Weekly Core Subject Resources

First set of Core Subject Resources for the month of May.  The home stretch to summer time.  Hoping for a good two week dry spell at some point so I can get out on the golf course.  My area received anywhere from 15-20 inches of rain the past two weeks.  To put that into perspective, that is 600% above normal.  On to the resources.

English

1.) Global Poetry is a wiki created by an English class to help log favorite poetry from all over the world.  You will notice the pages are organized by country, so add yours or share a favorite if your country is already listed. 

2.) Wolty is a simple Language Notebook for you and your friends to post your notes and help each other.  You can sign in with Facebook or create an account.  Wolty aims to get you into the habit of saving the things you discover and the questions you wonder along with this meaningful context.  An interesting concept. 

3.) InstaBlogg is a simple blogging platform that requires nothing but starting your blog with a post and then sharing it with others.  For more information, check out the post at Free Technology 4 Teachers

4.) 10 Free Online Spell Checkers - We all know that most document based software comes with their own spell check, but with more web publishing, these could come in handy. 

5.) Topicmarks summarizes text documents for you electronically.  Get a smart synopsis in minutes instead of reading everything yourself.  You can condense any text into an abstract, extract facts, connect texts, and outline and summarize your text.  It is currently free, although there is a process in the future to start charging for the feature.  

Mathematics

1.) nrich: Mathematics Enrichments is a website where you will find thousands of our free mathematics enrichment materials (problems, articles and games) for teachers and learners from ages 5 to 19 years. All the resources are designed to develop subject knowledge, problem-solving and mathematical thinking skills.  Source: EDge21 Blog

Science

1.)  Virtual Volcano explores the explosion at Pompeli.  A valuable resource for explaining the powerful forces behind these wonders. 

2.) Dynamic Periodic Table is a completely interactive Periodic Table of Elements for the Chemistry classroom.  You get information, data, and images for all the elements.  Great for teachers with an Airliner or SMARTBoard in the classroom.

3.) Body Spectrum provides digital coloring books for learning about anatomy.  There are 12 different coloring books that you can use.  Another valuable resource for teachers with an Airliner or SMARTBoard.

4.) Moon Zoo is a website that goes above and beyond to help visitors explore the moon and the lunar surfaces.  For more information check out the iLearn Technology Post. 

5.) WeatherSpark is a new type of weather website, with interactive weather graphs that allow you to pan and zoom through the entire history of any weather station on earth. For more information, check out Free Technology for Teachers

6.) Eyes on Earth is a website for viewing the Earth through various telescopes and also for gathering data and seeing how the Earth is changing.  For more information, check out the iLearn Technology Post. 

7.) Photopic Sky Survey is like the Google Earth of our Universe.  Zoom in and pan around the universe like never before.  A fun way to see just how tiny we are here on Earth.  Information for planets and other aspects of the solar system are clickable to information from Wikipedia. 

8.) Harvard Natural Science Lecture Demonstrations provides information and videos into several experiments related to science.  Demonstrations are divided into different areas of science.  I also recommend checking out their NatSciDemo's YouTube Channel.

Social Studies

1.) American Historical Association has put together a list of 100 films reviewed by Historians.  A good glimpse into what historians think are accurate portrayals in films.  For more information, check out the U.S. History Educators Blog.

2.) EconStories.tv is a website that provides videos explaining the differences in the theories of two famous economists.  There are also music videos and can be humorous and entertaining for studying Economic concepts.  For more information, check out Free Technology for Teachers.


3.) Where Do You Fit is a new 2011 Pew Research survey to help determine your political typology.  It breaks it down into multiple categories between Liberal and Conservative.  This is the most complete Political spectrum survey I have seen.  Great resource for government teachers. 

4.) Ingenious is a website that helps to bring together images and viewpoints to help create insights into science and culture.  You can read articles, debate topics, view images, and create your own account to a have your own personalized links, images, e-cards, and web galleries. 

More Prezi Updates

Prezi continues to add updates to their software and each update provides more flexibility and options when using this presentation tool.  I have written about different ways to use the application and you can see previous posts here.  Here are some of the changes:

1.) Image cropping - Prezi now provides the ability to crop a photo within the Prezi software.  No more editing a photo before uploading it.  You can do that within the program.

2.) Arrows and Lines - You can now bend arrows and lines to make them curve providing more functionality with them.  Once you draw the line you can also re-size them.  You used to be able to make them bigger or smaller in terms of zooming, but now you can make them short or longer after the fact.

To see these changes in action, check out the video below:

Something else cool that Prezi is messing around with is the ability to use motion capture (Like the XBox Kinect) to manipulate and move the presentation just by moving your hands.  Talk about a completely interactive presentation!  They are also working on a remote control app for your iPad.  If you ask me, Prezi has evolved and continues to evolve so much more than PowerPoint ever did. 

You can read more about the cool things mentioned above here: Prezi Blog Post

Online Filter Bubbles

Came across the following video on Twitter about an algorithm that creates a filter bubble around us as we use and search the Internet and influences our search results and what gets through these "filters."  As educators, it is this type of information that we need to be sharing with our students and discussing impacts on news, education, politics, and the future.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THIS!!!

An EdTech Tip for Adminstrators

To Use Facebook or To Not Use Facebook...That is the Question.....

In continuing with my EdTech Tip for Administrators posts I share with you an important and potentially essential method of communication with parents, students, and the community.  More and more students and parents are joining and using Facebook.  They are there, and you and your school should be too.  For some, the idea of Facebook use by their schools brings a smile from ear to ear; the thought of providing an avenue of communication for parents.  For others it brings thoughts of a fear of the unknown.  How will it be perceived?  How will parents react to certain stories?  What if they voice their opinion and....complain?

As an administrator, would it not be beneficial to know what your parents are thinking; outside of the parent who calls and stops by the office?  Wouldn't you like a place where parents can get a flow of updates of the GREAT things that your students and teachers are doing?  Sure, you could create a newsletter and mail those out every week or month...but why spend the money on postage?

Facebook provides a valuable and free resource.  Parents and students are using it.  Our district recently created a Facebook page and since it was created we have averaged 300 "Likes" a month.  With snow days and flood days, it has been pivotal in relaying information and allowing parents and students to voice opinions and vent frustrations, while at the same time allowing the district to clarify and answer parent questions that might not be mentioned on the radio, TV news ticker, or phone call.

We have also been able to share some of the great accomplishments of our students, teachers, and schools.  Whether it is a simple "Look what __________ School is doing" or "_____________ student/teacher wins __________ Award;" we were able to share those stories that often get left out of the newspaper and TV news. 

Facebook use does not just have to be for sharing news.  It can also be for sharing resources that parents and students could use.  Information about Social Media and Cyberbullying would be a valuable asset to so many parents.  Share links to information about using a computer or web 2.0 tools that students could use for a project.  In a way you would be using Facebook to teach parents and students about using Facebook AND the Internet.  

Want some more information?  Take a look at these articles and resources:

- How Schools Can Use Facebook to Create an Online Community - From Mashable, Provides several ideas for how to use Facebook. 

- From the American Association of School Administrators (Who also has a Facebook Page) comes the article: Is Facebook a 'Friend' to Schools?  Provides both positives and negatives about Facebook for school use.

- "Principals and Social Networking" is a valuable report worth looking at if interested in starting Social Media use at your school or district. 

More Information About My District's Facebook Page
1.) We synced it with a Twitter account for those students and parents that use Twitter, but not Facebook so that they could still get the information
2.) We made it where people who "Like" the page can comment, but cannot create their own posts.  This helps to alleviate spam and non-educational posts that might appear from people
3.) We made the settings where the comments only showed if you clicked on "Read Comments"
4.) We have multiple district employees who post news and information and communicate who does what in relation to that.
5.) We created an email account specifically for creating social media accounts (Twitter and Facebook) so that none of the district employees were using their email to create the page.

Any Questions?

Teux Deux

Teux Deux is a free simple and easy to use web-based To Do website and iPhone Application.You can view events by week and skip forward by day, week, or go to a specific date using the calendar method.  Editing events is as simple as dragging and dropping content from the list to the editing text box and pressing enter.  Another great feature is "Someday" which allows you to create events or important things that you want to complete sooner or later.  They can be organized by category.  Great for students who struggle to keep track of things they have to get done later on in a school year.

For students Teux Deux is a simple application that they can use to organize classwork, homework, study time, etc.  Students could easily use this application to help organize their life and day.  Teachers could use this application to make lesson plans or keep track of meetings and other events.  See the video below for more information

TeuxDeux Part Deux from TeuxDeux on Vimeo.