Miscellaneous Educational Resources 11-5-12

Web and general educational resources

***Look at this one for sure ---> If you have never used this site... This is the Gem of the year for you! Cybrary Man's Educational Web Sites  The internet catalog for students, teachers, administrators & parents. Over 20,000 relevant links personally selected by an educator/author with over 30 years of experience

Inspiring Apps and web resources --  60 great apps and sites.  This is a great slide show/deck with some great websites.  I highly recommend teachers to take a look at these great resources.  http://www.slideshare.net/raybirks/waetag-60-in-60-inspiring-apps

If you want to poll your audience... but do not have clickers.... this is a Great tool!  And the basics are all free: https://www.mentimeter.com/   And if you are looking at Clicker functionality that can be used from a website or apps for IOS and Android... remember http://www.socrative.com/. Designed as a student response system (Think clickers) ....you can also use it as an audience response system too. 

Message your class ....  A safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. Free. No Cell numbers are shared, it uses a code to "join" your text list. Check it out: https://www.remind101.com/ (I have mentioned this one in the past!) 

If you are a  elementary (or Possibly a middle school) teacher and have not tried this simple classroom behavior management site out... you are missing one great tool!  All it takes is your computer and projector and 10 minutes to setup your account and classroom and you are ready to go.  Give it a try...  I am pretty sure many of you will find this to be a great behavior management tool.  http://www.classdojo.com/    As I recently Tweeted... "Elementary teachers that have not used this free behavior mgt tool are missing out. classdojo.com rocks  #nebedu #edchat"

Into using QR codes?  Then this sight might be a great one for creating and managing them, including reports and analytics. http://delivr.com/ 

One Hundred Free Books for Your Kindle ow.ly/eRZF8

Want some great open educational resources to develop your first ebook or help with putting together your curriculum or online class or website???  Read my latest Blog article:  "Open Educational Resources (OER) may assist the 1to1 and ebook initiatives in schools http://goo.gl/v7xHO " 

Finding Free Web Apps Made Easy!  AppAppeal is the most comprehensive directory of web apps. (Well, that's what they claim anyway..... I am not sure about that, but it's a pretty good list anyway.) They offer quality reviews and comparisons so you can discover the best web apps. Apps are ranked by worldwide popularity. http://www.appappeal.com/

A nice iPad site with links to apps by building level: http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/wiki/projects/ipadineducation/iPad_in_Education.html

A Chrome Extension that allows the PowerSchool grade book on a Chromebook!

Rndr enables you to use Chromebook and the Chrome browser to seamlessly access web applications that require Java, Silverlight, Flash, Shockwave, GoToMeeting and other plugins normally used with Internet Explorer. May not work 100% on every site, but does seem to work for our PowerSchool Gradebook and some other sites. Thanks to Josh Murtaugh for finding this one!

Download  
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rndr/aeanibohjlokjdpopecapcfaacnhdifi/reviews

Remember, for Norris Staff ...in your Google Drive under the shared folder called "Norris Tech Docs and Info STAFF SHARE" there are several great docs on Google Chrome and some great extensions you will want to look at.  Here is just one of them: Chomebooks, extensions and the Google Chrome browser.

More Google Resources:

The Google Apps for Education Recorded Webinars page, has some nice recorded sessions on a variety of topics. 

Some resources for staff: 

This article has several great resources for teachers including lesson plans, video lessons and more.  http://dd.edweek.org/nxtbooks/epe/dd_2012fall/index.php?startid=30 

Open Educational Resources (OER) may assist the 1to1 initiatives in schools.

As we look to eBooks and digital curriculum we often discuss 1to1 device initiatives. Having a similar and accessible device in every student's hands only makes sense in incorporating eBooks and digital curriculum across a district. As with any technology, costs start entering into the discussion as well.  After reading a recent article in Digital Directions, called "Open Educational Resources Surge", my response was "of course the are!"  With state standards prevalent across the nation and increased Internet availability, most districts see the eBooks and student digital devices coming.

I figured I would put together a quick list of some OER resources from this article as well as a few other sources that can assist districts with developing their own ebooks and digital curriculum.

GooruLearning  is a OER collection that also will tie into your Google Apps domain, for those schools that are Google Apps customers.  (Not sure why all schools are not!)  This is their self description: "Use Gooru to search, study and create. You can search for and study from individual resources, collections (teacher-vetted playlists of multimedia resources), and formative quizzes created by educators in the Gooru community. You can also share your knowledge on a topic you are passionate about by creating a collection. We celebrate and encourage authorship and sharing of Open Education Resources (OER), and are stringent about excluding inappropriate content from Gooru."


Curriki 
Curriki is an online community for creating and sharing curricula and teaching best practices. Curriki:
Provides High Quality Free Resources – Curriki contains over 46,000 free K-12 lessons, units, assessments, and multimedia learning resources across all subject areas.


MYOER http://www.myoer.org/  You do not have to be from Michigan to use this resoure! Join your fellow Michigan educators who are already part of the Michigan Online Resources for Educators (MORE) community. Registration is FREE! As a member, you will have access to over 60,000 high-quality, online resources. You will also have free access to convenient tools and applications to make you more efficient in planning for your classroom while meeting the Michigan Content Expectations. More details about these online tools are included below. Why not join?

OERcommons http://www.oercommons.org  ISKME created OER Commons, publicly launched in February 2007, to provide support for and build a knowledge base around the use and reuse of open educational resources (OER). As a network for teaching and learning materials, the web site offers engagement with resources in the form of social bookmarking, tagging, rating, and reviewing.

Khan http://www.khanacademy.org/ As described on their site: "The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere."

Thinkfinity http://www.thinkfinity.org/welcome  (Formally Marco Polo) has been around for a while.  Thinkfinity is the Verizon Foundation’s free online professional learning community, providing access to over 60,000 educators and experts in curriculum enhancement, along with thousands of award-winning digital resources for K-12 — aligned to state standards and the common core.

ck12.org http://www.ck12.org/  Their mission: CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to high quality educational materials for K-12 students all over the world. We offer free high-quality, standards-aligned, open content in the STEM subjects. By providing these free resources, CK-12 is working toward educational equity for all.


Other resources worth looking at:
Amazon's Wispercast for schools to manage Kindles and Kindle eBooks.

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 10-29-12

Miscellaneous Educational Resources

I send a lot of tech resources out to my staff on a regular basis, I post these on my blog as well.  Enjoy.

Some nice Web Resources. 

ScribbleMaps lets you annotate and draw on top of Google maps: scribblemaps.com

Have your class create and publish their own online magazine with free Youblisher: youblisher.com

uSpeak HD - A Nice App for Learning Spanish ow.ly/eKtlk

TOP 200 SPECIAL EDUCATION APPS  If you are Norris, this PDF document/eBook is on the O drive here: O:\eBooks -Free\iPad called "iPhone-iPad-and-iPod-touch-Apps-for-Special-Education.PDF"

Get a free copy of the children's iBook Wildwood by redeeming a code found at crateandbarrel.com/GetTheDownload

Great video resource -  Crash Course World History now has 37 videos including videos on topics in U.S. History. As with any video resource -- PREVIEW these to make sure they are appropriate for your class and subject.  I always recommend using a YouTube Downloader to save the file for future use.  (I use the one from http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/ but read the prompts when you install it, or you will get an unwanted toolbar!)

Do you have an iPhone?? If so.. You need to check this out!  (Download from here: http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/iphone-cheatsheet)

IOS (iPad/iPhone) Apps

This looks like a great timer for the classroom, especially for the younger learners.

Stop Go! By Generate Learning  Description: A simple to use timer in the form of a traffic light. Set whether you want it to run red-amber-green or green-amber-red, set the times in minutes and seconds and then off it goes! A bell chimes as each light changes.

Great curriculum resource and eBook framework.

I know I have mentioned the ck12 organization before, but I wanted to give it another plug.  They have great free education resources that are standards-aligned and customizable. They offer great frameworks for developing your own eTextBook and more.  Here is what's new with them this month. 

Google Resources

Google Groups - Some great explanations and overviews:  Customized Google Groups an overview - Part 1

Uploading a folder to your Google Drive with Drag and Drop: youtu.be/39xpupSNcV4 

Conditional formatting in Google spreadsheets is a great feature, if you have not checked it out... take look!   Here is Brent Catlett's (@catlett1) tutorial on it youtu.be/2ZeukEkcN_0

Did you know that you can customize your theme in Gmail? It's nice to spice things up a bit every now and then - http://bit.ly/S0GjSH  

Uploading a folder to your Google Drive with Drag and Drop: http://youtu.be/39xpupSNcV4

Google tip for the Day:

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 10-25-12

Miscellaneous Educational Resources

I send a lot of tech resources out to my staff on a regular basis, I post these on my blog as well.  Enjoy.

Web Resources

Two Handy Speech to Text Tools goo.gl/fb/yBMCy

30+ Really Useful Infographics Tools & Resources  (Remember, at Norris we have Lucid Charts as a Drop-Down in your Google Apps Too!) 

Welcome to Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything! http://www.schrockguide.net/ 

100 Twitter Tips For Teachers http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/100-twitter-tips-for-teachers/

So you want some more IOS apps?

APPY HOUR on the #nebedchat gave us this great spreadsheet with some great apps, recommend by other Nebraska Educators : bit.ly/TvWfvU Check it out!   (Remember what I said about Twitter, it's an awesome resource if used correctly by educators. This came from the #nebedcat that occurred on Twitter.  Remember the hashtag #nebedu is used to share resources with other Nebraska educators. Here is a link to that #nebedu to see whats being shared right now: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nebedu&src=savs 

Chirp is a magical new way to share your stuff – using sound. Chirp 'sings' information from one iPhone or iPad to another. Share photos, links, notes and more: all from your built-in iPhone speaker. What will you chirp? Could be a nice way to share a link, website, etc... with a class. FREE

Publishing with iBooks Author  An Introduction to Creating Ebooks for the iPad   This is a great FREE ebook that you will want to checkout if you are interested in getting into making your own iBook. If you are going to use it on your iPad, I would recommend the ePub format.  (If you are here at Norris, this is already for you on our network along with a lot of other free eBooks. Contact our tech staff for more information.) 

SET YOUR STORY FREE   Haiku Deck is the simple new way to create stunning presentations – whether you are pitching an idea, teaching a lesson, telling a story, or igniting a movement, it's fast, fun and simple for anyone to use. FREE

OK .... This one is just for Fun.   ★★★ FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME!!! ★★★ THE MOST DOWNLOADED HALLOWEEN APP OF 2008 IS BACK - AND BETTER THAN EVER!!  Crazy Pumpkin   Download it Here. 

SKITCH is a great app to Annotate, edit and share your screenshots and images… fast and free.  (This company was just bought by Evernote, so it now seamlessly integrates with Evernote too.) Download from here. 

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 10-17-12

Miscellaneous Educational Resources
10-17-12

I send a lot of tech resources out to my staff on a regular basis, I post these on my blog as well.  Enjoy.


Some great web resources: 

• List of web 2.0 tools organized by learning goal: edtechteacher.org/index.php/teac…
• Fresh off Kyle Steinkuhler's Twitter feed ...  We got'em! Check out our great #socialstudies & #history vetted sites ow.ly/1OXQ2g We got'em! ... bit.ly/QHaPB0   Speaking of Twitter... if you are not using Twitter to follow great educational resources... you are just missing out on the best PLN for educators. 
• Tony Vincent's Learning in Hand - Blog - 8 Useful and/or Fun Twitter Tools  http://learninginhand.com/blog/8-useful-andor-fun-twitter-tools.html 
• Algebra Lab includes well done lessons, activities, practice pages (online), study aids, glossary, and word problems: bit.ly/Uhw1DK
• Slide.ly Free Photo Slideshow online, awesome slide show maker with photos and music!   http://slide.ly/  (This one does not allow you to download your shows, so use it where and if it fits for you.)  I really think that Picasa and their slide shows are the best solution to many needs for teachers. 
• New post: Use Evernote with Not-so-smart Phones goo.gl/fb/sR1Pa
• Web tools by subject and core content area: http://web20guru.wikispaces.com/Tools+By+Subject

Did you know we have some great technology eBooks already downloaded and ready for you?  They are on the O drive and are ready to load into your iBooks, Kendel, or any other device.  O:\eBooks -Free   Check them out! 

Some Google Resources: 

• Getting Alerts When Google Docs are Edited by using WatchDoc googlegooru.com/how-to-get-ale… 
• Here is how you can get alerts when your Google Spreadsheet changes: Setting notifications
• The Google Chrome Tasks Extension.....You really should check this one out. bit.ly/SM8x8t
• Accessibility options in Google Apps: The power of Bionics 
• The YouTube Team just announced a new Digital Citizenship Curriculum for YouTube.  Make sure to check out the lessons and resources that they have to help you teach your students how to be responsible citizens in the age of YouTube.
• Become A Google Apps Ninja  this classroom activity also created a great Google apps resource:  ISB Google Apps Ninja Training Center

iPads, apps, iBooks and more IOS stuff: 

• If you have never tried an iBook... then this should be your first one! 
• This is a great iBook for staff (and students).  The Student Guide to iPads & iOS 6 - itun.es/i6Dp789
• Wanna see a really cool gadget for the iPhone or iPod Touch?  This would allow you to record lectures or make your own documentary without a cameraman. http://www.swivl.com/
• I know educreations http://www.educreations.com/ has an awesome iPad interactive whiteboard program ...  but there are a few others that may be worth checking out.  Hot off the Twitter feed from a classroom teacher I know ... Couldn't be more excited that ShowMe sent out an update to allow student accounts! Awesome news!  Checkout the ShowMe app here. 
• I know I have mentioned this tool before... and Josh Murtaugh just gave a presentation on this in the MS, which generated a lot of interest (Thanks Josh!) but if you have not looked at this teaching tool for the iPad carts... now is the time.  It's Called Nearpod.  It allows you to lock your class of iPads into your lesson.  It tells you if students are on task and watching your lesson.   Check out nearpod now:   http://www.nearpod.com/  The basic version is free: http://www.nearpod.com/upgrade/ 
• This one is free for limited time, normally $4.99. If you use quizlet, it can pull right from your cards online, as do many apps. Check out A+ Flashcards for iPhone and iPadhttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a+-flashcards-pro/id395248242?mt=8  (I know Janelle Coady had sent something out on this several weeks ago too, but it's worth mentioning again.  Especially if you use Quizlet, which is a great free site!) 

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 10-8-12

Math Calculators and resources: 

Eight Alternatives to Buying Scientific Calculators http://ow.ly/e8AIj

Microsoft Mathematics is an amazing FREE math calculator!  If you ae a Norris teacher... it's on your start menu.  If not, download it from here. 

Some great web sites and tools: 

Seven Whiteboard Tools for Teachers & Students goo.gl/fb/ti8Mg  (Remember, last week I just shared the tutorial document on Educrations for the IOS (iPad) devices.)  

This site has everything from a great elementary typing game so some awesome ABC activities.  http://www.abcya.com/  (I am pretty sure I have mentioned this one int he past.) 

60 Second Economics Lessons http://ow.ly/e8dAO

A Nice Word Cloud Generator from ABCya! http://ow.ly/e8NPf

Study Champs offers online interactive quizzes for math, English, science, and social studies: http://www.studychamps.com/#   They have great printable worksheets and more!  If you are an Elementary Teacher... you need to check it out! 

7 Services for Sending Group Texts to Parents and Students http://goo.gl/LQ9AS   I know I have promoted REmind101 before https://www.remind101.com/  but there are a lot of other services that offer some great features. 

So you want some apps.....

(I know I have shared this one before, but it may be the bets one for iPad apps and applications for education: )

Need some great apps for your iPad? Check out this recommended list of more than 1,400 at tcea.org/ipad.

Sumo Paint http://bit.ly/VaFqvP  A free drawing app.

Have you updated your iPad to IOS 6?

The best new iOS 6 feature that you don't know about: bit.ly/RungST

Have you tried Dictation on your iPad? Fast way to input text using your voice. Tips here: http://bit.ly/QJ0sfs 

New, interesting way for students to create slide shows on the ipad: itunes.apple.com/us/app/haiku-d…

Are you and your students just going to Google and typing your Question?  Shame on you!  

Need public data? Type in "population" or "unemployment rate" plus a state or county in Google search to find the information.

Google search offers a calculator function, so you can type any equation into Google's search box and get an answer.

Need a graph? Plot mathematical functions into the Google search bar and you'll get an interactive graph.

Great tips on how to better use Google search:http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html … - Cover one a day with students?

How good a searcher are you? Try these Google challenges and find out. Also great for your students to attempt: http://bit.ly/Q5kbad 

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 10-1-12

Free tech eBooks!

Evernote, Google Drive, Gmail, DropBox and more! 

Dowload these books from here: http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download  To get them free, click the Tweet button, and the download link appears. 

YouTube and Google Apps resources

7 Useful YouTube Channels for History Teachers ow.ly/e53YD

Five Google Spreadsheet features to help kick your Excel addiction by TechRepublic  http://goo.gl/nToiY

Google Forms... a ton of uses in the classroom!

Nice presentation on using Google forms in the classroom: docs.google.com/a/elkhornweb.o…

Awesome Tutorials on how Teachers can Use Google Forms http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/09/google-forms-for-teachers.html 

Science resource for the primary grades:

Children's University of Manchester has animated lessons covering seven science subjects for primary students: bit.ly/PEvGWf  (I noticed these animations can go full screen too, but a few error on the full screen view... I am sure that is on their fix-it list.) 

You don't even need an iPad to use this site....

Using Show Me to Create Lessons on iPads - Guest Post ow.ly/e1l36    The site, http://www.showme.com/, is not "just another Khan Academy".  As noted: The difference, I quickly discovered, was that on Show Me you can also create your own lessons...not just watch.  This makes Show Me a very powerful educational tool.