Develop your own PLN

A PLN is a Personal Learning Network and it is a great way to collaborate and learn from other teachers around the world. One of the best ways to do this is to use social networking technologies like Twitter.
Twitter allows you to share resources, best practices and ideas with educators from all over the world.
Below are some great resources on how to develop your PLN using Twitter.

Learn about Twitter using this LiveBinder

From Edutopia : How to grow your PLN using Twitter

From the New York Times Ed Blog: Teachers teaching Teachers on Twitter

Cybraryman’s EdChats on Twitter page.

And lastly, check out this great google calendar of Twitter Edchats

RefSeek

Refseek is an academic search engine that allows you to find the best academic resources on the web.

They have created some great lists for teachers. Check them out.

Writing and Grammar

25 best educational video sites

Educator Resources (professional development)

Resources for collaborating and sharing

When that file won’t open

I was thinking the other day how we all have been sent files or attachments that can’t be opened by our cutting edge technology here at school. It’s always a hassle.  This happens quite a bit in the library and when it does our students panic. I find the best and easiest way to deal with it  is to install Open Office.

Open Office is identical (I would argue it’s better) to Microsoft Office. It’s completely free and you will never be bothered with those pesky “cannot find application” messages you get from word. It automatically opens any file in any strange format without any fuss.  I don’t remember ever having anything freeze or crash on me when I use Open Office.

Now let’s say you really, really aren’t convinced that Open Office is as wonderful as I say it is.  The other great site I would like to recommend is Zamzar.  Zamzar has saved many a panicked Raider here in the library.  It’s free and  it’s basically an online file converter. You will be surprised at the amount of files it can convert. You do need to use your email (they email you when the conversion is ready) and you need patience. The district has currently blocked Zamzar but I’ve requested it be unblocked.  But even if the site remains blocked you can always use it from home.

try them out!

Professional Development database

Check out this cool Professional Development Database. Who knew San Diego hosted so many educational conferences??

http://www.educatorsprofessionaldevelopment.com/

Parent student communication

If you saw my newsletter earlier this week you noticed that I reviewed three really good resources for communicating with parents.

• SchoolRack
• Engrade
• Parentella

Here are a few more sites that are really good for communicating with students and parents.

• Assign-A-Day.  This is an online assignment calendar for school, class and activities (think clubs or sports). It can be shared with other teachers  (think collaboration, department calendars, grade level subjects etc). Its only for school related activities. They will erase any personal calendars etc.
• CasaNotes– is a template maker for notes to parents. You can customize the notes and it allows you to write the note in English and Spanish.
• Class Notes– Many teachers already know about this one but I thought I would share it with you just in case.
• Homework Station-Nice and simple site to help you post your homework assignments online.
• NiceNet- Create an online course
• NoteStar– Create, assign, and manage projects online.
• Teacher report Assistant– get help writing reports on your students.

Other stuff for your classroom

• Class set up tool– design your class seating chart.
• Termites seating chart software
• Official “Seal” maker– Make a seal for your classroom.

Something for everyone

Hi everyone

Here is a round up of some good web resources for teachers. There is something for everyone here:

Foreign Language/ELD

• Lingt Classroom- Create online assignments, create oral exams, offer targeted feedback, incorporate video and images and create assignments that allow your students to practice speaking in the target language.

• Encontrando Dulcinea-  Web guide, internet search engine and online resource for students seeking out information on the web. It narrows down searches and weeds out the vast ammount of useless and irrelevant info found on the web. The English version is also a great resource.

Science

• Learning Science: A free resource that put together the latest tools for teaching science.

• BioInteractive: Online resources for teaching biology topics. It includes webcasts, videos and it has an “virtual Labs” sections.

• University of Arizona Biology Project:  Interactive resource for HS and college biology students. Several of the topics are available in Spanish.
• NSDL (National Science Digital Library): This site looks like it might not have much for K-12 but it does. Use the navigation banner on the left side to find k-12 resources.  This site has gotten nothing but A+ reviews.

English Language Arts

• Penzu-  Online Journaling/diary application that allows users to write privately or make their writing public. Pictures and images can be embedded onto this site. (it’s the closest thing to actually writing on paper that I have ever seen!)

• BookGlutton:  Book Glutton allows users to read a book (online) together and comment on it in the “margins”. It’s an online, web based,  interactive book club! Most of the titles are classics (aka no copyright) that are often read in classrooms.

• Digital Storytelling from Microsoft: Information on how to create use digital storytelling in your classroom. Using Microsoft products!

Social Science

• Our Documents: Government site with access to important American documents. Has a new  teacher sourcebook you can now download.

• WW II Historical Imagery on Google Earth

• On this Day (from FindingDulcinea): This site covers a wide array of historical events, the reasons behind the event and the best links to more information on the event.

Math

• Dynamic Paper:   Dynamic Paper Tool allows you to create images, numbers, graph paper to the specifications you want and export it as a PDF or JPEG file. Create it and download it. It’s super simple.

• Math Snacks: Games to help teach math concepts.

PE and Health

• The stretching institute: Articles on the art of stretching. Use the search box for specific information.

• eHow Expert Village: use the search box to find instructional videos on sports and fitness (mostly videos)

For Everyone

If you haven’t seen anything that fits your needs here are more sites that appeal to all educators.

• Finding Dulcinea: This is a hot new search engine geared towards students and education. It gathers all the web resources that are pertinent to students and their assignments and leaves out all the junk that always finds itself in a regular Google search. The web guides are amazing. Next time you want your kids to search for something on Google try this site first.

• Prezi: This is a zooming presentation editor and its so cool! you wont want to use Power Points ever again. It’s truly amazing.

• ScreenToaster: Register and use this resource anywhere you want. It allows you to capture and create videos of onscreen actions in one click. Then, you can upload them in flash format to website or blogs or you can send them by email or view them on their website.

• Thinklinkr: Create and share outlines on your web browser for free.

• Chart to Go: Create charts online easy and fast.

• ImageChef: I use this site all the time in the library. It’s an image maker. You can create almost anything you can think of with a personalized message, wording etc. Add graphics to anything you use in your classroom with this great resource.

• mindmeister: Online Mind Mapping software.

• Simply Box:  this is a good site for visual learners. It allows users to collect and save any part of a website  they find on the web and put them in an unlimited amount of boxes. Then, you can share those boxes with anyone. The boxes can be saved and organized any way you want.
• Got Brainy: videos and pictures (most of them quite funny and creative) “illustrating” vocabulary words. You can submit suggestions for videos or submit your own.

• 5 Reasons why educators should network

• Send large files for free: We’ve all been there. Sometimes you need to send a huge file and your email just can’t take it.

• Online Stopwatch: project this up on the screen and use it for anything you would use a regular stopwatch.

And, possible one of the most useful resources (for me anyway) and the reason I come across so many great educational sites are RSS feeds.

• Here is more information on RSS feeds and how to get your own. Once you start you won’t believe how you did anything without it.

Cool Resource: Primary Access

I just found a cool new resource that might be of interest to Social Studies teachers.

Its called Primary Access.

Here is the description:

Capture your students’ imagination with movie narratives based on primary sources. Primary Access is an online tool that allows students and teachers to combine text, visual, and sound elements, which are then combined to convey information about their chosen historical event or time frame. A library of Primary Access movies is available through a catalog by historical time period.

It’s time to move away from your typical Research Paper. Check it out!

Cool Resource: Teaching Tolerance

I just received the newest edition of Teaching Tolerance Magazine.

If anyone is interested in reading it just stop by and borrow it from us.  (or email me and I’ll put it in your box)

You can also read this month’s magazine by going to their website.

Their website is a great resource. It has lesson plans, articles and  searchable archives of past magazines and activities.

You can even sign up for the RSS feed. (More on RSS feeds next week!)

Here are some cool resources from Teaching Tolerance:

Understanding Prejudice

ProCon

About Face

Racial Equity Tools

Podcasting Basics

You have probably heard of Podcasting before and most people think of iPods when they think of Podcasts but you really don’t need an iPod. Anyone can create and listen to a Podcast.   All you need is a computer with a speaker.  Here are some links to get you started on Podcasting.

• Learning by Hand: Podcasting

• Podcasting Booklet (get all the basics here in PDF format)

• Podcasting Visual Guide

• Audacity (Free cross platform sound editor)

Top 100 Tools For Learning