CTAP Siskiyou Web 2.0

Great tips to helping thin your Inbox. "While lots of newsletters and mailing lists fall into the "spam" category, sometimes you want to read them but don't want them cluttering up your inbox. Filter them out in Gmail by including these oft-used phrases." Also read the post comments for another great way to subscribe to things and not have them end up in your Inbox.

What it is: Join Me is an incredibly simple way to share your computer screen with others. It works on both Windows and Mac allowing you to share your screen (and whatever is on it instantly). The simplicity of this site is brilliant. If you have even a sparkle of being a "techie" among family, colleagues, or friends, you most likely get regular phone calls asking for your help with something. The problem: those asking the question don't usually know enough to accurately articulate what their hang up is. Join Me is a simple solution, it lets you share screens so that you can see what the problem is and walk them step by step through the solution. Join Me is also great for the classroom, it lets students and teachers quickly share their screens for instant collaboration, feedback, or virtual meetings.

"A Googleaholic's Guide to all things gmail" - if you can't use Google Apps for Education and give students an email address, here is a creative use of gmail to do that so students can register and login to different applicaitons.

"During class time, the teacher will stand at the front of the room and hold forth on the day's topic. Then, as the period ends, he or she will give students a clutch of work to do at home. Lectures in the day, homework at night. It was ever thus and ever shall be. But one American teacher is taking a different approach - and in the process, he's offering a lesson in innovation for organizations of every kind. Karl Fisch is a 20-year veteran of Arapahoe High School, located south of Denver, Colorado. For the past 14 years, the one-time maths teacher has been the school's technology coordinator." Learn about the Fisch Flip - instead of having students do algebra problems at home after listening to the lecture at school, he has flipped it around, and puts his lectures on the web and then does the work with students at school. It's working well. Check out his videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/karlfisch

This tool allows you to print web pages stripping away all the adds, images, etc. from the page to give you a clean print. It also allows you to save the portions you want to keep in .pdf. Another similar tool is called Printliminator. Check them out. You'll save toner & paper in the process and have the things you want to read in print in an uncluttered format.

Very cool visual dictionary/thesaurus. I'm going to use it with my 3rd grade class from time to time. I think it would serve older students very well.

Join.me allows Mac and Windows users to quickly share their screens with each other and work together. The person offering the screen share must download the software, and then just give your nine digit access number to your collaborators to give them access to your screen and to converse with you. It could be a very handy tool for sharing your screen with students to walk them through an application or give to give a virtual presentation. Join.me could also be useful for professional development in which you're introducing colleagues to the ins and outs of a program.

Math videos - Algebra, Calculus, Algebra 2, graphing calculator, etc. Another great resource for math students. Add them to Khan Academy and you have quite a number of math screencasts.

Julie Greller is an educational media specialist in a New Jersey junior-senior high school. Recommended by Richard Byrne, of Free Technology for Teachers, it to be a well organized resource that all K-12 educators could benefit from. Julie has organized her site into three sections, one each for elementary, middle, and high school. Within each section are dozens of subsections for all manner of topics taught in public schools.

Great open source drawing program for most OS platforms. Well recommended by my Twitter PLN.

Fantastic guide & tutorial on how to make videos on the web, provided by Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers. "This guide was created for those teachers who would like to have their students make videos but don't have access to editing software and or video equipment. All of the resources in this guide are completely web-based."

Dushare is an incredibly easy way to share files. Dushare lets you transfer files via a web browser as fast as you can upload. The site could not be easier to use, just pick your file, decide if you want it password protected to download, and then share the file. Dushare requires NO login or registration, it really is simple to use! I like that the URL for sharing is very short. This is for quick sending of files, and unlike Drop.io or Dropbox, doesn't store a group of files.

"How is it now that so many adults are reduced to tears when confronted by an unfamiliar technology?" One answer is that, "We have learned to become helpless; most likely by playing the traditional game of 'school'." Our evaluations through PD surveys, conversations, and focus groups indicate that teachers feel they don't use technology because they don't have enough training. Tom Whitby advises educators hesitant to use the modern tools of today, to stop relying on others and take ownership of their learning and suggests this can be done through developing a personal learning network.

Here's the latest update to the first article on Dropbox for educators. I would encourage you to read both posts & take advantage of this great tool - Dropbox!

Free online software to design yearbooks that can be printed or you can pay for them to print books.

There is a collection of different timers you can use online, or download and use on your desktop (PC), or embed on a webpage or wiki.

An interesting blog post from an educator & parent on homework and learning in general. What do you think about it, as a teacher,j administraotr & a parent?

The videos cover topics like Federalism, Checks & Balances, and the legislative process. The video below contains a short lesson on how a bill becomes law. Entertaining way for students to learn various aspects of government. A must use!

A guide from Microsoft on developing information literacy skills. I'm going to use some of these ideas in an upcoming training & with students in the classroom.

"The Commons is a great place to find images that are free of copyright restrictions. But, if The Commons doesn't have what you or your students need for a multimedia project, here are seven other places you can try your search."