Technology Tips for Elementary Teachers
August 2009
Week 2
Jayne Anne Heath
Jayne.heath@mccracken.kyschools.us
Ext. 5032
Send me an email if you find something that works for you!
1. Sparkle Box - Thousands of Free Things for Teachers
2. Typing Web - Free Typing Lessons
3. Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration
4. More Wordle Ideas
5. YUDU - Publish Your PDFs as Online Magazines
6. Jeopardy PowerPoint Game Template
7. 30+ Alternatives to YouTube
8. 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom
9. Five Ways to Visually Explore Wikipedia
10. Lexipedia - Webbed Word Connections
Whyzz - Helps Parents Answer "Why" Questions
Posted: 30 Jun 2009 08:28 AM PDT
Whyzz is a website designed for the parents of
three to eight year old children that are going through the "why" phase. Whyzz gives clear simple
answers to the "why"questions like "why is the sky blue?" that children ask frequently. Parents can
access the information on the site in two ways. The most direct way to find something on Whyzz is to
type a "why" question in the "tell me" search bar at the top of every page. You can also browse the
through topics in ten different categories. Click on a topic and you'll find a list of commonly asked
"why" questions and their answers.
Applications for Education
Whyzz is a good site not only for parents, but also teachers and childcare providers who have to
answer "why" questions from children.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
RayLit - Personalized Lessons and Games for Pre-K
Help Kidz Learn - Free Games and Stories
Kido'z - A Kid-Safe Browser
Tech Tech Boom Gets Kids Talking About School
Posted: 29 Jun 2009 08:50 PM PDT
Tech Tech Boom is truly one of my favorite
discoveries here at NECC 09. Tech Tech Boom can best be described as a social network for high
school students interested in science and math. The unique thing about Tech Tech Boom is that its
user interface was designed by kids. Too often websites are designed by adults and the forced upon
kids for learning. Tech Tech Boom has created a their site from the students' perspective by enlisting
the help of students. The purpose of Tech Tech Boom is to help students get interested in math and
science and connect them with other students interested in math and science. The site is still in its
beta phase, but it has great potential. When I talked with creators of Tech Tech Boom, Mario
Armstrong and Nicole Hunter, today they explained to me that the future of Tech Tech Boom
includes plans for live video conferences that can be used the classroom. In essence, they plan for
Tech Tech Boom to be a resource that students can use and will want to use at home and in their
classrooms.
Applications for Education
Tech Tech Boom has the potential to be an excellent site for students to connect with other students
that are interested in math and science. In Maine we have an annual conference where middle school
students interested in technology can connect, Tech Tech Boom makes it possible for that same type
of connection to take place globally.

Three Tools for Opening Documents

Arts Edge - Podcasts and Lesson Plans

Parentella - Community for Teachers and Parents
Three Tools for Opening Documents
Posted: 09 Jul 2009 03:55 PM PDT
If you've ever had a student or colleague
send you a document that you couldn't open because you did have the right software installed
on your computer, these tools are for you.
View Docs Online is the simplest way to open a document. Simply upload a document and
View Docs Online will open it and display it for you. Even if you can't open the document on
your local computer, you can open it on View Docs Online.
TextMaker Viewer is a free program for Windows users. TextMaker Viewer allows you to
open, view, and print most document file formats. Although you can open the files, you
cannot edit all documents opened using TextMaker Viewer.
Universal Viewer is another free program for Windows users. Universal Viewer allows you to
view documents as well as various image formats.
Applications for Education
While it's preferable to have students use Google Docs or Zoho Writer to create documents,
sometimes they may send an attachment that can't be opened on school computers. These
tools could be helpful in those situations.
Arts Edge - Podcasts and Lesson Plans
Posted: 09 Jul 2009 03:34 AM PDT
Arts Edge, produced by the Kennedy Center, is a
collection of podcasts, lesson plans, and links for teaching music and culture. The podcast
directory is where you will find an eclectic collection of podcasts featuring music ranging
from Jazz in DC to Music from China. The "Teach" section of Arts Edge is a good place to find
lesson plans for teaching music and culture. As a teacher of US History, the lesson on Civil
War music caught my attention.
Applications for Education
You don't have to be a music teacher to take advantage of the offerings from Arts Edge.
Anyone, like Literature or History teachers, that needs to incorporate lessons on culture and
or music can use the podcasts and lessons offered by Arts Edge.
Parentella - Community for Teachers and Parents
Posted: 08 Jul 2009 08:01 PM PDT
Parentella is a platform designed for the
purpose of facilitating online communication between teachers and parents. Teachers can
register for a free account, create a classroom, and begin posting notices for parents to read.
Parents can use Parentella to keep current on news from school and to communicate with
other parents.
Applications for Education
Parentella is a good option for creating an online communication hub between teachers and
parents.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
My Brochure Maker - Create a Mailer
Build Your Own Browser Toolbar
Tatango - Free Group Text and Voice Messaging

Restored Videos of First Moon Landing

More Templates Coming to Google Docs

Week in Review - Most Popular Items

Moogo - Create a Free Website

Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Restored Videos of First Moon Landing
Posted: 17 Jul 2009 04:29 PM PDT
I found this news in the Reuters' most watched videos RSS feed. NASA is restoring all of the
videos from the first moon landing on July 20, 1969. All of the videos will be available in
September, but you can see a preview now on the NASA website. You can also watch the
sample that is embedded below.
Applications for Education
The restored videos of the first moon landing could be good materials to use as part of lesson
on the history of space exploration. The videos would also be good to use as part of a lesson
on the Cold War and the Space Race.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
We Choose the Moon - Apollo 11 40th Anniversary
JFK's "We Choose the Moon" Speech
More Templates Coming to Google Docs
Posted: 17 Jul 2009 03:54 PM PDT
If you signed into your Google Docs account today, you may have
noticed something new. In the upper, right hand corner of your page you should now see a
link to "submit a template." Google announced today that you can now upload your own
templates to the public gallery. What this means for everyone is that eventually there will be
more templates available to use in your documents, spreadsheets, and slide shows.
Applications for Education
Some of the most useful Google Docs templates for students are the bibliography templates
and the presentation templates.
Week in Review - Most Popular Items
Posted: 17 Jul 2009 12:30 PM PDT
The summer seems to be flying along here in Maine. I hope that all of you that are on a break
from school are enjoying your vacations. Summer is a time that many of us use to further our
professional learning. Earlier this week I Skyped into a class for teachers interested in
technology integration. In two weeks I'll be presenting at the MLTI Summer Institute in
Castine, ME. Chris Lehmann is the keynote speaker for the conference. I hope to meet many
Maine educators there.
It seems that every week Free Technology for Teachers adds more readers and subscribers.
That pattern is due to all of you that have helped to expand the reach of Free Technology for
Teachers by sharing links and referring others to the blog. Thank you, I truly appreciate and
value every reader and every comment.
Here are the seven most popular items of the last week:
1. 10 Things Teachers Should Know Before 1:1
2. More Wordle in the Classroom Ideas
3. Using Blogs and Wikis are Core Skills
4. Need Graph Paper? Get it Here
5. Turn Your Blog Into a Newsletter With RSS to PDF
6. Guess the Wordle and Summer Vacation Wordles
7. Friend Feed in Education
Moogo - Create a Free Website
Posted: 17 Jul 2009 03:00 AM PDT
Moogo is a service that provides you with a platform
for developing your own website for free. Like other services in this free website builder
market, Moogo offers a good selection of templates and designs for you to choose from. One
of the features that makes Moogo different from some other free website services is that you
can create static webpages and a blog within the Moogo content editor. One deterent for
some users is that Moogo is free without advertising for an eight day trial period then the free
plan starts to display advertising.
Applications for Education
Moogo could be a good choice for creating a website for your classroom. The combination of
static webpages and a chronilogical blog is a nice way to have reference pages and a platform
for sharing news with students and parents.
For eight other options for creating a free website please read 8 Ways to Create Websites
(Not Blogs) for Free.
Food Play - Resources About Food and Diet
Posted: 16 Jul 2009 06:36 PM PDT
Food Play Productions produces and performs
educational plays about healthy lifestyle habits. In addition to the plays, Food Play produces
a nice selection of resources for teachers to use in their classrooms. Food Play also has
resources designed for kids, teens, and parents to access on their own. The type of resource
that visitors to the site will find are things like "school wellness" checklists and "snacking
guides."
Applications for Education
Food Play's education resources are not interactive resources, but they are informative.
Health and physical education teachers should find the resources to be good supplements to
their lessons.

10 Places to Make and Find Flashcards Online

Be Funky - Create a Cartoon of Yourself

StudyBlue - Collaborative Study Tools

Watch Know - Thousands of Educational Videos
10 Places to Make and Find Flashcards Online
Posted: 19 Jul 2009 04:30 AM PDT
Flashcards are one of the simplest and most common ways to study for a test. Free
Technology for Teachers has featured numerous flashcard resources in the past. Here are ten
good places to create and find flashcards online.
1. Cramberry allows users to share flashcards with other users. After creating your flashcards
you can contribute to a public gallery of flashcards. If you don't have time to make flashcards
of your own, you can search for and study flashcards in the public gallery. To use the
flashcards you will need to create a Cramberry account. For your students that have iPhones
(none of my students have one) Cramberry now has an iPhone app called Flash-Me.
2. Flashcards created using Funnel Brain can include a "third side" to a flashcard. A side that
contains the explanation for the answer to a question. In addition to text Funnel Brain
flashcards can include videos, audio, and pictures. Under your videos and images you can
type your question, answer, or explanation. Just as with many other flashcard services
Funnel Brain flashcards can be shared with other users.
3. Ediscio is a little different from a lot of flashcard creation tools because Ediscio lets you
build sets of flashcards individually or with the help of other Ediscio users. The other
distinguishing feature of Ediscio is that flashcards can include images. (Ediscio is also
featured in Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration).
4. Cobocards, like other flashcard services, allows you to create customized sets of flashcards.
One of the key differences between Cobocards and other flashcard services is that Cobocards
provides you with pdf copies of your flashcards that you can print to study offline. Of course,
you can study also study your flashcards online.
5. Flashcard DB is one of the most well-designed free flashcard programs that I've seen on
the web. Flashcard DB, like most flashcard programs, allows you to browse existing sets of
flashcards or create your own custom set of flashcards. What makes Flashcard DB different
from its competitors is the study methods that can be used with the flashcards. Flashcard DB
allows students to study using the Leitner System or the Graded Space Repetition Method.
6. On Quizlet you can make your own flashcards or study from publicly shared sets of
flashcards. Quizlet offers you the ability to study your cards in five different ways including
playing a couple of games with your cards. When creating your flashcards you can enter
information for each card individually or import information from a text document to be
used in your card set. If you don't have the time to create your set of flashcards, browse the
publicly shared flashcards.
7. Study Stack is one of the better review game creation tools that I've tried. Study Stack
allows teachers and students to create flashcards, crossword puzzles, matching games, word
searches, and other classic study games for any subject area. You can create a game using any
type of numerical or text data. Once you're data is in your account, you can use that data to
create multiple games.
8. On Muchobeets students can create their own customized "stack" of flashcards. For
students preparing for a general exam like the SAT, Muchobeets has a good collection of
publicly shared vocabulary flashcards. The Muchobeets service is very easy to use. If you
want to make your own flashcards simply register with your email address and get started
using the very intuitive flashcard creation template. No registration is required if you want to
use the publicly shared stacks of flashcards.
9. Knowtes is a great resource for finding or making all kinds of flashcards. The Knowtes
library is full of ready to use decks of flashcards covering subjects appropriate from
Kindergarten through college. The option to download a library of flashcards is the best
feature of the Knowtes program. Students who have laptops can download flashcards and use
them to study without having to find an Internet connection. For example, in the district
where I teach every middle school student is given a laptop, but many students do not have
Internet access at home. Being able to download study tools is very useful for those students.
10. Flashcard Flash is a handy little search engine designed for one purpose, helping you find
sets of flashcards. Flashcard Flash was built using Google Custom Search. Flashcard Flash
searches six different flashcard services including Flashcard DB, Quizlet, and Study Stack all
of which I've previously reviewed and found to be excellent services.
11. Please leave a comment with your suggested additions to this list.
Be Funky - Create a Cartoon of Yourself
Posted: 19 Jul 2009 03:00 AM PDT
Be Funky is a tool that I was reminded of
on Friday when a reader asked me for a tool to create avatars. Be Funky is a simple tool for
turning digital photographs into digital comics. The image you see to the left is a cartoonized
image of myself and Ernie Easter taken at NECC 2009.
Applications for Education
Be Funky is a simple and fun way to create comic-style avatars for students to use on blogs or
other networks. Students could also use Be Funky to create a comic strip by converting and
saving images to arrange in a story.
StudyBlue - Collaborative Study Tools
Posted: 19 Jul 2009 03:00 AM PDT
Study Blue is a website for students to share and collaborate on the
creation of study tools. High School and college students can share notes from class, create
multi-media flashcards, email, and share calendars using Study Blue. Students can establish
study groups or search for study groups already creating on Study Blue. One of the better
features of Study Blue is that students can use it by signing in with their Facebook login
credentials. Students may forget the login information for a stand-alone website but they
never forget their Facebook login information.
Applications for Education
Study Blue is a good tool for encouraging students to work and study together. The Facebook
sign-in option eliminates for most students the obstacle of "I forgot my password."
Watch Know - Thousands of Educational Videos
Posted: 19 Jul 2009 01:00 AM PDT
Watch Know is a new source of
educational videos that was featured on Read Write Web on Saturday night. Watch Know is a
collection of thousands of educational videos from across the Internet. Watch Know has
broken down the collection into an easy-to-browse catalog. You can also use a standard
search box to find videos. Although the site is gathering videos from all across the web from
sites like National Geographic, many of the videos are drawn from YouTube. Having videos
from YouTube may be an obstacle for some teachers who would like to use Watch Know in
their classrooms.
If you would like to find some alternatives to YouTube that you might be able to use in school
please see this list of 30+ Alternatives to YouTube.
Story Place - Digital Stories in English and Spanish
Posted: 18 Jul 2009 01:05 PM PDT
The Story Place is a children's digital
library produced by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg counties in North
Carolina. The Story Place features digital stories in English and Spanish for students of
pre-school age through elementary school. The digital stories are arranged by age group
and by theme. I looked at the pre-school story about firefighters and thought it that it is
the type of story I would share with my pre-school aged child, if I had kids. Along with
the digital stories are activity guides for parents and reading lists.
Application for Education
The Story Place is a great source of digital stories that teachers and parents can use to
introduce reading to young students. The digital stories contain audio of each story as
well as the text of the story. The parent activities could be printed and sent home with
students as a way to encourage reading at home.
Itpints - A New Real-Time Search Engine
Posted: 18 Jul 2009 06:40 AM PDT
The creation of real-time search engines is one of
my favorite developments of the web in the last year. As I mentioned in this video, using
real-time search engines is how I find quite a few of the resources that I mention on Free
Technology for Teachers. Real-time search engines are also great for tracking the
developments of a breaking news story.
Itpints is a new real-time search engine that pulls results from Backtype and Twitter. The
benefit of pulling results from Backtype is that is finds not only new stories, but also it
finds stories that are being actively discussed and commented on by readers at any
moment.
Applications for Education
Real-time search engines like Itpints are great resources to have when a story is breaking.
These resources could be put to use by students in a current events course or in a
journalism course. When I taught a current events course one of my favorite things to do
was to have students analyze the reporting of one story from multiple sources. Real-time
search makes it possible to get coverage of a story from multiple perspectives.
Here are the three other real-time search engines that you should try:
OneRiot
Scoopler
CrowdEye
My Mini City - Build Your Own City
Posted: 22 Jul 2009 06:03 AM PDT
My Mini City is a city simulator
that introduces users to real-life challenges facing city development and planning including
unemployment, sanitation, overpopulation, and natural disaster. My Mini City does not
require users to download or update any software, it is a completely web-based application.
Being an entirely web-based application gives it an advantage over other city simulators on
the market today. As most readers of this blog know, I am a huge proponent of web-based
applications because their usability over a myriad of network and operating systems.
Applications for Educators
Geography and Social Studies teachers will like My Mini City for the number of real life
problems the program simulates. It's a great teaching tool as it makes students account for
number of geographic, economic, and political concepts.
Earth Science teachers will like My Mini City's sanitation, population, and natural disaster
simulations.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Stop Disasters - Natural Disaster Simulation Game
Geography Links You Might Have Missed
Math eBook - Math Lessons for K-12
Posted: 21 Jul 2009 05:43 AM PDT
Math eBook is an excellent collection of
mathematics tutorials and worksheets. There are tutorials available in print and video form
for all grade levels. The worksheets are available as PDF downloads or your students can use
the worksheets in their online interactive form. To use a worksheet online, simply click the
"virtual" link next to the tutorial. To use the PDF of a worksheet click on the "eWorkbook"
link next to your desired tutorial. In addition to the video tutorials and worksheets, Math
eBook offers a mathematics dictionary for student use.
Applications for Education
Math eBook could be a good general mathematics resource for teachers, students, and
parents. The worksheets in PDF can be edited and used for classroom practice or homework
assignments. In the virtual form, the worksheets could be a good review tool for students
preparing for a quiz or test.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Interactivate - Interactive Math Assessments
200+ Free Mathematics Books
Math Links You Might Have Missed
Watch Know - Thousands of Educational Videos
Posted: 19 Jul 2009 01:00 AM PDT
Watch Know is a new source of
educational videos that was featured on Read Write Web on Saturday night. Watch Know is a
collection of thousands of educational videos from across the Internet. Watch Know has
broken down the collection into an easy-to-browse catalog. You can also use a standard
search box to find videos. Although the site is gathering videos from all across the web from
sites like National Geographic, many of the videos are drawn from YouTube. Having videos
from YouTube may be an obstacle for some teachers who would like to use Watch Know in
their classrooms.
If you would like to find some alternatives to YouTube that you might be able to use in school
please see this list of 30+ Alternatives to YouTube.
10 Places to Make and Find Flashcards Online
Posted: 19 Jul 2009 04:30 AM PDT
Flashcards are one of the simplest and most common ways to study for a test. Free
Technology for Teachers has featured numerous flashcard resources in the past. Here are ten
good places to create and find flashcards online.
1. Cramberry allows users to share flashcards with other users. After creating your flashcards
you can contribute to a public gallery of flashcards. If you don't have time to make flashcards
of your own, you can search for and study flashcards in the public gallery. To use the
flashcards you will need to create a Cramberry account. For your students that have iPhones
(none of my students have one) Cramberry now has an iPhone app called Flash-Me.
2. Flashcards created using Funnel Brain can include a "third side" to a flashcard. A side that
contains the explanation for the answer to a question. In addition to text Funnel Brain
flashcards can include videos, audio, and pictures. Under your videos and images you can
type your question, answer, or explanation. Just as with many other flashcard services
Funnel Brain flashcards can be shared with other users.
3. Ediscio is a little different from a lot of flashcard creation tools because Ediscio lets you
build sets of flashcards individually or with the help of other Ediscio users. The other
distinguishing feature of Ediscio is that flashcards can include images. (Ediscio is also
featured in Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration).
4. Cobocards, like other flashcard services, allows you to create customized sets of flashcards.
One of the key differences between Cobocards and other flashcard services is that Cobocards
provides you with pdf copies of your flashcards that you can print to study offline. Of course,
you can study also study your flashcards online.
5. Flashcard DB is one of the most well-designed free flashcard programs that I've seen on
the web. Flashcard DB, like most flashcard programs, allows you to browse existing sets of
flashcards or create your own custom set of flashcards. What makes Flashcard DB different
from its competitors is the study methods that can be used with the flashcards. Flashcard DB
allows students to study using the Leitner System or the Graded Space Repetition Method.
6. On Quizlet you can make your own flashcards or study from publicly shared sets of
flashcards. Quizlet offers you the ability to study your cards in five different ways including
playing a couple of games with your cards. When creating your flashcards you can enter
information for each card individually or import information from a text document to be
used in your card set. If you don't have the time to create your set of flashcards, browse the
publicly shared flashcards.
7. Study Stack is one of the better review game creation tools that I've tried. Study Stack
allows teachers and students to create flashcards, crossword puzzles, matching games, word
searches, and other classic study games for any subject area. You can create a game using any
type of numerical or text data. Once you're data is in your account, you can use that data to
create multiple games.
8. On Muchobeets students can create their own customized "stack" of flashcards. For
students preparing for a general exam like the SAT, Muchobeets has a good collection of
publicly shared vocabulary flashcards. The Muchobeets service is very easy to use. If you
want to make your own flashcards simply register with your email address and get started
using the very intuitive flashcard creation template. No registration is required if you want to
use the publicly shared stacks of flashcards.
9. Knowtes is a great resource for finding or making all kinds of flashcards. The Knowtes
library is full of ready to use decks of flashcards covering subjects appropriate from
Kindergarten through college. The option to download a library of flashcards is the best
feature of the Knowtes program. Students who have laptops can download flashcards and use
them to study without having to find an Internet connection. For example, in the district
where I teach every middle school student is given a laptop, but many students do not have
Internet access at home. Being able to download study tools is very useful for those students.
10. Flashcard Flash is a handy little search engine designed for one purpose, helping you find
sets of flashcards. Flashcard Flash was built using Google Custom Search. Flashcard Flash
searches six different flashcard services including Flashcard DB, Quizlet, and Study Stack all
of which I've previously reviewed and found to be excellent services.
The Economic Fairy Tale
Posted: 16 Jul 2009 09:08 AM PDT
The Economic Fairy Tale is a short video produced by Dodjit for the purpose of explaining
the causes of current global economic climate. The video is embedded below.
The Economic Fairy Tale from dodjit on Vimeo.
The Economic Fairy Tale
Posted: 16 Jul 2009 09:08 AM PDT
The Economic Fairy Tale is a short video produced by Dodjit for the purpose of explaining
the causes of current global economic climate. The video is embedded below.
The Economic Fairy Tale from dodjit on Vimeo.
Applications for Education
This video could be a nice introduction or summary for a lesson on global economics
particularly with regard to the mortgage industry.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
The Crisis of Credit Visualized
Understanding the Financial Crisis - Say it Visually
Investing in Plain English
JFK's "We Choose the Moon" Speech
Posted: 16 Jul 2009 08:49 AM PDT
This video of President Kennedy's 1962 speech at Rice University is also available as a part of
the We Choose the Moon website that I posted earlier this week.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the We Choose the Moon website has
now activated "stage two" of the flight for you to follow along with.
CNN Student News Summer Special
Posted: 16 Jul 2009 06:33 AM PDT
CNN Student News has produced a summer special. The episode highlights the biggest news
stories of the summer. The episode also features advice from upperclassmen for in-coming
high school freshmen.
If you're viewing this in RSS you may need to click through to view the video.
Embedded video from CNN Video
Applications for Education
This episode of CNN Student News might be good to show in a ninth grade social studies
class on one of the first days of school. The video would be good to use as a review of summer
news as well as providing students with advice that could help their transitions to high
school.
IzzyTodo - Easy To Do List Builder
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 06:41 PM PDT
IzzyToDo is one of simplest and easiest tools for
building an online to-do list. IzzyToDo allows you to make multiple lists for multiple
objectives. Once you've registered create a "target" or objective and begin adding "items" that
you need to do to reach your target. You can try IzzyToDo before registering by using the
demo on the homepage.
Applications for Education
IzzyToDo is a simple tool that students can use to set goals and record their progress toward
those goals. Breaking large objectives into smaller steps is a good strategy for some students
who feel overwhelmed by large projects. IzzyToDo's design is ideal for those students.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Track Class - Assignment Tracking for Students
Sticky Screen - Your To-Do List Homepage
Diabetes Education Resources from Discovery
Posted: 15 Jul 2009 05:36 PM PDT
Childhood obesity continues to rise in the United States and along with it is a
rise in diagnoses of diabetes. Discovery Education has assembled some good resources for
teaching students about diabetes. On Discovering Diabetes teachers can find five lesson plans
for teaching about diabetes. Teachers will also find three interactive models and three videos.
The interactive models and videos demonstrate systems of the body are affected by diabetes.
Thanks to Discovery Star Educator and all around great guy Ken Shelton for passing along
this resource via Twitter.
Applications for Education
These resources from Discovery could be great materials for middle school and high school
health and science students.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Learn To Be Healthy - Free Lesson Plans
Sugar Stacks - How Much Sugar Is In Your Snack?
Rudd Center on Food Policy and Obesity
Slate Box - Collaborative Mind Mapping
Slatebox is a slick, new tool for collaboratively creating
mind maps and organizational charts. Slatebox offers a variety of good-looking templates
and intuitive tools for designing and editing mind maps and charts. Creating a mind map is a
simple matter of selecting a template and using the visual editor to place text and images in
boxes. Those boxes can be resized and rearranged using the drag and drop editor. If you need
more text boxes, simply add more.
Inviting people to join you on Slatebox is easy to do in part because of the variety of sign-in
options. It is possible to use Slatebox without having to create a new username or password.
To use Slatebox you can sign in with your Google, Open ID, Facebook, AOL, or Windows Live
account. If you don't have one of those accounts you can create a unique Slatebox username
and password, but you will have to wait for an account verification email.
Applications for Education
Slatebox could be a great way for students to brainstorm with each other over the Internet.
Slatebox could also be used on an interactive whiteboard. On a whiteboard you could have
students take turns editing elements and moving elements around the mind map.
Guess the Wordle and Summer Vacation Wordles
Posted: 12 Jul 2009 04:22 PM PDT
Wordle is a good tool for creating visual representations of the most commonly used words in
a document or on a website. I've featured Wordle on this blog twice in the past. You can read
those previous posts about Wordle here and here.
This morning I came across a new wiki called Guess the Wordle. Three times a week Guess
the Wordle will post a new Wordle. Then based on the Wordle students can guess what the
topic of the Wordle is. Guess the Wordle could be a fun warm-up activity to use with
students.
While looking over Guess the Wordle I had a new (to me) thought about using Wordle in the
classroom. Writing stories about summer vacation is an assignment that teachers commonly
give at the beginning of the school year. This year, when you give that assignment have
students create a Wordle when they are done writing their stories. The Wordles created from
the stories could be used as a reflection tool by students and yourself to see what things from
the summer vacation really stand out in a student's mind.
Need Graph Paper? Get it Here
Posted: 11 Jul 2009 02:00 AM PDT
Every mathematics teacher I know needs graph
paper. If you're a mathematics teacher and find yourself running short on graph paper or you
need a graph paper that is different from what your school purchases, try one of these three
places for printing graph paper.
Incompetech offers more than forty different graph and lined paper templates. The offerings
from Incompetech even includes sheet music ledger.
Print Free Graph Paper offers eight graph paper formats. Print Free Graph Paper allows you
to customize the size of the graph before printing.
Math Drills hosts fourteen templates for printing your own graph paper. The templates are in
metric and imperial measurements.
The Math Worksheet Generator
Posted: 10 Jul 2009 02:36 PM PDT
The Math Worksheet Site offers a mix of
free and paid worksheet generators. The free section of the site offers teachers twenty-three
worksheet generators covering all aspects of elementary school level mathematics. There are
a few options for customizing these worksheets to your liking. Most of the options regard the
number of problems that are on each worksheet.
Applications for Education
Try as we might to create paperless classrooms, sometimes teachers still have the urge to
reach for a worksheet (old habits die hard, I guess). One of those times when a mathematics
teacher might need to quickly create a worksheet is when you have a substitute teacher
coming in for the day.
More….
http://ow.ly/jKgl Web 2.0 Guru –wonderful
resources!!!
http://www.signupgenius.com/ Sign
 Simple wizards for creating your sign up
 Public or private online group sign up
 Automated email reminders
KidThing
Up Genius
 “Swapping” ability for schedule changes
 Attractive and customizable templates
 Easy administration tools and stats
http://kidthing.com/marketing/eblast-20090812-1/
Books-cheap!!!!
Have a good weekend! I will see you next week!
Mrs. Jayne Anne