Apps, Story Starters, and an Inexpensive Document Camera

Here are a few items for today! I hope that the week is going well for you.

Storylines for Schools:  Looking at a new way to learn vocabulary terms? How about Spelling words? Check this out. Tell stories using your spelling words drawing pictures... even have the students sit in pods and rotate devices to get a really crazy story going!

Pic Collage: Want the students to create a collage on a topic? How about a collage to describe vocab terms? This is quick, easy and fun. Have the students create a collage, take a snap shot by clicking on the home button and the power button. Send the students to the "Photos" app and email you their collage!

ThingLink: I think I showed you this before, as I was using it in my high school classroom for students to create interactive maps. I just visited with teachers today using thinglink in 3rd grade classrooms with students in the computer lab. Each student chose an image of a place they would want to visit and put in 5 facts to remember and 3 links for more information about the place they would want to visit. Another teacher talked about students creating word doc with a paragraph, saved it as a jpeg, uploaded it to Thinglink and had the students label each part of speech on the jpeg. They were also required to find the wikipedia page that defined each part of speech as well. Great new ideas! If you are interested in trying out Thinglink with the devices you have access to in a lab or in your classroom, please let me know and I'll be glad to come be your aid in your classroom for a day.

iPEVO Camera :
I know that Document Cameras were something a lot of people wanted and I just got to play with one today and heard great reviews! I know requisitions are already in, but maybe something to check out/ see if you can go back and change. It doesn't have a light, but will go full screen and looks easy to use. It hooks up using a USB port and requires you to download some software, but the price will hook you! For those that are interested in a document camera, this is inexpensive for only $69! 

Scholastic Story Starters: Want a good way to start a story for students? This will give you a story starter for your classroom. You can choose ADVENTURE (think pirates), FANTASY (think princesses and princes), SCIFI (think aliens) or SCRAMBLER. Then choose K-1, 2nd, 3rd, or 4-6th for grade level and SPIN THE WHEEL for your story information. Choose your format for the writing: newspaper, postcard, notebook and download to email or print when complete. Very fun! 

Flubaroo Teaser: I have used Flubaroo for awhile, but until today (when somebody asked what in the world I was doing) I kinda forgot how cool it really is. Flubaroo is a script you can run in Google Drive's Forms application after you have the students complete a Multiple Choice, T/F, short answer, choose from list with multiple answers or ranking questions. It will self-correct and if you remember to have an item on the Form with their email address, email them their score report with the questions and answers (if you choose). Click on the link for a youtube video that explains it and if you are interested, please let me know and I will be glad to help! This is such a great time saver!  

Have a great Easter!! 

Five Out of the Way Google Tools

I make no secret about how cool I think Google is for educators. So, I have a few Google extras to share today!

1) The Google Art Project has been around for a few years and only started with 6 institutions putting their artwork online. Today, 151 institutions from over 40 countries have their work online. Some have their work in Google's Street View that actually makes you feel like you are walking through the museum. If you are looking to target some of the multicultural or multiple medium interpretations standards, Google Art Project is the place for you! There is also an education section that allows you to make quizzes and evaluate art just like the pros! 

2) Google Trends Search allows you to check what the trend of a particular topic has been in search. You can find out what the world or specific countries are searching right now like Hugo Chavez dead. (Click on hyperlinks to take you to the pages.) Or take something like the Superbowl that is annual and you can see the popularity rise every year. This could be very useful for research and also quick looks at popularity of certain topics. 

3) Google Type will make your words into a fun, image print like the Google Search page is everyday! Check this out... Deuel Google Typed This could be fun for students to use and grab a snapshot of for a project. 

4) Panaramio  is a collaborative, worldwide collection of photos with geolocation tags around the world in using either the Google Earth plug in or Satellite view of maps of the world. Are you looking for images of Hayti? (I'm sure you are...) Then, type in Hayti and this what you get: Flooding Pictures somebody uploaded. Or you can be much more interesting and check out the "Bone Church" in Kutna Hora .

5) Finally, StoryBuilder by looks like a Google Doc that will let you create a conversation to play back.  Just go to "Create Story" and create your account to save your conversations. It limits you to only 12 interactions, but it is a fun way to start a lesson or keep kids' attention for a short period of time. Very fun and it has sound effects like the keyboard too.

Hope you have a great week!