Great post about WeBehave written by Tara Zeller on the Free Tools Challenge. According to Tara, “WeeBehave provides online chore and behavior charts to help teachers and parents track and record behavior patterns. The WeeBehave philosophy is that children can be better self-managed when using behavior and chore charts. Research shows that children will accomplish more if they can visibly see their results and participate in the goal setting process. This website helps accomplish that!”
Webquest.org is the most complete and current source of information about the WebQuest Model. Whether you’re an education student new to the topic or an experienced teacher educator looking for materials, you’ll find something here to meet your needs.
Jeopardylabs is a wonderful FREE website that allows you to create jeopardy games without the use of powerpoint. Jeopardylabs allows users to create a customized jeopardy template. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy template is a piece of cake. Just use our simple editor to get your game up and running.
Not interested in building your own jeopardy templates? Well that’s cool too. You can browse other jeopardy templates created by other people. It doesn’t get any better than this!
I just discovered this great resource for graphic organizers from the Vermilion Parish School District. This site has tons of different graphic organizers as well as links to helpful websites. Check it out today!
Wetoku is a web service that provides a simple platform for interviewing someone via the Internet. Collaborating globally is a must for our students and as result interviewing can be a challenge. Wetoku makes doing an interview as easy as filling out some basic information, creating an interview session and then sending the URL to the interviewee. You can embed the interview into your blog or website. You will need a web-cam for this tool. Great idea for bringing the world into your classroom. Give it a try today!
The Ed. Tech Guy said, “google had a big presence at ISTE11 and there were some great presentations and resources on using Google Apps in Education. This site has a list of the presentations and links to the resources.” If you like using google you may learn a few new tricks from this site.
I am currently attending the National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop at The Henry Ford in Dearborn Michigan. I am learning from numerous history professors from around the country, touching historical artifacts, experiencing life in in early colonial America through the present, and learning about creative resources at The Henry Ford to teach my students.
I am learning about the numerous resources The Henry Ford provides teachers for FREE both onsite and online. Check out all the educators resources here
This is an award winning infographic that explains the complex process of how a bill becomes a law. The data in the poster is based on the current U.S. government documentation in the Library of Congress. The project was a collaboration of Mike Wirth and Dr. Suzanne Cooper-Guasco, professors at Queens University of Charlotte.
This infographic is a wonderful way to teach out students and show them the complex process of how a bill becomes a law. This would be a great addition to your classroom wall as well and they have made the infographic available here.
It is very important for our students to understand the process and central purpose of Congress. Article I of the Constitution grants such important powers to Congress that it is likely the most powerful legislature in the world. The process of how laws are made is important to know, as well. Often the procedure is depicted in a “How a Bill Becomes Law” chart. While this approach has merit, many educators today look for ways to convey the “messiness of democracy” – the bargaining, compromising, and arguing, – that is inherent in law-making.
Create beautiful new slideshows with slidestaxx. Slidestaxx enables you to gather various social media into a beautiful slideshow for your blog, website or directly on slidestaxx. It’s fast, easy and free! Check out some stacks other people have created with slidestaxx in their showcase.
I learned about slidestaxx from Free Technology 4 Teachers. Richard Bryne said “To create a slideshow with Slide Staxx you simply specify the URLs for the content that you want to include in each of your slides. Each slide can contain a video, an image, or a webpage. You can caption each slide or let the slides speak for themselves. You can rearrange the sequence of your slides by simply dragging and dropping them into the order you like. Your finished Slide Staxx slideshow can be embedded into your blog or website.”
Next year I plan on supplementing my outdated textbook with some online resources. I discovered this website called ushistory.org, which has so many wonderful resources. I plan on using this online US Government website for my AP government class and supplementing it with a reader, primary documents, and plenty of articles. I think it will be a lot more practical in the 21st century.
Like most of you, I can remember where I was on 9/11 and how I felt. For many of our students they were just “babies” and remember bits and pieces. I am a strong advocate of teaching 9/11 every year and this year is no different being it’s the 10th anniversary of the attack.
I just discovered this wonderful 9/11 resource from Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. He says “Yesterday, an organization of educators and survivors’ families known as the 4 Action Initiative released a free 236-page guide to teaching September 11.”
Simplebooklet is a program that allows you to create and publish online multimedia stories. It is a free service for any age group.
To create a book using Simple Booklet just sign-up for a free account and click create. Select the layout template that suits your needs.
To add content click anywhere on the blank canvas and a menu of options will appear. You can add text, images, audio files, videos, and links to each page of your booklet.
Todays Meet helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in realtime.
Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs.
Students can have a discussion about class, ask questions, and be engaged in the classroom with the use of Today’s Meet. Check it out Today!
What is the back-channel?
The backchannel is everything going on in the room that isn’t coming from the presenter. The backchannel is where people ask each other questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give you the most immediate feedback you’ll ever get.Instead of ignoring the backchannel, Todays Meet helps you leverage its power.
Tapping into the backchannel lets you tailor and direct your presentation to the audience in front of you, and unifying the backchannel means the audience can share insights, questions and answers like never before.
ZooBurst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or her own 3D pop-up books. Using ZooBurst, storytellers of any age can create their own rich worlds in which their stories can come to life.
ZooBurst books “live” online and can be experienced using nothing more than a web browser running the Adobe Flash plug-in. Authors can arrange characters and props within a 3D world that can be customized using uploaded artwork or items found in a built-in database of over 10,000 free images and materials.
Once constructed, books can be inspected from any angle from within a 3D space, and rotating around a book is as easy as dragging and dropping a mouse. In addition, authors can choose to make items “clickable,” allowing readers to learn more about individual characters within a story. Each character can have its own “chat bubble” that pops up when that character is clicked. In addition, authors can also record their own voices using the ZooBurst audio recorder to have their characters really “speak” when clicked!
As an educational tool, ZooBurst provides students with new ways in which they can tell stories, deliver presentations, write reports and express complex ideas. ZooBurst contains a powerful “classroom management” feature for teachers that lets them easily set up protected, safe spaces for their students. Teachers can assign usernames and passwords to their students without having to input any sensitive or personal information, and can manage and moderate student work in a protected environment.
The best way to learn more about ZooBurst is to give it a try! It’s free!
Edistorm is an interesting website that allows users to create an online forum of sticky notes. Students can collaborate and brainstorm ideas using Edistorm. The online sticky notes are called “storms” which can be made public or private. Check it out today!
