Mac Tip! ClipMenu

A member of my PLN, Jimmy Anderson, shared this with me a while ago and I think it's worth sharing!

I am a mac user....always have been and always will be. When Jimmy sent me the link to this free program, I thought it would possibly be useful....little did I know how much I would use it!!

The program is ClipMenu, a clipboard manager for Mac OS X. Basically, ClipMenu manages your clipboard history. You can record 8 clipboard types, from plain text to an image.
To paste a recorded item, you just use the pop up menu on your menu bar and select an item to paste into your document or post.
I have mine set to remember the last 20 things, and it's very helpful!
There are other preferences you can check out, but I highly recommend you download it and start using it. I think you will see how much of a help it can be when you are able to paste more than the last thing you copied to your clipboard.

Skype in the Classroom (Beta Version)

I was excited this week to find out about Skype in the Classroom.  After reading their site I was excited to sign up for this directory.

"Skype in the classroom is a free directory for teachers who want to use Skype to bring education to life in their classrooms. Join today to share resources, chat with teachers and even pair classes. Start by creating a profile, then explore the directory to find teachers and resources that match your interests. You can then share inspiring links, videos and tips with other teachers."

Basically, this is going to help you 1) connect with other teachers, 2) share teaching resources, and 3) build a list of favorites.

For more info about Skype in the Classroom, click here.

Register today, so we can grow our Personal Learning Network and help connect students from all over the world!!!

Voki

Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.
Voki is a great tool for students to use to create a talking avatar. We have used Vokis with third graders doing a biography book report. They had to create a Voki of the character from their biography book. They stated facts about their character and ended with a "headline" about their character.
You are able to personalize the avatar's hair, skin color, clothes, and more! Many famous people are already created for you to use or you can personalize it in your own way.
Voki allows you to add your own voice via phone, microphone, text to speech or by uploading a file. Your have 60 seconds to record.
The Voki can be embedded into a website easily by copying the code. You can also email it to parents or friends!
Click here for FAQ about Voki. There is also a lesson plan database for using Voki located here.
If you have used Voli with your students, please leave a comment to share your ideas with everyone!

Scratch

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy for students to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share their creations on the web.

Scratch is available as a free download for Mac and PC computers.

Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.

Students can animate their own stories and games to enhance classroom curriculum. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

Scratch projects can be put on the gallery and students can "remix" others' creations.


Here are more resources to help you learn the basics of Scratch:
Classroom 2.0 wiki Scratch page
Learn Scratch website
MIT Scratch Support

My StoryMaker

This is a great site to help kids create a story!
My StoryMaker lets you control characters and objects - and creates sentences for you! Once you are done with your story, you can print it out. You cannot go back and edit a story once you have ended it but, if you click "yes" when asked to share it with others, you can print it out again by entering the magic number it gives you in the box on the right. Stories are saved for one month...but you can save them as a PDF to keep forever.


I saw this site from a tweet from @Mray29. It was showcased at #TCEA.
I think this site has great potential for uses in elementary classrooms. Students select the scenery, characters, objects, and actions the characters do in their story. StoryMaker creates sentences for you or you can delete those and enter your own creations. It is VERY user friendly!
Check it out when you have time! If you have great ideas on how to use this with students, please comment below to share those ideas with others!

Arthur Comic Creator

This is a great site to use to create a comic based on the Arthur series by Marc Brown. It is web based and has the Arthur characters at the top to drag into your comic. There are other options to personalize your comic such as backgrounds, other objects to add, and conversation bubbles. This is a very easy site to use, so it could be used with younger students keeping it simple, or with older students and allow them to add various objects other than characters.

If you want to give your students a story starter, simply click the Story Starter button and click the lever. This gives your comic a background and characters and your students have to create a story about it.

This site also has a save option which saves your comic as a JPG file and allows your students to print their comic as well.

Guess the Wordle

This site, Guess the Wordle, by @jenwagner, is a great site to use with your students every day. A new wordle is posted online every Monday-Friday. Each wordle will have a topic and the students must figure out the topic for the day's wordle.

Each wordle in January deals with vocabulary. Each day you will see synonyms for grade level words. One way to use this tool is to have it displayed as students arrive each morning, then work with your class to find the answer! To find the answer to the wordle, simply hover your arrow over the wordle and the answer will appear. Challenge your students to think about the answer for the wordle before giving up!

This site really encourages students to think! Another great feature is that Jen archives past Guess the Wordle challenges, so if your students love it (and I think they will), you have more to choose from than the one for today!

Give it a try! You can start Monday with your class! Then, challenge your students to create wordles for their classmates to guess.