December 18, 2011

What's on my iPad?

Recently I realized that I have 10 Gigabytes of "apps" on my iPad. These are some that I see uses for in our classrooms, some are iPhone versions running on an iPad:

Weather: The Weather Channel, MyWeather, Weather Station
Books: BookShelfLT, Flip Reader, iBooks, Kindle, Read it Later, LibAnywhere
Education: Edmodo, eduTecher, Google Earth, Dictionary, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, iMovie, Garageband, PowerTeacher, iBrainstorm, Mental Class, VoiceThread, Mobile Slides, SlideShark, ShowMe, Countdown, Cosmic
Math: Everyday Math (free during NCTM in April), PopMathLite, ArithmeTick, NumberMathLite, Just Maths!, TellingTimeGame, Rocket Math, TanZen Lite, Concentration, Lemonade Stand, Mad Math, Set, Mancala,
Drawing: GlowColoring, Doodle Buddy, MyPaint Free, Brushes, Artisan, Doodle Dandy, SimpleDraw, DoodleDots, Neon Mania
Kids Books: Arthur Turns Green, Callum, Read Me, ICDL, Wild Fables, Magic Ink Books, Magic Books, Shel Movies, Paid Titles include Cat in The Hat, Peter Rabbit Popup
Kids Story Writing: Voicethread, Good Idea, Stories2Go, StoryMakerHD, Toontastic, Story Builder, JibJab Jr., This is My Story, PuppetPals, StoryBuddy Jr.
Kids Games: Super Why!, KiddyU, Uno, TicTacFree, Shapes,
Kids Literacy: Magnets, Read On Sight, Magico 2, Word Wizard, Alphabytes Lite, Word Bingo, Chicktionary, PocketABClite,
Useful Utilities: Flashlight, iTalk, Audioboo, QuickVoice, Dragon, i-nigma,Splashtop, Recorder, Remote, iClickrLite, Chronolite, TouchMouse, Mobile Mouse, Penultimate

December 17, 2011

Reading Bear from WatchKnowLearn

WatchKnowLearn has launched this new FREE phonics learning site with video presentations and an interactive format for early readers. This site will eventually have 50 lessons.

December 16, 2011

Managing "A Week in the Life..." FlatClassrom Elementary Project


In the fall of 2010 I chose to participate in the pilot of the first FlatClassroom elementary project with Rosie's 4th grade class. I have met the project originators Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis at conferences and I have followed their growing commitment to global collaboration at various grade levels. Last spring I took the FlatClassroom Certified Teacher course and this fall I responded to the request that some of us manage the second round of the "A Week in the Life..." global elementary project.

Managing the project meant sharing the role with a teacher in Iowa who I had only met online and working closely with Julie to coordinate the collaboration of several hundred students from twenty-two schools. I learned to plan and moderate weekly online meetings on Elluminate (now Blackboard Collaborate), help students from different schools greet each other in Edmodo, manage the project wiki and help all the classes develop group slideshows in Voicethread. This unique opportunity gave me an opportunity to work closely with teachers in several schools and countries. The skills I learned will be useful in any projects that I am able to pursue with other teachers in the future.

December 15, 2011

Tech Tip: Creating a Student Contact Group for Sharing Docs

It is possible to set all the students in your class up as a group in your Contacts and then you can share a document with the whole class at a time. If you want to do this you add your students to your Contacts (you need to put in both their name and their full google login), make them a group and then you can share with that contact group. Most likely you want to give them "View" access so they don't edit the original document. If students are going to edit the document, ask them to go to File>Make a Copy and then change the title of the document to include their name.

Awards for Blogs, Wikis, etc.


Edublog runs an annual "Best of" for several categories each year. There are some very interesting blogs, wikis and tools listed here that might be of interest.

http://edublogawards.com/announcing-the-2011-winners-congrats-to-all

Quote of the Day from a Second Grader

"On my iPod there's an apple on the back."

December 14, 2011

Google "Stock Photos" for Education

There's a new option for inserting something called "Stock photos". Basically if you go to insert an image as usual, you now have five options:
  • Upload
  • URL
  • Google Image Search
  • Picasa Wen Albums
  • Stock photos
Choose the "Stock photos" options (click on the image to the right for a bigger view), and then try out some common search terms. I had pretty good luck getting images for most things I entered, however the results seem to be more like real pictures and less like cartoon clipart. They are all images that can be used without copyright concerns.
http://www.appsusergroup.org/news/google-docs-gets-stock-photos

December 8, 2011

Grants for Teachers

This is a wonderful set of grant opportunities for teachers compiled by the people at Fablevision.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

December 7, 2011

Best of TED 2011

Check out these TED talks for 20 minutes on innovation topics.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

December 6, 2011

Picasa Slideshows on Sites and Blogs

I have updated the Picasa Slideshow directions on the Yarmouth Google Tools site. It's great to see so many of you using these to display photos of student learning on your sites and blogs.

December 5, 2011

PowerSchool Web Gradebook for Teachers

If you are starting to think about visiting the PowerSchool Web Gradebook, or if you are using it for the first time, here is the link to the slideshow I used at last year's introductory meeting:
https://sites.google.com/a/yarmouthschools.org/yes-technology-for-teachers/web-gradebook