample that I made. Took me literally 2 minutes.

Humorous Differentiation Video

Not for sure if you are familiar with these type of videos, but they are videos made from people typing in text and having the "computer voices" voice the characters. Adds a little "bizarrenous" to the content, and in the case of these videos....the content is already pretty funny and bizarre. I think all educators can see the humor in these videos. I loved the first one (but it does contain a brief swearword at the end)!! Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for posting these videos


New Flashcard Site for Students and Teachers

Just a quick post to alert you about a new flashcard site where teachers or students can make their own flashcards or browse pre-made sets to see if they match what you are learning currently. This site is a good one because it offers different ways to study your flashcards and even play some games with them. Kids sometimes forget how good of a method flashcard making and studying is, but this site might remind them and help them have some fun along the way.

Simple to Use Bookmark Allows you to Write on Webpages to Help Students

Couldn't figure this site out at first and then I realized that you don't use the site....you use it as a bookmark tool. Once you have bookmarked the tool, you can use the tool anytime you are on the Internet. The bookmark will show up in the top right corner and allow you to draw, cut, make shapes, and write text on a webpage. Working in the computer lab or showing something from your computer up on the wall and want ALL students to know where you are on the webpage? Use this bookmark and draw a box around what you want the students to see. Lots of fun and lots of uses....go to this site and drag the bookmark "thingy" to your bookmark bar and you are done. Use it as little or as much as you want from there!!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Periodic Table Sites

Thanks again to Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers for giving us 5 great resources for learning and using the Periodic Table. As a former science teacher, I always loved online periodic table sites. The more interactive, the better. And these are definitely interactive. The Comic book one might be great for kids who aren't too interested in science or the Periodic Table, but love Comic books and Superheroes! If you teach science, give these sites a look!




Useful Videos on Youtube....Easy to Find!

By clicking on this link that I received from Free Technology for Teachers, you will be directed to a list of the top 100 Youtube "channels" for education. Many of these channels have tons of videos to choose from. No more endless searching for just the right video as now you can start here and find a channel that might have information on your topic and see if it does. Great resource to bookmark!


The Ultimate List of Resources

Well, here it is, short and sweet: The top 100 tools for e-learning. Twitter was #1. If you are wondering why, then maybe we all need to explore its possible uses more. Wallwisher, a site I just posted about, cracked the top 30 in its first shot at the top 100. But the list is an amazing resource of 100 awesome resources. Don't try to use all 100, but pick a few and do some google searches to see how educators are using these sites. You might have a lot of fun trying some things out! Good luck!



WallWisher: Could We Use This For Student Questions?

I have seen multiple blog posts and comments about how Wallwisher can be used and am fascinated by the many possibilities. Before I get to my idea, Wallwisher is a website that you can title a blank wall and than give that URL to a class and have them post 160 character or less thoughts on your topic by typing a virtual sticky note and posting it on the wall. So, here is my idea:

Could you make a wall for students when you are in the computer lab and use the projector and project your wall onto the screen at the front of the room. As you circulate and help students, students would also be free to post questions on the wall for all to see. You could check the wall and answer the questions or read the comments so all can hear what people are thinking and struggling with. An idea to consider anyway. Other ideas would be to post your topic and have students write questions they have about that topic, things they know about that topic, or what they want to learn about that topic. I have placed a few other links below where you can find more ideas on how to use WallWisher. I would be interested to see if some of our staff try it out and what they think of it.








Sunday, October 10, 2010

A List of Possibly the Best Social Studies Sites of 2010

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog "Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day", he has posted another great list. This time it is the "best social studies sites of 2010". I haven't tried any of these, but in order to make the "best of" list, they are usually pretty good. If you teach social studies, you will likely want to bookmark his post and bookmark the sites because you will be able to use some of them I am sure! Have fun and thanks Larry!

World Demographics A-Plenty! Fun to Use!

Social Studies teachers....heads up! A new world maps site is up and running and when you click on a certain demographic (GDP, Islam, HIV rate, etc.), the countries will change size based on what percent of the world's demographic category they account for. Very interesting and a very quick way to see what countries have what demographics. The site is adding more demographics as it goes, so the site is getting better and better! I could see having students play around with it and write some of the more interesting things they find or learn. Give it a try!

Typing Websites for Practice and More

Trying to get caught up on my blog and blog reading, I came across a great resource for Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers. This blog entry gives us 5 websites where kids can practice typing or play typing games. Some of the comments left in the comments section give us even more web resources and sites. One commenter even wonder if typing practice and keyboarding practice is even needed. In my personal opinion, I teach 330 middle school kids each week and I have yet to find any that type as fast as I do and well over half are still 1-finger typers or very, very slow at typing and this hurts their grade and speed/performance on assignments. So yes, I believe typing practice is a necessity. They might be able to type with their thumbs, but most projects and assignments still need them to be able to type with all 10 fingers on a large keyboard.

To view the 5 websites for typing, click on the link listed in the paragraph above.