CALL_IS_VSL

An app to create your own games to share or sell in the app store. this might be fun for middle school students/young learners to use in a creative project. Video tutorial shows how to add animated characters directly from a smart phone or on paper. Looks time-consuming, but fun.

Hopscotch is an iPad app that young learners can use to create their own games using templates. I think Hopscotch is ready to be tried out. Looks like fun. As gaming comes into the picture, there are lots of good tools out there for kids to try to make their own games. Project-based learning. By the makers of Daisy the Dinosaur.

This is a great little interactive program that lets you express learning objectives on the Bloom Taxonomy pyramid by selecting one of the objectives and then being presented with the correct verbage, which pops into a simple text editor. Copy into a word processor and print, or copy to your lesson plan. This is very practical, but the teacher needs to keep in mind that language practice doesn't always fall neatly into a Bloom characteristic.

"Most people don't think about the useful editing tools that are built into YouTube. The YouTube video editor has some useful features for teachers and students." The tools R. Byrne's describes are photo slideshow creation, slow-motion, annotation to link videos, blurring faces, stabilizing footage, and adding color/light filters. You can also add captions, music track, and select privacy options. This blog entry alo links to several more ways to improve your videos and add interactive elements.

"GoClass is a learning platform.... Using common mobile devices and an Internet connection, the platform helps you improve student engagement, classroom management ... With lesson plan review, student notes and media annotation, their classroom experience goes home with them." This app seems to have multiple functions, such as sending students follow-up notes and quick polls/quizzes, sharing whiteboards, etc. This will require some exploration. Available for both Apple and Google platforms.

Socrative http://socrative.com/ can be used to collect anonymouse questions and answers, ie, a survey, send a short quic to your students, including pictures/images, and se a space race game to moe rocket ship across the screen as a team (or individuals). Links to tutorial videos as well.

Audio stories of children's classics make for a nice learning center activity with head phones. Listening to English, with great illustrations is an excellent way to acquire English and learn more about culture as well. For very young learners.

This is a comprehensive list of Moodle video training tutorials made by teachers. All you need to know about Moodle.

This is a nice chart (with verbs) of Bloom's taxonomy, and Stepes to work through the taxonomy as you create a lesson. Impresses one with all the steps that Bloom's taxonomy requires.

"The handy infographic below takes a look at the BELS process - Brain Essential Learning Steps. In other words, how does the brain process information in the learning process? The graphic breaks it down in terms of how to teach the material, making this a super useful reminder for teachers planning their lessons. Keep reading to learn more." The 4 Steps: Introducing material, collaborative brainstorming, students develop a learning plan, and then "take action," through writing, music, visuals, etc., and share.

These writing prompts are ingenious and will give your writing class a little spice. Also a link to Writer's Boot Camp. "Need an idea to help you get started writing? You'll find hundreds of fun writing prompts here - perfect for beginning a new novel or short story, or simply giving your writing muscle a workout." For more adult or upper level high school (ages 16-18).

Nice ideas, and a downloadable sheet to get a free teaching aid: "At one time or another, most of us suffer from writer's block and have a terrible time coming up with story ideas. We stare at a blank page, unable to come up with clever story starters or generate ideas for stories to write. In a way it traps us and keeps us from doing the one thing we want to do most when we sit down with a paper and pen in hand or in front of a computer: write. The more time we waste and are unable to come up with ideas for writing stories, the more we get discouraged. That's why we have something to help kick-start your muse.In this free online download, you get two weeks worth of top-notch writing prompts designed to spark your mind and help you flex your creative muscles. From fiction prompts to poem starters to short stories ideas, you'll be able to generate creative story ideas based on a sentence or two of direction."

This brief slideshow tells why portfolios are useful for younger students and shows some of the tools you might use to create them. You may need to sign in to Google to see the show.

This looks like a great place to get ideas for using group and pair work, and for flipped classrooms.

Bernie Dodge's webpage is the original place for WebQuest. Now with the assistance of other instructors, Dodge has an expanded and well-organized site that helps the teacher find, create, and share WebQuests online. WebQuests are the perfect of example of project-based, content-based learning and can be adapted for all ages and for academic purposes.

As always, an intriguing post by R. Byrne, showing how you can use several different new applications to massage video data and link together various videos you find or make. Also info on YouTube annotations.

A chart showing the differences between individualized instruction and personalized learning. "On the face of it personalized and individualized learning are two sides of the same coin, a game of semantics and this is why many teachers still use them interchangeably as if they mean the same thing while in fact there is a noticeable difference between the two particularly in how each trend views the role of teachers and students, knowledge, and standards." This chart by David Warlik shows the differences.

"If your students are using images, video, or music in the final products that they are producing for your class, then it is INCREDIBLY important that you introduce them to the Creative Commons -- an organization that is helping to redefine copyright laws." Links to teach kids about copyright and fair use.

"Wikipaintings is a great resource not only for Art teachers for all other teachers looking for some highly quality images of public domain artworks. Wikipainings is a project that aims to create well-structured online repository of fine art. The artwork featured in this platform includes both classical and contemporary art." Talking about and then writing about images is a great way to get the creative juices flowing produce better quality writing from your students.

"We offer a collection of pre-formatted graphic organizers that you can integrate into activities and lesson plans or use by themselves. We offer three different formats for your convenience:" in html, pdf, Ms Word. Nice downloadables to brainstorm various types of writing activities.