(via @rmbyrne) "These are some of the many things that you can do with Subtext: using Subtext you can read ebooks, annotate ebooks, create quizzes about ebooks, and write blog posts about the ebooks you read. You can create private and public book discussion groups and build bookshelves for your groups.
(via @MrWejr) "I often hear that students with little home support NEED extra incentives to get them to read. The staff of Kent school, with over half of our students at or below the poverty level, have worked hard to prove this theory incorrect. It is not about pizza parties, book bucks, and stickers - it is about creating the conditions for ALL students to develop a love of reading."
"Folks with website can easily make a feed for their website using a service like Feedburner but if they have no feed, I am now using Page2RSS to create a feed to add to my RSS subscriptions. Since I use Google Chrome for my primary browser, I installed the Page2RSS extension. For those of you using other other browsers, you can get a bookmarklet on the Page2RSS website. Of course, you can always just go to Page2RSS, paste in the URL for the feedless website, and the site gives you a feed URL to add to your subscriptions. "
I use my Google RSS a ton for professnal learning. Occasionally, I come across a site without an RSS feed. This is not a problem anymore thanks to this post from Wanda Terral.
enables users to create customized map displays in six themes: Physical Systems: Land; Physical Systems: Water; Physical Systems: Climate; Human Systems: Populations & Culture; Human Systems: Political & Economic; and Environment and Society.
This website is a great took that my students love to use. It allows the the boys to create customized avatars and add voices to them. The uses/possibilities are endless.
(via @rmbyrne) "Clipboard's basic structure is similar to Pinterest in that users create private and public boards to which they can save content from the web by using the Clipboard browser extensions and bookmarklets. Clipboard does have one feature that makes it slightly better than Pinterest. That feature is the option to save Flash-based games and apps on your clipboards and using them as fully-functioning games and apps within your clipboards."
"From 2005 up to this moment, thousands of educational blogs have seen the light and educators from all around the globe have been experiencing with this medium in their teaching.In this regard, I deemed it important to pause for a while and create an easy and simple guide to remind you ( in case you are an experienced blogger ) and walk the new teachers ( excited about how to use blogs in their classroom ) through the different procedures and pedagogical implications behind the use of blogs in education."
top 3 tips:
1. keep 3-5 min, longer= lose interest; call out students names in videos, allude to class secret or secret word used during next school day
3. Storyboard plan your video
5. Hold students accountable: can't participate in class experiment/activity if haven't watch video. Give quiz at beginning of class. Use unlimited attempt online quiz to complete to 100% after watching quiz.
6. Create forum where kids can discuss video, ask questions...then assign kid to be teacher assistant to answer questions, cont discussion