Group items tagged

These lessons include Scholastic's Interactive Weather Maker, showing how humidity and temperature levels relate to rain and snow storms; Bytesize Science on the chemistry of snowflake making; and why the full moon gives more light in winter. Video explanations are embedded in R. Byrne's site.

"You could use Google Maps Engine Lite to create your own classroom version of Novels on Location. Ask your students to write short short book reviews in the placemarks that they add to a shared Google Map. If you have students creating video book trailers, those videos could be added to their placemarks too. If could be a fun challenge for your call to try to collectively "read around the world" by locating stories set on each of the seven continents. " A nice tool and an interesting lesson using it. T/H R. Byrne

Another school/pedagogy oriented site for video resources. Ideas for curriculum, advice, guides, videos of and by students as well as education professionals and parents. [Really annoying music on the front page.] T/H R. Byrne

This page holds a list of essential sites for teaching computer science and coding to high school students. Spark interest by having students create their own games and apps while learning math.

This is a jumbled collection, but links to a few interesting new things, such as Incredibox, which allows you create music, record, share, and download your composition.

"These videos give you an up to date outline of using the program Blogger. They start off with how to create your first blog all the way through to adding more pages and authors to your blogs" R.Stannard takes you through the updated Blogger program. I have used Blogger for years, but now tend to just use Diggo and Scoop.It, the latter for the more reflective, pedagogically oriented discussions. Blogs are very helpful as a place for student portfolios, and are easy to tag and search.

"The U.S. Library of Congress offers a wealth of fantastic online resources for teachers and students. A quick jump into the teachers resource page will lead you to things like these primary source analysis guides that I have used with students in the past. The LOC also offers a couple of good iOS apps that are worth noting." Shows how various apps can be used with the teachers' resource pages at the U.S. Library of Congress. Great authentic materials for research papers and projects. H/T to R. Byrne

R. Byrne: "Wideo is a nice tool for creating Common Craft-style videos. You can create animated videos on Wideo by dragging and dropping clipart and text in storyboard frames. You set the position and animation sequence for each element in each storyboard frame. When you have completed your storyboards Wideo generates a video for you. "This week Wideo added a new feature that allows you to build interactive buttons into each frame of your video. The buttons can be hyperlinked to any webpage that you like. When people are watching your video they can click the buttons to be taken to the webpage you want them to land on. For example, clicking the buttons in the video embedded below will take you to the website of my favorite animal rescue organizations." Older students could, of course, create videos themselves to instruct others. The new interactive button might also lead to a quiz on Quizlet or in Google Docs, for example.

"Student choice is not only a simple way to increase student engagement, it's also an essential factor in developing digital literacy while building 21st century life and career skills. Choice boards typically start with a specific learning goal, then provide students with a variety of ways to practice a skill, learn a concept, or demonstrate understanding." Site offers a variety of Choice board templates for your classroom use. T/h N.Lafave

Captions are the law, but also they may aid ESL students and students with learning disabilities. Some evidence is provided for improvement in test scores, and captioning certainly is a study aid. Captions can also aid in video searches.

It's the law, but captioning also helps ESL students and students with disabilities. There is also some evidence of improved test scores when captioning is used throughout a school term. Captioning also makes video search easier. T/h to N. Flynn (cielo24.com)

A browser-based audio editor

TwistedWave is a browser-based audio editor. You only need a web browser to access it, and you can use it to record or edit any audio file.

All the audio is stored and processed on the server, so you don't need to download anything, or save your work when you are done. Close your browser window and your work is saved. Open TwistedWave somewhere else, and all your audio files, with the complete undo history, are still available.

With a free account, you can edit mono files up to 5 minutes in length. Once you have an account, you can purchase a subscription to increase this limit. T/h to R. Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers.

"A useful site for creating metro maps. Use it in creating writing to map out a character's travels, make Monopoly-like games or make classroom posters showing connected words, names, ideas or topics."

A video demonstrating some of the things Google Classroom might do for your classes, and how to use it.