Flipboard...an IPad App I'm Adding....for Fun and for Teaching and Counseling!

   If you have an Ipad and you are browsing around the internet and just wasting time, you could actually do a little work too. By "work", I mean you could build a magazine of materials to read or review later. And you can make these by category and it could even be a category of articles or videos that you would later like to use for your teaching. Pair it with the IPad to projector app and  you can have the kids read and view your "magazine" as a classtime activity! You can do all of this with the app called "Flipboard".  I have embedded a video below that shows how to use Flipboard. I plan on putting this on my IPad today and starting a couple magazines on counseling topics. I may even make one of short "|Bell ringer" type videos so I can use those in class too. Watch the video and download the app if you think it could be good for your either professionally or personally.

Oh, and it is a FREE app. :)

Flipboard website click here!

StoryToolz for Literacy Teachers....and Any Teachers or Students!

  Not sure if I did a blogpost before on Storytoolz, but even if I did, it is worth a repeat. This is a great site for our Literacy teachers and students to bookmark and use in class. You can use the site for simple idea generators and story starters, but you can also use it to evaluate your writing. Our students could put in their writing samples to see the reading level and the wording that they use and if they could improve their writing. They can also set word count goals and track their reading. Lots of possibilities currently and future updates could make it an even better site. And all of this for free....which is great! Give it a look-see over your summer break and see if your students could use it.

Storytoolz.com click here!

Emaze....Another Interesting "Powerpoint" Online tool

  If you have students looking to do a presentation and want to do something a little more lively than powerpoint, you might want to try Emaze or have the students try it. It looks pretty simple to use and it does make nice presentations. The few that I viewed took awhile to load, so I am not sure if that is typical or was just slow internet on my end. Either way, it looks promising. Give it a try!

Emaze click here!

Geography Games Galore!

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog site Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day, here is a list of great Geography games. I have tried some of these and others look fun to try as well. Over the summer, give these a try if you teach social studies or geography.

Geography Games list by Larry Ferlazzo

TED Education Video Site

 As many of you know, I LOVE TED.com videos. Now, TED has and educational video site where teachers can share their lessons and get them animated. The site is still fairly new and is still growing, but there are now enough videos on the site to really keep you busy this summer. You might find some good videos for your own class. And as always, the videos are short enough to use in class and keep your students interested. Start searching them today!

TED-Ed Lessons click here!

Google Drive/Docs Can Have Voice Comments Now

Just a quick update for those who use Google Drive and have students who use Google Docs for assignments, especially their papers and essays. You can now leave voice comments. I am not sure this is always the best way to leave comments as leaving written comments in the line can be more direct with students, but leaving them some verbal/voice feedback can also personalize the experience more. You might even assign them the task of leaving verbal comments back. Either way, kind of a neat feature to play around with. It does take some set up, so here is a blog post by Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers to with a video that explains how to do this process.

Richard Byrne's blog post on Google Drive/Docs voice comments click here!

EduClipper....the Pinterest for Educators and Students

Educlipper is something I plan to sign up for this summer and start using. It has some similarity to Pinterest, but is likely able to be accessed in most schools unlike Pinterest. I like some of the options you could do such as making a clipboard of links and information for students and then sharing it with them. Or making clipboards of lessons and information and sharing it with your team or your content team. Or maybe you simply use it to keep track of your own units and concepts. Any way you use it, it could be pretty valuable. Good luck!

Educlipper website click here!

Good video about how Educlipper works via Ed Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day blog click here!