Monday, August 29, 2011
New TED Talks about Autism and Other Mental Disorders
As always, I love TED talk videos! I came across a "playlist" of videos with 4 videos that all talk about people with a mental disability that they are able to talk about, teach about, and turn into a strength. The longest one and the best one is the first one by Temple Grandin. She really opened me eyes to what autism is like and what teachers can do. I watched the next two and they were good, just not as good as Temple's talk. With the amount of students that come through our doors with either a diagnosed Autism or Asperger's disorder or the idea that they might fall on the autism spectrum, we can learn a lot from Temple Grandin and what she has to say. Give it a look!
Help Your Students Understand 9-11 By Watching It in Real-Time
This is something I have done twice since the tragic day of September 11, 2001. In the world of technology, everything gets archived and stored somewhere. Well, now, there is a site that includes dozens of new stations from around the world and their live reports before, during, and after the attack on our country that day. Our 6th graders were just barely born when this event happened! I will say that the videos are tough to watch knowing what we know now, but it is still one of the best ways to understand what our country went through during those hours and days, as you see the country react to what little information we had during that time. Even if you do not teach social studies or show this to your students, you might want to watch it as we approach the 10-year anniversary of the attack.
50 Best Websites of 2011
Time magazine recently published their list of the 50 Best Websites of 2011. I started to skim through them and got overwhelmed pretty quickly. But I will say that there are some great websites in there. My suggestion is to go to the category that you think would help you most such as Education, Health and Fitness, or Financial/Productivity. There are some very, very cool sites in those categories. If you get a moment, test some out and see if they can help you in any way. Good luck!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Google Chrome Extension App: Snapify
Again, if you use Google Chrome, there are some cool apps/extensions you can add on to help you and your internet experience. This one is called Snapify. Instead of me describing it, watch the video below and visit the Snapify site to learn more. Firefox and other browsers likely have something similar.
Slide Bomb....Another Easy Slide Presentation Site
I just set up an account on Slide Bomb and tested it out. I really liked Slidestaxx and I think I still do, but Slide Bomb is pretty good too. Took me a bit to figure out what I was doing, but once I got into my slides, they were very easy to make. Very easy to put in links as well. I could see Slide Bomb as a great way for students to make presentations about a topic as they could make a multiple slides with each slide having a picture or video along with about 500-100 characters of information. So they could put research on each slide. Hmmm....maybe they could even provide the link where they found the information so they would learn about citing sources. Lots of potential. Check out Slide Bomb and check out my own Slide Bomb presentation (very short...just a test one).
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Google Chrome's Speech to Text App...I love it!
For those who use Google Chrome, I have a pretty cool and useful App/Add-on to your browser. I am sure Firefox and maybe even Safari have something similar. Who knows, Internet Explorer might even have it (I have not used Internet Explorer in years, so I wouldn't know!). You also need a microphone. But if you have a microphone and install the Google Chrome Speech Recognizer App, you can speak into the microphone as much as you want and it will transcribe it into text for you. My wife has something like this on her phone and I have found that Google's version through Chrome is even more accurate. I only had to make a few changes. Not sure of all the ways you could use this, but for students who are great thinkers but slow typers and poor spellers, this could help. They could always proofread later and make changes. Maybe this is a way they could free think and speak and not get slowed down by the thinking they have to do about grammar or type. As for teachers, maybe you get a great idea and you want to jot it down. Put on your headphones and just start talking. When done, copy and paste your new text to Word and save it! Great way to take notes....same way some doctors take their notes, only they hire someone to transcribe for them. Give it a try and see if it could be useful for you!
Want to Make Flashcards Online? Want to Search for Flashcard Sets Online?
Well, here you go. As we add more computer technology in each classroom and more smart boards, Ladybugs, etc., we can start to put our flashcards online and use them as whole class review to end a class or maybe just before we take a test or quiz. I have read several blog posts about notecard or flashcard sites and I am not sure which is best as I don't use flashcards in class much due to my subject matter, but there most sites are pretty easy to use and pretty easy to make a quick set of flashcards with the information you want. Better yet, have the students make their own flashcards or have some students make flashcard sets for the class online. Really a great way to get some students involved that don't normally get involved (example..."Class, today's flashcard review was made by Davie Smith yesterday. Thanks Davie!). Anyway, here are some sites to try if you want to see if they have flashcards for your material or if you want to use the site to make flashcards.
Flashcard Machine (monsterous site that also allows students, teachers, etc. to view flashcards through Ipod, phones, etc. with an App. This site appears to be pretty powerful)
Quizlet (Another monsterous site with Apps for mobile studying. Not to mention tons of preloaded "language" flashcards to help students, teachers learn a new language!)
StudyStack (This one allows your flashcard packs to be turned into games like crossword puzzles, hangman, matching games, etc. I used this one in my previous life as a science teacher. Good stuff!)
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