22 Story Telling Apps

Matt Gomez does it again! What a great post. He includes 22 storytelling apps linked to actual class and student examples of most. You can check out the 22 apps at the following url: http://mattbgomez.com/folder-full-of-storytelling-apps

I-Pad Apps for Schools

There is a wonderful new resource that reviews educational I-Pad Apps.
http://ipadapps4school.com

This new blog will feature reviews of iOS apps (both free and paid) as well as some occasional bits of how-to and advice on using iPads in education.  Richard Byrne has created an index on his site and categorized the resources by grade level. I personally love the time this will save busy educators when they are searching for an appropriate resource.

If you're interested in subscribing to updates from iPad Apps 4 School,  use the following link: http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?sub=870102

Vizaroo- Student response from any Internet device

http://www.vizaroo.com
 

Vizaroo is a new FREE service.  The idea behind Vizaroo is to use the web to collect instant feedback from students in your classroom. Audience response systems like Vizaroo or e-Insturction clickers can increase student engagement through active participation.  Vizaroo allows students on ANY internet connected device, such as a smartphone or a laptop, to share their thoughts for the whole class to see. Ideas are displayed instantaneously from the device that connects to the Internet.

Student feedback can be displayed in a web format of connected ideas, a Venn diagram format, or in a simple "yes or no" two column format.

 

Best of the Web

Richard Byrne's presentation at the Christa McAuliffe Technology
Conference in Manchester, New Hampshire

Best of the Web Nov. 2012 from Richard Byrne

Edudemic & 88 of The Best Apps for Mobile Learning

What is Edudemic?  It is “a global community designed to keep educators, administrators, and everyone up to date on what is happening in the world of education and technology. It pulls from more than 100 different online educational resources to inform and connect the world of technology and education” (About Edudemic). The site contains news, ideas for mobile learning, best classroom practices and more.

To get started using Edudemic…

1. Go to http://edudemic.com/. You do not need to register or subscribe you can start reading directly from their website.
2. You can follow their posts on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed or you can subscribe to their Daily Digest that is delivered to your email. 

Here are a couple articles to get you started.  I linked to the last one a few weeks ago,. 

• The 88 Best iOS Apps For Mobile Learning
• How Children Used Technology 100 Years Ago

Free E-book Resouces

This month I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of the excellent online resources for free ebooks that you and your students can use.

One of my favorites is Storyline Online: http://www.storylineonline.net/. Each of their books have accompanying lessons.  If you click on “All Stories” and then on Polar Express, you can see and hear this award winning book read by Lou diamond Phillips.

Five other noteworthy online resources for elementary students are listed below:

·         Lil Fingers: http://www.lil-fingers.com/storybooks/index.php

·         Speakaboos: http://www.speakaboos.com/corporate/stories

·         Magic Keys: http://www.magickeys.com/books

·         Meegenius: This site not only reads the text but it highlights the words that are being,  read.  There is also an I-pad Meegenius app that is free with over 300 titles.   http://www.meegenius.com/store/books/free/

·         Readquarium’s online library: http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/SqoolLibrary/

A couple of outstanding secondary resources are:

·         E-Books Directory with more than 6000 titles. The E-Books Directory provides freely downloadable textbooks, documents, and lecture notes.

·         The Open Library http://openlibrary.org/ is a collection of more than one million free e-book titles.

·         Google Books hosts thousands of books that are in the public domain. To find public domain books go into the advanced search option http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search  and select the "public domain only" and "full text" options to find free full-length books. 

Free Educational Videos Linked to the Common Core

WatchKnowLearn has indexed over 33,000+ educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 3,000 categories. The videos are available without any registration or fees to teachers in the classroom and to students at home 24/7. Users can dive into their innovative directory or search for videos by subject and age level. Video titles, descriptions, age level information, and ratings are all edited for usefulness. Their web site invites broad participation in a new kind of wiki system, guided by teachers. 

How Children Used Technology 100 Years Ago

This post from EDUDEMIC  is very interesting.  Times have certainly changed.

Readwritethink.org

READY SET VOTE!  

How about a site that will let you use persuasive writing to create a political ad?  Read Write Think has an interactive for that and many more which blend proven instruction with Internet Technology.

Students can create;  persuasion maps, travel brochures, trading cards, story maps, bio cubes, plot diagrams, printing press, comics, even literary graffiti and much much more!

The site comes with complete lesson plans for grades K-12 focused on the three areas of literacy practice: learning language, learning about language, learning through language. 

Younger students will enjoy their Interactives demonstrating letters, sounds and word patterns.  The lessons for older students focus on critical thinking and comprehension. 

Ready to infuse one of their lessons into your plans?  Just E-mail Janice and she will be glad to come to  your classroom and work with you and your students.

http://tinyurl.com/y9tlvkz
Persuasion Map Interactive

How to Use Technology To Teach Vocabulary

Wordle:  http://www.wordle.net/create  is a word cloud. The cloud you see above this  entry is from   Wordle. It is easy to use.  Type words multiple times to increase their font size.

Tagxedo: http://www.tagxedo.com turns words,  famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, into a word cloud. You can choose from a variety shapes, colors, and fonts for your word cloud.

Lexipedia: http://www.lexipedia.com  a multi-lingual visual dictionary that creates a word web and defines words based on their part of speech. 

SnappyWords: http://www.snappywords.com   This site will interactively help you find meanings for words and connections to associated words within its interactivity and thesaurus. It will look like a “word web” that can easily be manipulated.  Click on the beta link to see an example.  Then you will want to register for your free account.
Visuwords:  http://visuwords.com/  is another word web dictionary. Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a circle to expand the tree. Click and drag to move the background around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over circles to see the definition and click and drag individual circles to move them around  and to help clarify connections.

TheVisual Dictionary: http://thevisualdictionary.net  uses photographs of words in the real world to visually explore them.

Shahi:  http://blachan.com/shahi/ This is a visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images and more.

 WordStash:  http://flashcardstash.com  Create your own account at this link.  It is built on top of a dictionary, so you can look up words and save them.  With one click, students can access dictionary information and create flash cards or play the interactive games with YOUR words for review.

 TagGalaxy: http://taggalaxy.de/  The resource will create a 3D galaxy of words and their associations.  You can even click on a word and move it to the center of the galaxy and watch the globe populate it with new Flickr images and facts.  You have to check this one out! Your students will love it. 

Vocabulary.co  http://www.vocabulary.co.il/  has vocabulary games to expand your students verbiage. 
 

Embed Questions in Your YouTube Clips- Beta

Video Questions Editor Beta http://www.youtube.com/video_questions_beta YouTube adds a question component to enable its users to ask questions about their videos. It is in Beta and they are asking for feedback. This is an opt-in beta for a simple Video Questions Editor on YouTube. Through this editor you can setup multiple questions to be displayed on top of your video during playback that a viewer can answer. The editor itself can be found on the video edit page, on the edit bar. After you have added several questions and the users have viewed them, you can see a summary of the interaction your users had with them through the analytics page, within the Annotations section.

Think Before You Post-

This posted was created by S. Long at Technology Rocks as a reminder to stop and think before posting something on Twitter, FB, via text, or blogging. I felt it was worth sharing. Before You Fb Txt Tw or Blog2 She also created downloadable bookmarks you can print for you students.

Publishing Student Work- Also posted in our Sept. Literacy Letter

Students love to publish their projects online and share them with their family and friends. Here are some ideas you could use to publish, share and celebrate your students’ work. Together we can give these web 2.0 publishing sites a try. Email me to set up a time where we can see which one will work best for your students.

 

· Animoto: https://animoto.com Create your free educator account and post book reports, and summaries. This site installs all the transitions and you can choose from their music for background.

· Bookworm:   http://www.bookworm-mag.com Magazine publishes the stories, poems, essays and artwork of kids ages six through fifteen.

· StoryKit:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storykit/id329374595?mt=8   application puts student work online privately in a format that can viewed by iPhone.

· Storybird:  http://storybird.com Use the art on the site to illustrate or inspire student storytelling. Good for elementary students or those writing for them.

· Stapleless Book: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/stapleless-book-30010.html At this interactive site, students follow the prompts to produce their own books. Students can work with bulleted lists, headlines, and text; they can leave space to add pictures after printing. Everything prints out on one piece of paper. Follow the instructions to fold and cut.

· Yudu:  http://www.yudu.com This resource lets you upload all sorts of content including Word documents and PDFs. It will quickly convert the documents into an impressive virtual magazine with flipping pages. Account creation is optional but an email address is required. You can also set privacy settings to public or private.

· Issuu:   http://issuu.com  Pronounced "issue", is another option to upload almost any document format and transform it into a virtual flipping book. Of course, you can share and or embed the resulting creation. For example, you can embed the book on your classroom homepage or wiki.

· Lulu:   http://www.lulu.com Online publishing for books. You could publish a book written by all your students on poetry or perhaps a class recipe book. There are countless ideas on their site.

How to search and view YouTube safely

Have you ever loaded a video clip on YouTube and seen inappropriate ads, or comments posted?  Perhaps the related videos on the right-hand side of the screen displayed a clip that you did not feel your students should be viewing.

Well, there are several easy solutions:

If you type in  http://youtube.clea.nr when you are searching clips in YouTube, you can search and watch the  videos without viewing any of the "related" videos, advertisements or comments on YouTube.

SafeShare.tv: http://safeshare.tv/  , and View Pure: http://viewpure.com/  also make it possible to view YouTube videos without displaying the related videos ads, and comments. To use either resource simply copy the URL of a YouTube video and paste it into the URL box on their link.

 Now that you are following this blog you may want to look for other blogs to follow. I personally love Langwitches' Blog. I continually glean from his posts.

Here are a few more you may want to add to your reading list:

David Warlick
The Committed Sardine

Larry Ferlzaao

The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

This last one is a must and a joy to read.  Vickie Davis' Cool Cat  posts are
down to earth & will brighten the heart of any teacher.

Enjoy and have

 a wonderful Labor Day Holiday!







PBS Learning Media- FREE Resource

Did you know PBS has a free media resource? The materials are matched to Common Core and are not the same as what are on Learn 360. PBS LearningMedia is your destination for easy, instant access to tens of thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactives perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans. You can search, save, and share with ease. Best of all,you can post the clips you select in an instanly created website with a url you create. Learning Media will give you access to lesson plans, videos, and interactives from over 90 content contributors including The National Archives, NPR, and NASA. They have prepared a helpful guide to get you started. Register today!


Don't forget their conterpart is Learn 360 where you have access to over 73,000 media resources from trusted educational publishers and producers, which will ENGAGE your students, ENRICH their learning experiences and drive them to EXCEL both inside and outside of the classroom.

If you need help with your password to Learn 360 or Learning Media, email me and I will be happy to assist you.

Letter Collection

I have had a number of teachers ask me where I found the letters on a display I created. Leo Reynolds has assembled a vast array of letters on Flickr. The images are copyright free and can be used for your bulletin boards, student names, and creative projects. (see the example below with my name) I found this resource on an educational Pinterest site. Pinterest has many wonderful resources. You can follow boards about I-Pads, assessment, grade level resources, or any number of countless topics. Be forewarned---- it can become addictive. Enjoy

Animoto

If you have never used Animoto in the classroom to create online slideshows, then now is the time to start. With just a few clicks you can quickly turn your photos and videos into an animated, show stopping, musical masterpiece for free! Educators can apply for a free Animoto Plus account for use in the classroom. It may take a couple of days for them to confirm your registration so plan accordingly. Project Ideas for Animoto include a replacement for PowerPoint presentations, biographies, field trips, digital storytelling, science projects, alphabet books and more. You will be given a URL for your presentations and can email the link, post a clip in youtube or include it in your blogs to your parents. Your educator account is good for 6 months, but is renewable.

Gooru

Gooru is a new  search engine for education. It has an easy to use search box for your convenience.

Teachers and students can use Gooru to search for rich collections of multimedia resources, digital textbooks, videos, interactive games and quizzes (printable and interactive)  created by educators in the Gooru community.

Gooru is free (of cost and ads) and developed by a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to honor the human right to education.

URL: http://www.goorulearning.org/gooru/index.g#!/home

Twitter

If you have not already done so you may want to create an account with Twitter. It is a great place to learn from experts in our field and other educators.  Here are some great resources on how to get started with Twitter.

Online Surveys: What Are the Learning Styles of Your Students and Staff?

Check out these surveys your students or staff and take to determine their learning style.

■Edutopia:  What’s Your Learning Style?

■White, J. Learning Style Inventory.

Besides learning student preferences and personality traits,  survey tools can be used in acquiring feedback.  Google Forms allows you to set up FREE surveys and sends the feedback to you organized in an easy to read spreadsheet.  You will need a Google account to set up the form.  You can either email a link to your survey or have the survey emailed directly to your parents, students, or staff.  Set up a survey to see how parents would like to be informed of classroom announcements. Glean feedback on recent in-service meetings or garner suggestions for the next late start. The uses for surveys are endless.

(Here is a youtube clip on setting up  Google Forms)

Share Your Meet Your Teacher /Curriculum Night Presentations

There are several FREE online tools where you can save your Back to School PowerPoint Presentations or any other PowerPoint you create throughout the year on-line so your students and parents can refer back to your guidelines and expectations.  These resources are also invaluable if you are leading a workshop or presenting at a conference later in the year.

How To Help: Common Craft Youtube Channel

Don't forget we also have a small collection of PDFs and video tutorials on the Technology Instructional Moodle but if you do not find your tutorial there the Common Craft YouTube channel contains a large number of  videos that explain everything from right-clicking to blogs to Google Docs. It is done in “plain English.” If you want  to create your own tutorials, Tildee is an online tool that can help you  with screenshots or you can use your screen recorders in SMART or Promethean.

Classroom Community Activities to Start the Year

The old saying states a  mother's work is never done.  I would say a teacher's work is never done BUT we do occasionally have time for fun.  One way to have fun and help alleviate behavior problems is to build your classroom community.  More can be accomplished when we cultivate good relationships while we establishing sound classroom norms.  Here is are two  resources which lists some ways this can be accomplished through get-to-know-you games and team building games.

Have a great school year!
Janice

Copyright Free Images and ClipArt

Need a copyright free image? Check out these resources. 

Searching the Web

Google is an a great search engine but here are others that are safe, age appropriate and may meet the needs of your students.

Saving Your Favorites Online

Linkable.com is a FREE service where you can organize and access all your favorites on a single page.

Yummy Math

Yummy Math is a website designed for the purpose of sharing mathematics problems based on things happening in the world today.

PC Screen Gadgets

In Windows 7 there are handy gadgets that can be used to help you get information at a glance. They run on your desktop and supply up-to-date information. They include things like weather, cool clocks, calendars and much more.