More Web Sites

Mostly every night I watch TV and look at web sites that I think could be beneficial for both teacher and student uses.  I am looking for web sites that either require no login or are easy to login, and provide differentiated technology experiences for both teachers and students.  Listed below are some I have ventured into and feel could be of beneficial use if further explored.  Please take a look.

Foto Flexer

This web site lets you upload any picture that you have and apply effects to it from simply rotating, resizing, and coloring it to cutting things out of it, enhancing a part of the picture, and shaping the picture.  Plus all of this is free, no account needed and the final product can easily be saved back onto your computer.

Questionaut

This game applies critical thinking and problem solving.  You have to problem solve to unlock certain items which in turns provides english, math and science questions to help you move from scene to scene.  So even though it provides questions for you to answer you have to unlock certain items for the questions to even appear at first.

Music Tech Teacher

This web site showcases games, quizzes, online worksheets and downloadable worksheets for teachers and students to use to better help with music, musical composition, lyrics, music media and musicians.

Eyeball Math

This web site provides reiterated topics related to math such as bisecting an angle, finding a certain measurement and locating the center of a circle to name a few.  You go through 3 rounds, learning the same concepts except with different problems, and you click to add your answer and you get rated based on the time it takes you to add your answer and how close you are to answering it correctly. 

Talking Cards

Type in a poem, a story, your own creative writing into a talking card to express your meanings.  You can play the talking card to everyone in the class or your can email the talking card for others to easily view.  No account needed to create and/or send your talking cards.

Science Simulations

Simulations are created and demonstrated on this science simulation web site, related to a variety of science concepts and topics.  Science concepts can easily be learned, showcased and demonstrated through these simulations.

3rd World Farmer

Take the opportunity to run a farm.  Buy and plant crops, buy and take care of livestock, buy tools and machinery and keep yourself and your family safe.  Learn how to run a farm and how to make a profit to be able to earn money as a farmer.

Invention at Play

Apply your creative thinking and problem solving skills to a few games in math, english, science and social studies.  

Using different Preview features

Preview is an application associated with Mac/Apple computers to open up PDF files and/or pictures and is very similar to Adobe Reader, except it can provide some additional features that can be of beneficial use for teachers and students.

First, to open up Preview look for this icon
in your dock at the bottom of your screen or within your Applications folder.
or
Open up an PDF file and/or picture and it should open up in Preview.

After you have a PDF file and/or picture opened up in Preview a few additional features that you can explore are:

Zooming=Zoom in or Zoom out using the + or - signs

Selecting=Select a part of the picture or PDF file, and the copy and paste it into a document

Annotating=Add additional text, circle/underline something important, use arrows to point to important words or an important part of a picture, etc.




Bookmarking=If reading an article through Preview you can Bookmark the page you left off on, or an important page






Rotating=Rotate to the left or rotate to the right

Slideshow=Take your pictures or PDF files and easily turn them into a full screen slideshow

ITEC Conference-Monday Sessions

On Monday, Oct. 17 the whole technology department at Hampton-Dumont CSD had the chance to attend the ITEC Conference in Des Moines.  It was a great experience full of awesome sessions to get ideas on how technology is used in other schools, how to integrate technology, why technology pd is essential and much, much more.  Here are a few of the sessions I attended and some of the material/information I gathered from them.

Integrating for Technology Into the Classroom

2 classroom teachers showcased the tools they use in their classroom, with 3rd and 4th grade students, to integrate technology into the student's everyday learning.  Here a couple of the web sites that would seem proactive and effective with students.

Fun 4 the Brain

All my Faves

TodaysMeet

Class Tools

21st Century Skills Implementation - a district's story

Woodward-Granger took the drastic steps of providing as much PD as possible with a heavy focus on Technology PD, this meant PD every Wednesday.  Although it took them 3 years to get to where they are now, they definitely took baby steps and teachers are starting to see the pay off.  Right now I think H-D is getting there with Year 1 of PD and Technology PD.

Using Google Scripts, Forms, and Calendar to Streamline Processes

Spirit Lake CSD took the initiative to utilize Google Forms and Google Calendar to schedule transportation, facilities and maintenance work orders.  Definitely something that would hopefully speed up and reassure the process but some leg work would need to be done to get just the little part of this going.

We need more PD! and other mythes about technology integration

A speaker from GenerationYes showcased the need to have students more involved with technology, as they KNOW technology and do not have to be TAUGHT technology.  The whole idea correlates around getting students involved with Technology PDs with teachers, students being more involved with the teachers in the classroom for both teacher and student technology support and more.  This is something H-D is pushing towards with getting students more involved in helping both teachers and students and providing their spin on Technology and its uses during Technology PDs.

Computer (not=to) a Wrench!

This session addressed "how can this thing amplify learning?" demanding focus on the computer as a medium of thinking, (like writing) rather than this 'tool' that merely emulates other media.  I thought that made a lot of sense: "Computer as a MEDIUM of thinking, (LIKE WRITING) rather than this 'tool.'  Definitely something to think about when using technology.

Different Search Engines

A variety of Search Engines different than Google and Bing that can not afford to be as highly publicized.  Check them out.

http://bingle.nu/
Search Bing and Google together, at the same time.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/
Computational Knowledge Search Engine

http://www.goofram.com/
Search Google and WolframAlpha together, at the same time.

http://linkstore.ru/got/
Searches Google Blogs and Twitter Tweets together, at the same time.

http://www.kidrex.org/
Kids search engine

http://www.specra.com/
Weighted search engine

http://www.sperse.com/index.php
Enhanced meta search

http://www.spezify.com/

http://www.twurdy.com/index.php
Search for readable results

50 Sites in 60 Minutes-Best Web Sites

http://www.slideshare.net/dkapuler/50sites-ver2

Audio Web Site
http://www.aviary.com/tools/myna

Graphing/Diagramming Web Site
http://www.diagram.ly/

Digital Art
http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/
http://sketchcast.com/
http://sumopaint.com/app

Digital Storytelling
http://batalugu.com/ver2/index.php
http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/
http://littlebirdtales.com/
http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm
http://primaryaccess.org/

Internet
http://betterlesson.com/
http://www.capzles.com/#
http://www.culturecrossing.net/index.php
http://www.symbalooedu.com/
http://www.visuwords.com/

Presentation
http://present.me/

Web Sites Galore

50 Sites in 60 Minutes: Version 2

Shmoop
We Speak Student is the motto for this web site.  This web site provides student and teacher resources related to US History, Economics, Music, and Literature to name a few.  This web site is trying to take these educational concepts and turn them into a language the students better understand showcasing "In a Nutshell" what the information is and "Why Should I Care" to support the reasons teachers are showcasing this information in class.

Online Professional Development
Knowledge Delivery Systems is providing the opportunity for concepts to be learned, while teachers earn state license renewal, continuing education credits, salary advancement and more.  Some of the concepts show are, A Framework for Teaching, Understanding the Digital Generation, Authentic Innovation in the 21st Century, Manage it All, and Differentiation to name a few.  Syllabi's are available to download to check out the course content.

Arcademicskillbuilders
Arcade + Academics = Fun Learning.  This web site provides academic arcade games related to addition, subtraction, money, fraction, geography, language arts, typing and more.  With these games they can be played individually or the students can create multi-player games where a student can setup a room and other students can easily join the room to play with the other students or against the other students.  Great way for students to interact with each other while on different computers.

Discovery Education: Teacher Resources
Even though Discovery Education does not provide the web sites, videos, interactives and more through DE Streaming, they still do provide teacher resources such as lesson plans, worksheets, learning adventures and brain boosters for science, english, social studies and math.  They even break this information down into K-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

21st Century Cool Websites

Tech&Learning Web Sites

These web sites were showcased in the latest edition of Tech&Learning online and in its current magazine.

A Google A Day
This web site can be addictive in counting how much time it takes for you to find the answer of a daily question through the use of Google searching.  It tests your searching skills through Google.  Can be something to showcase to your students during the last few minutes of class to keep them busy.

Voocaroo
A web site that allows you to record, just like a podcast, for free and then provides you with a link to establish on your web site for others to click on and the instantly listen too.

Sophia
Provides popular packets on Applied Sciences, English/Literature, Humanities, Learning Strategies, Math, Sciences and Social/Behavioral Sciences.  These popular packets provides great ideas for teachers and learners alike from other teachers and learners.

Creating a Picture Slideshow in iPhoto

To get to iPhoto click on the icon in your Dock or open your Applications folder inside your Macintosh HD and look alphabetically for iPhoto.     

Once you have uploaded your photos into iPhoto or if you already have photos in iPhoto, make sure you click on the + sign in the bottom left hand corner to add an album to drag and drop pictures into.  You can only play a slideshow through an album and dragging and dropping the pictures into the album only duplicates the original picture(s).

Once you have an album of pictures made just click on the Slideshow play button which is located in the bottom middle of the iPhoto screen underneath the pictures.

Once you click on the Slideshow play button you will then get 3 options to adjust before you Play your slideshow.  You can pick between 6 different themes, you can pick your music which some is already provided or you can import songs from your iTunes libraries, and you can adjust the settings for how long each picture is displayed, if your slideshow should be repeated, if your pictures should be shuffled and more.