Teacher Resources & Tech Tuesdays
Tech Tuesday
December 11:
For today's tech Tuesday, I want to share with you a cool resource from the people at ePals. ePals is a cool site for safely connecting and collaborating with classrooms throughout the world (and the country too). If you want your students to work on projects with learners from other countries, ePals is a good place to connect you with likeminded teachers.
Well, the people at ePals have developed a Common Core Implementation Center. Their aim is to facilitate the implementation of Project Based Learning as described in the Common Core Standards. The Common Core Implementation Center includes lessons that you can customize, activities based on the time you have available, resources from other teachers as well as respected sources such as National Geographic and Smithsonian. You can also find resources by subject focus and grade level.
See you next week!
December 4:
I found a very cool site that is becoming a popular web tool application, it's called Marqueed and it's an image annotation tool. You can drag images from your computer or browser window onto Marqueed and then collaboratively annotate and mark up the image. You can get emails in real time showing the latest activities around your images.
At firt glance Marqueed seems like a cool site for maybe art class or KRDR multimedia production. As it turns out Marqueed can also work around a PDF. You can upload a math problem, a PDF or a primary source document (good for World Cultures and US History classes), a diagram or a poem and invite students to collaborate and comment on it. The service is free and the possibilities are endless.
See you next Tuesday.
November 27:
For today's tech Tuesday's news flash, I would like to share a cool new resource with a lot of potential called MIT +K12 and yes, it comes from the folks at MIT who have created a site with videos explaining math and science concepts for the K-12 community. The videos were taped by actual MIT students who explain math and science concepts (with demonstrations and experiments) for students.
The whole idea behind MIT +K12 comes from MIT's dean of engineering who wanted to change the perception of how engineers and scientists are perceived in the world. Another of his objectives was to engage MIT in supporting and complementing the teaching and learning in K-12 American schools. His objectives are quite commendable.
The MIT +K12 will continue to grow so visit them often. You can even make suggestions for videos. They have their own YouTube channel. If the YouTube channel is giving you problems, you can also view them here.
By the way, the library has added 38 computers. They are housed in the former "Fiction Room." The schedule is now open for you to sign-up during your prep period or by contacting library staff.
See you next Tech Tuesday.
November 13th:
For today's tech Tuesday, I would like to share with you the recently updated and enhanced Library of Congress website.
Some of the "goodies" you will find is a teacher resource page that now correlates to the Common Core Standards.
Their new search tool allows you to search by state standards, Common Core Standards and the standards of national organizations.
Other great tools you can expect to find in this website include: lesson plans page, primary source sets, Presentations and Activities, Collection Connections , and Analysis Tools.
In summary, the library of congress page not only has historical documents, it also has film, audio and art resources. It is not only for history teachers! Be sure to check them out.
See you next Tuesday.
November 6th:
Most of you have figured out that IT has give us access to YouTube EDU. I am not sure if this is a trial or a permanent thing but here at your library we believe in seizing the opportunity so for today's Tech Tuesday, I want to share some cool YouTube resources.
1) Crash Course History has over 40 world history videos explaining concepts and ideas in world history. The videos are entertaining and funny. They recently added a "crash course biology" with the same type of funny, entertaining concepts in Biology.
2) HipHugesHistory is a YouTube history channel created by a history teacher in Buffalo, NY. He teaches US History and AP Government and has quite a collection of US History, World HIstory, and Government/Election videos on his channel.
3) US National Archives has a youtube channel with short lessons, lectures by historians and propaganda fils on all sorts of historical subjects. Check out this old propaganda film on the Lend-Lease Act
4) The New York Historical Society has a YouTube channel which you woudl think is of no interest because it only has things of interest to New York but it has some cool resources such as this playlist on Frederick Dougless and the Underground Railroad
5) World History and other Stuff is just what the name implies. It's curated by an AP world history teacher and has some pretty good playlists he searches out and puts together. The trick to this channel is to search by playlist and NOT to browse. Otherwise, you end up looking at videos of his kids. Here is his playlist on the Enlightenment/European Civilizations.
6) The Smithsonian National Museum has a YouTube channel. It's huge so use the search feature (enough said).
7) History for Music Lovers is a channel that features dozens of world history topics set to popular music with lyrics changed to explain history. Check out this video of the French Revolution set to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" song.
Remember, that all these channels are searchable so if you can't find something use the "search channel" box.
Happy Searching!
October 30th's Tech Tuesday sites are:
1) Popplet
Popplet is an online mind mapping tool that lets you create multimedia sticky notes. You can add images, videos and notes from your own computer or other websites. Users can share and collaborate on a poppletso it would work great with group projects.
2) Text2mindmap
Lets you transform your typed outlines into mind maps. All you do is type up your outline in the text box and click on “create mind map”. If you need to modify the mind map all you need to do is modify the outline and hit “create mind map” again. You can download the mind map as a PDF or email it.
lets you create cool mind maps online. Users can add text files, images, maps and, calendars to Spider Scribe. You can connect the elements you add to your mind map or they can stand alone. And, you can embed your SpiderScribe mind map in a blog or website.
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Below are links to a series of video tutorials (screencasts) that you may find helpful in navigating the Renaissance Place website.
1) Tutorial on how to unlock student accounts:
2) Tutorial on printing Chancery rosters with AR login information.
3) Student tutorial for accessing the STAR testing site.
4) How to set-up goals using STAR test results.
5) How to access STAR test results.
6) How to access an AR Quiz.
7) Website with resources to share with parents.
http://www.renlearn.com/lp/AROpenHouse/default.html
8) Tutorial on Safari Montage.
http://screencast.com/t/6aUlGZ5xH