Wednesday, December 19, 2012

ePals Community.......PBL

Epals Global community is a site that offers projects for classroom collaboration.  You can safely connect with other classrooms, collaborate or start your own project based learning OR Teachers can search for classroom ready projects and activities. You can join for free. 
 www.epals.com


There are lesson plan/projects you can find in this community.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Masher Video Creation

Masher is an online tool that lets you create a video by mixing together video clips, music tracks, and photos.  FREE!      http://www.masher.com/

Monday, December 17, 2012

Go Comics

Go Comics http://www.gocomics.com/ 
Follow comics you love; comic strips, editorials and more. If you are looking for popular comic strips to use for comprehension, this would be a good site to visit.  This site has advertisements and therefore I would pre-select comic prior to beginning lesson.  It also has a print feature for comics that you select and an email feature.  Sign up for free.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Project Gutenberg.........Free

Project Gutenberg is a public domain of free ebooks and music available for download. You can choose various ways of downloading. The books and music are free because the copyright has expired. There is a search book catalog available for easy search.
Ebooks: http://www.gutenberg.org/
Music: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Music_(Bookshelf)
Sheet Music: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Sheet_Music_Project

I thought this site is worth mentioning even though many people know about this great site.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Comic Master

Comic Master is a graphic novel creator.  Like other comic generators, comic master has drag and drop features for students to create their comic pages.  Comic master allows students to save their work so that they have the option to go back to edit their work.  Once they are finished, students can print their short graphic novel.  http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/

Thursday, December 13, 2012

HOWTOONS and INSTRUCTABLES......Comics

These are instructional manuals.  These manuals encourage creative problem solving skills.
I thought this site would give many great ideas.

Their mission at Howtoons is "to provide engaging content that teaches kids how to build things, combining instructions with storytelling. Howtoons has a foundation of science and engineering education, inspiring creativity through art and imagination." 


This site offers PDF for downloading comics and the site features a content search.
 http://www.howtoons.com/

The following link will connect you to Instructables from Howtoons.  http://www.instructables.com/group/howtoons/ You can also share what you make with the world.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Project Noah....Connect with the Natural World through Investigation

I love it when I stumble upon sites like this!!!

Project Noah help students experience nature through which they solve real-world problems.  This site is for students to share their experiences with wildlife and they are given oppotunities to make a difference.  Students make observations and investigations on key concepts in the Life Sciences and share their work with the Project Noah community. 

Teachers can sign up and set up their classroom. Resources and teaching materials are available.  Great enquiry based curriculum and critical literacy.

There is an app available as well. 
http://www.projectnoah.org/education

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Skype in the Classroom

Connect your classroom with teachers from around the world.  Post a request for someone to visit on a certain topic. Bring the outside world to your class.
https://education.skype.com/


Comic Strip.......Using On line tools

I always use Bitstrips with my class which is a comic creator. I figured there had to be other comic generators on the web that are free or partially free. In October I trawled the net and found other comic online tools. Not all sites below have the ability to allow teachers to create classes but students can sign in independently.  The following sites are Comic Generators that I found.

Artisan Cam http://www.artisancam.org.uk/  has a collection of online activities and has a Super Action Comic Maker too. http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/superactioncomicmaker/comicmaker.php?PHPSESSID=f5c3b9a9df3b7450ff4dd808674235af This site has a teacher section.

Strip Generator Creates a black and white comic strip. Like other generators, all you need to do is select images from their library and drag and drop. You can save the comic online, print or embed into your own blog. http://stripgenerator.com/  **

Learn English Kids http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/make-your-own/comic-strip-maker  from the British Council.

Make Beliefs http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ ** Teacher Section available.
Be Funky is an online tool turning digital photos into digital comics. http://www.befunky.com/


Witty comics http://www.wittycomics.com/   **

Toon Doo is a free comic creator if signing up as an individual. There is a fee for educational spaces. http://www.toondoo.com/


Piki Kids http://www.pikikids.com/   Allows you to create comics and t-shirts.

Chogger http://chogger.com/  **

Super Hero Squad…………Free comics to make and read from Marvel for Kids. http://marvelkids.marvel.com/shows/122/the_super_hero_squad_show

Kerpoof movie creation studio ttp://www.kerpoof.com/ Teachers can manage student accounts and lesson plans available.


Creaza http://www.creazaeducation.com/You can create cartoons or personal digital stories.


Comiker http://www.comiker.com/ Create comics to share with online community; therefore not filtered.
Comics Sketch
 http://www.mainada.net/comicssketch


My Story Maker http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/


Always review to ensure that one of these online tools is what you wish to introduce to students.

The list with ** are also featured on Mario Addesa's blog.

Monday, December 10, 2012

The Opper Project.....Comics in the Classroom

Using Editorial Cartoons.  http://hti.osu.edu/opper

Cartoons for the Classrooms is a service that provides lesson plans based on editorial cartoons created by editorial cartoonist.  http://nieonline.com/aaec/cftc.cfm#  is from Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. 

Students can use these strips to show that they have fully discovered the meaning behind the cartoon.  Students can also capture meaning by using a comic strip generator, to describe their point of view of an issue that is shown on one of the editorial cartoons. 

This last site, AAEC, is also posted on Mario Addesa's blog.  Check out his blog for other comic ideas.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Wallwisher

Wallwisher is paper for the web.  It is a wall (blank page) that you put anything you want from anywhere. This page can be used to make noticeboards, to share ideas, brainstorm, etc.
Teaching idea: pose a question and children would post their feedback.

Click on this page and the wall you see will give you suggestions on how to use this wall............ Lot’s of possibilities.  http://wallwisher.com/
An example of a wall:

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Comic Museum

Alan Levine mentions in his blog about the uses of The Digital Comic Museum as a place to find comic artwork to remix magazine covers or to remix and create posters.   

Friday, December 7, 2012

Essay Map

Essay Map is a great interactive tool from Read Write Think a site I mentioned in one of my earlier posts.  Essay map provides step by step guide for constructing an essay. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/essaymap/

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Screenr.......screencast....screen capture

In one of my earlier posts I blogged about Jing the screenshot and screencast software that allows you to capture your desktop. You can download the software for free at http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

Another instant screencast tool is Screenr. Unlike Jing, Screenr is a web-based screen recorder tool that captures anything you see on your computer screen or creates short 5 minute videos that you can share instantly. All you need is a Twitter account to get started.  http://www.screenr.com/

A great tool for students to use to record demonstration tutorials on whatever they are doing on the computer.  A perfect example is with the idea I suggested for SketchUp.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Artsonia......Free educational tool

Artsonia is a kids art museum website where kids artwork from around the world is showcased.  Teachers can create a school gallery and submit their students' artwork by uploading image files directly to the website.
There are also art project lesson plans available that have been submitted by teachers as a resource for anyone to use in the classroom.  http://www.artsonia.com/

I would like to thank Theresse Gruber for this resource.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

SketchUp.........3D models

SketchUp for Education  http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/industries/education.html
Students from K-12 can create 3D images/models by using this online drawing tool. They have a free download version for educators and kids.
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html    (download)

For Educators:
Have students sketch a model. They are to teach other students how to create what they created;  they can create a movie describing step by step on how to make their image. This is a good idea to do collaboratively or as a project based learning assignment.

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Literacy Shed

The Literacy Shed is a site with a wealth of resources collected and published by a teacher. The site provides a variety of resources related to literacy. Short movie clips with teacher lesson ideas go with the movie clips. The Literacy Shed can help you improve your students’ literacy and critical thinking skills.

I feel that the clips and ideas can be applicable for any age. It features Resource of the week which I captured as a sample for you to see.  http://www.literacyshed.com/the-thinking-shed.html

Sunday, December 2, 2012

ArtSMart

Some websites have similar names and sometimes when making an error by one stroke, you are presented with a different site than what you expected.
This Art site I came across is an on-line video based tutorial site to help you teach art.
http://199.71.141.249/staff/teachers/ArtSMart/index.html

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Movie Clips......Wing Clips.....Learn 360

Movie Clips and Wing Clips are sites that can be used as resources for short 2-3 minute popular movie clips that can support your literacy teaching. There is a contents that organizes the clips into themes.  These two sites are Free.

I used clips from these sites to introduce and discuss virtues (character education), to illustrate a point and to critically analyze the scene.

Wing Clips:  http://www.wingclips.com/themes/virtue
Movie Clips:  http://movieclips.com/Jpa9-virtue-theme-videos/#p=1
It goes without saying, to view and review all clips prior to using with your students.

I use the above sites when I don't use Learn360 (http://www.learn360.com/index.aspx)which which is a multi-media educational resource site that the Ministry has a licensing agreement for publicly funded schools in Ontario.  All other users must subscribe.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Science Net Links

K-12 science resource that is Free. You can find teaching tools, interactive activities and hands-on activities. Lessons are written for teachers for students' learning.

http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/

Meograph........Interactive Writing....Storytelling

Meograph.......4-Dimensional Storytelling
Meograph helps create interactive stories. You can combine maps, timeline, links and multimedia to tell stories in “context of where and when”. Easy for students to be creative and create projects.  It is Free.
http://www.meograph.com/education 

An earlier post revisted:
Meograph is like Google Lit Trips that I discussed in my April 10, 2011 post.  This site plots out a 3 dimensional journey that a novel takes. Each plot also includes podcasts and screen shots of locations. You can contribute to the mashup of literature. This site is regularly updated.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Curriki

http://www.curriki.org/  Curriki is a free site where teachers can share lessons and resources with everyone;  It is from K-12 open learning resources. The resources can be browsed by subjects.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Smartboard...............Assessment for kids

I always try to differentiate my lessons. I created a lesson on the money unit for math for my special education students. I used Smart notebook to create this interactive activity. This would be a normal day in our classroom but what made this different is that I took that notebook lesson and uploaded it onto each of my student’s computer. They completed this interactive activity individually and saved it so that I can go back and check it. This was their math assessment.

It was different, they had fun and I was able to assess their learning.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Word It Out....Word randomizer

Just like Wordle an online tool that allows you to randomly arrange words, you will like Word It Out. www.worditout.com

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Grammarly....Literacy

An online tool that checks for grammar, spelling, word choice, and it also helps to "avoid plagiarism by checking your texts against over 2 billion documents".
Good for both teachers and students.
http://www.grammarly.com/?q=grammar&gclid=CJboteHq1LMCFetDMgodIWgAsg


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Zondle

Zondle is a free website where students use games to support learning. Teachers can choose or create a topic that children can play......teacher-controlled restricted view for students.

What is Zondle?

A youtube video on how to get started with Zondle:

Thursday, November 22, 2012

All Books Free

This website is devoted to giving away free novels  provided by the authors.  You will find children's books, short story collections, and poetry books.
http://www.allbooksfree.com/

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

PBS Kids....Raising Readers

This site focuses on building reading skills.  Children practice basic reading skills through online games and activities.  Children, with adult assistance, sign up for free or teachers can sign up.  In the QA section it states: 'Teachers can add as many students as they want to their accounts. They can even organize their students into “classes” to help keep things organized."
http://pbskids.org/island/ 

http://pbskids.org/read/ has other game choices
PBS is an american site however it has many resources that canadians can use.  As for the learning reading sections.......our alphabets are the same:)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Shakespeare

Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project is an online resource on everything about Shakespeare.
http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/rjfolio.cfm

Monday, November 19, 2012

PBS Teachers

PBS Teachers provide resources and learning.  Along from lesson ideas this site provides on-demand videos, and interactive games and simulations.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Sumdog

Sumdog is a free math website. Teachers can sign up in order to create individual student logins.
Sumdog is self paced learning aimed for ages 6-14 with 10 levels of difficulty.  They need to answer math questions to progress to the next stage.  Teachers can set the challenges for their students.  Students can play individually or they can play with other users around the world. 
http://www.sumdog.com/en/Introduction/

Thanks Anna.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Free Rice.......Online Educational Game....Social Justice

I was searching for an interactive literacy site for my students.  I stumbled upon Freerice. This site is owned by and supports the United Nations World Food Programme. Their goal is to provide education for free and to end world hunger by providing free rice.  The object of the games are for every right answer you get they will donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger.
Subjects included are:
Humanities, English, Math, Chemistry, Language Learning, Geography and Sciences.
I mentioned this site to my daughter and she began playing the games to see how much rice she can have donated. This site keeps a daily total on how much rice has been donated.  What an amazing idea!!!!!!!
http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1477

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Vocabulary Spelling City

I needed some resource help for my new class, ESL and Special Ed.  One evening I Googled words and phrases that had to do with Language arts and I got many hits that involved this topic.  I saved many links in order to review them when I had time. This is one of the links that I saved.  This site is a vocabulary and spelling builder.
http://www.spellingcity.com/

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Game Quarium

Game and activities, Videos, eBooks, Printables, Teacher Resources and cross curricular subjects.

http://www.gamequarium.org/
This site is full of ideas just like my earlier post on Children’s Learning Network Site.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Crash Course Videos...History...Biology

The author John Green created a series of 42 videos called World History by Crash  Course.  They teach you the History of the world.   There is also another author,  Hank Green by Crash Course that has a series of 40 videos that teach you Biology. 

These Crash Course Videos are found on Youtube.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

My Privacy My Choice My Life

The purpose of this site is to help children learn how technology affects their private life.  There are lesson ideas and suggestions. You can download the PDF versions and use the lessons and worksheets. 

This site helps everyone understand Social Networking Sites.  There is a Graphic Novel, Social Smarts: Privacy, The Internet and You,  which I was able to download into each student's computer where they read it and then in groups answered questions and critically analyzed the scenarios that were given to them.  I was able to incorporate this lesson with the lessons and interactive games from the website I mentioned earlier, Media Smarts.

http://www.youthprivacy.ca/en/teachers.html

Monday, November 5, 2012

Media Smarts......formerly Media Awareness

In my January 13, 2011 post I mention the site Media Awareness.  I will repeat what I wrote:

A site where students can become better informed about using the Internet.  They learn about stereotypes, hate, violence and information privacy through interactive play. Browse the website and see how these educational resources can enhance lessons. I used Privacy Playground and Cybersense and Nonesense on this site with my class and I found that the games provided my students the skill to evaluate information. The students were able to critically analyze how negative decisions affect them.

This site is now called Media Smarts http://mediasmarts.ca/

I also used the Privacy section so that we can discover the affects of not being careful with our personal information when interacting with other people whether it is online or using some other smart product.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Watch Know Learn........Educational Videos

Free educational videos from elementary to secondary schools from ages 1-18.
These videos are reviewed, approved and organized into appropriate categories of subjects. 
http://www.watchknowlearn.org/About.aspx

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Math Is fun

This game site has a section called Money Master. Within this page you can select the currency you wish to work with. Select the level of difficulty and math the coins to the amount it asks. The skill game is timed. There are other pages that cover Algebra, Geometry, Data, Measurement and Numeration that test the students’ skills. You can also find Math and logic puzzles.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/money/money-master.html

Monday, October 29, 2012

Film English

Film english is a site that promotes the use of Film in the Classroom.  The creator and publisher of this blog states, and it is quoted:
"The three main objectives of Film English are:
■promote the critical and creative use of film in the language classroom
■promote cineliteracy, the ability to read critically and evaluate moving images, in the language classroom.
■promote creativity amongst both teachers and students."

As always, preview anything before using in the classroom.
http://film-english.com/about-2/

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Money....Funbrain

http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/index.html  Within this site there is a game called Change Maker, for students having difficulty with money….canadian.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Kids Stories/Literature

This year I am teaching ESL and Special Ed.  As always I look for new ideas for my classroom. I was searching for some short stories and comprehension work that I could use with my classes.  However, I am not just looking for something that I can photocopy... NO.  I am looking for items that the students can use computers, tablet/iPad or netbooks so that they can use Software such as Premier, text to voice software or Google translate; depending on the student needs.  I came across these sites.....
http://www.kidsgen.com/stories/
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/childrenindex.html
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Hidden images in Company logos

Hidden images in Company logos. Simple designs with hidden messages.  A good media lesson idea.
http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/hidden-logos-in-graphic-designing/
http://finance.sympatico.ca/galleries/hidden_images_in_company_logos.htm

There are other sites that you can find..... just google.

Friday, September 28, 2012

The Why Files................News

I was searching for articles and resources when I came across this site by complete accident.  The Why Files is the science behind the news. This site posts current event stories and each story will have a connection to Science concepts. There is a classroom activities section that teachers can use as lessons and quizzes for students.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Time for Kids

Teachers can access some articles, lesson plans, videos and more, for free. A good place to find news from around the world and content specific information and bring into the classroom. 
 http://www.timeforkids.com/

Monday, September 3, 2012

EdApps

Using apps and iPad in the classroom.  This site has a page that gives 14 ways to use Garageband in class.  One example is using voice over for movie trailers. There are also fun educational tidbits such as creating book trailers.  Another tidbit is 13 ways to use imovie in the classroom.  A lot to explore on this site.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Photo editor by Pixlr

Free online tool for photo editing. I have had this tool in my favourites for about two years but I never thought of posting here.  Check out this tool.  You can also create collages and effects. Pixlr also has an app.
http://pixlr.com/editor/

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Shmoop and English Companion

Literacy lesson ideas for Highschool English teachers that can be adapted for grades 7 and 8.
www.shmoop.com 
http://englishcompanion.ning.com/

Thanks David.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Online Presentation Tools.......Powtoon, Sliderocket, Slideshare

Earlier in this blog I mentioned using Prezi at http://prezi.com where you can create captivating presentations online. I decided to Google “creating presentations online” because I assumed that if there is one online tool like this, there will be more.

www.powtoon.com / http://www.powtoon.com/pricing/edu/   This online tool will allow you to create animated presentations.

www.sliderocket.com  Sliderocket is an online powerpoint presentation tool.  Sign up for the Lite which is free. You can also download the presentation onto your desktop and present off line.  This Youtube link explains how to use presentation offline
www.slideshare.net   Slideshare is another online powerpoint presentation tool. Sharing your slides with others as well as download presentation or embed into blogs.


The following link gives a list of other online tools which I have not mentioned and some that I have mentioned:    http://mashable.com/2008/02/16/forget-powerpoint-online-presentations/


These are great tools that students can use to vary their assignments.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Reflections of School Year

I asked my students to go home and write about 3 memorable things from this year.  They did not have a chance to edit nor revise what they wrote and they created this video based on their first draft.  I did not want their thoughts to have been rehearsed nor changed.....



Monday, June 4, 2012

Math Games

I had this posted on the blog my kids have access to, but I forgot to post it here.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Art

Art with Mr. E. is a blog dedicated to all things art and art education. If you need ideas or to just see what other teachers are creating, this blog is worth visiting!!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Fact Monster - - REFERENCE

Fact Monster is from Information Please part of Family  Education Network.  It is a kids reference site. 


Monday, April 9, 2012

VoiceThread

VoiceThread is an online version of the program Photostory.  An online tool that is a multimedia slideshow where one can use voice to add comments add audio files or video. Group conversations are collected and shared in one place.
Youtube video that demonstrates what Voicethread is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW2nb7FO7p8
There is voicethread for K-12.
VoiceThread:  https://voicethread.com/products/k12/

Monday, April 2, 2012

Science for kids

A lot to do on this site:  experiments, free games, science fair projects, fun quizzes, interesting facts, amazing videos, worksheets and more!  For grades k-9


 http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/technology.html



Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Literactive -- Primary Interactive-- and more


Many educators incorporate some kind of technology to engage student learning. With web 2 it is impossible not to find something on the internet that cannot be used to help support a teacher lesson or to engage students with an interactive activity. I decided to search for 'interactive literacy games' and I came across many great sites. You just need the time to peruse all of them. I did look at some and I found the following to be worth a visit.
Language Instructions



Language Arts, Math Science and more

http://www.primaryinteractive.co.uk/english.htm/

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Environment

Game on Green Challenges
http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/green/


Young Voices for the Planet is a film series featuring young people who are making a difference! They are shrinking the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities.
http://www.youngvoicesonclimatechange.com/

Zero footprint youth calculator