Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Larry Ferlazzo's Best of 2012 Blog Post Has Arrived!

Many educators and online blog readers anxiously await Larry's Best of 2012 blog post at the end of the year so they can bookmark it and take advantage of the many resources he has posted in one place. Well, the blog post is out and I have linked it to this blog post. I would suggest clicking on it and bookmarking it on your computer as you will find yourself looking at it throughout 2013 even as Larry starts his 2013 lists. Thank you Larry for this great list of resources, I know it helps many!

Best of 2012 resource list from Larry Ferlazzo click here!

Got an IPad? Have IPads in the Classroom? You Need This Resource!

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog Websites of the Day, this blog post may be short but it is FULL of IPad apps that you may want on your personal IPad or your student/class IPads. Each link has tons of good apps, many of which I either have on my IPad or have tried on student IPads. If you have a moment and are wondering what apps would be good for you or your classroom, this is the place to start!

IPad resources click here!


Google Chrome Extensions

   Many staff members at our middle school loved the Google Chrome Extensions that were presented in one of our professional development workshops, so I thought this resource from Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers might be a good one. He has a list of his top 10 Google Chrome Extensions. Again, my favorites are the Speak It (text to speech extension), Save to Google Drive, Send this link with Gmail, and View Page in Clearly. The Speak It extension works with Google Drive documents, so students could have their papers read back to them if they wanted to use that as a way to proofread and hear their writing and how it sounds. Not sure how it could be on all the lab computers or laptops, but I am sure it could be. I have several of the extensions in his list, so you might consider giving them a try. They really are very helpful!

Top Google Chrome Extensions click here!

Gooru: Good for Math, Science, Etc. Practice and Learning

Thanks to Richard Byrne and his blog post about Gooru on his blogsite called Free Technology for Teachers, I have learned about Gooru, a pretty neat site for students and teachers, especially if they are interested in math and science. It appears there are other subject areas on this site now. I tested out some of the math stuff, including a quiz. Pretty detailed and good practice. Also, if you get it wrong, it has a brief explanation why your answer is not right and why the correct answer is. Students and parents may find that especially helpful. This is a great site for parents and students to add to their math/science help/study sites for weekends, extended breaks, and nights before a big test or quiz. If you have a moment, try it out and see if it could help you!

Gooru Learning click here!


How to Print Infographics and Posters

  Just a quick blog post to alert others and me about a site that could help you print those cool infographics that you may find on the web. I have a ton that I would like to print but can never figure out how to print them. Plus, without color printing, I sometimes don't even try. But regardless of the color printing, I am going to try using this tool/site to print some and see what they look like. I will hopefully comment later today or this week as to how well it worked. If you try it before me, please let me know what you think!

Block posters click here (good for printing infographics too I believe!)

And here is a list of the "Best Infographics of the Year" that I plan to search and try to print from. Thanks Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day!



Just a Reminder....Duolingo Continues to Improve!

Duolingo just added Italian to its list of languages it is helping people learn. I have had a couple of students interested in learning Italian, so this is great! It is a pretty fascinating site because you aren't just learning a new language, you are also helping in translating the web into other languages with the help of thousands or millions of other people around the world. While it is not a great stand alone site if you are trying to learn a language, it is a good supplement to a foreign language course you are taking or if you are currently doing Rosetta Stone. And it is FREE!!! That may be the best part. One of the things I noticed that might be good for students is how they can start making connections with certain words and groups of words because they sound alike. This could build on information they received in class or help them learn the future class information even faster. While it only has about 6 or 7 languages right now, it does have some of the main ones students may be learning in our American schools. It even has English which could be good for our English Language Learners as well. Give it a try to see if it is something you could use in 2013!

Duolingo click here!


   I just tested it out and it is pretty fun and educational. You can also compete against Facebook friends. So maybe you and a Facebook friend each want to learn a language in 2013, this could be your method!