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!

Cube Creator and Other Great Activities for Reading and Writing

Thank you to Richard Byrne and his blog site Free Technology for Teachers, I now am able to share some great activities from Read Write Think when it comes to reading and writing. But I want to specifically mention Cube Creator as it is very simple to use and such a good book review tool. I was able to make a Book Cube in under 3 minutes and could have printed it and cut it out and folded it into my own cube. You can also choose create your own cube which means the possibilities are endless. I have had students make a "Me Cube" before in my Guidance class where each side of the cube needs to tell the class something about themselves or their life.

  Besides Cube Creator, there are 4 other great activities/tools that Mr. Byrne has blogged about. So give those a try to and see which ones might work in your curriculum the best. Good luck!

Cube Creator click here!

5 Read Write Think Tools by Richard Byrne click here!

Slow Motion Youtube Videos

Thank you to Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers for alerting me to the idea of slow motion videos on Youtube. As a former science teacher, how awesome is it to be able to film some of your science experiments on the weekend or even in class and then upload them to Youtube AND put them in slow motion so you can explain what is going on and students can see what is going on!! Lots of applications for coaches, but I think teachers could really use this slow motion option too, especially science teachers. Very cool!

Here is Richard Byrne's blog post about this slow motion option.

Duolingo...A Site for Spanish Language Learners

Awhile back, I purchased Rosetta Stone software to learn Spanish. Then child #3 and #4 happened, as well as a career change and my life has gotten away from me. I still hope to learn Spanish and Rosetta Stone may be the way to go, but there are many online programs now, not to mention my need for basic Spanish is slowly diminishing with smart phones that translate your voice anyway. But learning a language is still important and still a great skill, so what tools can a school use besides Spanish class. Many apps and websites can help. Here is another one: "Duolingo". When you go to their main site, you can watch their video. I have embedded the video below as well. After watching the video, sounds like this might be a good site for a Spanish teacher to give out to students and families for extra practice. Not sure how the translating the web works, but it appears it uses the some of the same "immersion" theory that Rosetta Stone uses. A few other languages are also offered.

Duolingo click here!

Scibble Press for the IPad: My Kids and I love it!

I downloaded Scribble Press to my IPad last night for Free and my 7-year old son already wrote and illustrated his own short book! He had a blast and it was so easy to do. You can choose from several dozen "fill-in-the-blank" template stories that go from pretty basic to pretty fun and bizarre. Or your children or students can make up their own stories with their own words and pictures. More colors, markers, pens, stamps, etc. than you can ever imagine. Once the story is done, kids can even design the front and back cover. When they are completely finished, they can keep the story on the IPad, send it to their IBooks account, or share it with Scribble Press. They could also turn their pictures and illustrations and stories into greeting cards, puzzles, or even get their book professionally printed and sent to their house or classroom. Amazing stuff! It is a free app (suprisingly!) and definitely worth a summer tryout to see if you could use it with your own kids or even within your classroom. I think even middle school and high school kids would enjoy this.

Scribble Press: Click here for info on the app and to download

Common Sense Media's Summer Guide for Learning Activities for Kids and Teens

   Thanks to Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers for alerting me to another great thing one of my favorite sites, Common Sense Media, is offering. If you remember, Common Sense Media is a great place for parents and children to go to find accurate and detailed reviews about the newest movies, books, TV shows, and now games and apps. Now they have added a summer guide to learning apps you could download to a device or games that can be played on certain video game systems. They are broken down into 3 age categories and into 5 learning areas. I noticed that I have already downloaded some of the apps for my own kids. And of course, each app or game is rated by Common Sense Media so you can see how educational or applicable it is for your child. Enjoy!

Common Sense Media 50+ activities for summer click here!

Embed Files and Papers

Thanks to Educational Technology Guy, I am hoping to use the information in his blogpost to start embedding some of my files into blogs that I post. Newsletters, worksheets, fliers, papers, etc can now be embedded into a blog entry and even marked up with extra information you want your readers to know. I have not played around with this tool very much, but I am hoping it will be pretty slick and easy to use and be able to make the blogs that I manage even more informative and easy to read and use. Read his blog post here to see if this tool can help you!

Educational Technology Guy's post on embedding files click here!

inFocus Allows You to Spotlight Something on a Website

  Cool site to add to your bookmarks. If you, or your class, are going to view a website but you really only want one piece of that website, you can copy/paste the link into this inFocus site and then it allows you to select just that portion of your website and it spotlights it and darkens the rest of the. I tested it on a couple of sites and it really made what I wanted to be seen....seen! Once you have spotlighted what you want, it allows you to save this as a new link and you can just view your spotlighted link. Pretty neat tool. Give it a try and practice it some, you might find some uses for it!

InFocus tool

My blog after being spotlighted (my example)

If you are an Educator on Google+, These are the Circles You Need to be In.

   I will admit, I have a Google+ account but do not use it. I probably should, but I don't. Maybe this summer I will look more into it. And if I do, this is the place I plan to start: Google+ 50 Best Circles for Educators. A Google+ Circle is like a Professional Learning Network (PLN) where experts from all around the world and sometimes teachers, students, and parents like you and me hang out to learn more. By being in the circle and following it, we get the information as well and can follow the discussion or even take part in the discussion. If you are on Google+, you are likely in some of these circles already. And if you are not, give some of them a try. And for those of you who have no idea about Google+, maybe sign up for it and see what all of the fuss is about!

Google+ 50 Best Circles for Educators

7th Grade Bullying Survey

More Skype in the Classroom "How to"

If you are considering trying some Skype in your Classroom, there are classrooms all around the country and world waiting to talk and collaborate on projects with you. But how do you even start? This is a quick post that may help give you some ideas and even a little step by step guide on how to get everything going. I really believe the next revolution in education is taking education of our students and moving it out to the community, around our country, and across the world. Their are experiences all over the place outside our school that Skype can reach. Would be neat to start reaching these.

Skype in the Classroom

Another Quick and Easy Screen Recording Site

PasteVid is another pretty good Screen Capture and recording site. I like sites like this because you can record what you are doing on your screen and then let others see it by posting it to Youtube, sending a link, or just sending an email of your video to that person. I usually use these sites to send a video to a large group of people. Showing someone how to use a certain internet site, how to navigate our district homepage, etc. Most of these sites, including this one, turn your video into a weblink that you can easily send to whoever. And the best part? It is FREE! Give this site a try.

PasteVid Screen Recording click here!

Online Whiteboard Tool You Can Do Lesson on and Send To Parents and Students.

I love this tool and I originally found it as an IPad app first, but you don't need an IPad to use it. Basically, you can draw anything on your "laptop whiteboard" or "IPad whiteboard" and you can record everything you do. When finished, hit stop and publish and you can publish it to Facebook or Twitter, or more likely, you can send it as an email to students or parents. Maybe you even just email it to yourself and play it for students in class or play it during worktime so if they have questions, they can simply watch your whiteboard lesson and re-learn. If you have a microphone, you can talk while you do your whiteboard lesson and the audio is recorded too. I have learned to send my whiteboard lesson to myself and then send the link it gave me to parents, students, family, or whoever I want to send it to from there. Or like I said, maybe I could just use the link in class to have students see the lesson again. We can do similar things with our Mimio, but with this whiteboard tool, it saves to a website so you don't have to worry about how big of a file it is and if it will be able to be emailed. Plus, all of your lessons are saved to your online whiteboard account, so you can go back to them whenever you want. Very cool application. Give it a try (especially if you teach math or science, 2 areas I think would really be good for this)

Whiteboard App click here!

Simple Whiteboard that I made click here!

One very simple Whiteboard I made

Markup.io Another Great Website Annotation Tool

I just put Markup.io on my Chrome web browser and can now write on, draw shapes on, or even type on any web page and then save it and send it to whoever I want to. You don't need Google Chrome to do this as it likely works in almost any web browser. If you want to send something to a student or parent from online and have their eyes go to certain spots that you find important, you can use this Markup tool and mark the things you want read and cross out the things you don't want read. Lots of uses and very easy to use!

To get markup.io or learn more, click here!

Highlighter Tool Called Marker.to is Great!

I just installed a highlighting tool that I can use to highlight a website and then send that highlighted version to other people. How cool! Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers for alerting me to this web browser extension. To show you how it works, here is his blog entry about this great tool, only now I have highlighted it with different colors. Lots of ways to use this with staff, students, parents, and the community.

Link to my highlighter version of blog entry click here!

New Sticky Note Site is Really Cool!

I have my students using WallWisher right now to do a project about themselves by posting sticky notes with information about their life, their culture, etc. Wallwisher hasn't always worked the best, so I might look for a different site next year. Sites like Wallwisher are also good for organizing information, timeline for projects, and any sort of time or task management. As a teacher, you could also have students make a historical timeline, a bulletin board online about a certain topic or person, or even a board based on what they learned from a book they read. Lots of options! Well, those options now have a new possible site: Linoit! I played around with this site before registering and really loved it. Very easy to post sticky notes. You can also post videos from Youtube and pictures from your own files (something WallWisher does not allow) It also has a calendar function so if you are using it for task management, you can assign dates to each note. Very cool site! You might give it a try as a site to manage your own life, your projects, your team meetings, or a student project. Have fun!

Click here to go to Linoit

WallWisher Reminder

Just as Richard Byrne's blogpost is a good reminder about using WallWisher, I want to also remind you about WallWisher. I need to make it a goal to use this website more this year with both students and staff. This site is really so cool! The biggest way I could see Wallwisher being used is by just having a Wallwisher site made up for students when they work on anything in the computer lab. As students work, they can post questions or comments to the wall and you can see these questions/comments in real time and so can students. You can respond to them, you can have other students respond to them. Students can start answering each other questions and leave you free to focus on the real issues. You could also use this with your grade level team or any team where you could have a wall for your group and your group members could post to it anytime and answer each other anytime. So many uses! Give it a try and play around with it...it is fun!

Wallwisher.com

My attempt to embed my wall below:

Personal Learning Networks...Through Twitter and Other Sources!

Thank you to Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers, he has a great brief blog about how to use Twitter to become your Personal Learning Network or Community. The excuse I hear from educators all the time is "not enough time" and "I can't find time to meet with other educators because they have different schedules". Sometimes, we just have to realize that technology has fixed this issue for us. Our Personal Learning Networks (PLCs) can now occur 24/7 whether we are there each day, each moment or not. Once you set up your network by following the people who have the ideas and topics that you are interested in, you just check in and contribute where you can. So simple! And if that is not simple enough, Richard Byrne has a powerpoint embedded into his blog post so you can see his thoughts on this idea and even a step by step instructions on how to get your PLN set up on Twitter. So start this today and make a goal to learn something new each week, each month, etc!

Personal Learning Networks through Google+ and Twitter

Lots of Skype in the Classroom Possibilities

Skype in the Classroom is growing by leaps and bounds. Here is a link with some new information. But I also like the links within the article where you can get more information. If you haven't heard of Skype in the Classroom, you need to research it and you will see why educators are so excited about the possibilities. Imagine being able to get into any classroom in the world with just your computer. Your students can talk to other students, read to other students, learn from other students...and teachers. The possibilities truly are amazing! Read more and then start thinking about how we could do some of these things....

Skype in the Classroom

Kindle Fire is Cheap and Educational!

Very interesting news on the Amazon technology announcement today. The Kindles just got cheaper and the Kindle Fire could be the next big product for fun and education. I guess we will have to wait and see how this all plays out in our quickly changing world of education and technology.

Educational Guy's take on the Kindle Fire for education