Sites From Today's Surfing! (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sites From Today's Surfing! (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sites From Today's Surfing! (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Richard Byrne at NCTies 2012

Richard Byrne - Best of the Web
I hate to just blog a list of sites without live links, but if I don't share this with you now, we all know what will happen! It will sit here on my iPad forever. Hopefully you will get some time to find these sites and check out the ones that interest you!

Socrative - responding without remotes
QR treasure hunt generator on classtools.net
Bee tag QR reader
INaturalist -observe and share nature
History Pin
Sweet Search - a search engine for students
Sweet Search for Me - elementary kids
Wolfram Alpha
Goofram - combines google and wolfram
Twurdy -search engine that ranks results according to readability
Magzinr - bookmark and tweet at the same time
Thinglink - helps you create interactive images
Studyblue - flashcards collaboratively
Classconnect - build and share lessons can search common core
woodlands Junior School - good collections of touch screen stuff
Sharendipity - create games using drag and drop!
Wikimindmap - creates mind maps of search terms
Wikisummarizer - refine research
Qwiki - multimedia encyclopedia very cool!
Mashpedia - pulls from twitter and other social networking items - good for current events
Fotopedia - photo encyclopedia, many are cc
Announcify - text to speech app (chrome) skips adds, only reads article
Smithsonian Wild - collection of webcams from around the world
Wevideo - web-based video editor
Jellycam - easy way to make stop-motion video
Dragontape - can mix video and sound clips
Aviary - online creation tools, sound editor/creator
Soundation - create music on the web
Kinkast - app for private sharing of video clips (30 min limit)
Next vista for learning - share and find video content
Snag learning - over 3000 documentaries
Open Culture - a blog about culture and educational media
22 frames - allows you/students to sub-title videos
Online-convert.com - free tool for downloading video clips
Clea.nr - browser add on that strip all junk except the YouTube clip
TED talks
Screenr - make screen cast videos/can use it to talk over slides
Digital vaults.org - can do lots of things with national archive collection
World digital library - resources plotted on world map
Museum of obsolete objects 
Helloslide - will narrate your slides from you speaker notes for you
Gooru - math and science stuff
Big marker - web-based app for screen sharing
Vodburner - records vid conference
Chill - Pinterest for videos
Todaysmeet - back channel tool
Synchtube - watch videos together
Linoit - great for exit ticket
Popplet
Conceptboard - collaborative white boarding
Draw it live - collab drawing
Text the mob - text polls
Blogbooker - can download the collection of blog posts into one doc
Wordia - videos that give meaning to the context of words
Vocabahead - vocab stuff
books should be free - free ebooks and audio books
Amathsdictionary for kids - glossary of math terms written for kids!
Maths maps - using google maps to teAch math concepts
Scribble maps - draw on top of google maps!
moon base alpha - role playing for kids
In class app - note recorder
Brainstorm - app where you can swipe notes from one device to another
Show me app on iPad
Kathy schrock's website FULL of apps based on Blooms Revised
International children's digital library
Joliprint - browser extension that let's you clip whateveryoudont want printed on the page
Dropittome - sts can pass things in to you dropbox account. They can only see their files, not anything else
Flubaroo - multiple choice quizzes add on for google forms
Vocaroo - use for messages to the kids on the website

My Treat for the Day - Patrick Crispen's Useless Session!

Sitting in Patrick Crispen's session! Woohoo!

http://netsquirrel.com - Patrick's site

http://agoogleaday.com - each day they ask one trivial question which tests your search skills to find the answer; includes a clock that tracks how long you've been trying to find out the answer! Includs a Hint? button that provides a search hint by Google.

http://miceage.com - tons of articles about what is going on at all the Disney parks; Disney trivia; photos of people at the part, what the rest. are serving that day, etc.

http://www.lodgenetmobile.com - Turns your android phone into a TV remote while you're at your hotel!

http://popplet.com -  mind-mapping, collaboration tool (my problem is that they wouldn't give me more than 5 popples!)  Go to snowflake icon - labs - show timewarp

http://grc.com/haystack.htm - shows you how to create a more difficult password to hack. Shows you how long it would take a hacker to guess it.

http://zombo.com - FUNNY!

http://blog.lifehacker.com - Site full of tips and sites to make life better.

http://camelcamelcamel.com - tracks the prices of every item on Amazon and what is on sale; also shows trends of prices and recent price drops.

http://speedtest.net - tests your internet speed; can run on iPhone, iPad too.

http://gethuman.com - type in company and it will give you the number to talk to an actual HUMAN!

http://gametrailers.com - video game review site done by professional reviewers in depth. Reviews include video clips of game.

http://hipmunk.com - searches for flights by price and AGONY

http://seatguru.com - features all airplanes' layout and what the seats are like.

Just plain fun!

 

 

Permission to Pin

I admit I am a newby when it comes to Pinterest, but it is quickly becoming a wonderful addiction and huge tool in organizing sites and ideas I can use in my classroom.

Not that I post anything "pin-able" on this blog, but you certainly have permission at any time to do so! I have placed a badge on my sidebar alerting anyone who visits my blog of this permission. Please also read this blog post by Laura Candler to better understand why this badge is important.

Happy pinning!

Day 1 With Discovery Education Techbook!

I am very lucky to have supportive administration. After returning from this year's NC Science Education conference, I raved about Discovery Education's Science Techbook. My Superintendent of Curriculum, Dr Bryan, set up a demo meeting with their sales reps who made a great presentation. I was given permission to pilot the Techbook with my 1:1 5th graders for the remainder of the school year.

Well, today was our first day with our new "Science Book" (a huge understatement of what this product offers). We are currently involved in a unit on weather, so I chose a DE Techbook lesson (already set up with leveled reading materials, including an ebook, several short video clips, and links to glossary weather terms). The directions (already created) told my students to research the answers to three essential questions pertaining to weather systems using the materials list I have mentioned above. The list of materials of course included live links to everything (approx.10 items) they could choose to use.

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="160" caption="Engaging list of materials from which to choose!"][/caption]

They went to work! They were watching video clips, reading short factual passages, and taking notes/drawing pictures in their science notebooks. The more I told them how impressed I was at their independent researching skills (while taking pictures, of course), the more engaged they became.

[caption id="attachment_703" align="aligncenter" width="160" caption="First day with the Discovery Ed Techbook."][/caption]

When the period came to an end, I asked them what they thought of the activity today. Overwhelmingly, comments were positive. Some mentioned enjoying having different materials to explore along with the choice of which ones to look at. Some mentioned how watching the video clips helped them picture what they later read in a short passage or one of the ebooks. They all asked when they'd be able to share what they learned because they were so excited about it! Now that is what gaining background knowledge should look like!

[caption id="attachment_705" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Into the Science Notebook!"][/caption]

Yes, we will go on to have several discussions, and yes, we will be working on some inquiry-based labs to support our learning, but what an exciting way to front-load the content!  Thank you Discovery Education Techbook and Dr. Bryan!!

Check out this slideshow of the kids experiencing their new "Science Book"

Sites From Today's Surfing! (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.