Website Wednesday

• Brain breaks kids love - GoNoodle
  Interesting site offers short "brain breaks" in the form of videos incorporating colorful
  

  

  characters, subject content, and yoga-like elements such as stretching, breathing, mild exercise. Goes along with research into exercise/activity and the brain. Recommended for elementary students.
  tags: brain breaks health interactive web2.0 exercise
  
  
• PixiClip
  Nice tool that is like Educreation or ScreenChomp apps but for your computer browser. Good resource for teachers of flipped classrooms! Great way to check for understanding with students.
  tags: whiteboard collaboration web2.0 interactive audio
  
  
• Close Reading Relief: Re-engage Students with Digital Microstories | MiddleWeb
  Great article on using digital microstories to draw students back into literature and teach skills from the standards. The authors address the purpose behind this strategy, links to digital microstories, and ideas for digital presentations from students. They also touch on citation of images.
  tags: close reading digital microstories ELA digital storytelling
  
  
  
  
Six Word Stories: Hemingway


• Poetry Teachers
  A site dedicated poetry fun. Learn how to inspire students to write poetry in class. Read and
  

  

  rate poems written by others. Explore various poetry activities that will engage your students.
  tags: poetry writing reading literacy education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Website Wednesday

• National Gallery of Aart Kids Art Zone
  
  
  
  NGAkids Art Zone interactives offer an entertaining and informative introduction to art and art history. Featuring a variety of art-making tools that encourage exploration and creativity, these activities are suitable for all ages. Simply select a thumbnail image at the left or click one of the colorful banners above to learn more about each program. Great for elementary students.
  tags: art artists interactive creativity art history

• 3M Science of Everyday Life - Discovery Education
  Is there chemistry in the kitchen? Is there physics at the park? Videos and interactives will help students discover the real-world science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school. There is something for everyone!
  tags: science discovery videos teaching resources chemistry biology physics

• The Anne Frank Center
  Contains diary excerpts, teacher resources and more about Anne Frank.
  tags: Anne Frank primary sources holocaust historical figures resources

• Anne Frank Timeline
  The story of Anne's life told through photos, audio and video clips. Contains some great historical photos of the time period that could be used in history class or in discussing the Holocaust.
  tags: timeline Anne Frank historical figures world history WWI WWII audioclips videoclips

• Click2Stream
  Live video from Bald Eagle Nest - great look of an actual eagle's nest
  tags: video eagle nest live cams science watching

• Cornell Lab Bird Cams
  Live cams of various in their natural habitat. Great for discussing animal habitats with students.
  tags: bird cams watching live cams science

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

FlipQuiz

With a similar look to a Jeopardy board, teachers and students can use FlipQuiz to create reviews over class content.  Simply create a free account and click the green 'Create a New Board' button to get started.  Create a title for your board and up to six category headings with five questions for each category.  When you launch your board into presentation mode, it will adjust according to the number of categories you actually used.  For instance in this sample board, I only created three categories.

From your dashboard, you can opt to edit, launch or delete any of your boards.  You also have the option to create a new board.

Since the template is already created for you, the most time consuming element of using this tool is coming up with your questions and determining the point values they should be worth.  After all, you don't want a really easy question to earn you 500 points.  Once created, you could use these games as a whole class competition, team competition or review practice for individual students.  You can also share your boards on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.  FlipQuiz is great for use on interactive whiteboards and while they don't have an app yet, you can go to the website on your iPad and work on or launch your board.  According to the site, FlipQuiz works in all versions of Firefox and Chrome, but has some quirky issues with Internet Explorer 9.  I also tested it on Safari and that seems to work just fine too.

On the downside, I have not found any embed option for your boards.  So you have to stick with a web link when posting your boards on your website or blog.  The other drawback I found when working with FlipQuiz is getting out of the presentation mode.  You have to use the back arrow on your browser because there is no button to take you back your dashboard.  I suppose the creators are trying to keep a clean look when the board is actually launched, but it might take you a couple times of use to remember how to get back to your other boards.  Finally, FlipQuiz is listed as a beta version and I did notice a price link that is crossed out at present.  I don't know if or when this tool will require you to pay for services, but that is a possibility for the future.  However, until that time, take advantage of this great new tool!

Website Wednesday

• TinEye Reverse Image Search
  Upload an image and discover what website it originated from
  tags: image search photos copyright
• 4Teachers
  Use this site to create rubrics, quizzes, webquests and more
  tags: technology web2.0 teacher education rubrics
• Iowa's AEAs on Pinterest
  Great resources from the Iowa Area Education Agencies - web links for technology, assistive technology, autism, behavior resources, literary, common core and more.
  tags: Pinterest web tools bookmarks Common Core science career Technology special needs education resources
• Down For Everyone Or Just Me
  Check if your website is down or up? Great tool for checking to see if that website is really down or if it has something to do with your network.
  tags: tools network test
• Web Resources Workshop - Search, Evaluate & Use - Atomic Learning
  Tutorial and project centered around searching and evaluating web resources.  Also addresses plagiarism, copyright and source citation.  Great tool to use with students as a refresher or an actual project.  (Since this is on Atomic Learning, you will need to login for full access.)
  tags: web resources copyright plagiarism web evaluation citation
• Interactive Learning Sites for Education - Home
  All of the best K-5 online, interactive, educational games and simulations in one place! Covers all content areas plus art, music, typing, holidays, spanish and teacher tools. Great for interactive whiteboards or individual computers.
  tags: interactive smartboard science math music typing holidays brainteasers web2.0
• Remembering John F. Kennedy | Scholastic.com
  Compiled list of resources from Scholastic for teaching students about JFK. Resource grade range covers PreK-8.
  tags: kennedy articles books
• WWII News and Related Sound files from 1940
  Free download and streaming of over 100 WWII news audio files. Use them to enhance class learning and presentations.
  tags: news WWII audio clips sound files
• World War II Audio clips
  18 WWII audio clips including both speeches and war related sounds. You can link back to the audio clip, but they cannot be downloaded. Would work great in digital presentations like Prezi, Glogster and ThingLink.
  tags: WWII audio clips history
• BBC - School Radio - World War 2 Audio Clips
  World War II audio clips that teachers and students can embed into their projects and presentations to enhance learning. Audio clips include war sounds, speeches, songs/music and more
  tags: audio history worldwarII WWII

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tools to Use Right Away

I attended a librarian workshop in Dodge City on Saturday and heard some great presenters on various technology and book topics.  One of the sessions focused on websites and apps to use in the classroom and library.  Here are the ones I thought were the best...

readthinkwrite - Student Interactives

You have been to this site before, but I found out there are student interactive games, graphic organizers and more that you can access.  You can refine your search by grade level, type of interactive tool, learning objective and more.  Some interactives include Trading Card Creator, Cube Creator, Letter Generator, Compare & Contrast Map and more

Being a fan of the old Fractured Fairy Tales on Rocky and Bullwinkle, I found this interactive centering around fractured fairy tales.  Students get to read an animate fractured fairy tale and then write their own.  Here are a few screen shots of this interactive tool:

Too Noisy - This free app helps you monitor the classroom noise level.  You can adjust the sensitivity level on the app.  If the noise level gets too high, your smiley face starts to frown.  You could project this on the screen when students are working with partners or in small groups to help them keep track of the noise level.

Random Name Selector - This free app randomly selects student names from the magic hat.  All you do is add a group and then add names to your group.  Then you hit the ? to have the hat select a name.  The hat will go through all the names in your group before putting everyone back in for selection.

Chicktionary Lite - This free app provides you a set number of letters to create words from.  You are given the how many words and how many letters per word that you can make from your collection of letters.  The twist?  Everything is chicken and egg related.  A great appeal for kids!

Website Wednesdays

• Rubrics for Teachers

Assessment tools for online content, presentations, mind maps and more. Great tool so you don't have to re-invent the wheel.

tags: rubrics assessment Web 2.0 tools

• Titanic Resources Gallore
  iPad apps, 3D movie resources, and some sweet teaching materials by Glenn Weibe. Great resources for connecting to the building of the Titanic 2.
  tags: Titanic apps infographic history web tools
• Zygote Body
  Interactive 3D model of the human body that allows you look at the various components of the body - skeleton, muscles, organs, veins. You can customize to have multiple or single layers.
  tags: anatomy body interactive human_body 3D
• Looking for the Top Quark Game
  Similar to Battleship, this game gives students practice on reading a four quadrant coordinates graph. You can play against the computer or a friend.
  tags: math coordinates interactive graphing game
• Funschool - Number Fun - Cannon Math
  Students can practice their math facts with this fun interactive game. Shoot your circus performers out of the cannon on to the correct answer. Students will also have to work with angle and power of the cannon to hit the correct mat.
  tags: Math addition interactive
• Sun|trek
  Good resource for science students. This site is dedicated to information about the Sun and how it effects the Earth.
  tags: science sun astronomy space solar
• Top 10 Activities to Process Common Core Math
  Provides links to specific details for each activity listed.
  tags: math commoncore
• Wanderlust
  Check out the most famous trips in history on these maps. Learn facts about the trip as you visually follow the course.
  tags: social studies interactive explorers geography Maps
• iCivics
  Free lesson plans and games for learning civics (government, law, budgeting, Constitution and Bill of Rights)
  tags: civics government social studies interactive

*Disclaimer - If you come across a link on the sites listed above that is blocked, please let me know via email.  Thanks!

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Website Wednesdays

• Online Music Theory Flash Cards
  Help students learn note names, intervals and notes on the piano and guitar. Good for both beginners and advanced music students.
  tags: Music flashcards education
• Common Core Standards
  This is a site dedicated to making the Common Core Standards practical.  It has some great blog articles relating to making the change over to the Common Core.  You can subscribe to receive the newest articles sent to your email.
  tags: core standards
• 103 Things to Do Before/During/After Reading
  Ideas for engaging students in reading. Contains a wide range of multiple intelligence options. They easily tie-in to the common core standards and some of them would be great for integrating technology.
  tags: reading literacy interactive English
• ToonUniversity - Online Games: Math Dept.
  Elementary math games - some are available without a membership
  tags: online games math
• Making and reading maps in the 21st century
  Project ideas for making and reading maps - grades K-12
  tags: maps geography mapping history
• minutephysics
  A YouTube channel with cool physics in brief explanations. Students will not be able to access these videos at school.
  tags: Physics science Videos
• 3D 360 interactive education images
  Rotate images and zoom in for a closer look.  If you don't have a left mouse click, hold your command key on the keyboard as you use the mouse to rotate the image.
  tags: science interactive anatomy chemistry
• Maps of War
  Great interactives of World War I & II, the Iraq War, and Darfur.
  tags: maps History interactive

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

It's good to be blue!

StudyBlue is a Web 2.0 Tool that allows you to make online flashcards for studying vocabulary, states & capitals, historical dates and any other facts you need to learn for school or work.

As a teacher, you can make flashcards for your students that they can access in the classroom or study on the go with their mobile devices.  StudyBlue apps are available through the iTunes App Store, Andriod Market and the Amazon App Store.  Check out this slideshow to get started using StudyBlue with your students:

StudyBlue Teacher Guide

Study Blue for Educators

Website Wednesdays

• Famous Scientists
  List and Biographies of Most Famous Scientists and Inventors in History
  tags: scientists biography research
• 15 Awesome Interactive Virtual Field Trips
  tags: virtual field trips history interactive
• MathTV
  Provides math video lessons from basic to advanced math skills. Most videos are available in Spanish. This would be a great supplemental resource for students to refresh their skills and move ahead in their learning.
  tags: math education tutorials videos
• HistoryWorld
  World hstory and timeline reference resource for students. Some content may not be appropriate for young children.
  tags: history timeline encyclopedia research world
• Story Starters for Kids
  Story Starters appropriate for kids. Great tool to start those short creative writing projects.
  tags: writing digitalstorytelling literacy
• Fuel the Brain
  Fun games to learn various math concepts.
  tags: math elementary education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Website Wednesdays

• YouAreHere
  Students can learn to be smarter consumers at the virtual mall. Teachers can use the resources and activities from this site to teach about today's marketplace. The lessons included can be used to cover critical thinking, writing, business, civics and more. This site is geared for students in grades 5-8.
  tags: curriculum interactive economics consumers
• NGA Classroom
  Access online interactive lesson units that connect art & curriculum. Take advantage of art from various time periods; lesson plans complete with reading selections, projects & more; search resources by the type of art, the artist or the curriculum.
  tags: interactive lessons history curriculum art
• Fort Larned National Historic Site
  Taking a trip to Ft. Larned? Check out the Lesson Plans for "Life at Fort Larned" on this website.
  tags: kansas history curriculum fort social_studies
• Games - OnGuard Online
  Test your technology knowledge with these fun interactive quizzes covering spam, phishing, file-sharing and more.
  tags: games interactive internet_safety
• Videos - OnGuard Online
  Watch these videos to learn more about phishing, internet safety, spam, cyberbulling and more.
  tags: videos cyberbulling internet_safety

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.