A Google a Day

Google is now offering a great resource for educators and students.  It is called A Google a Day and it is a very simple idea but can be great for students and teachers.  Google a Day offers one question per day and students use their search skills to help them answer the question.  The students search using Google and the question stays with them at the bottom of the page as they search.  Once the students find the answer they can have Google show them what the correct answer is including directions on how the question should be answered and the proper way to search for it.  This is a great tool for students, not only will they learn something from the questions that are asked but they will also learn how to use Google to find the answers that they need more efficiently.

Anne Frank and the Secret Annex

Are you always looking for new materials and interactive resources to use with your students?  If so you will have to check out this website. http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/  This website it packed with really great information about Anne Frank and the struggles that she had to go through.  There is a 3D house which you and your students can tour and actually see where Anne hid out when she needed to.  There are some great videos of real footage from World War 2 as well as tons of information about the occupants that lived in the house as well as many other great resources.  If you like this website and you would be interested in more great websites (K-12) sign up here to receive emails when anything new is posted. After signing up look for the follow up email which will verify your subscription.

A Discussion on Osama bin Laden

Discovery Education had a webinar last week that explained the events that led up to the capture and demise of Osama bin Laden.  The discussion took place with Ben Rhodes the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.  Mr.  Rhodes tells about the events leading up to the big event and then he took questions from students from across the United States.  The archived event is located here if you would like to share this with your students.  The webinar is about 30 minutes in length with the first ten being a recap of events and the last 20 minutes being questions from students. Discovery recommends that due to the sensitive nature of the webinar that only middle and high school students watch the archive.

Online Children's Museum

FRABOOM!!!!!

I know it sounds like something went wrong but this website is totally right! Fraboom is a fun interactive website for children of all ages.  Fraboom is free for the most part but they do offer some other features for a monthly fee. With the free version of Fraboom students and teachers will have access to live classes that are taught by teachers, the classes change on a daily basis. Fraboom also has games that are educational and videos that help explain topics like the solar system.  You will also have the ability to check out some pretty cool interactive books that read the book to you if you choose.  Within the book you also have the ability to click on different parts for more information on that topic.  All of this is part of the free version and really with the paid version all you really gain is the ability to watch a few more videos, participate in the live classes and keep track of your points that you can earn by playing the games.  The choice is yours but it is definitely worth checking out.

Interactive Periodic Table of Elements

High school Chemistry would have been so much easier if I would have had this tool in front of me!  ptable.com offers a great interactive Periodic Table of Elements.  Click on any of the elements and it will give you a complete description of what the element is and how it is used.  Not sure what the Alkali Metals are just hover over the Alkali Metals tab and ptable.com will highlight all of the metals for you to quickly view. This is a great resource that not only teachers can use within their classroom but also a great study tool for students as well.

Quick Presentations

Qwiki is a fairly new website that could change the way that we search for information.  It is unlike all other search engines that I have come across.  Qwiki is very different website that lets you type in your search terms and then it will actually take wikipedia entries and photos and turn them into a fairly decent presentation.  It is still in its beta version but I think that with a little more work this can be a very valuable website.  The best part of Qwiki is the ability to type in what you would like to search for and have a pretty good explanation within just a couple of seconds.  It is very easy to use and it will definitely save you some time.  Qwiki now also offers an iPad app that will do the same things as the website but bundled into a nice easy to use application.

Random Name Generator

I have recently discovered a very cool little tool that will help you randomly choose a students name.  This little tool is very easy to use, all you have to do is copy your students names and then click on the box that says change names and paste your students into the text box.  Now all you have to do is click on the Go! button and it will randomly select a student from the list.  It then gives you three different options to choose from, a two minute or seven minute stopwatch and then my favorite "remove victim from list."  Check it out, it only takes a minute to set up and then you can save your students names to use again and again.

14 Minute Webinar

How to Engage Your Students with 21st Century Projects

Simplek12.com is offering another webinar that you may be interested in .  This webinar is based on 21st Century Projects and ways that you can help engage your students using these great tools.  According to Simplek12's blog post this webinar will only take 14 minutes.  You can choose from three different days.  The webinars are Tuesday, March 22 at 5:00 PM, Wednesday, March 23 at 9:00 AM and Saturday, March 26 at 11:00 AM.  To register for the webinar just go to this link.  

Discussions in Google Docs

Thinking about using Google Docs!  Here is another great reason to start using it.  As you may know Google has a feature within Google Docs that allows a collaborator to comment on the document itself.  The comments are placed in the margins of the document.  Well now Google has set up discussions that can take place within the margins of the document.  For example I can comment on a student's work and then they can reply to my comment as to what they were thinking when they were writing the paper.  This is a great way to help your students fine tune their writing skills and also a way that students can help each other with writing projects.  Check out this video if you would like to see more.

Transforming Education through Technology

For the past year I have been receiving a wonderful publication from The Journal that I would like to recommend to everyone.  The Journal whose goal is to Transform Education through Technology is a great way to learn about new tools that are available in this ever-changing world of Education and Technology.  Each month you can choose to receive the digital or the print version of the magazine.  Within every issue there are many ideas that may help you implement technology into your classroom.  This is a great way to learn about new ideas that will help push you towards having a 21st Century classroom.  If you have a minute visit The Journal website and sign up for this free publication.

View Google Search Results Based Upon Reading Level

I recently just learned about a new tool that Google offers that will help you sort your search results based on Reading Level.  Although the new tool is fairly new and needs a little bit of work it is a great start to something that can make things a lot easier for teachers.  Google uses a very simplified leveling system which includes basic, intermediate and advanced reading levels that you can sort your results by.

How do I use this new feature?

• Go to www.google.com
• Type in your search term and then click on the "Advanced Search"
• On the next screen you can choose the Reading Level you want to work with or select "Annotate results with reading levels".

• Click on Advanced Search
• You can now choose which reading level you would like to sort by and the percentage of results within that reading level.

• You and your students can now use this feature to help narrow down the results and hopefully make things a little easier on everyone.

Classroom Use:
This is a great tool to use with students who may be researching information on a specific subject.  Elementary students can view the basic results where as High School Students might find that the intermediate or advanced results will better suit them.

The First Thanksgiving

Are you looking for something to teach your students about Thanksgiving?  Scholastic provides a really nice website that talks about The First Thanksgiving.  On their website they have many explanations that are very kid friendly.  You can show your students the Mayflower and show them the journey that the Pilgrims had taken to get to the new land.  You can also view the daily life of the Pilgrims after the arrived in the New World.  The First Thanksgiving is a great way to share the information with your students.  They also included a Teachers Guides for K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 that may help you gain a few more ideas.  There are also links to other sites that may help as well.  Have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the resource!

Study Jams

If you are looking for something to liven up your classroom you will have to check out Study Jams.  Study Jams is a website that is built around the Math and Science subjects.  It has animated videos that explain a several topics of Math and Science.  There is also the karaoke section which provides songs that help the students remember the steps to many problems.  You can start the video and have your students sing along.  One of the nicest parts of Study Jams is the step through process on the Math section.  This takes math problems and shows the students step by step how to complete them.  All of the lessons are animated and all of them contain quizzes that you can use to help evaluate how your students are doing.  When you get a chance check out Study Jams!!

Voting Made Easy

With the election fast approaching some of you may still not know who to vote for.  You are also trying to explain all of the ads that are on T.V. to your students.  I just found a great website that will hopefully help you figure out who to vote for as well as help your students learn about the current candidates running for office.  VoteEasy is a neat little tool that will let you choose the state that you want to work with and then it will show you who is running for office.  You can click on the pictures of the individuals to learn more about them.  You can also choose the issues that you are concerned with and learn more about the issues.  Once the issue is selected you can answer how you feel about that issue and VoteEasy tells you which candidate shares your views.  Even if you don't want to use this with your students you can help yourself choose who to vote for.

How does this apply to the classroom?
This can be used to inform your students about the different candidates.  You can view the candidates and then have a mock election within your classroom.  Just be weary that some of the issues may be controversial.  The more that we can inform our students the more likely they will get out there and vote.

Great Math Manipulatives

Math Open Reference is a great website for showing geometry figures on the Promethean Board. With this website you can choose from three different categories Plane Geometry, Coordinate Geometry, and Solid Geometry.  Within the categories there are several manipulative activities that you can choose to show.  Each of the manipulative activities can be used to introduce the concept and also as an interactive lesson that the students can control.  If you don't mind the occasional ads on website this is a great place to visit.  Your students will get a lot out of seeing and controlling the manipulatives.  With these tools you will be able to help your students to focus in on the activities as well as retain the information.

Math Open Reference

Dropbox

It seems like the more that we use technology the more that we start to rely on it.  This is a good thing especially when everything is working properly but we have all been there when something goes wrong and the technology doesn't work the way that we want it to.  Recently I found a free and easy to use program that will help you back up your files so that if your computer does go down you can still access your files from any other computer.  Dropbox is a free service that allows you to have 2 GB of space out on the web for free.  All you have to do is download a quick application which will place a folder on your desktop that is connected to your Dropbox account. Place any file in this folder and it is automatically uploaded to your Dropbox account.  Now you can access your files from the folder on your computer or from the website itself on any computer that has web access.  Just imagine how useful this could be.  You create something at home, place it in your Dropbox account and it is ready for you the next day at school.  We have all had that scare when our computer isn't working properly and we are told to back up our files.  With Dropbox they are already there and we just have to log onto any computer to access the files that we backed up and we never miss a beat.  Do you have an iPhone or Droid?  Dropbox has an app for that as well.  Give it a try, I am sure you will see the benefits some day.

Activotes and BrainPop

The Activote Quiz is now integrated into BrainPop!

BrainPop has just released a great new feature for use with the Activotes.  Do you remember opening BrainPop and then opening ActivInspire to use the Activotes with BrainPop?  With the new add-in you can choose Activote Quiz from the list of options and be off and running.  Now the teacher can focus more on giving the quiz and less on going back and forth between ActivInspire and BrainPop.  Click here for the instructions on how to use it and click here for the download itself.  Once it is set up you don't have to worry about it again.  Trust me, it will be well worth your time to use this add-in.

Great Games for Learning

Currently I am taking an online course through the Verizon Thinkfinity Foundation and when I was looking at there website I found a very good resource not only for the teachers but also for the students to use at home.  It is located in the Games and Tools section on www.thinkfinity.org.  In this section there are many games that the students can play and learn without even knowing that they are learning.  After scrolling down past the featured Games and Tools you can browse all of the interactives that they have available.  This is a great way to find a math activity for your students and make sure that it is appropriate for their grade level.  After you select the grade level and subject it now give you a list of activities and you have the choice to share the activity with someone else, read more about it or just try the activity.  It doesn't get much easier then that!

ActivInspire Updates to Version 1.4

Promethean has just released the newest Version of ActivInspire.  Several changes have been made to ActivInspire that will make this program that much better.  One of the best changes is the return of the pen modifier tools.  These tools were available within ActivStudio and were somehow left out of the first version of ActivInspire.  Another great addition is the ability to select more than one page from the page browser.  You can now use the Ctrl key to select multiple pages and drag them to the location that you want.  One of my favorite new changes is the page turn effects option.  You can now set up your flipchart to turn the pages of the flipchart and add a little zing to your lesson.  If you would like to download the updates just make sure that ActivInspire is open then click on the Help menu and select check for updates.  It will tell you that there are updates available and select download.  You will have to either download it to your computer and then run the file from there or just choose run as your option when you download.  If you would like a more in depth look at what is new click here to view the new features guide.

April 22nd is Earth Day!

With Earth Day fast approaching there are several websites that offer information for teachers and kids.  The first website is called Energy Kids and it is a fascinating website that gives a ton of information about energy.  Do your students know what energy is?  If not they can visit Energy Kids and they can learn about energy and all of its different forms.  The website also give great information about nonrenewable and renewable energy.  It also breaks down how we use electricity and hydrogen as forms of energy.  Have you every wondered how much energy homes or businesses use?  Energy kids also gives some great statistics as to how much energy is used by people every day.  There are a few games and activities that are included but they are not very interactive so they will probably be best used within a lab setting.  This is a great website that provides a lot of information for both teachers and students.

BrainPop is also offering several videos and activities that go along very nicely with earth day.  They have 11 different videos that can be used to inform your students about earth day as well as an overall earth awareness package.  If you are not sure what to teach about earth day I would start with these videos and activities.