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Tons of great resources for teachers. Integration and technology use ideas galore!

INteresting - how to test Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 - they have a portable app to allow you to test it without potentially messing up your computer and all of your precious firefox add ons- this is a great idea!

Lesson Ideas and Literacy Curriculum from PBS. Site resources are also available in Spanish.

"Edublogs is a blogging tool which is allows students and teachers to create online journals/diaries to share their thoughts and ideas with others. They can include text, audio, images and videos. Blogging allows students to engage in 21st century learning within their classroom and beyond. There are many blogging sites available to use. This page focuses on Edublogs and how it can be used by teachers and students to enhance learning."

An online version of the book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning David H. Rose & Anne Meyer ASCD, 2002

Why wordle? Ideas for using wordle in the classroom.

Great idea to help colleagues get started on Twitter with a #WW ~ "Welcome Wednesday"

Upcoming free webinar from Scholastic Tuesday, April 5, 1pm ET 10 am PT - my friend Tyler Reed says: "Scholastic has an exciting video webcast for students and classrooms coming up with Ruth Culham (of "Traits of Writing" fame) and the authors of The 39 Clues series to help inspire good writing in kids. It features four of the authors from the book series, and is anchored by writing instruction from Ruth. The idea is that these authors and The 39 Clues series are perfect "writing mentors" and "mentor texts" for kids."

If you have no idea what network-centric grantmaking is and you write grants or work with fundraising - this blog post is an important read for you. (Buy Beth's book - the networked nonprofit - it is great.) Themes as per Beth: These themes include: 1. Listening to and consulting the crowds: Actively listening to online conversations and openly asking for advice. 2. Designing for serendipity: Creating environments, in person and online, where helpful connections can form. 3. Bridging differences: Deliberately connecting people with different perspectives. 4. Catalyzing mutual support: Helping people directly help each other. 5. Providing handrails for collective action: Giving enough direction for individuals to take effective and coordinated action.

Interesting website for those who are graduating or getting married. This lets you create one master registry out of everything on the web. Interesting. For nonprofits, you can create a list of the things that you need and people can put money towards those items. So, this could be used for schools too. Teachers could make a wishlist. Cool idea.

A google presentation about the interesting ways to use Google+ - it is public and people can add to it. Some great ideas. Remember we still have some privacy testing to do.

Good presentation to review and add to about Google+.

Another cool tool. This is from a UK site so they call these "plenaries" but they are 140 lesson plan ideas. You'll have to sign up for a free TES account but this is  a cool powerpoint.

Excellent article on designing a game based learning e-course. There are a lot of links and great ideas. Since hearing Jane McGonigal speak at Microsoft HQ I have using Interrobang and other games as a priority for integrating into my classroom. (Hat Tip @juandoming on Twitter)

Ideas to make homework more relevant

I'm going to test this website. It manages class trips, permission forms, and communicates activities with the class. The idea of it sounds great. Yes, it is free. Of course, we'll have to dig down and see how the emails are used and the privacy settings but this is definitely something very needed!

Make sure girls don't put their cell phone in their bra (not kidding) and there are many concerns about wifi for kids. We need to consider and review this information -- although there are no long term studies of wifi and kids and nothing linking wifi - there are concerns particularly with RF/EMF exposure. Sleeping with your cell phone or other wireless device is definitely a bad idea. (Hat Tip Diane Ravitch)

Teacher discussion summary and archive full of ideas to get children reading for pleasure

For those who are flipping or in flipping their classroom, here are some awesome video interaction tools. Don't just SHOW a video, have students interact with it. So many ideas here. Hat tip Jon Bergmann in a conversation he and I were having.

"Ainsworth, Prain and Tyler  (2011) in a paper in Science argue that  drawing  can play a number of  important roles in learning:, namely: Drawing to enhance engagement - surveys have shown than when students draw to explain they are more motivated to learn compared to traditional teaching of science. Drawing to learn to represent in science - the process of producing visual representations  helps learners understand how scientific representations work. Drawing to reason in science - student learn to reason like scientists as they select specific features to focus on in their drawings, aligning it with observation, measurement and/or emerging ideas Drawing as a learning strategy - if learners read a text and then draw it, the process of making their understanding visible and explicit helps them to overcome limitations in presented material, organise and integrate their knowledge and ultimately can be transformative. Drawing to communicate - discussing their drawings with their students provides teachers with windows into students' thinking as well being a way that the peers can share knowledge, discovery and understanding."