Dropbox is a very useful tool to store online files, sync your computers and mobile devices and share files. With all those capabilities it makes it a natural tool for educators!
Life as a teacher, especially one fresh off attending your own classes, can be hard. You have to wake up early, work late and manage a classroom full of kids, each with their own diverse needs and expectations. Luckily, there are numerous teachers out there who are willing to share their expertise and classroom experiments with teachers young and old. Here are some great blogs that offer insights into what classes of kids are doing around the world as well as providing some great advice on everything from dealing with parents to figuring out grades.
don't let the 100 make you go ARRRRRRRRRRRR Infowhelm!
It is broken up into grade areas so hopefully you can find one nugget of gold to help make your classroom blog even better.
Urtak lets you make smart, sticky polls where participants can ask and answer questions.
With Urtak you can:
* Make unlimited free polls.
* Embed polls everywhere.
* Analyze results in real time.
Admongo where advertising is all around you.
Online. Outside. On television. Who makes ads?
How do they work? What do they want you to do?
Here, you will explore, discover, and learn.
Can you make it to the top?
"Be a spelling bee in Tumble Bees
Play free Tumble Bees at Pogo.com and see what the buzz is about. It's the sweetest spelling bee online. Help the bees with their honey supply by spelling as many words as you can before the honeycomb fills up with letters. Each word you make will fill the honey pot with honey. Fill the pot to win the game and score tokens."
Series of videos to show students how to make a game in scratch. Learn how to make parrots move randomly, create a crosshair target to follow your mouse, show and hide objects, keep scores and play against a timer.
"What is a Memory Game?
In this interactive memory game the player must find the matching pairs of cards. To do this click on a card in the top row and then click on a card in the bottom row. If the cards match the cards remain face up. If not, the cards will turn back over and you can try again until all pairs have been found.
Using the Memory Game Maker, you can build your own interactive memory game. You can specify if you want text, pictures or sounds on each row of cards. You can then type in your own text, attach your own pictures or record your own voice. These will appear on the cards in your finished game. You can also customise some other features of the game such as the look of your game and the sound effects used.
When complete, the game is saved on your computer in the location you specify. From here you can copy the game to a disc, memory stick or onto another computer or network to share with others.
You can make games in any language. Any script (for example Arabic or Japanese) that can be typed on your computer can be used."
"How the game works
In the Languages Online Matching Game there are two columns. Each column contain six lines. To complete the game the player must drag a line between the matching pairs from each column. The Matching Game Maker allows you type in or record your own text or voice recordings in each column.
Some suggestions about the types of tasks you can make:
* Match a question and answer i.e. 'How old are you?' - 'I'm 12 years old'
* Match the begining and endings of a sentences. i.e. 'My favourite colour' - 'is blue.'
* As a translation task. Match a sentence in the LOTE with the English
* A listening exercise. Match a recording of a sentence with the text of that sentence.
* A comprehension task. Match a recording of a sentence or statement with a corresponding statement.
* Match a sound with a word. i.e. the sound of a dog matched with the word 'dog'.
* Complete the sequence. 'Monday, Tuesday" - "Wednesday" "
"In today's schools, most research is completed online, and Google is a great resource for combing the web. But at the same time, it's not always easy to find exactly what you want, given that there are usually millions of results - with varying degrees of accuracy. These tricks can help you find the best results, while saving time and making your life easier."
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Looking for hands-on training on Tech Tuesday topics? Here is a quick tip to use the archive videos as a hands-on, just-in-time, training tool:
Open two browser windows side-by-side (one for the tool you plan to learn (if using an online tool like SharePoint or WordPress) and the other with the Tech Tuesday list of archives.) OR open the desktop application and a browser window with the Tech Tuesday archive list.
Click on the link for the Tech Tuesday archive you want to view (make sure your speakers are on or use a headset)
Pause the archive to try a task demonstrated and try that task in your the appropriate window. You can then hit the play button when ready to continue. You can also move the scroll bar to either review or skip ahead."