Some awesome sites, tools and tech tips to get the school year started!

Wow... Summer is about over, and school is around the corner.  Here are a few great tools, sites, and tips to get us started!

Web sites and tools:

Crunchzilla's Code Monster (ow.ly/yk472) teaches kids Javascript programming.

Online museums you can explore for free: ly.tcea.org/zjprh

Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2013 From -  American Association of School Librarians (AASL) (Notice links to other years at the bottom of the page.)

Attention music teachers! Acoustica is offering a free work@home Mixcraft 6 license for your evaluation. Mixcraft 6 is used in over 1500 schools worldwide. To receive your free Mixcraft 6 work@home license, please send your name, email address and school affiliation to education@acoustica.com.

10 Word Cloud Generators You Have Probably Never Tried -  Edudemic http://goo.gl/4pEVMi

81dash .com is a TodaysMeet for education, built by an educator.

Draw a video game on paper, snap a picture, & play it w/ free iOS app Pixel Press Floors: ly.tcea.org/nsufn  (Yes you read this one right... watch the short 3 min. video on their site to see how it works.)

Link to list of Smackdown websites & apps from #hacked14 bitly.com/1wSEhJH

Recommended websites and webtools from the summer ISTE goo.gl/RSPDi0

Have you seen quill.org ? Interactive grammar lessons. Great for bell ringers

10,000 Newspapers On Google Maps ow.ly/yAbKj

Google Maps now allows you to measure exact distances.

“Cost Of Living Map” Is A Nice Interactive 

10 sites with stunning visual data that will change your world view Via PCWorld - A picture is worth a 1000 words!

5 Ways To Use Word Cloud Generators In The Classroom - via Edudemic

BioDigital Human: Anatomy and Health Conditions in Interactive 3D

Plickers - The Student Response System for Classrooms That Aren't 1:1 another alternative to clickers in your classroom. Uses QR codes too!

Desmos Graphing Calculator - Free online graphing calculator, worth checking out for the classroom. 

Want to make great-looking photo books for free? Do it with Lucidpress! Here's How.  You will see more on Lucid Press from me soon!  THIS BABY ROCKS! If you are missing Publisher... STOP! You can even upload your own fonts... can you say DJ Inkers. :)

Recommended websites and web tools from ISTE 2014.

Access and Use More Than 20,000 Historical Maps from the New York Public Library ow.ly/zC02s

TwistedWave - Create Audio Recordings and Save Them in Google Drive http://goo.gl/DtmpNK

Classtools.net has several great tools including randaom name slectors, timers, and more. An oldie... but still a goodie. 

eBooks:

eBooks are changing reading habits, and it's for the better: ly.tcea.org/lbqrj

Chrome and Chrome Extensions:

Daum Equation Editor - If you need additional Equations for Google Docs and Sheets, check it out!

 The “Cite This For Me” Chrome Extension is a nice Chrome Extension worth checking out for research papers and research. 

Google Apps:

New feature in Google Docs -  Suggested Edits in Google Docs - http://goo.gl/PYNiFB -Great for group writing projects! A must watch 3 min. video with great teacher tips on this new feature.

5 Google Drive Add-ons You Need To Use http://goo.gl/uOGnPf

Working with images in Google Docs, Slides & Drawings just got easier with two new features: reset & replace images goo.gl/Mxu7fL

OK, Google is adding the ability to edit Microsoft Docs inside of Google Drive... but please, just convert those to Google Docs.... but ... in case you do not, here is more about this new feature. 

The Google+ cheat sheet Google should have produced years ago - Nice visual graphic. 

50 quick Google tips for students and teachers - tons of info here!

10 Things Every Teacher Should Know How To Do With Google Docs ow.ly/zAaUo

Every Gmail Shortcut You Never Knew Existed. Best tip on Google Shortcuts - Hit the Ctrl + ? key to get a list of all of them! 

A Handful of Google Calendar Tutorials for Teachers - http://goo.gl/tKGs6q

YouTube:

How to Create Audio Slideshows in YouTube ow.ly/zzXGG

IOS and some Android apps:

Need a walkie talkie app... Push to Talk with these apps: Voxer and HeyTell have IOS and Android apps for this purpose. 

Nice math app for the younger kids ... Bitsboard Math - Cool Math Games For Kids By GrasshopperApps.com  is free and the in-app Pro features are free to unlock for a short time.  Get it while you can. (I have not personally tried this app, but it gets some good reviews.) 

Free Books - 23,469 Classics To Go - The Ultimate Ebooks And Audiobooks Library In Your Pocket  IOS App - Free  Android App - Free

Here is one for the Chemistry Teachers - NOVA Elements

By PBS is a Free App - IOS (iPad)  or WIndows 8.1 App

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab has a bunch of great - Free Apps. Check them out here. http://goo.gl/03WNbL  

Web Tools, IOS Apps, free iBooks and more in this week's tech tools!

Web Tools and Sites:

Cool Loupe Collage for father's day. Nice tool for your website or class projects and more! http://goo.gl/6ByNYN (OK, I did no get this sent out before Father's Day ... But here are some cool featured Loupe's)

One for the Elem. teachers: Awesome video for learning states and capitals - Tour the States http://goo.gl/rwzm4u   They also have a great one for countries of the world - Tour the World. (These come highly recommended from a 5th grade teacher at Malcolm. He said the kids loved them and memorized the states just based on the song. ) 

Hundreds of free, online math activities for grades 1-6 from Matific: matific.com/us/en 

Find Fun K-8 Math Activities on Math Chimp http://goo.gl/VUtWvd 

5 Tools For The Device Agnostic Classroom http://goo.gl/6Da3w4

Symbaloo Mix for photo tools in the classroom. 

Visit allmyfaves.com for ideas! Click on Edu tab for education resources

Chrome's 'OK Google' voice search rolls out to all 

Get inspired with these 100+ teacher quotes & posters: Nice Pintererest Pin

Awesome Presentation Tools Collection on Edshelf http://goo.gl/DZDVcp

Stormboard is a powerful whiteboard and mind mapping website worth having in the EDU tool chest. (The free version only allows 5 on a board at once.)

Grading Made Easy with Diigo & Jing 

CREATE, PLAY AND SHARE GAMES TO SUPPORT TEACHING AND LEARNING - Zondle

 

Teach any K-8 Math?? Math Graphing has links to 48 interactive graphing activities good for K-8 students: ly.tcea.org/hgydr

The 101 Best IFTTT  Recipes from @pcworld  http://goo.gl/GHpT1U (Automate your world!) I use IFTTT personally, and love it.  

Apps That Rise to the Top: Tested and Approved By Teachers (Includes website too.) 

45 Powerful Tools To Create Polls And Quizzes In The Classroom

Amazing website for data statistics and visualizations - Knoema Check out their atlas and Gallery sections. Great for student reports and fact finding missions. 

Clicker software- 

ExitTicket  is the new one on the block and has a lot more features than socratice and others.  This may be the one to go with? (They are new, so that’s the only reason I have the question mark.) Check out their toolkit. Get the App on IOS here for students to take the quiz.

IOS Apps: 

The only 6 iPhone apps you need to take stunning, professional-quality photos

My New Favorite Tech Tools for the Elem. -Nice List. 

Here's a Gem that just keeps getting updated ... CMV 2014: Easy Video Instruction (Free) http://goo.gl/qlwz9D (Awesome for coaches and classroom teachers too.) Easy Video Instruction; Private Email+ Video Sharing, Frame-Capture & Video Analysis from CoachMyVideo

252 Favorite IPad Apps for your Classroom goo.gl/FemQWK

The NASA earth now app is a nice free app. IOS - http://goo.gl/GWXhLU and Android http://goo.gl/gnD93b 

Shadow Puppet Releases an Edu Version Students Can Use to Create Videos (Free App) -Overview and link to app here.

Free iBooks:

Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship iBooks (opens in iBooks) bitly.com/1o8seXp (Must have iTunes on your computer to open this link.) 

Great Intro to Biology iBook:

Get the complete 41 chapters of E. O. Wilson’s Life on Earth for free on iBooks.This unabridged seven book collection features four previously unreleased units as well as updated interactive visual diagrams and videos to enhance your learning experience. Tap the link below to get your complete copy of Life on Earth today and continue to enjoy learning in a way that is as captivating as it is unforgettable.

Get It in iBooks > iTunes.com/loe