Create a Flipbook from word or pdf

I learned about Page Flip-Flap from Make Use Of.com  Flipbooks, where you can flip the page instead of scrolling down, is quite the trend nowadays. PageFlipFlap lets you use this sleek format by helping you convert any Word orPDF document and even images into a flip book. All you have to do is upload the documents or images and provide an email address when you want to receive the link to your flip book.

Once the flipbook is created, you will receive an email with a unique URL. You can use that to view your flip book and share it with the world, for example on Facebook and Twitter. You can search your flipbook, zoom in and out, download it as a PDF and even email it to friends. The display can be customized by switching to a full screen view or a thumbnail view. The interface is cluttered with advertisements but the functionality is nevertheless quite awesome. Great resource for articles and interesting documents you want to flip.

 

Teaching about 9/11

September 11, 2001 was a defining moment in American history. It is so interesting that many of the children who were 8, 9, or 10 years old when the World Trade Center towers fell and the Pentagon burned are now in college. 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 September 11th.

Like most of you, I can remember where I was on 9/11 and how I felt. I was sitting in my US government class in high school. I remember the silence of  the halls. I remember my friends getting called out of class to go home because their family members were unaccounted for. This new generation of students are used to filtered news; many watched live television reports of the attacks in their living rooms and classrooms. I remember the overwhelming sense of pride and love for our nation. I wore red, white, and blue and felt an urgency to plant a tree in honor of the victims of 9/11. These feelings will never leave me.

I discovered a wonderful resource called The Internet Archive from Richard Bryne’s blog Free Technology 4 Teachers. I learned about this blog post from Richard’s blog post called Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive. Richard says the “Internet Archive has assembled more than 3,000 hours of news footage from September 11, 2001 and the six days immediately following. You can explore the footage in a timeline grid format.”

I agree with Richard in that I just spent 20 minutes watching the footage from 9/11 and it took me back to the emotions I had on 9/11. I think this is one of the best resources I found (thanks to Richard) for teaching about 9/11.

Here is a copy of my lesson plan on Friday September 9th, 2011

 

 

911 lyrics handout

 

I Believe – A 9_11 Tribute

songs lyrics

september 11

Here is a link to a previous post about 9/11 lesson plans

Here is a link to a previous post about teaching post 9/11

Here is another link to Great resources from Larry Ferlazzo’s Website’s of the Day entitled “The Best Resources for Teaching about 9/11″

100+ Google Tricks

Here is a 100 Plus Google Tricks written by Amber Johnson from Teach Hub. Amber said that “From super-effective search tricks to Google tools specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time.” Check it out today!

 

Google for Educators

I could not agree more with the Edutopia article written by Sara Ring called Google for Educators: The Best Features for Busy Teachers. Sara said that “Google has made it easier by creating Google for Educators, which compiles some of the search engine’s most useful features in one place. Whether you’re teaching Spanish or  social studies, mathematics or music, there’s a free Google feature that will make your lessons more dynamic and your projects more organized. The lively, informative Web site offers step-by-step visual tours and even videos to help you get set up.”

Below are some of the most useful features the Gooogle has to offer:

Google Maps

Many of us have used Google Maps to find driving directions, but its usefulness goes way beyond getting from point A to point B. Before a field trip, your students can study the area they will visit through a variety of maps, including street, terrain, and satellite views. Then document your trip by creating personalized maps that include your route, as well as fact balloons, photos, and even videos.

Melissa Browning, a third-grade teacher at Brooklyn’s PS 8, had her students use Google Maps for their unit on mapping. “We used Google to locate our own street addresses and find different locations in the United States and in the world,” Browning explains. “My students love using the computers; it makes learning a lot more interactive.” She also used Google Earth in this unit, and she had students search onGoogle Image Search for photos of the animals they were studying. “I love using this technology in the classroom,” Browning says. “It makes it easier for teachers to have this information at their fingertips. It’s all there for us.”

Google Docs

Google Docs is particularly handy for teachers when revising students’ work. It allows you and your class to track what changes have been made, save each revision, and collaborate in real time. And it’s a great organizing tool: You can easily upload old documents in other applications to Google Docs so all your files are accessible in one place. Not only can your students create electronic documents and spreadsheets, they can also instantly access and edit each other’s essays, post their work to a blog, publish it as a Web page, and create eye-catching presentations — all within the same program.

Blogger

Blogger allows you to create your own blog that contains important information about your class, assignments, and upcoming tests. It requires no HTML, and you can easily update and edit it from anywhere. Your students can create their own blogs to display writing and photos and to share information with each other. And you can set all blogs to “private” so only those users you approve may access them.

Google Book Search

Google Book Search, the electronic equivalent of browsing through a library, is a great way to find new books for your class to read or for your students to use as research tools. You can browse through specific categories, type in keywords, or search for particular titles. Each result includes the information you’d find about that book in a card catalog, plus a table of contents, links to book reviews and related works, and other resources. For instance, in the results for Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, you’ll find links to scholarly works about the novel.

For copyrighted books, the results may provide a few sample pages, but for books in the public domain, you may be able to read the entire work online. If you want to keep track of your searches, you can create an online library of books by clicking “Add to my library” for any book you’d like to include. You can review, rate, and do a full-text search on the books in your library, and you can share the link with others.

Google Book Search also lets you buy any book online or search for it at the nearest library.

That’s only a sampling of the features Google for Educators offers. So, try out a feature that’s new to you or use a familiar tool in a new way to see how Google can make your lessons more effective and more convenient.

 

Ten Myths about Teaching

I love finding articles like this article from eSchool News entitled Ten Common Myths about Teaching.  eSchool News recently asked readers: “If you could clear up one misconception about teachers and/or teaching, what would it be?” Our goal was not only to help others understand these misconceptions, but also to learn how teachers feel they are perceived by others. 

Here are 10 misconceptions about teachers and teaching that emerged from readers according to eSchool News:

1. Those who can’t do, teach.

Response: Teachers must be well educated in their field of study, of course, but that is only the beginning. Teachers need much pedagogical preparation on topics including educational psychology, classroom management, assessment, curriculum instruction, communication skills, and budgeting.

2. A teacher’s day ends at 3 p.m.

Response: The good teachers I know work before school starts and long after the students go home, and work all summer, too—taking classes and attending workshops to become a better teacher; working on developing activities, units, and lessons to help students learn better; and learning new skills to integrate technology into their classrooms.

3. Teachers get their summers off

Response: We spend them doing professional development and planning for the coming year—even more so if you are changing grade level or subject for the coming year.

4. If teachers are good at what they do, student grades and test scores will be good, too.

Response: The best teachers among us can never be identified by the performance of their students on tests. We should seek to find those teachers who instill in students a belief that they can and will be successful when they are confronted with challenges

5. Teaching is easy, and anyone can do it.

Response: We teachers must complete professional development and continuing education in order to maintain our licenses. Not only must we master pedagogical theory, but we also must put it into practice daily.

6. Teachers are solely responsible for learning.

Response: Parents need to play an active role [by] following up at home with study skills, health, nutrition, and reducing time spent watching TV and playing games!

7. If you went to school, you know what teaching is.

Response: We have policies and procedures made by people every day without any input from educational professionals, which just don’t make sense

8. Teachers are well-compensated for what they do.

Response: People do not realize that many hours of preparation are required, not only to do our jobs but also to do them well. In fact, those hours take place [on] weekdays, weekends, and even during vacations.

9. Teachers aren’t as good as they used to be.

Response: We still have young teachers eager to work and who will give their all. My great worry is that because of the cutbacks in state and federal budgets, many of these teachers don’t have the opportunity to even begin their careers.

10. Teachers are all the same.

That a statement about one teacher (or a select group of teachers) is a statement about all teachers.”

Check out the article for more information.

Channel Me- Share a URL and Chat in Real Time

Channel is web based software to surf the web together, add notes, and chat on the same webpage in real-time. Channel Me is an easy and useful way to share a website with another person. It is a web-based software that allows you to surf the web, write notes, and chat in REAL time. I can see this site being really useful when teaching someone about a new product or program. Check it out today!

 

Google Fast Flip- Makes Reading the Newspaper a Flip

Teaching AP Government, I try my best to stay up to date on the lastest current events. I find it very challneging looking at a number of websites, google reader, blogs, and favorite links. I just discovered Google Fast Flip, which solves all of my problems. Google Fast Flip is a web application that lets users discover and share news articles. It combines qualities of print and the Web, with the ability to “flip” through pages online as quickly as flipping through a magazine. It also enables users to follow friends and topics, discover new content and create their own custom magazines around searches 

How does it work?
We capture images of the articles on our partners’ websites and then display them in an easy-to-read way. The stories are grouped by categories, such as Entertainment, Business, Opinion, Politics and Most Viewed. Readers can flip through stories quickly by simply pressing the left- and right-arrow keys until they find one that catches their interest. Clicking on the story takes them directly to the publisher’s website.

How are the Topics selected? Can I choose my own?
The Topics are generated automatically by rising stories in the news. Users can also search for any subjects they want and basically create their own topics, almost like a custom magazine, on the fly.

Soshiku the smart way to track assignmets

I learned about Soshiku from Technology Tidbits. Soshiku is a simple but powerful tool that manages your high school or college assignments. Soshiku keeps track of when your assignments are due and can even notify you via email or SMS. And it’s totally free. I wish I had this program when I was in college. It would have been extremely helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back-Channel in the Classroom

I am looking for interesting ways to bring technology into my classroom. One of my goals this year is to incorporate back-channeling into my classroom. This year I am going to  try back-channeling using Edmodo while my class is watching a video. I think students will be excited to share their information. I plan on posing a series of questions on Edmodo and having students reply to the questions and other students comments.  I just read a Great post from Richard Bryne at Free Technology for Teachers about Back-Channeling. He created the following slideshare post about back-channeling in the classroom.

Here is another Post called five platforms for classroom back-channels  from Richard Bryne at Free Technology for Teachers. Richard Posts mentioned 5 platforms. He posts:

Chatzy is a neat little website that I learned about from Wes FryerChatzy provides a free platform for hosting your private chat area. To use it, simply name your chat area, select your privacy settings (you can password protect it), then send out invitations. Instead of sending out invitations you could just post the link to your chat area.”

TodaysMeet is completely free to use. Setting up a chat area in TodaysMeet is very simple. To set up your chat area just select a name for your room (that name becomes the url for your chat area), how long you want your room to exist, and select an optional Twitter hashtag for your chat area.  

Edmodo is a microblogging service designed specifically for educational use. Using Edmodo teachers can create a microblogging network for their classes. The latest version of Edmodo updates in real-time so that members of group can quickly respond to each other. Edmodo also provides teachers with a place to post assignment reminders, build an event calendar, and post messages to the group.

Present.ly provides a platform for creating your own private micro-blogging community. The free version of Present.ly lets you create a community based on your email domain. For example, if I had other people using freetech4teachers.com as their email domain, I could establish a Present.ly community just for people with that email domain.

Although it could be difficult to get enough invites for all of your students to use it now, in the futureGoogle Wave could be a great platform for back-channel discussions. Google Wave allows users to thread conversations, invite people into a conversation at any point, and see the text that others are typing as they’re typing it. Wave also allows you to post links, embed maps, and a myriad of gadgets. Watch the video below for a concise introduction toGoogle Wave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a Video with Slideroll

Slideroll™ is online slideshow software that allows people to create smooth, video-like slide shows and publish them on the web. It is unique because it has all of the power of a desktop application, plus all of the connectivity benefits of being online. Slideroll even allows you to easily put Flash movies on your site without having to learn Flash. Check it out today!

Slideroll is slideshow software that publishes online, and is always available from any PC connected to the internet. That means you can create and edit slide shows from anywhere you have a computer with internet access. Slide shows are published online so everyone can see them, and post comments on them if you wish.

FREE Wonderful Webinars and Resources at the Teacher Learning Community

The Teacher Learning Community made by Simple K12 is a FREE membership available for teachers who would like to learn to integrate the latest educational tips and techniques in the classroom will engage their students and increase academic achievement. When you join, you’ll get immediate access to a global network of educators with whom you can share and collaborate, live and recorded webinars with education leaders, a resource center for sharing classroom documents, as well as a collection of over 500 hours of classroom technology how-to videos available anytime anywhere. It’s all the help and support you’ll ever need from your very own personal learning network (PLN)!  Check it out HERE

What a great resource! I am participating in three Webinars this week that can pertain to my classroom.

Create Beautiful Timelines with Tiki-Toki

Create beautiful timelines!

Tiki-Toki is the best and easiest way to create beautiful interactive timelines that you can share on the web. 

  • Simple to use

    You’ll be creating timelines in minutes

  • Nothing to download

    Tiki-Toki works in your browser. Sign up for our free account and you can start creating a timeline now

  • Include images and vidoes

    Tiki-Toki provides integration with Flickr for images and YouTube and Vimeo for videos

  • Share timelines with anyone

    Each timeline you create has its own unique url that you can send to friends or colleagues

  • Colours and categories

    Tiki-Toki allows you to create different categories for stories (events) and color code them

  • Group edit*

    Get your friends or colleagues to contribute to your timelines

  • Embed timelines on your site*

    Timelines created using Tiki-Toki can be embedded on your own website or blog

16 Signs your Classroom is Behind the Times

I thought this was cute and an interesting thought. I think a lot of us are behind the times with technology. This idea was taken from Lisa at IheartEdTech

1.)  Your students turn in their homework on printed paper…instead of digitally.

2.)  For poster assignments, your students need glue, construction paper, and scissors… instead of using an online tool like Glogster.

3.)  You still have chalk.  Or a Dry Eraser.

4.)  You try to pull up a web resource on your computer to show the class and you receive a “Thiswebsite has been blocked” message.

5.)  You cross your fingers every time you try to connect to the network to access the internet.

6.)  You don’t get interrupted by a cell phone ring, text message, or tweet alert at some point during the school year.

7.)  You spend most of your class time lecturing students… rather than getting them collaborating and learning from each other.

8.)  You have a set of Encyclopedias.

9.)   You consider using a PowerPoint presentation as satisfying the need to integrate technology in theclassroom.

10.)  You create more content than your students do.

11.)  Your students aren’t teaching you something new (likely about technology) at least once a day.

12.)  You don’t have a classroom website or blog to post class information, homework assignments, and parent information online.

13.)  You don’t have a classroom set of computers, netbooks, ipads or other device for group work.

14.)  You don’t find at least one thing to call the IT department about every week.

15.)  A student has never requested to complete a project using a new digital tool you’ve never heard of.

16.)  You’ve never used or heard of:  Collaborize Classroom, Prezi, Evernote, Glogster, MyFakeWall, Typewith.me, Storybird, JayCut, Wordle, or Tiki-Toci.

 

7 New Google Tools for the Classroom

I learned about these interesting Google Tools from IHeartEdTech’s blog written by Lisa.

1.)  Google Body –  Looking for a 3D model of the human body?  Go where no student has gone before… You can peel back the anatomical layers, zoom in, and navigate through parts of the body.  You can search muscle groups, organs, bones and so much more!

2.) Google Mars –  Doesn’t look promising that you’ll be able to send your students to Mars anytime soon… at least not in person!  Take a tour of Mars with this nifty Google tool where you can view the planet in three views:  Elevation, Visible, or Infrared.

3.)  Google Building Maker –   A great 3D modeling tool used for adding buildings to Google Earth.  You can select a city and create a real building in that city based on images provided by Google.

4.) Google Swiffy –    Annoyed that you can’t view Flash files on your iPad?  You’re not alone.  Haven’t tried this one myself, but Google claims “Swiffy converts Flash SWF files to HTML5, allowing you to reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (such as iPhones and iPads).

5.)  Google Music India –  Listen to thousands of full Indian songs.  You can search by artist, albums, or songs.  Great way to spice up a lesson on India.

6.)  Google App Inventor –  Who said you needed to be a programmer to build great mobile applications?  With Google’s App Inventor you can visually design applications and use blocks to specify application logic.

7.)  Google Image Swirl –  Have visual learners in your classroom?  With this neat tool from Google you can organize image search results based on their visual and semantic similarities.  They results are displayed in a unique exploratory interface, great for brainstorming, researching, and exploring.