Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Jeopardy Labs


This is a great resource to easily create a Jeopardy game for your students (or let your students create the game for your class!) JeopardyLabs allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy template is very easy. Just use the simple editor to get your game up and running.  There is also a feature to browse jeopardy templates created by others.
Students will love reviewing material by playing Jeopardy!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Internet4Classrooms


Internet4Classrooms is run by Susan Brooks and Bill Byles.  Their goal is to assist teachers in finding high-quality, free internet resources to use in classroom instruction. This site will also keep you busy for hours, if not days!!! Make sure you check out the Grade Level Help for PK-8th grade for standards based links and grade level "Skillbuilders" to help students practice, either at home or in the classroom, what they have been taught.

After checking out their site, you may want to click here to find information on them coming to your school to conduct professional development at your school on technology utilization.  I didn't realize they did professional development training until Susan and I ate lunch together during Apple training we both attended last week. :)

Jefferson County Schools

Warning! This site may keep you busy for hours!  The topics include Curriculum Tools, Tech Tools, and Resource Tools with lots of links under each section. Please share this site with your teachers! It's a great resource!

Free Clip Art site

Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin is a great site with lots of clip art for you to use FREE in your classroom, on newsletters, or any other place for non-profit use.  This is a HUGE collection of clip art that is sorted by topic.  They have topics such as sports, people, internet, animals, certificates, and more. You really need to visit this site to appreciate all it has to offer!

Pete's Powerpoint Station

The next few posts will focus on a few web sites I think most teachers need to know about for classroom use.  The first is Pete's Powerpoint Station. This site has free powerpoints for you to download and use in your classroom.  They are sorted by topic, and there are a ton here! Visit the site and you're sure to find something you can use with your students!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Wallwisher


Wallwisher is an online sticky note site. A "wall" is basically a web page where people post messages on sticky notes. Their website gives ideas for using Wallwisher such as personal note taking, to do lists, feedback collection, anything that may need input from a lot of people (debate, etc) and more!  Your wall can be private or public. The sticky note has a limit of 160 characters.
We have several teachers who have used this with their students at our school.  @dchristenbury is our Bible teacher at PDS. Her 2nd grade students have been learning about the Trinity.  They started by reading the book 3 in 1 A Picture of God by Joanne Marxhausen.  Mrs. Christenbury put a request on twitter for people to put their favorite name for Jesus on Wall wisher.  We got answers from all over the country.  Next, they looked up names for Jesus found in the Bible and put their favorites on a Wallwisher.  You can see it here.  They are using these descriptions to write cinquains (five line poems).
Also, Ms. Millar's 3rd grade class has used Wallwisher for peer review of book reports.  While a student was giving his book report, students went to a wall created just for that student and created a sticky note with suggestions or comments about his book report.  The student giving the report could then go read the sticky notes on his Wallwisher site and use the comments to improve for his next oral presentation or book report. The students LOVED doing this and reviewing each other's presentations.
We have also used it at a faculty meeting at our school where groups shared an idea or 2 on a given topic.  This was also a great way to introduce it to our teachers!
Wallwisher has lots of possibilities for use with students.  If you have used it, I would love you to leave a comment and share your ideas!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

PhotoPeach

PhotoPeach is a free slide show program that is easy to use. Just upload your photos (30 maximum with the free account), choose music from their selections (or use your own with premium account or choose no music), then it makes a slide show for you set to the music. It can be embedded in a blog or shared in other ways as well. This is a great way to feature a program, field trip, or just share pictures of your students with parents. Here is a sample of a PhotoPeach I created to showcase pictures from our school's Student Faculty Basketball Game.
Student Faculty Basketball Game 2010 on PhotoPeach

Fotobabble



I saw Fotobabble on twitter from @teryl_magee and @kditzler  so I thought I would check it out.  The account is FREE and it's very user friendly.  So, what is Fotobabble?  According to their site, "its the easiest way to add voice to photos. Its free - just upload a photo, record your voice and share!" Audio recordings can be up to 60 seconds.
Fotobabble could be used in your classroom to share information about field trips, projects, reflections about learning, and much more (see list below from their site with ideas)! The final picture with recording can be embedded on your blog (like above). Easy, free, and great classroom tool! If you think of other uses, feel free to leave a comment!
Q. What can I use Fotobabble for?
A. Anything you can think of. Here are just a few examples:
  • Home-made greeting cards
  • Talking postcards from your travels
  • Review products, songs, movies, TV shows, anything!
  • Citizen journalism: Reporting from the scene of something newsworthy
  • Provide commentary on a photo found on the web
  • Promote your brand, products or services (OR SCHOOL!)
  • Narrate the story behind a special photo
  • Adding a visual element to your poetry, drawing or music