Nice Basic To-Do List that Can Be Shared with Others

There are a lot of To-Do or Task list sites out there, but I came across this one, Flask, today that I think is nice and easy....and can be emailed or shared with others. Would be great for teams of teachers or teams of students. Or maybe a way to share assignment/project requirements with students. Flask is definitely worth a try to see how you can put it to use.

Flask task list site....click here!

Room Recess: Good for Quick Skill Review and Interactive Whiteboards

Room Recess is a great game site to bookmark for teachers who want some basic math and word games for kids to play at the end of class or at the end of some computer lab time. I  tested out the snowball game and thought kids would love it. The math problems are basic math facts, but middle school students can still benefit from that type of skill practice. There was also a competitive flashcard game that can pit two teams against each other using an interactive whiteboard. I am not sure if you would need two Mimio pens or not, but still pretty fun for students. Give it a try!

Room Recess click here!

Wallwisher is Now Padlet and It Is Still Great!

First of all, Wallwisher has just recently been named Padlet. If you try going to Wallwisher via wallwisher.com, however, you will still get there for now. I used Wallwisher for 2 or 3 years with an 8th grade project, but it had some bugs to it and wasn't always perfect. Apparently this was the case for many. But over the last year, they have made several upgrades and now the site is being highly recommended again. I love the site for a way for students to post questions or comments. I also love it for students to make their own 'wall of learning' about a topic or subject. They can add videos, pictures, comments, etc. about their learning. They can then share their wall with a family member, a teacher, or other students. They can even comment on other students' walls. This could end up being a form of social learning. Lots of options. If you need help trying to use it in your class, let me know. I was once a "pro" at Wallwisher and could probably give you some tips. Have fun!

Wallwisher or Padlet, click here!


I took 3 minutes and made a quick sample wall about Bullying. Notice that I was able to add videos, upload a powerpoint that I had made previously, or simply comment. I could then share this wall with other students and parents and they could post their thoughts and questions to my wall and we could interact.

Created with Wallwisher

BrainyBox: Cube Review, Presentation, Whatever you Want it to Be!

  I used a site like BrainyBox a few years back and students loved it. But it didn't always work very well. I am hoping technology has improved and this site works much better. I made a basic cube and am going to attempt to embed it below and link to it, so you can see what you think. I did not try to add any images or video, but if it supports that pretty well, the possibilities of this site are endless. It is in Beta testing, so I can't guarantee the stableness of the site, but for now, it was pretty cool to use and could be used for review, new knowledge, note-taking, or just for students to show their true learning on a topic or book. Give it a try...I created the one you see below in 4 minutes!

BrainyBox homepage click here!

My BrainyBox attempt click here!

And I embedded it below and it looks pretty cool!

Awesome Conversion Site for Documents!

Wow. I just tried CometDocs and it was soooooo easy and so quick! I love it! If you want to convert a PDF file into a Word document for students or just for yourself, this is the site to use. You can do several other types of conversions as well. Easy to use and so fast. Give it a try!

CometDocs 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!

Google Maps for Educators: A Resource

One last resource tonight from Richard Byrne and his great blog Free Technology for Teachers. Please visit his blog or at least bookmark it as he blogs daily and always has some great resources. This time, he has a powerpoint explaining how you could use Google Maps in your class and how the students can use it as well. If you have students do anything with maps, this is a must-see resource. Give it a look and see how you can start using it in your class this year.

Richard Byrne Google Maps for Educators click here!

100 Best Apps and 60 Best Websites and Apps

Two big resources in one! I have posted links for 2 great resources below. One is listed as a source for the 100 best free apps for kids. Who doesn't love Free?? I have tried some of the apps they note and they have been very good for my kids. My guess is most of these will be for kids younger than middle school, but some of them are likely middle school appropriate and some may be for our struggling learners as well.

  Secondly, Richard Byrne has his 60 Best Apps and Websites for Educators. A lot of really good stuff in here too. Thanks Richard and thanks for your blog Free Technology for Teachers!

Enjoy!

Manifest Destiny Interactive Site

Thanks to Richard Byrne and his blog site Free Technology for Teachers, this site looks pretty interesting and pretty useful. I have not tested it out, but if you are studying anything about the beginning of our country's history and how we got to our present day state and alignment, this site might be pretty useful and interesting for both you and our students. You can look at what our country looked like at any point in our country's history and see what happened to have us take that certain territory. Give it a try!

Manifest Destiny blog post by Richard Byrne click here

Trading Cards for Historical or Fictional Characters

I love ideas like this! Next time you are studying something in history, social studies, or even reading a book in literacy, have the students make a trading card of one of the historical figures or book characters. To make the cards, you would have to know lots about your person and the student would have to research the person more to add details to the card. Similar to the fake Facebook page for a historical person, but a little simpler. Would be fun to see what the students come up with. Give it a try or have some students do it for an extra credit option. Good luck!

Trading Cards of historical figures click here!

(Oh, you could do it for famous scientists too!)

Tech Tips from Pros

Ran across this website while catching up on blogs. Great idea, but it does not look like they have posted many tips in the month of November. I wonder if they will begin to post more. If they do, this could be a good site to bookmark. Either way, some of their current tips are pretty good and pretty relevant to questions our own teachers may have. I would bookmark this site and check it whenever you have a tech question to see if they have addressed it. And hopefully they start posting more to their blog.

Technology Tips from the Pros click here!

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!

TIME's 20 Most Influential Americans

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog "Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day", I learned of a recent online interactive from TIME magazine about their ranking of the top 20 most influential Americans of all time. This list might be a good way to start a history or social studies class this year. To get students linked and hooked on history for the year, you could have them view the list, debate the list, re-write the list, or even argue for others not on the list and write their own big and persuasive essay. Either way, it will get them talking about history and debating and arguing their historical point. Great list, have fun!

TIME's top 20 most influential Americans of all time

Symbaloo Now Working on Mobile Devices, Including IPad and IPhone!

I know some of our teachers started using Symbaloo recently and used it in the computer lab with students. Just wanted to let you all know that Symbaloo can now be used on mobile devices, including IPhone and IPad. I have not used it much, but did add it to my IPad and plan on using it some. I think our teachers liked using Symbaloo in order to set up their own group of websites that they wanted the students to use. No telling students website after website to go to, just get them to the symbaloo and all the sites could be ready. For personal use, symbaloo could be a simple directory of your favorite websites. That is what I am currently using it for on my IPad. I will let you know what I think of it after I have messed around with it for awhile. Below is a video of Symbaloo for the IPhone. Enjoy!

7 Sites for Art, 7 for Science, and 7 for Typing!

  Thank you much to Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers for 3 great lists of websites for our educators. I got caught up in blog reading this week and Mr. Byrne's award-winning blogsite is one of the best out there. From time to time, he will take about 7 of the best sites for practice, instruction, etc. in a certain subject area. As I caught up, I found he did this 3 times recently. Once for keyboarding practice, once for science teachers, and once for art teachers and students. I have placed links to each of his blog entries below. If you teach in these areas, you may want to check it out. And make sure to sign up to follow his blog or have it added to your own Google Reader, a great read for all educators. As a former science teacher, I really enjoyed some of the science Youtube channels he shared. I could see our middle school kids really liking these. Thanks again Mr. Byrne!

7 Youtube Channels for Science

7 Keyboarding Practice/Game Sites

7 Sites for Art Teachers and Students

More Pinterest for Beginners!

  Still not sure what Pinterest is and how an educator can use it?? Read Cool Cat's blogpost Pinterest for Beginners and learn more. My favorite part of her blogpost was the boards she follows and pins to. There are some great educational boards in there and I think after joining Pinterest and looking at those boards, you will start to see how Pinterest can really add to your skills and ideas as an educator. I have a goal next year to make counseling bulletin boards and I plan to  beg, borrow, steal from some of the Pinterest boards that a fellow blogger "School Counselor Blog" has pinned to. She has some great ideas that I would like to use. So, put Pinterest down as both a fun and professional goal this summer to learn more about.

Cool Cat's Beginner's Guide to Pinterest