Review Game: Jeopardy Labs

I was looking for a fun review game for my final economics review session. Instead of creating a jeopardy game in powerpoint I created on JeopardyLabs. Jeopardy Labs is so easy to use and can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy game is so easy and it can be modified with a simple editor.  You can also search other jeopardy games by browsing other jeopardy templates  created by other people. As a teacher you can set up the number of teams as well as keep score easily on the Jeopardy Labs website. Another wonderful feature of Jeopardy labs is that your students can play the game at home for additional review.

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Statistics in Schools

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The U.S. Census Bureau invites you to join the vanguard of a new effort to boost students’ data literacy—a crucial capability for success in every academic field and lifelong careers. We’d like you to test materials that aim to strengthen your lesson plans and improve your students’ achievement.

Teachers know best what works for their students. That’s why we need your feedback to launch Statistics in Schools (SIS), an innovative program to improve students’ data literacy and familiarize them with valuable Census resources.

This summer, SIS will provide exceptional K-12 math and social studies teachers like you with activities and materials to use in their classrooms in the fall. We’re offering videos, interactive maps, games, supplemental activities, and discussion prompts based on real-life data and examples.

Through this SIS Early Adopter program, you will be among the first teachers to try SIS materials in your classroom, and your feedback will help shape the program before it is rolled out in schools nationwide.

Why should you participate? As an early adopter you will:

  • Have exclusive access to new materials aligned with Common Core State Standards.

  • Receive an informational toolkit and biweekly emails with updates on the program and tips on how to incorporate SIS resources into your classroom.

  • Stand at the forefront of a movement to improve data literacy among students and influence a program for teachers and students nationwide.

  • Be a voice for your fellow teachers on the types of resources you need to empower your students to succeed.

To be eligible to serve as an early adopter, we ask that you:

  • Teach math or social studies (including related electives) to K-12 students.

  • Plan to teach from the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year until at least Nov. 30, 2014.

  • Be able to incorporate SIS materials into your classroom as much as possible from August through November.

  • Participate in an early adopter kickoff webinar in August.

  • Provide us with feedback about your experience using the SIS materials and website.

We’re still adding the finishing touches to the SIS website, and we will share it with you as soon as it’s complete.

To confirm your participation as an early adopter or to learn more, contact Shannon Tucker at stucker@reingold.com or 571.366.8984. Provide the following information in your email:

  • Full name

  • School name and full mailing address

  • Type of school (e.g., public, private, charter, tribal, parochial, IB, Title I, alternative, home school)

  • Grade(s) and specific subject(s) you teach

  • Email address and phone numbers to reach you this summer and during the school year

If you know other teachers who might be interested in becoming early adopters, please forward this email to them.

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Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 4

Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 4: Using Livebinders to build on collaborative skills

On the previous post on “Livebinders for the Social Studies” we looked at how you can use the “Livebinder it” tool and how to use Livebinders in general to organize and gather resources for lesson plans.  On this post, we are going to look at how students can use Livebinders to build on their collaborative skills.

When it comes to the Social Studies classroom, students take part in research projects on historical events or historical figures throughout the year.  Students research data in books, newspaper articles and, primarily, online content.  When you determine that your students will complete the project in groups, something you must consider is the “nuts and bolts” of how it will be done.  How are my students going to collaborate on the project?  What is the best way to make the project effective that will build my students’ skills?

With Livebinders, you can provide your students a central location where they can collaborate and combine their efforts to enhance their learning.

The benefits of using Livebinders

As a student teacher, I tried to engage my students as much as possible in collaborative activities.  One of the ways I used was creating a webquest and assigning responsibilities to where each group member had a responsibility (jigsaw method).  When I made the webquest, I hoped that my students would at least like the activity and have some fun while learning,  When my students started getting hands-on with it I realized how much they loved doing something besides something on paper or listen to me lecture.  What I also realized is how important it is to provide each student ownership of the project.

Livebinders gives you both the means of engaging your students and giving them ownership of what they contribute.  Livebinders also provide a means of collaborating and contributing throughout the year.  This is something they can constantly update and reflect upon.

Collaborating on a Livebinder

Livebinders provide a way to engage each one of your students and give ownership of the project to not one member, but to all.  Each student will have the opportunity to contribute to the Livebinder when they are added as a collaborator.  Whenever they find a resource, they can add it.  Each member of the group can add a tab to their group’s Livebinder and add content to that tab – which gives them part ownership of their group’s Livebinder.

Having your students do a project on World War 1?  One member can create a tab on the key historical figures, one can create a tab on battles and another member can create a tab on pictures/videos.  All of this combined into one Livebinder where the students can reflect upon their learning.

When students are engaged, the learning experience is enhanced.  This also has the potential of sparking interest in your students that may have not been discovered prior.  As a educator, these interests are key to providing the most meaningful lessons possible.

How to add collaborators to your Livebinder

Please note that each student will have to have previously signed up for their own Livebinder account in order to collaborate on any Livebinder. Click here to go to the blog post on www.livebinders.com about how to have your students sign-up for a Livebinders account.

There are two ways which you can add collaborators to your Livebinder.

The first, and quickest way, is to go to your “My Binders” tab. From there, place your cursor on the Livebinder you would like to add collaborators to – this will bring up three quick menu tabs (Options, Edit, Present).

You’ll then want to click on the “options” tab which will give you several options to choose from, including: share this Livebinder, collaborate, show details, link or embed, add to shelf, make a copy, edit it, present and delete from your account.

The option you’ll want to click on should be the second selection, “collaborate”.

 

Once you click on “collaborate” you will notice that the “Add or Remove Collaborators” selection is now on the left side of the webpage.

The second way is to add collaborators is via the “edit this binder” link once you open your Livebinder.  Simply open your binder, click on “edit this binder” link and then “binder settings”.

Once you get into the binder settings of the Livebinder, you’ll see the “add/delete” button where you can update your collaborators for that Livebinder.  

 

The collaborators that you add to your Livebinder will receive a email asking to approve to collaborate on that Livebinder.  Once they complete those steps, they will be added as a collaborator to that Livebinder.

Here’s an example of a Livebinder that was collaborated by myself and Jen Petras (@jenpetras) on Cyberbullying:

 

Cyber Bullying

For more details on having your students collaborate on a Livebinder, please visit this Livebinder created by Tina & Barbara, the creators of Livebinders:

 

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Give your students a fun language experience with Normandie à la Carte’s French learning programs

Language learning is more important now than it ever has been before and almost every school will offer some sort of language course. Knowing what language to learn can be a difficult decision for students, but one language that every school should teach is French. The ability to speak French will provide students with a huge number of opportunities and will greatly improve not only their career prospects but also their life experiences.

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French is one of the most widely spoken countries in the world with over 200 million speakers, and is the only language apart from English which is taught in schools in every country. It’s spoken in five continents and is the language of the arts, so that ability to speak it will give students the chance to enjoy many works of theatre, literature, film, music and more which they may not have had access to beforehand. Students who can speak French will be able to communicate with a huge number of people all around the world and they’ll have a better experience when travelling because of this.

French speakers are in incredibly high demand in the professional world and a qualification in French language will create a lot of career opportunities for students in many different areas including travel, teaching, editing and publishing, and even governmental positions. They’ll also get the chance to work in various international companies.

Not only does learning French give students lots of opportunities in the business world, but it also gives them a better understanding of the English language. Whilst it is common belief that most of our English vocabulary is derived from Latin, we actually get the majority of our words from the French language. By learning to read, write and speak French, students will get a better understanding of the English language too, and they’ll be able to steadily improve their abilities in both.

One of the best ways to help your students learn French is to take them on a French language trip. Trips are incredibly helpful in teaching languages as instead of learning in the classroom where they are able to speak English to their friends and teacher if they want something, students will be completely immersed in the French language and culture and will have to use their French vocabulary in order to communicate with the locals. This will help them to develop their fluency and conversational skills. If you want to take your students on a French trip, you can start by looking into Normandie à la Carte’s French learning programs. These have been specially created so that students can learn in a safe, fun and friendly environment.

Normandie à la Carte’s French learning programs are based in a centre with 3 acres of grounds in a village which is 2kn from the coast. This is a beautiful and safe environment in which students will have a lot of fun and take part in a range of activities. They’ll be able to enjoy learning French with much more freedom than in the classroom, and as a result they’ll become much more eager to learn even when back at school.

 

 

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Evernote and Professional Development

Evernote

Evernote for the Social Studies – Part 9: Evernote and Professional Development

Professional development is a key component for any educator, administrator or professional that needs to keep up with and provide the best expertise available.  Professional development can come in forms of workshops, conferences and any other form where people get together and discuss and train on issues in their field.

As one might expect, you may be taking several notes during this time to review and reflect upon afterwards.  Thanks to Evernote, you can create and organize your notes with notebooks and tags for quick and easy access.  Evernote also allows you to share your notes with your colleagues via social media or by the unique note URL.  Melissa Seideman recently used Evernote to take notes while attending  a conference for West Essex Regional School District.  Melissa was kind enough to share her notes with everyone via Twitter and agreed to let me share her notes in this blog as well.  Below is a part of her notes from the conference:

New Skitch

Click here to see the full note.

Using bullet points and bold headings, it is much easier to create a solid note to review and organize.  What is also great about creating notes such as this in Evernote is that anytime you make updates to the note it is automatically saved in the link you shared – no need to re-share the link.

How to organize your Evernote note

Here are some quick tips on how you can organize your notes in Evernote, making it much easier to review and access later on:

Note organization

Special thanks goes out to Melissa Seideman for inspiring this post!

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Win a World Flag!

Students’ history curricula, from kindergarten through high school, tend to focus on the events in American history, but sometimes don’t make mention of certain civic observances that are part of history, too. For example, the significance and proper display of and care for American flags is seldom taught in classrooms. However, there are activities that you can do, especially with young children, to teach about the flag. Most educators and citizens know that the stripes represent the original 13 colonies and the stars represent the states, but did you know that red symbolizes hardiness and valor; white symbolizes purity and innocence; and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice?

 Here are the basics for proper flag display: 

  • The flag should be displayed from sunrise to sunset; if it is displayed at night, it should be illuminated
  • The flag should never be allowed to touch the floor
  • The blue portion should be in the upper left-hand corner if the flag is mounted on a wall or window
  • The flag should be raised quickly and lowered ceremoniously
  • When flown at half-staff, the flag should be raised to the top for a moment and then lowered to half-staff; it should also be raised to the top before lowering at the end of the day

This lesson can go along with teaching about the Pledge of Allegiance and how to recite it while demonstrating appropriate respect. For young children, it’s helpful to teach the meanings of the words in the Pledge, rather than using rote memorization. For example:

I [promise] [to be loyal] to the flag of the United States of America and to the [country with elected leaders] for which it stands, one [country] under God, [cannot be divided] with [freedom] and [fairness] for all.

Contest: Win this Flag

There are lots of activities you can do with young students to teach them about the American flag, and I’d love for you to share your ideas. Please comment below with your ideas for teaching students of any age about the flag and how to use it. One commenter will be chosen at random to receive a Patriotic World Flag for your classroom (pictured below). The flag was donated by Gettysburg Flag.

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Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 3

Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 3

Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 3:  Collecting and organizing lesson plan resources 
 
Now that you have had a chance to see some excellent Social Studies Livebinders and see how they are used, let’s move on to the third Livebinders for the Social Studies post – collecting and organizing lesson plan resources.  I have also created a new Livebinder, Livebinders for the Social Studies, to show examples and work along side everyone as we go start going more in-depth into Livebinders:
Getting Organized
Livebinders provides a central location for all of your resources that you may have.  Regardless if you use Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs or Microsoft programs such as Word or Excel, you can store those resources all in one Livebinder for quick and easy organization.  If you would like to add documents, pictures, etc to your binder, go to the “view” menu and click on “edit”.  From there, click on “Add Content” and choose the type of content you would like to add.
Livebinders also has a easy way to add documents from your Dropbox account and your Evernote account.
To add files from your Dropbox account, simply click on “Add Content” then click on “My Dropbox”.
For material from your Evernote account, you can add the link via the Livebinders app or get the URL to the note or notebook and insert it into the tab or subtab of your choice.  Click here to read the recent blog post from the Livebinders blog about the Evernote addition to the Ipad App.
Collecting Digital Resources
 
As educators, we run across multiple resources while searching the web.  Thanks to Livebinders, you can collect, save and share all of those resources.  To get started collecting your digital resources, the first thing you’ll want to do is install the “Livebinder It” bookmarklet tool, click here to go to that page at www.livebinders.com.

Once you have installed the bookmarklet tool and found a website you would like to add to your binder, simply click on “Livebinder It” and a new window will pop-up allowing you to select which binder to add it to:
Need to see some of this in action?  Please feel free to visit the Livebinder at the beginning of this post, Livebinders for the Social Studies.  I will be working on it going forward with the next posts so stay tuned!

 

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How To Pick The Right Business College For Your MBA written @dawnpapandrea

If you’re interested in pursuing your MBA, choosing the right business college is the first step toward success. The good news is that there are many excellent MBA programs to choose from; you just have to find the one that matches your needs, goals, and lifestyle. Here are some tips for doing just that…

Your first step is to make a list of all of your preferences so that you have a clear idea of the type of business college you wish to attend. Do you prefer a large university or smaller private institution? Can you commit to a full time MBA program, or do you need the flexibility of a part time or online course option? What is your personal situation (work, family, etc.), and how will that limit your options?

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Once you have a sense of what your ideal MBA program will entail, you can look a bit deeper at some business colleges.

Do some online research. You shouldn’t be too much stock in college rankings, but scrolling through ones from US News & World Report and The Princeton Review can give your research a jump start and provide an idea as to what the so-called top business colleges have to offer. The other obvious places to look are right in your backyard (if you’re planning to attend a school in your area). Again, depending on your preferences, you can narrow your search by looking for “online MBA programs,” “MBA programs in Chicago,” etc.

Get some input from business brainiacs. Talk to everyone you know, from recent grads to executives, or ask a mentor at your current job about their thoughts on MBA programs. You could also take a look at the LinkedIn profiles of some businesspeople you admire to see where they did their business college studies. Hearing someone’s personal thoughts on a particular program can help you decide if it’s worth exploring; just keep in mind that everyone’s opinions can be different.

So, what’s your specialty? MBA is a general program of business study, but within that, there are many concentrations to pursue. What are you career aspirations? Is there a particular area of business you want to focus on? If so, try to find a program that aligns with your goals. For instance, someone who is entrepreneurial might follow a different track than someone interested in global finance. See what your potential schools have to offer as specializations.

Figure out if you make the grade. Every business college has its own set of admissions criteria, and naturally, some are more selective than others. It’s best to focus on schools that are within your reach based on your academic record, as well as how you performed on required exams (usually the GMAT or GRE).

When it doubt, go straight to the source. If there are only one or two schools that you’re interested in, reach out to them directly with any questions about their MBA programs. You can contact someone in admissions or financial aid if your concerns pertain to those areas. Or, you can even connect with students and staffers via social media pages if you’re hoping to get a sense of the school’s atmosphere, or an insider’s take on the coursework.

Lucky for you, there are a lot of options for researching business colleges. Take advantage of them, put in some research time, and find the one that’s right for you.

 

Dawn Papandrea is a Staten Island, NY-based writer specializing in education, careers, parenting, and personal finance. Her work has appeared in publications including Family Circle, Parents, WomansDay.com, CreditCards.com, and more. She has a master’s degree in journalism and mass communications from New York University. Connect with her on Twitter and Google+.

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Count Down to the AP Government Exam

As February is coming to a close, I can not help but think about the looming AP Government and Politics Exam. I thought I would share some ways in which I help my students prepare for the exam.

One of the best review tools I use is CitizenU. The two teachers are amazing! They make studying for the AP Government and Politics Exam fun and engaging. I try to start each class period off with a video or vocabulary review from their CitizenU youtube channel.

Every other day is a review game! 

1. Password GameClick here

The way I play this vocabulary game with my AP Government class is that I place students into heterogeneous groups. In groups, one pair at a time will come up to the front of the room to be in the “hot seat.” One student will be facing the board and the other student away from the board. They will need to describe an APGOV vocabulary word without saying the word in their description. The student facing away from the board will have 15 seconds to answer.

While the pair is playing, I have each group write one detail they know about the topic on the white boards (beyond the vocabulary word). This game is awesome and my students love it.

2. Quizlet Review- click here 

3. Review Application5 steps to the 5 review questions

4. Bingo Cards- Units 4-7  Units 3, 8 and 9

5. Infuse Learning Draw a Vocabulary word

6.  Jeopardy Gameclick here

7. Socrative Practice Questions

 

Useful Handouts and Study Tools 

1. AP Government 1 Page Chapter Summary: Last year I gave each chapter review page during the structure AP Government review time. This year I am giving these chapter summaries before every test and collecting them and placing them into a student file folder. At the end of April I will be giving the folders back to my students and they will already have the review sheets completed. The 11 chapter summaries are one page handouts that are very simple and graphically appealing, which include the most essential information in EVERY chapter in AP Government. This would be a great supplement to do for AP review or to include as you learn each unit to make a study guide for the AP exam in May.

2. Free Response Essay Packet:  This is a 12 page document of all the AP Government and Politics Free Response Questions (FRQ’s) from the past 14 years. The document contains all FRQ’s from 1999-2013. FRQ’s are subdivided in unit and historical order. This is a VERY useful tool to have for an AP Government student. I plan on reviewing previous FRQ’s with my students before each unit test and during the structured AP review time.

3. AP Government Vocabulary List: This is a list of over 300 vocabulary words that are essential when learning AP Government and Politics. The vocabulary words are organized by unit (9 units total). The vocabulary words and definition are organized in alphabetical order. I give this packet out at the beginning of the year to help my students study and learn the material. We also play bingo before every unit test. My students fill in the words for the chapter to the blank bingo card and I read the definitions from the vocabulary list.

4. Constitutional Clauses: This is a two page cheat sheet on all of the constitutional clauses of the Constitution with easy to understand translations. It would make a nice reference guide for students to keep in their binders.

5. 60 Practice Questions with a Key or Institutions of Government Practice questions: This is a handout of 60 practice questions from the AP Government exam. A key is included. I usually have my students circle the answer and write one detail next to it. They come to class the following day and review their extra detail as a class. They sort of make a review sheet next to every multiple choice question.

 

How are you preparing your students for the AP Government and Politics Exam? 

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Earn Extra $ with Teachers Pay Teachers

You won’t get rich as a teacher, right? Think again, there are a small number of teacher’s who are making millions of dollars selling their lesson plans online on a website called TeachersPayTeachers (TPT). Teachers Pay Teachers is the first open marketplace where teachers can buy and sell original teaching lesson materials. I have uploaded several of my lessons to the website.

One Georgia kindergarten teacher Deanna Jump has earned more than $2 million selling lesson plans. The website was created in 2006 and since then more than Screen Shot 2014-02-18 at 6.28.32 PM26 teacher’s have made more than a $100,000 on TPT. Please note the website takes 15% commission on most sales.

Teachers Pay Teachers is designed to reward teachers who work hard and deserve extra compensation for all those long hours lesson planning.   Ultimately teacher’s pay teacher’s creates a place where teacher’s can share their best practices and everyone benefits, especially students. If interested, Join Teachers Pay Teachers as a buyer or seller or both to make your teaching career even more rewarding.

View my profile on Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Higher Education, Adult Education, Homeschooler, Staff - TeachersPayTeachers.com

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Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 2

Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 2: 5 Excellent Social Studies Livebinders to see
 
On this second part of the Livebinders for the Social Studies series, I thought we should look at 5 excellent Social Studies Livebinders to get you familiar with how other educators and enthusiasts use Livebinders in the Social Studies field.
 
Social Studies Resources Central
 
This Livebinder from GValdez is full of resources to use.  It has everything from History resources, Economic resources, graphs and virtual field trips.
A House Divided
Andrew Weber has put together a excellent binder, which was voted as one of the top ten Livebinders in 2012.  If you need resources for the Civil War period in American history, this is the Livebinder for you.  It has everything from vocabulary, readings and online tools.
Ipad Apps for Social Studies
Looking for Social Studies Ipad apps?  Then this Livebinder from Angela Cunningham (@kyteacher) has you covered.  It has app categories from History, Civics and Government and Geography.
Black History Month
This is a wonderful Livebinder put together by kb…konnected.  It is full of lesson plans, printables and other resources regarding Black History month.
Lewis & Clark
This is a excellent Livebinder from wisermar covering resources over the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  If has everything you’ll need to cover this lesson in class – webquests, maps and clip art images.
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Livebinders for the Social Studies – What are Livebinders?

Livebinders for the Social Studies – Part 1: What are Livebinders?

For over a year now, I have been guest posting a series of posts entitled “Evernote for the Social Studies” on this blog by Melissa Seideman.  There are still a multitude of uses that Evernote holds for Social Studies teachers and students that I have yet to blog about, and more posts will be coming on that subject throughout the year.

Along with Evernote, I have been blogging about Livebinders and how they can further engage our students in the classroom and assist educators in the teaching process.  This year, I also wanted to look at how Livebinders can be used specifically in the Social Studies classroom.

I will also be cross-posting this series on my blog, engagedwithtech.blogspot.com.

Livebinders – Your 3-ring binder for the web

Livebinders can be your one central source to collect resources, share resources, and collaborate with other educators and technology enthusiasts.  You can collect and curate resources that include: web addresses, documents, photos and many other things in your Livebinder.

In today’s classroom, students and teachers use the power of the internet to gather resources for projects, resources for papers and resources to share in the classroom.  According to livebinders.com, “Physical 3-ring binders used to be the easiest way to organize all your educational resources. But now so much of what you want to organize is online. LiveBinders not only replaces the old 3-ring binder, but also opens up new opportunities for collaborating, organizing, and sharing that were never possible before.”     

Here are some of my favorite ideas that students can use Livebinders for:

  1. Collect/organize blog posts – their own or fellow classmates
  2. Create a “My Evernote” tab – students can insert links to certain Evernote notes
  3. Research – students can use the “Livebinder It” browser extension to add a website link to their binder
  4. Comment on fellow classmate’s binders – Livebinders allow you to add comments to a binder, which is great for peer review.
  5. Upload lecture notes – whether it be a Evernote note link or a MS Word doc, students and upload/insert their class lecture notes.

Why Use Livebinders?

There a multiple reasons to use Livebinders in and out of the classroom.  It’s free and very easy to use.  The creators of Livebiners, Tina and Barbara (@livebinders), provide the best support I’ve ever experienced with anything related to technology.  They love to share other’s Livebinders and love to hear how what they created is making a difference.  

The problem with physical 3-ring binders is that resources and learning that has been done and collected with them stay in the binder.  Students have less of a opportunity to share what they have learned with physical binders, however, with Livebinders students can share via Twitter, Facebook, or by URL – thus giving students a multitude of ways to share with their fellow classmates.

Want more Livebinders info?  Here are some more resources:

Click here for my other blog posts about Livebinders

Livebinders website: www.livebinders.com

Here is one of my Livebinders for Social Studies resources:

 

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Declutter Documents with Print Friendly

If you’re like me you are always printing articles and handouts for your student’s. One website that I wanted to share is called Print Friendly. Print Friendly is exactly as it sounds, it takes any website and creates a nice document without any of the clutter of the world wide web. You can cut and paste any website into Print Friendly site and then remove Screen Shot 2014-01-15 at 5.29.29 PMimages, text, and print only the information you want for your students.

 

You can either print the website without the clutter or get a PDF document. You can even get the browser extension so within one click you have a print friendly document.  Happy Printing!

 

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Shorten Primary Documents with Text Compactor

Text Compactor is an online summarizing tool that was created for busy teachers who have struggling readings. Teaching using primary documents is wonderful but also challenging with students who can’t comprehend the document. Text compactor was designed to help struggling readers who get overwhelmed with Screen Shot 2014-01-12 at 8.57.42 PMlots of information.

 

How it works? 

You can copy any text and place them into the text compactor, which calculates the frequency of each word in the passage. Then the website figures out the frequency associated with the words and then pulls the most important sentences with the highest word count.  Text Compactor is not recommended for use with fiction (i.e., stories about imaginary people, places, events).

 

Here is an abridged version of the Declaration of Independence:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

 

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IPad Tips and Websites in the Classroom

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has compiled a great list of how teachers can use iPads in their classroom. Some of the websites are written by a great list for teachers who teach using iPads, which are important for your to  read, digest, and implement with your students. Once you read the sample websites you will learn about how some wonderful teachers have used iPads and applications in the classroom.

Citation: Haselton, Todd. “TechnoBuffalo.” TechnoBuffalo. N.p., 3 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2014. .

 

I personally believe we need to teach our students the skills needed to be successful with iPads. For most student’s using apps and technology comes naturally but teachers need to model and hold clear expectations. I find when assigning a new app or project it is very helpful to have a rubric or clear expectations on how the app will be used. Clear guidelines and expectations will help you with behavior management and core content.

 

Tips When Using the iPad 

1. Remember the Multitasking Gestures:

  • Four finger swipe to return to Home screen
  • Four finger swipe up to reveal multitasking bar
  • Four finger swipe left or right to switch between open apps

2. Bookmark Favorite Websites to Home Screen: While in Safari, load up your favorite websites and tap on the box with an arrow in it, alongside the URL Bar. Select “Add to Home Screen” and give each site a short name so it doesn’t abbreviate itself. Make a whole folder full of your favorite websites bookmarks.

 

3. Take Screen Shots: Hold down the Home button and tap the Power button briefly, you’ll hear the familiar screenshot sound and the screen flashes white. Screen shots are stored within the Photos library, and can be   messaged, emailed, or just preserved for posterity. 

 

Useful Websites 

1- Top 7 Guides on how to Use iPad in Classroom

2- How to Set Up Class iPad Touch Devices

3- iPad in The Classroom Transforms The Learning Process

4- A Day in The Life of The iPad Classroom

5- 5 Ways Readers are Using iPad in The Classroom

6- Ushering iPad into The Classroom

7- The iTouch and iPad in The Classroom

8- 14 Smart Tips for Using iPads in The Class

9- The 1 iPad Classroom (PDF )

10- Schooled on My iPad 

11. 80 Apps to Use in the Classroom 

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