Incredible free apps, and web resources top the list in this week resources - Erskine's list is out.

Web resources: 

20 WONDERFUL online museums and sites for virtual field trips to use in class. Also a list of ipad apps! goo.gl/vlY5JK

Code combat: an open sourced game that teaches everyone how to program by programming the game. 

 Poster on citing information from online sources using MLA style-- great for secondary students.

Lots of fun stuff for education - K-12 on the internet goo.gl/YjE5u <---- WOW, this is a honey hole of resources, check it out!

Get your free ebooks! - Freebook Sifter makes it easy to find over 39,000 free eBooks on Amazon.com. Search by category quickly: ly.tcea.org/tkoxv

IOS apps and more!

14 Good Social Studies Apps for Teachers and Students zite.to/LLeiCe

Top 200 Special Education Apps bit.ly/SckU9T

6 Apps to Help You Read on the Move http://goo.gl/hf80GN

31 iPad Apps For A Smoother-Running Classroom teachthought.com/teaching/30-ip…

iPad Apps Separated by Subject Area bit.ly/R0FNHh

Free apps for the day - 

Free for a limited time! (Norm $5.99) PDF Connect -   Nice free tool for scanning, annotating, uploading to cloud services and more.  This is another good list of PDF tools- 10 Excellent iPad Apps to Annotate, Highlight, and Add Comments to PDFs -Thanks to Ryan Ruhl for pointing out this list! 

The iMums list for today has some great free kid apps, including titles by McGraw hill and even a free Monopoly game for the family!   This is a great list to follow for the K-8 teachers looking for free apps of the day! 

All of these are from this site- some great McGraw Hill math apps for the younger kids:

Word Wonderland (Elementary) Full 

Everyday Mathematics® Divisibility Dash™ 

Everyday Mathematics® Baseball Multiplication™ 1–6 Facts 

Everyday Mathematics® Monster Squeeze™ Was $2.99

Grammar Wonderland (Elementary) by McGraw-Hill School Education Group

Fly, swim, feed, and toss your way to grammar mastery. Who knew grammar practice could be so much fun? Lead your character through many wonderful adventures as you practice using nouns, verbs.

ELL Teacher GPS  (Great for the ELL teachers!)  The ELL Teacher GPS helps you expand your understanding of English language learners by explaining through videos, tips, and templates about language proficiency levels, classroom strategies, and examining cultural considerations that influence teaching.

Google tips, tricks and resources: 

If your not using labels (and filters) in your gmail - You are missing out!  Here is a nice how-to article at TechRepublic. 

Take a peek at all of the resources here: "Google Apps for Education" (GAFE) goo.gl/2ohZjl

Google is updating it's Google Education site. Check it out. 

Twitter - A little Twitter Humor! 

(If you are not using Twitter for your PLN, you are missing out.  It's all about who you follow!)

https://twitter.com/thomascmurray/status/420583369856937985/photo/1

http://www.andertoons.com/teacher/cartoon/6302/just-your-name-would-be-fine

If you like the above cartoons, visit their sites.  The andertoons.com site, and some great toons for us teachers! :)

Free web storage, apps, amazing websites and more. -This weeks gems for EDU!

Free Cloud storage, and awesome app, form a top-notch company... BOX: 

Get your 50 gig of free online storage from a top-notch

Want 50GB Free storage? Box gives you just that with Version 3.0 of iOS App ow.ly/sD7py  Their new app is pretty awesome too!   IOS App or Android App  (Tip -- If you do not have an iPad, you could borrow someone's that has the new app installed, and log into your Box Account from that app... and BAM... you get your 50 Gig free.) If you do not have a Box account - Now is the time.

Great educational web sites and tools:

If you aren’t using Edmodo yet, what are you waiting for? Great resource outlining features and why you should be using this resource. 

Augment Reality: Ideas for Teaching in the 1 Tablet Classroom http://bit.ly/1ayZ7EZ

15 places with fun and engaging social studies games http://goo.gl/MrcYHq

Websites to use for each level of Bloom's 

One for the K-8 teachers: Top Ten Websites of 2013 http://goo.gl/jx19If 

Did you know that over 1200 courses are available through MOOCs? Learn more from this handy cheatsheet on MOOCs! goo.gl/Gl7ESH

Make the web tell a story... with Storify  Collect media from across the web... Publish on Storify, embed anywhere... Share and notify sources. 

Digital Citizenship... STOPiT Class.  Some nice resources, and a great idea from Nebraska's GINW and Cozad Schools. 

Great free educational apps:

A simple app to share files from any device - Check out @get_flick getflick.io

Here is the iMums list of free apps for today (1-21-14). Follow them daily, to find some great apps. (You can get a daily email as well.) <--- Sign up! 

Google Chrome:

Shut those noisy tabs up with Chrome's latest update.http://pcwrld.us/1m27td1

And Chromeboook...

Chromebooks in Education - Awesome Resources! Mostly about Chromebook and Chrome, with some Android spice thrown in.

Google tools, tips and more: 

AWESOME update to Google Drive coming... Keep track of changes in Google Drive with new Activity Stream 

Google Improves Image Search Tools Menu via Free Technology for Teachers - http://goo.gl/xw9g7U

GE Teach Version 5 - A Good Resource for Teaching With Google Earth via Free Technology for ... http://goo.gl/yNmo2I

Using Google as a Timer - you can really do this!

Great tip for printing GoogleDocs with comments... Save/view as a html file. The comments are then placed as footnotes

Bring some amazing resources right into your classroom with Google Hangouts. 

How to Use Hangouts in the Classroom - EdTechReview™ 

More about the Google+ Connected classroom, with links to some sample hangouts that have already occurred. 

Google's Connected Classroom website.

Start the new year off right with these apps, sites and tools for the classroom. Free Apps, web tools, and more!

Misc. Web Resources

Bulk QR Code Generator - This page allows you to generate up to 100 QR codes at once! 

5 websites with massive amounts of free educational resources: seekoutlearning.blogspot.com/2014/01/5-webs…

Three Good Tools for Building Flipped Lessons That Include Assessment Tools ow.ly/suakr

PLN Starter Kit - Livebinder: livebinders.com/play/play?id=4…

11 free online typing practice activities for students: ly.tcea.org/krxwq

Chrome apps and extensions:

4 Chrome Apps for Student Creation 

The new Chrome Apps: We pick the best via PCWorld slide deck. 

Google docs grading tips & tricks! goo.gl/SwKqZS

IOS apps:

Taking a poll or doing online quizzes on the iPad... These apps are awesome! 

Five Free iPad Apps for Elementary School Math Practice ow.ly/suaxj

The 55 Best Free Education Apps For iPad teachthought.com/apps-2/the-55-…

8 Great iPad Apps for ESL Students edudemic.com/top-9-fantasti…

5 Apps and Web Tools for Elementary School Students edutopia.org/mobile-apps-fo…

Here are a few great apps and resources, compliments of our MS media specialist, Jessie Andre. (Thanks Jessie!) 

Virtual Manipulatives  iOS app (They

  have provided a virtual set of fraction bars on www.abcya.com for several years. But now, they have a free iPad app too!) 

 

Tellagami this is a Google and iOS app

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated message called a Gami.

A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard. It can be a birthday greeting, party invite or cool way to share photos.

Create a Gami in 3 easy steps. 1 - Customize a character and choose your background. 2 - Record your voice or type a message for your character to say. 3 - Share your Gami on Facebook, Twitter or send via text or email.

Tellagami Demo

Movenote  This is a Google and iOS app

Movenote demo

The Movenote app let’s you record video alongside documents or pictures to create an integrated video presentation with slides. 

Creating presentations is easy and fast. Simply record video with your device and swipe to synchronize the slides to the video. Presentations are shared by sending a link to the recipient and can be viewed without the app.

First add the material you want to present to form a slideshow. Add pictures from your photo albums or take them directly with your camera. Alternatively bring a document from your mailbox or cloud storage like Dropbox. Also you can combine material from all these different sources. Secondly, record the video and simultaneously change slides by swiping. The recorded presentation will play out with the exact same timing.

ASK3 class presentation app:   

Ask3 turns iPads into interactive Whiteboards so that teachers and students can collaborate

Ask3 demo (YouTube Video)

The Ask3 app allows students to ask questions and classes to collaborate on the whiteboard presentation.  

Word Resources:

These resources were recently sent out to our staff from Char Brotherson.  Thought I would promote them in my email/blog as well!

These seem to be great sights for word parts.

https://www.learnthat.org/pages/view/roots.html

roots and prefixes

This one you can type in a part and it will give you words that contain it.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a&allowed_in_frame=0

YouTube Resource:

If you have not subscribed to the Crash Course YouTube channel, now is the time!  It has a ton of great video resources for the classroom. (Thanks to Jessie for promoting this resource, it's awesome!)

Crashcourse examples:

Colonizing America

Biological Molecules: You are What You Eat

Some great free apps from Autodesk! 

Autodesk just announced it's 123D Circuits app. With 123D Circuits you can create projects ranging from simple blinking LEDs to complicated circuitry for DIY robotics. The thousands of shared circuit designs give you a springboard to start from on your own projects. 

The easiest way to get started with 3D

Discover free apps to take you from photos to modeling to making. These apps from Autodesk are worth checking out!  (This list will soon include the 123D Circuits app mentioned above.)

My Christmas goodies list for teachers... Free iBook (or Kindle book), Free apps, and great web sites!

Web sites and web 2.0 tools:

QR Code Classroom Implementation Guide - http://coolcatteacher.sharedby.co/share/vp4fG1 from the Cool Cat Teacher. 

25,000 Images of Art That You Can Re-use for Free ow.ly/rEn1g

Video - Three Ways Students Can Search for Creative Commons Licensed Images via Free Technology ... tinyurl.com/nqaf6aq

7 math based websites to discover (again)

This is a great collection of free Web 2.0 tools for the classroom: ly.tcea.org/ogdhi

16 Best Free Mac Apps (If you happen to have a MAC) 

Google tools and tips: 

A must have app for templates in Google Docs - http://goo.gl/EzQZc9  <-- You need to add this one!

Envelopes for Google Drive via Free Technology for Teachers - Envelopes for Google Drive is a ...http://goo.gl/UCbmvi

Google Tips Helps You Do Cool Stuff With Google Products -Cool site!

Now there's a new way to manage folders in Google drive that you folder lovers will enjoy -- check it out!  http://goo.gl/DcwPYN

Send files up to 10GB (that's a 600-page presentation, or a 10-minute power ballad) with one click. Find out how:  http://goo.gl/wLofea  (This is from that new Gogole tips site... Cool!)

Google Apps Update | Guide to the New Google Sheets - 7 min. video - Worth the watch! http://goo.gl/NO3hD5 <-- Great new features in Google Sheets! 

Gmail read receipts may not work as well now - FYI

Some of you use the Gmail, read receipt's feature.  It's functionality has changed when it comes to sending emails to other Gmail users. 

Here are a couple links as to why:

This one relates to Boomerang (Which many of us use as a great tool!) but relates to standard read receipts in Gmail:

http://baydin.com/blog/2013/12/gmails-new-image-policy-and-boomerangs-read-receipts/

It's interesting to note, that this change actually will improve some sucurity as noted from the article:

One side effect of Gmail’s new policy is that it is no longer possible for companies who offer less-ethical implementations of read receipts to report your IP address (and approximate location) to the sender of the email. Google now reports the location of all opens as their campus in Mountain View and that your computer is one of their servers.

This article is similar, if you want more background info. 

Android Apps and tips: 

OpenEd Releases an Android App for Sharing Educational Videos With Students via Free Technology ...  http://goo.gl/X9dJ2d

BlendSpace - This one deserves it's own heading!

Blendspace: Create lessons in 5 minutes. 

Here is how one Nebraska administrator (Brad C. Jacobsen (@BCJacobsen)) uses it for staff development.

Add the Blendspace Chrome app to your browser.

Free iBooks!

The wonderful iBook ... A Charlie Brown Christmas is free for a week beginning 12/18: ly.tcea.org/ftmyw  (There are several other free books, each week this season.)  (The android version for Kindle is free too, just search the Google Play store.) 

IOS (iPad/iPhone) apps:

Ten Good iPad Apps for Elementary School Math Practice 

4 free Math Dojo Apps are free today! goo.gl/GkhmDf 

Seven Free Science Apps for Your Students' iPads ow.ly/rRQxb

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  May this posting find you in great health and spirits for the holiday season. 

A must have app for templates in Google Docs.

There are a ton of great templates in Google Docs, but earlier this year Google changed the way we access them.  See this short Google post for more info.

The new way is to open up a blank Doc, presentation, etc...  and then from the file menu, select New then From Template. I guess this works, but it does not make sense to me. (Create a doc first then select "from template" seems backwards!)

If you add the Drive Template Gallery chrome app, it then adds that selection directly to your create menu in Google Drive.   <------------  In my opinion, this is a MUST HAVE app! 

Here at Norris, we have a lot of templates for budgets, letterheads, etc... found in the document template section, under our nsdtitans.org domain.

Take some time exploring templates that are in the gallery.  You will find some that are good, bad, and maybe ugly... but there are some definite Gems in the group too!

My list of great tech tips, tools and sites for the week!

Some great web 2.0 tools and sites: 

Two great story telling tools from Google - add a new tools into you and your student's classroom presentations and projects! 

Use free service presentation.io to easily share your PowerPoint with students on their devices. (Remember, in Google Presentations, you  can easily download the presentation as a PowerPoint to use with this display service.) 

Three Places to Search for Free Online Courses ow.ly/reL3K

Free Technology for Teachers: A Few Tools That Make It Easy To Analyze Your Writing

60 ways to use Twitter in the classroom, divided by categories so it's easy to use: 

5 Seriously Amazing Science Education Websites bit.ly/18VjWd2

30 Apps Perfect For BYOD Classrooms (Make sure you look at the Symbaloo at the button, that has all of the direct links.)

LiveSlide: Create decks from scratch or import a PDF. Send out live polls and see the results instantly.

Blend space - Create some great blended lessons is about 5 minutes with this free resources. They also have a nice Chrome app. 

Are you a Math Teacher -- this one's for you... A collection of free apps that support or align with the CCSS Math standards ow.ly/rx2kU 

45+ Teacher Recommended Educational Apps : From Teacher Reboot Camp 

Great resources from our own Norris Twitter users!

Remember, it's all about who you follow. Twitter can be the best educational resource you have for your professional  development.  Set up your own PLN (Personal Learning Network.) today. 

From our own Lisa Spilker's Twitter feed (@LisaSpilker) -- Thinking about how to implement "Genius Hour" in our language arts block goo.gl/mTOaqH Inspiring! What a great idea-- give it a try in your classroom! 

20 Education Technology Tools Everybody Should Know About buff.ly/18iJmO5 Thanks to out own @CAHutzler for this great Tweet.

Google Chrome

Ginger is a grammar and Spell checker extension that get some great reviews.  (Here at Norris, I have added it to our nsdtitans.org Chrome Web store of recommended apps.) 

AMESOME TOOL!!  This may be one of the best accessibility apps for Chrome.  You have to check it out, even if you do not need it. Announcify.  It reads the web page to you, and greys-out the area's it is not currently reading.  Really Cool!   Combine it with the Clearly Extension for simply cleaning up the web page for online reading and you have a powerful duo! 

Google Apps tools and tips: 

25 tips & tools to make Google Drive better ow.ly/rbswv 

Synergyse Blog: Top 10 Google Apps Scripts for Education buff.ly/1ir8zQf  Thanks Charlie Hutzler (@CAHutzler) for this one! 

18 Google Earth Resources for K-12 ow.ly/rrd1F

Google Tasks: 

Do you use Google tasks to keep your task lists?

Did you know you can get a full page list of your tasks, by using this web address: http://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas 

YouTube:

Think YouTube is just about cute cats? Try these 197 different educational channels! ly.tcea.org/akudc

IOS apps:

USA Map Chart App (Free) is a powerful application that allows you to Create, Customize, Save & Share Map based (geographic) Charts on your iPad. With the Map Chart App, you can now present your ideas or information easily on a map. This app is ideal for personal use, school, business and other areas where data visualization is key.

Twitter tools

Some great apps for showing "Twitter Walls" in your class or educational events:

Twitterfall

HootFeed Live Twitter stream 

LiveTweetApp

EDU Clipper - A nice free add-in to our Google Apps.

We recently added EDUClipper to our Google Apps Domain.  This product get a lot of great reviews, so if you have not looked at it, now may be the time to check it out. (It's located under the more apps here at Norris. If your school has not added it to their Google apps domain... Now would be the time!) 

EDUClipper, now has an app. 

Not a tech Post - But what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving

Where do I start... the list is so long, and I am sure I will forget something or someone with so many things to be thankful for.

I am thankful for a wonderful wife and family.  They are my strength, inspiration, and love of my life.  I am also thankful for my parents, including my wonderful siblings and their families.  It's easy to be thankful with so many wonderful family members in your life.

I feel blessed living in a free country where we can freely worship and live our lives in a free democracy because of the many sacrifices of our Veteran's.

I am thankful to work with so many great people within the Norris School district.  It is a special place, with so many great administrators, staff and students.  These individuals are molding our children and shaping our future. And from where I sit, I think the future looks bright.

It is easy to be thankful when God has blessed us with so much, but there are others less fortunate than us. I hope the warmth of the holiday season finds those in need.

Last, but not least... I am thankful for you... the readers of my words.  What a blessing for freedom of the press and words, that many of us occasionally take for granted.

I hope this posting finds you in good health and spirits this Thanksgiving.