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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Braingle...Just for Fun!
Braingle is a monsterous site full of brain teasers, logic problems, quizzes, and games. Students or you would have to register for a free account, but a benefit of doing that is that it does track some of your vocab learning and progress. I did not register for an account, but saw this site on Free Technology for Teachers, so I thought I would pass it along....
Just Paste It! Many Options for Teachers
I think if I sat down and thought about the many ways JustPasteIt could help an educator, I would end up with quite a list. I recently had students go to some websites that I wanted them to try. This involved them going to the Internet, going to my blog, and clicking on my links. Problem? Even my blog web address is about 30 characters long. The alternative was going to the school site, then finding my page, then finding my class, then finding my links, then clicking on the correct link. So....it didn't go as well as hoped.
Solution? JustPasteIt. This site allows you to paste notes, documents in a way, pictures, or just about anything and hit publish. Once you publish, your information becomes a website with a web address that is about 10 characters long. MUCH SIMPLER!!!! If you want students to do something in the computer lab, feel free to paste the instructions, websites, or materials they need onto this site and publish it. Copy the web address onto the board and just have students use that as a starting place for their web journey or project that day! I have published a sample note below for you to see what it can look like. After that, is a link for the site to make your own note and publish.
Here is my sample note.
Click here to make your own note
Book Report Alternatives
I have posted a blog or two before about some book report alternatives in the past, so this is more of a recent update. Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers just posted a one-stop shopping blog post for some of these ideas. I really like the idea of creating the "book trailer" but that could be just because I love movies and movie trailers. And anytime you can use Google Maps in a creative way, it is worth a try and one of the five alternatives uses Google Maps. For any language teacher who wants to try a "paperless" book report or a book report using technology, give one of these a try and drop a review in the comment section below so others know what you think.
Phonics Site is Free and Could Be Useful at Middle School
This site is geared for young learners who are learning to read, so at first glance, it is useful for only early elementary students. But as we all know, we get students at the middle school all the time who struggle reading even above the 1st or 2nd grade level. So, this site might be good for those students or special education teachers. If nothing else, many teachers have their own children and we are always looking for ways to teach them for free or give them enrichment activities for free. So....give this site a try. I tried the sample book and plan on registering for this site this week and downloading some stuff for my kids. I hope it helps wherever you need it to help.
Deviant Art a Site to Play With....if You Like Art
Since I am not much of an artist, I have not tried this site very much, but any online art and drawing sites are worth posting to our collecting of websites. I am interested in seeing if our art students try this and what they think of it. Post any comments below as to what your thoughts are after trying it out.
Iowa School Uses Cell Phones....A lot!
I was intrigued by this very brief blog. Part because I am always interested in schools who are successfully and bravely trying to use more technology such as cell phones in the classroom and part because the highlighted school is from Iowa! Cell phones in the classroom, or any personal device for that matter, is only a matter of time and something I believe my 6th graders will be using by their senior year. More and more schools are testing these ideas out and this is one Iowa school that we might learn from in the near future. The blog is only 3 paragraphs long, but the idea and discussion will be much longer I assume.....
Go Paperless for a Day....or More!
We are living in a "green" world now and education is quickly (or slowly?) becoming more and more online and delivered using technology, so here is a chance to mix the two ideas together. Take a look at Richard Byrne's blog about Paperless Day. Doing activities online, grading them online, taking a walk in nature and having students verbalize or email their findings, etc. Any way you can design it, you can save paper and have students learning along the way. Have fun making a plan for a day or for several days and you will also have fun saving the Earth one lesson at a time!
Read the blog here.
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