Techy Things Teachers Should Try

Zooburst

2012-02-28T10:24:00.006-06:00

Continuing the TCEA theme, today's post follows with a Web 2.0 site that is great for any level, even if it looks elementary at first glance. ZooBurst is a free website that allows users to create 3D pop-up books using nothing more than public domain clip art and ZooBurst's web-based editing tools.

Users can view ZooBurst 3D books online as long as your web browser has Flash. The books can be rotated in the 3D environment, and images on the book can be clicked to open additional information for each. [Check out the gallery for examples.]

While anyone can view the books already created, to create your own, teachers must submit a short request form to have a free account created. Teachers can also create accounts for their students. After a book has been started, the user can edit the pop-up book's page and background. Images can be uploaded to be placed on specific pages, then resized and placed in the forefront or background of the scene. Text can be added to each page, with word balloons to each specific image. To create a book in augmented reality, enable the webcam, then click the ZB button present on each story. Once a book as been created, you can share it with a web link or embed it in a web page.

Classroom Integration Ideas:

Students can create a pop-up book for a historical or literary character
Teachers could create a book for a specific event or holiday
Make a tutorial book on a given topic
Middle school and high school students can create biographical projects
Creative writing projects for any grade level

Free APP Friday TCEA Style

2012-02-24T14:44:00.000-06:00

I can't tell you how excited I am that I get to write the post for Free App Friday and that it falls during the weeks that we are writing about things we learned at TCEA. Why? Because this post is going to allow me to talk about some of my favorite things: iPads, free things for the classroom, fun for students and most of all ... talking animals. In fact around our office, they are referred to as "my talking animals" because I love them so much.

Most of the animals found in the iPad Talking Friends Collection by Outfit7 are free!! You may have to pay 99 cents here and there if you want them to wear "special" clothes or do "special" things. There is a large family, too many to name, but after you download one you will be introduced to all of the family members. There is Talking Tom (my favorite), Ben the Dog, Gina the Giraffe, Roby the Robot, Harry the Hedgehog, and Larry the Bird to name a few.

All of the animal apps have these features in common:

speak and the animal repeats what you say by changing your voice
tap on different parts of the screen to get different reactions
record a 30 second video and upload it directly to YouTube, send it via email or text message

Although I have used the apps extensively to have fun with family and friends, I grabbed some great classroom ideas from the Techchef4u ladies at TCEA. I combined their ideas with some of my own below. The coolest lesson they showed was a Math Facts Lesson that a teacher created after she read their blog. So, I think you should take the time to visit the Techchef4u blog.....only after you read our blog. : )

Classroom Integration Ideas:

An animal friend can give instructions, introduce an activity or lesson objective
An animal friend could give a shout out to a student or the class as a reward
Students use the animal friends to demonstrate learning: Solve word problems, vocabulary, fact families, word families. Here is an example of students demonstrating their understanding of weather terms and data - Add Some Spice to Your Weather Study

Infoshare - TCEA 2012

2012-02-21T16:08:00.001-06:00

Recently the Instructional Technology Team, along with a group of other teachers from Bryan ISD, attended the TCEA (Texas Computer Educators Association) conference in Austin, TX. We attended presentations and workshops led by other teachers from across the state to learn about the new and exciting ways that technology is being used in the classroom. This week in our posts we will share many of the things we learned at TCEA with you.

Hanging out with Mobi from BrainPop in the Convention Center at TCEA.

I'd like to share a resource from a course I attended about using mobile devices in the classroom. Although the course focused on the use of student cell phones, this resource could also be used on COW laptops, iPads, or iPod touches.

MENTIMETER.COM
Mentimeter is a site that allows teachers to quickly and easily poll their students.

Here's what makes Mentimeter so great for the classroom:

It's free!
Teachers do not have to install any software or register/sign in to the site to ask a question - just go to mentimeter.com and type in a question.
There is no limit to the amount of students who can be polled or the amount of questions that can be created.
To answer a question, students type a simple URL into their browser (or scan a QR code) - no log in required.
Students can only answer a question once per device - if they try to answer twice, they are told that they have already answered that question.
Responses are displayed in real time for teachers to project from their computer (teachers also have the options to hide the results until everyone has voted).

Classroom Integration Ideas:

Poll your students periodically throughout the lesson to keep them engaged while simultaneously gaining feedback for yourself about class mastery as a whole.
Ask the same question at the beginning and end of a lesson, and let students compare the results to see what they learned.
When teaching about graphing, math teachers could poll their students and use the results as an example of a bar graph.

Free App Friday - Britannica Kids: US Presidents

2012-02-17T10:58:00.002-06:00

Who was the first left-handed president? Who was the tallest president? Who was the first president to appear on TV? The Britannica Kids: US Presidents app answers all these questions and more! In honor of President's Day, Encyclopaedia Britannica is offering this app free (usually $2.99) until midnight on Monday, February 20.

App Features:

A "Did You Know?" section where students can see photos and learn interesting facts about many presidential topics
Profiles of each president with information such as their birthday, vice president, first lady, important dates, and fun facts
Music and lyrics to sing a long with "Hail to the Chief"
Quiz section

Integration Ideas:

Create a Presidential Scavenger Hunt and have students search the app for the answers
If you have an iPad dongle or document camera, this app would be fun to do with your class as a whole group - learn interesting facts about 1 president each day, and then take the quiz together as a class
Use this app as a research source for students when learning about a certain president or presidents
Have students explore this app in a center, and then create a graphic organizer in Popplet (using the app "Popplet Lite") to share interesting facts that they learned with the teacher or entire class

Professional Communication Skills in "ACTION"

2012-02-03T10:44:00.005-06:00

Cassandra Kilgore is a Speech Communication Application teacher at Bryan High School and enjoys infusing technology projects into classroom lessons. Cassandra has also participated in a recent Teacher, Teamwork, and Technology (T3) grant. The lesson below showcases students taking the learning into their own hands and developing original presentations for a specific audience. I was honored to be invited and able to attend on presentation day; students were proud to share the final product and the content delivered was clear and concise. This lesson could be easily integrated into any secondary classroom and any subject area.

"Essentially, students have produced a training video about Professional Communication Skills, demonstrating scenarios showing how "not-to do it;" stating the rules; and then rewinding the scene to illustrate corrections from their original sketch. The kids have worked VERY HARD on their productions and are super excited about showing them off! This experience has been so much fun for them (and ME!)."

Lesson Description/Overview:

The class was divided up into 4 teams, each of which were responsible for researching and teaching the class about a particular aspect of Professional Communication/Interview Skills. For your reference, here are the teams and their respective responsibilities:

TEAM 1: Telephone Communication (cold calls/follow-ups).
TEAM 2: Interview Presentation (attire/posture/attitude).
TEAM 3: Q&A Style and Language (technical answers, grammar, small talk).
TEAM 4: Professional Experience Discussion (application/resume/work experience/education)

Materials/Resources: Notebook paper, pencils, video camera, iMovie software, flashdrive to save videos, projector, survey instrument for peers to evaluate their group members' productivity.

Procedures:

Break out class into four groups. Each group must have at least one person who already has a strong familiarity with the iMovie program. (An iMovie tutorial could be inserted at this point in lesson, if needed.)

Each team will select one area of Professional Communication emphasis which they will address in their video, providing recorded and narrated scenario demonstrations of "what NOT to do," pointing out what rule was broken, and then rewinding the scene with corrections and demonstrating how "to do it CORRECTLY."

Students will write scripts/outlines for their perspective scenarios and narrations.

Select group members will perform in and narrate the scenario skits, while other selected members will provide technical and behind-the-scenes support, which will make the filming process possible. (ie: directing; producing; staging set scenes; filming, editing, sound/mic work, music bed selections, etc.)

The students will work together within the iMovie software program to compose, edit, and produce a video movie which will teach classmates about their assigned objectives in the Professional Communication area of the Speech Communication Application curriculum.

On PRESENTATION DAY, students who did not have a speaking role on camera will stand before the class (live audience) to introduce their group members, preview their team's topic of study, and begin the video.

Free App Friday - Allen Prep ACT and SAT

2012-02-03T08:10:00.002-06:00

Allen Prep has published multiple test prep iPad/iPhone apps for multiple exams. The ACT and SAT apps are free to download and include a substantial number of test questions for each section of each exam. Once the apps are downloaded, you can access the question bank by entering a valid email address. An email with an activation code will be sent to this email address. Each mock exam includes a free sample test, covering all subjects, and includes hundreds of questions. You can also make an in-app purchase of different test banks to target a specific area.

There is a timer for each question, an option to star the question and come back to it, report an issue to Allen Prep, and stop the test. Once you have answered a question, you will be given feedback and can read a complete explanation of the correct answer before moving on. From here, you can go back to a missed question or once the test is stopped you can return to any missed question.

Application:

Place these apps on any classroom iDevice and make this available during student tutorial times.
Share these apps with your students and encourage them to download these or similar apps to their personal devices.
Download these apps to your own device and infuse similar questions into your lessons.

Edmodo in Math: A Technology Integration Lesson

2012-02-02T12:10:00.007-06:00

Congratulations to Deborah Parker, a math teacher at Jane Long Middle School, who won 4 iPads for her classroom for sharing this technology rich lesson with us!
This lesson is a great example of a simple, but meaningful way for teachers to include technology in their lessons daily.

Lesson Description/Overview:

Using Edmodo and a projected Powerpoint, students will gather information from graphical representations in order to determine trends in data and practice writing inference questions.

Student Objectives:

I can evaluate graphs and gather data to answer questions. I can explain why we use graphs to analyze situations.

Materials:

Projector
Student computers
Powerpoint/Keynote presentation with graphs to be displayed
Website for classes through Edmodo.com
Stopwatch or timer

Preparation:

Gather graphs for students to analyze, including bar, line, double line, double bar, circle, and histograms. Create a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation with a graph on each slide. Set up a group for each class in Edmodo.

Procedures:

Have students log in to Edmodo and post a quick message to let the teacher know they are present and ready to begin. Project a graph from the Powerpoint and give students 3 minutes to analyze the graph and pull as much information as possible about the graph. Have students list the information they pull in an empty post on Edmodo after the 3 minutes is up (use an alarm to signal that time is up). After posting, have students also review each other's observations. As an extension, have students take turns writing questions for each graph.

Google Tip - Finding Student Usernames

2012-02-01T09:49:00.003-06:00

To find a student's Google Account username, follow these helpful steps:

Open a new document, and click the share button.

Click the "Add People" box and begin typing the student's name.

As you type, an auto-populated list will appear with matching names.

Copy and paste username as needed or simply share with student.

Living Math Book List

2012-01-30T14:56:00.002-06:00

When I was a middle school math teacher, I was always looking for something different to do in my classroom. One day I decided to read a math storybook that related to the day's lesson to my 8th grade students. I thought they would probably roll their eyes and think it was totally lame, but thought I'd try it anyway. I even had them get in a circle and sit criss cross applesauce around me as I read. They LOVED it - I actually had their undivided attention! So I wish I had known about the Living Math Book List when I was still in the classroom. This site is dedicated to "making math meaningful one book at a time." The author describes a living book as "a book that presents mathematical concepts in real life context which is relevant to the reader." The site lists about 50 math categories that you can click on to find relevant books (most are picture books). Each book is linked to the Amazon site where you can read a description about the book and also purchase it, however many of the books might be found in a BISD or public library.

Classroom Integration Ideas:

Make math relevant by using a book found on this site to introduce a new math concept to your students (yes, even middle students!)
After reading one of the living math books to your students, have them create their own book about a concept they are learning (integrate technology by using an iPad or laptop to create the book)

Free App Friday - CloudOn

2012-01-27T08:45:00.001-06:00

CloudOn is a "free for a limited time" app that allows you to create, edit, and view Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files on your iPad. CloudOn pulls the files from your Dropbox account, and also automatically saves them there, so you must have a Dropbox account to use CloudOn.

With CloudOn you can:

use pivot tables insert formulas in Excel
display and edit transitions and animations in Powerpoint presentations
display, edit, and create charts, change formatting, spell check, and insert comments in any application
open files directly from your Dropbox and/or iPad email accounts

If you have been using QuickOffice and have been less than satisfied, CloudOn is worth a try. The interface looks extremely similar to Microsoft Office (as you can see below) and functions in much the same way.

Discovery Education - Did You Know?

2012-01-25T08:20:00.000-06:00

Did you know that Discovery Education offers a Lesson Plan Library organized by subject area? I filtered through the core subject areas and found a variety of lessons for a variety of grade levels. In the English Language Arts section, I was able to find lessons covering theme, compare/contrast, literary devices, and writing. In addition, I found lessons covering multiple authors such as: Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne.

There are over 200 lessons including Discovery Education streaming videos. To find the Lesson Plan Library, simply go to the "Streaming" tab and then select "Teacher Center". Each lesson can be downloaded as a PDF or Word document and includes appropriate grade level suggestions.

Classroom Application:

Utilize pieces of these lessons as mini-lessons for your classroom.
Utilize the bank of ideas presented in this library as a springboard for writing your own lessons.

Additional Free Teacher Resources:

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/

2EPUB

2012-01-23T15:15:00.006-06:00

2EPUB is a free to use website that offers a simple way to convert text documents into ePub documents for viewing on all iDevices.2EPUB supports the conversion of many file types including Doc, Docx, ODT, PDF, and HTML. You can provide 2EPUB with the URL of your documents or upload them directly from your computer. Once the file is uploaded, set the display parameters, and click convert. When the conversion is complete you can download your file and use it on any device that supports ePub display.

Classroom Integration Ideas:
Teachers or students can create documents that can be made available for viewing on the iPad or other iDevices. Such as:

study guides
student created short stories or poems
essays

Free APP Friday - Google Search

2012-01-20T11:00:00.000-06:00

I've been working with various BISD staff members that have been using an iPad for some time now. In doing so, I realized that most were still using Safari to browse out to Google.com to do their searches in Google. So, that convinced me that this weeks "Free App Friday" feature should be the Google Search App. This app has been completely redesigned for the iPad and has exclusive search features that make searching faster and easier.

Voice Search: Search by voice and skip the typing.
Side by Side Search Results: Quickly browse pages and results
Google Instant: Shows results as you type so you can get to the right content much faster.
Visual Search History: Swipe to revisit past searches
Access to Google Apps: Quick, easy access to your Google Calendar and Docs
Search Nearby: Find places nearby without having to type in your location.

Discovery Education - Did You Know?

2012-01-17T10:06:00.000-06:00

Did you know that you can find writing prompts on the Discovery Education site?
Recently I did a search for Martin Luther King and found 3 relevant writing prompts. Each selection included an image of Dr. King, some facts about his life and accomplishments, and a prompt for either a narrative or expository essay.
There are a wide selection of writing prompts on the Discovery Ed site for many different topics. To search for a prompt, just type your topic in the search window and choose "Writing Prompt" in the "Media" drop down menu. When you find a prompt that you like, the prompt can be saved to your "My Content" folder on the Discovery Ed site so that it can be pulled up quickly to display on a projector, edited directly on the site if needed, downloaded as a Word document, or assigned to students (if you have previously set up accounts for your students in Discovery Ed).

Classroom Integration Ideas:

After a lesson about MLK or after watching one of the Discovery Education videos about him, use one of the writing prompts from DE to have your students practice their writing skills and reflect on what they have learned
Use DE's writing prompts as bell ringers
Use DE's writing prompts as a springboard for writing your own prompts (images and text of existing prompts can be edited)

Quizlet

2012-01-13T10:52:00.000-06:00

Started by high school sophomore Andrew Sutherland in 2005 to help study for a French vocabulary test, Quizlet is the largest independent study site where users can make their own flashcards sets with terms and definitions or choose from millions of flash cards created by others users. The best part is, it is FREE!!

Topics range from languages to math, science and history. The Powerful Study Tools include:

Flashcard Mode - one side for questions, flip side for answers
Speller Mode - uses audio to have you type what you hear
Learn Mode - restests incorrect answers (the most powerful mode!)
Test Mode - generates customizable tests with short-answer, matching, multiple choice and T/F options.

Classroom Application:

Teachers can create and share online study materials and tests to be used in class or at home. They can even create a group where students can create study materials for each other. Now everyone can study in one place and even be notified via email when new sets are added.

Free App Friday - Sock Puppets

2012-01-13T09:14:00.004-06:00

Sock Puppets is a simple app that lets you create digital stories using virtual sock puppets. Students or teachers can select up to four different sock puppet characters and up to five backgrounds. After they select the props and scenery they want to use, they can move the puppets around and record voices for each puppet. Each recording can be up to thirty seconds.

Classroom Integration Ideas:

Students or the teacher can use this app for storytelling to help them create and publish digital stories. Several students can record their voices to create a short play.
An advantage of using this for speaking practice is that it’s the sock puppet that’s actually speaking on the display, not the student.

Other ideas:

Students could record short poems
ESL students could practice dialogue

Sonic Squirrel

2012-01-09T14:37:00.000-06:00

Sonic Squirrel provides a vast library of open licensed (Creative Commons) music that can be used for student and teacher projects. Releases can be downloaded for free without an account, but there is an option to sign up for free. An account will allow you to build your own collections and playlists. Sonic Squirrel has an easy to use "Browse" feature under the "Home" tab and if you sign-up the "My Account" tab gives you access to your collections, history, and profile options. Also, there is currently an Android App available so you can listen while you travel.

Classroom Application:

Teachers and/or students can create an account, browse the library, and create a collection or playlist of items to use for multi-media projects. The music will download as an mp3 file to your computer. Tip: Some users will have to right+click (control+click for mac) on the download icon and choose "Save Link As" to begin the download process. The files can be placed in your iTunes account for easy access. Encourage students to practice good digital citizenship by taking advantage of this resource.

Free App Friday - Photo Collage Creator

2012-01-06T14:25:00.001-06:00

Photo Collage Creator is an iPad or iPhone app that can be easily integrated into your classroom lessons. This app is user friendly and provides a wonderful bank of photo editing/enhancement tools, which are powered by Aviary. Photo Collage Creator allows you to begin with a blank canvas and add photos directly from your ipad photo library. There are five canvas size options to choose from and any number of photos can be arranged freely on the canvas. Editing/enhancement options include cropping, rotating, free draw, text, and more.

Classroom Integration Ideas:

This is a great way to illustrate any topic or idea covered in class. Start by collecting a bank of photos associated with a classroom topic and save the images to your ipad photo library. (Hint: To save images from a website, simply hold your finger on the image until the options menu appears. Choose "Save Image". A new album can be created to house your project photos.) Now, open the Photo Collage Creator app and begin adding and editing photos using the Photo option at the bottom of the screen.

Assign each student a character from a novel, and have students create a collage to characterize the character's, beliefs, appearance, feelings, voice, ect.., without using an actual picture of the character. Then have students complete a gallery walk to determine which character is being characterized.
Assign students to research a historical figure, art/drama technique, or scientific process to creatively illustrate using photos.

Other Ideas:

Teachers and/or extra curricular groups could use this app to create information/event flyers.

Photo Sites:

Flickr: Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Pics4Learning: http://pics4learning.com/
Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/

remind101

2012-01-04T15:34:00.002-06:00

remind101 is a website that provides a "free" and safe way for teachers to text message students and parents. It is apparent that most of our students rely on text messaging as their primary communication tool and that most feel logging on to a teacher website is too much of a hassle. This makes remind101 an excellent solution for removing some of the communication barriers that exist between teachers and students.

So how does it work? The teacher adds a class (up to 10 classes) which generates a unique code that can be shared with students and parents. When the students and parents send a text message using the code they will automatically be subscribed to the class. This is a notification system only, so the parent and student cannot respond to notifications.

The beauty of remind101 is that each teacher is assigned a phone number which will be used for the students/parents to subscribe. All subscribers will be asked to reply with their name so the teacher will be able to identify who is enrolled in each class. remind101 prevents the teacher, parents and students from seeing any phone numbers.

Classroom Application:

The notification system can be used to remind students and parents of upcoming due dates, class/school activities, and materials needed for class. The teacher could also send study tips or notes of encouragement the night before an exam. The really cool part is that there is a schedule feature that allows the teacher to schedule reminders ahead of time.

Note: The developers are working on a mobile app. Currently, the teacher has to send messages by logging into the website using an Internet browser.

**Thanks goes out to Jessica Mahaffey from BHS for sending us a "heads' up" about this website.**

Quixey

2012-01-03T09:06:00.000-06:00

Quixey is an app search engine for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Chrome, Firefox, Facebook, the web, and more. This site is particularly useful for finding apps for your iPad or iPhone, but can also be used if you own another type of device, such as an Android. This search engine is better than searching in the iTunes store because it finds apps by content, not just the title. Searches can be filtered by type of device or application, and by free or paid. To search for an app, simply type in a word or phrase in the search window, hit enter, and then a list of apps will load with the name and picture of the app on the left, and a snippet of information about the app on the right. You can also click on the app to get even more information about the app, similar to what you would see in iTunes.

Application:

If you have an iDevice for your classroom such as an iPad or iPod Touch, it is often hard to find apps by searching in the iTunes store. Quixey makes it easy to find apps that relate to the topic you are teaching. By typing in a word or words such as "synonyms" or "periodic table" you can find a long list of apps that could be useful for a lesson.

Shelfster

2011-12-13T13:40:00.007-06:00

Shelfster is a free site that allows you to bookmark and annotate websites while researching. You can create a document, edit it with a simple drag/drop of links, or type in your document as well. Then save it online (as part of the free account you create) or download it as a PDF.
Shelfster also has an iPad and iPhone app.

Classroom Integration Ideas:Shelfster can help students organize their internet research. Shelfster will soon integrate with Google Docs, which could allow students to share and peer edit their research.

November Techy Rewards Prize Winner

2011-12-12T15:05:00.002-06:00

Melissa Martinez won a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera with an extra 8GB memory card to use at Houston Elementary!

Thanks to Melissa and all of the other teachers and staff who had their names entered for the month of November for working to integrate technology skills into their daily instruction.

Free App Friday - SparkleFish

2011-12-09T08:16:00.000-06:00

Sparklefish is an iPad and iPhone app that is educational and fun! Students record themselves saying words from different parts of speech such as noun, adverb, plural noun, adjective, etc that they choose. If a student gets stumped, they can see a list of examples of that particular part of speech. After all the words have been recorded, a Mad Lib style story is created that can then be played back and saved.

Classroom Integration Ideas:
This would be a great way for students to practice identifying the different parts of speech. Teachers could create a printout with blanks for the different parts of speech so that students could write down their words before recording themselves on the iPad. (Tip: Hold down the record button for the entire recording. Students should say the word immediately after the record button is pushed to avoid delays when the story recording is played). Have students take turns recording their stories, and then play a few each day for the class.

Other ideas:

Have students draw a picture from the story (what might happen next, etc)
Take 1 sentence from the story and have students diagram it
Require students to only use words that start with the same letter (alliteration) or have 2 syllables, etc
Have students create their own SparkleFish type story for other students to fill out

Here's a link to an activity sheet to use with students: http://tinyurl.com/8xoutto

Other similar free apps: Mad Libs (great for middle school), TackyWales, Wordventure!

Discovery Education Mobile Web App

2011-12-05T10:33:00.001-06:00

Access teacher and student Discovery Education accounts from your iPad. This mobile web app allows you and your students access to all of the Discovery Education age appropriate content you enjoy using in your classroom lessons. The mobile web version works exactly like the Discovery Education website and can be accessed using the following web address.

mobile.DiscoveryEducation.com

Classroom Application:

If you have ipads in your classroom you will find this additional access useful and just as simple. Teachers could find the video needed for a lesson and add the link to the homescreen. Students could view the video in a small group activity. Quizzes and other builder tools are also available with this mobile app.

Free App Friday (A Day Late) - Storylines

2011-12-03T18:28:00.001-06:00

Storylines is the age old game "Telephone" using pictures. The first person begins the Storyline by writing a common saying or a sentence using the standard on-screen keyboard. The next person grows the Storyline as their finger becomes the pencil allowing them to draw pictures to illustrate the saying or sentence. The third person titles that drawing without seeing the original saying . . . . and so on. After all the inputs have been entered, the app will display how the story unfolded!!

My family played the "paper" version of this game last Christmas. We laughed until we cried. I think we will give the iPad Storylines a try this year!!

Classroom Integration Ideas:
This "fun, free" app provides an engaging way to get students to work with sentences or sayings. It takes creativity, involves cooperation and higher order thinking skills. It provides a great way to help with figurative language and visual representation. Divide the class into groups of four or five - pass out the iPads and "let the stories begin"!!

The "Art" of Student Collaboration

2011-12-02T12:51:00.002-06:00

John Burrows is a Bryan High School Art teacher, and a participant in a recent Teacher, Teamwork, and Technology (T3) grant. John does a wonderful job integrating technology into his classroom lessons and he does this in meaningful ways. John shared his Art 1 Research Lesson below and a few comments about how this is truly a universal and 21st Century lesson.

"This project can be used easily in any classroom. Anybody who does research could do this. It uses tools that we all have access to but don’t always use. It also allows for the kids to have a choice in how they create the presentation." "It got kids working in a more real life situation. In reality, we can’t always be right there with the individuals we are working with. Students learned proper ways of talking on Twitter, and how to communicate to each other effectively. The tools allowed me to monitor student progress and input, forcing students to contribute to the group. "

Artist: Melanie Savala

Lesson Description/Overview:

Students are each given 1 artist to research. They collaborate with 3 other students from three other class periods, write a paper, create a presentation, and recreate a work of art the artist had originally done. 
Students use twitter and hash tags to communicate with each other quickly. They use google docs for the paper and have their choice of multiple programs to create the presentation. Students will find the artwork they want to recreate, print it out, and redraw it. 

Materials/Resources:  Computer, Twitter, Google Docs, Digital Camera, Photo Booth, Internet, Blogger, Paper

Presentation Options: Pages, Keynote, Prezi, Comic Life

**Students also communicated outside of class using their phones and ipods to connect through twitter.**

Procedures:

Introduce the assignment
Assign artists to each student and give each student a HASH tag to use
Setup Twitter account
Students research using the internet
Students communicate with each other and find out who they are
Students share their research documents with each other over DOCS (as well as with the teacher.)
Students write their paper
Students create a presentation
Students recreate the artwork
Students put it all together
Students share

Activity (taken from John's Blog):

Sign up for twitter using your BHS google account. You must use your name as your "screen" name. Twitter. You will use hash tags to communicate with your partner from another class.
Write a paper in Google Docs that you will share with your partners, through your BHS google account and myself (john.burrows@bryanisd.org). Each partner will pick one piece of art to discuss in the paper. All partners need to contribute to the research paper.

Biography about the artist.

How he/she used the Elements of Art.

How did he/she use the Principles of Design.

Was there meaning in his work? How can you tell what the meaning was?

How successful is the artwork that the artist produced? Was it done well?

Where did you get your research? Bibliography

Keep track of all resources. All information must be tracked.

You and your group will create a presentation that talks about the artist, his style, what medium he worked with and examples of his work. Presentations can be made through; video's (quick time), prezi, Audio (quick time), pages, or comics. Your presentation must be cohesive, publishable, and shared with the teacher.

Each partner will need to reproduce a work of art by their artist. You must have your picture selected by Thursday, October 6th and printed. You will not have to use the same medium the artist used but you will be asked to know what the medium was.

Cite This For Me

2011-11-29T08:55:00.000-06:00

Cite This For Me is a free website that helps students format reference lists or citation pages. Students fill out each box to create a reference list. They can sort them alphabetically, and download the formatted reference page.

Classroom Integration Ideas:
Cite This For Me is a great resource for students doing research, especially if it is from online sources such as podcasts, websites, and online videos.

Web 20.11 by Discovery Education

2011-11-22T09:08:00.007-06:00

Web 2.0 is about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating, editing and sharing user-generated content online. It’s also about easy access and ease of use. There is no need to download software and teachers and students can master many of the tools in minutes.

Navigating your way through a “world” of thousands of apps out there in the “galaxy” of Web 2.0 can be intimidating at the very least. What tool best meets your needs? Discovery Education, a BISD on-line resource, recently launched Web 20.11, a one-stop resource for some of the latest tips, trends, and tools in the “World of Web 2.0”. Visit the site and find brief descriptions and links to presentation, video, mobile, community and other tools that can be used by both you and your students to create. The related links button will allow you to explore the tools that can’t be neatly placed into a category because their features cause them to span several categories at once. They are all tools that will spark creativity, encourage collaboration and lure you and your students into the world of Web 2.0. Now go explore!

Classroom Application: A teacher is trying to come up with an engaging way to have students practice their vocabulary words. The teacher could just go to Google and type in “vocabulary activities” and come up with about 52,200,000 results. (Try it . . . that’s the number I got). Instead the teacher uses Discovery Ed's Web 20.11 site to explore and finds a brief description about MakeBelieveComix in the related links. She decides to have students create a comic strip story using new vocabulary words that are being taught. She even has time to make a fun example because of the time she saved by allowing Web. 20.11 to narrow down the choices to what they think are the best apps out there. (I made one of these strips in about 10 minutes. It was very engaging and great fun! I will share more about this Make Believe Comix in another post.)

FREE APP FRIDAY - ALPHABET ZOO

2011-11-18T08:32:00.001-06:00

Alphabet Zoo is an iPad app great for practicing the recognition of the alphabet sounds. Each letter is associated with an animal and a sound. The animal picture and sounds help kids recognize the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. When a letter is touched the first time, the user hears the name of the letter. The second and third time the letter is pressed the user hears the sound that the letter makes. The fourth time the letter is touched the letter changes into a picture associated with that letter.

Classroom Integration Ideas:
This app would be great for younger students to make the connection between the name of each letter and the sound associated with that letter.

GeoGebra

2011-11-17T10:36:00.001-06:00

GeoGebra is a free software program for mathematics instruction and would be a great resource for any algebra, geometry, statistics, or calculus classroom. The interface is divided into three sections, including an input bar for equations and functions, an algebra view to see and edit equations and functions, and a graphic view that will allow the teacher/student to construct objects and see the graphs of functions. The construction tools for this software are vast and include options such as: lines through points, bisectors, tangents, locus, intersections, polygons, compasses, circular arcs, ellipse, hyperbole, area, slope, and the list goes on. Teachers and students can use this software to draw graphs, transform graphs, construct parallelograms, find mean, median, and mode, construct a tangent, and much more. If needed, teachers and students can save a GeoGebra document as a ggb (GeoGebra file), gif, png, or your file can be printed. In addition, you can export as a "Dynamic Worksheet as Webpage (HTML)" to easily share the file by email or link to your website.

The GeoGebra software can be downloaded to your computer at the GeoGebra website or you can run a fully functional applet in your web browser. If you run the applet version, you will have to allow the Java plug-in to run on your computer. In addition, the GeoGebra website houses a Materials section, including interactive worksheets, collections, and tutorials.

Classroom Integration Resources:

The links below will provide resources to get you started as well as classroom lessons/resources.

7 Steps to Interactive Math with Geogebra: The Basics - This blog post is a great resource to help get started with GeoGebra. The author also has a section of his Broken Airplane blog devoted to GeoGebra resources.

GeoGebra in 10 Lessons - This is a link to a pdf which includes an overview of the GeoGebra interface, menus, and tools, as well as 10 lessons you can use for your classroom.

GeoGebra Math Interactive Lessons - These teacher tools are organized by content and skill. This resource continues to grow and the current worksheets are wonderful.

Free App Friday - SlideShark

2011-11-11T08:06:00.000-06:00

SlideShark is a free app that allows you to view Powerpoint presentations on an iPad. After downloading the app to your iPad, you then register for an account at www.slideshark.com. You can then upload Powerpoint presentations from your computer into your SlideShark account, and then view them within the iPad app. Currently, users are given 100 MB of space for free. All animations, fonts, graphics, and colors are preserved when converted to the iPad format. To advance slides, all you have to do is tap or swipe.

SlideShark Application:

If you are lucky enough to have an iPad 2 and a dongle, you can project presentations to large groups from your iPad without having to lug around your laptop.

FREE APP FRIDAY - PICTUREBOOK

2011-11-04T09:00:00.001-05:00

Picturebook is an educational app that lets users put their imagination to work and become an author of their own creation. The Picturebook app provides the user a very simple and easy to navigate design. It comes with three preloaded stories, a “how to” book on making your own story, a small library of images and two options for book covers. You can then add in characters and tell a story along the way.

Classroom Integration Ideas:
This app would be a great for younger students help develop writing and creativity skills. The stories they create and save on the iPad can then be shared to the class or read by other students.

InsideStory Flashcards

2011-10-31T13:58:00.002-05:00

InsideStory Flashcards is a site that declares it is "The world's most interesting way to learn words." This site is great for students who are visual learners, as it holds a collection of free printable flashcards that each feature a photo illustrating a vocabulary word. The cards are organized into 4 levels: Basic, Easy, Medium, and Hard. The medium level features SAT vocabulary words, while the Hard level holds words you might find on a GRE test. Although the cards are described as printables, you can view them on the site as a slide show without printing them off by clicking "Next" or "Previous" under each card. You are also given the option to hide the definition when viewing the cards.

Classroom Integration Ideas:

Teach your students a new word each day: Using your projector, display one of the cards but hide the word and definition. Have students guess what the word is based on the photograph.
Use the cards as creative writing prompts.
Create your own class set of photo flashcards: If you have a digital camera for your classroom or an iPad 2, have students take pictures that illustrate their vocabulary words and share them with the class. Display on a class website or bulletin board, or import into a Google Presentation or Keynote/Powerpoint.

Free App Friday - Lakeshore Phonics Apps

2011-10-28T07:00:00.008-05:00

Lakeshore Learning has recently come out with a few educational iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch apps that teach and reinforce phonics skills for early elementary aged children. These apps are being offered for free through December 30, 2011. Each app is described below.

Beginning Sounds Interactive Game

Designed for children ages 4 - 7, this app features a sorting game in which students match words that have the same beginning sound by dragging and dropping pictures into the correct spot on a board.

Letter of the Day Interactive Activities

A great app for kids who are just learning the letters of the alphabet. First they listen to a chant about the letter, then practice identifying the letter in words and pictures, and finally watch an animation of how to draw the letter and then practice drawing it themselves with their finger. Designed for ages 4 - 6.

Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe Interactive Game

This app features a tic-tac-toe game that can be played by 2 people. To win an "X" or an "O" each player must answer a phonics question correctly. Students will answer questions like "Which word has a long i sound?" and "Which of these words has a different ending sound than the others?" Perfect for ages 6 - 8.

Classroom Integration Ideas:
These apps would be ideal in a learning center with small groups of students. Students could work individually or together to complete the activities within each app. If you have an iPad dongle for your classroom, the Letter of the Day app would be a good one to use as a whole class activity when introducing or reinforcing a particular letter of the alphabet.

Digital Storytelling

2011-10-25T11:45:00.001-05:00

Lesson Description/Overview:

Biography of a President

In this activity you will use Popplet Lite to brainstorm and plan the elements of your presidential biography. You will then create a short digital presentation in StoryKit about your president.

Materials:
iPad
Apps: StoryKit & Popplet Lite

Activity:

Step 1: Pick a president that you would like to learn more about.

Step 2: Open the Safari app and use online resources to research your chosen president.
You will need to find at least:
3 interesting facts
1 quote by the president
2-3 relevant pictures (save these to your photo library by pressing and holding your finger on the photo)

Step 3: To organize your research, build a web in Popplet Lite with the facts and quotes that you find.

Step 4: Once you have finished your research and developed your web in Popplet, open the StoryKit app to begin creating your presentation.
Page 1: Title Page
Page 2: Interesting Facts
Page 3: Picture of the president with a voice recording of the quote

Step 5: When finished creating your story, share your story by emailing it to your instructor (sranderson@bryanisd.org).

Objectives: (Could substitute for any grade level)

(14) Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

(A) plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for conveying the intended meaning to an audience, determining appropriate topics through a range of strategies (e.g., discussion, background reading, personal interests, interviews), and developing a thesis or controlling idea;

(25) Research/Organizing and Presenting Ideas. Students organize and present their ideas and information according to the purpose of the research and their audience. Students are expected to synthesize the research into a written or an oral presentation that:

(A) draws conclusions and summarizes or paraphrases the findings in a systematic way;
(B) marshals evidence to explain the topic and gives relevant reasons for conclusions;
(C) presents the findings in a meaningful format; and
(D) follows accepted formats for integrating quotations and citations into the written text to maintain a flow of ideas.

(15) Writing/Literary Texts. Students write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas. Students are expected to:
(A) write an imaginative story that:

(i) sustains reader interest;
(ii) includes well-paced action and an engaging story line;
(iii) creates a specific, believable setting through the use of sensory details;
(iv) develops interesting characters; and
(v) uses a range of literary strategies and devices to enhance the style and tone; and

Password Bird

2011-10-17T08:54:00.001-05:00

Password Bird is a free website that asks you three questions then generates a password for you based on your responses. The passwords include numbers and letters. If you don't like the password it generates, click the link for a new password.

Classroom Implications
As students are asked to create passwords for their student accounts, Password Bird is a handy site for students when they can't think of their own computer passwords.

Search-cube

2011-10-04T09:58:00.001-05:00

Search-cube is interactive search engine that displays results in a 3D cube that contains images and videos. Each search cube can contain 96 cells. Once you your search results appear, you can use the arrow keys, the SHIFT key, and the mouse (trackpad) to interact with your search. The arrow

Classroom implications: Search Cube could be one way to get students to look at search engine results beyond the first few pages of results.

URL Shorteners

2011-09-13T14:43:00.001-05:00

As you begin to use Google Docs you may find yourself in need of URL shorteners in order to share links to your specific Doc. If you haven't begun to use these shorteners, bookmark these sites.

Bitly is one of the most used URL shortening service, that also creates QR codes for each URL you input.

TinyURL has been around nearly a decade and is often our preferred service.

Fur.ly is lets you shorten and assign multiple long URLs to one short URL. This is a great way to share a collection of links. When you open the first URL, you can move through the other ones via tiny a fur.ly toolbar at the top of the page.

Brightstorm

2011-08-30T08:58:00.002-05:00

Brightstorm is a site for finding free math and science videos. These videos cover Algebra I and II, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, and Trigonometry in math. And for science there are sections for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. There is also a test prep section for ACT, SAT, and AP tests.

Kideos.com

2011-08-18T13:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome Back to a New School Year! For those of you going through "Techy Things" withdrawal over the lack of updates over the summer, your wait is over. The first entry of this school year is a great free resource for elementary students.

Kideo s is a free site that is filled with online safe, kid friendly videos. They are organized by age groups (such as 0-2, 3-4, etc.) and abide by COPPA compliance.

SMART Board tutorials

2011-06-02T08:45:00.000-05:00

Fusion Universal offers for free more than three dozen SMART Board tutorial videos. The videos cover everything from turning on a SMART Board to creating lesson activities.

iPad Winner

2011-05-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

We have a winner! Amy Van Etten is our year-end Grand Prize winner for an ipad to use at Sam Houston Elementary.

Thanks to Amy and all of the other teachers and staff who had their names entered throughout the 2010-2011 school year for working to integrate technology skills into their daily instruction.

And remember to continue to read our blog for great updates throughout the summer.

May Techy Rewards Prize Winner

2011-05-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

Lisa Tarver won a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera with an extra 8GB memory card to use at Ross Elementary!

Thanks to Lisa and all of the other teachers and staff who had their names entered for the month of May for working to integrate technology skills into their daily instruction.

Don't forget, all names entered throughout the year will also be entered in the Grand Prize drawing on May 25 for an iPad.

FaceFlow

2011-05-18T11:52:00.001-05:00

Face Flow is a free video conferencing system that can accommodate up to four participants at a time. Using Face Flow you can text chat while video conferencing. A full screen mode lets you expand the other partificpant’s feed to the entire screen.To invite people to join your Face Flow call all you have to do is send them link to your conversation.

Awesome Library

2011-05-14T15:42:00.000-05:00

Awesome Library is a great collection of resources from the web. It includes over 37,000 reviewed sources from the web, including educational resources. The resources are all organized by topic as shown below.

Each of these topics has sub topics. As you select a topic, it will give suggestions for other pages to try out.

Symbaloo

2011-05-09T14:36:00.001-05:00

Symbaloo is a free bookmarking service (there is also a paid account that offers more features) that creates visual bookmarks. You can share them, organize them, and access them from any computer.

Fraboom

2011-05-05T07:55:00.001-05:00

Fraboom is a free online children’s museum that includes interactive books, games, vocabulary words, and live online classes. There is also a section called Fraboom TV that has short cartoons that teach vocabulary words.

April Techy Rewards Prize Winner

2011-05-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

Philip Madkins won a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera with an extra 8GB memory card to use at Kemp Elementary!!

Thanks to Philip and all of the other teachers and staff who had their names entered for the month of April for working to integrate technology skills into their daily instruction.

Our final monthly drawing will take place May 23.

To enter May's drawing and the end of the year final drawing for an iPad to use with your students, do the following:
•    Leave a comment about how you would use one of the tech tools posted on the Techy Things Teachers Should Try blog.
      State how you would use the tool in your classroom along with your first and last name.
      You must have a Google account to post to the blog.
•    Get caught having students using technology in your classroom by Tech Specialists doing walk-throughs.
•    Request and attend technology training at your campus.

All names entered in May will also be entered in the Grand Prize drawing on May 25 for an iPad.
All entries must be received by May 19 for both the monthly drawing and the Grand Prize. Your name can be entered multiple times.

iaza - Image Editor

2011-05-02T10:29:00.001-05:00

http://www.iaza.com/

iaza is a free photo image editor. This free tool is quick, simple, and provides a large bank of options for editing your photos. Just open the link, download the image you would like to edit, and choose the options that fit your needs. Once your image is edited, simply control+click on the photo to download and save to your computer. This would be a great tool to use for any multimedia project.

Curriculum and Instruction Picks the App - Elementary Language Arts

2011-04-29T11:52:00.000-05:00

Our next C&I Reviewer is Laurie Slaydon Bryan ISD's Elementary Language Arts Coordinator.

Reviewer Name: Laurie Slaydon

App Title: Pearson's Grammar Jammers-Primary, Elementary, and Middle Edition

Grade Level: K-5

Purpose: Students get in sync with grammar fundamentals through Grammar Jammers, an app which compliments Reading Street, our K-5 Reading adoption. Grammar Jammers offers interactive animated videos to help make mastering the rules of grammar fun. Grammar Jammers focuses on essential grammatical rules and usage, providing a framework for learning that supports students.

Overall Educational Value: Great!

Cost:
Primary Edition: Free
Elementary Edition: $2.99
Middle Edition: $2.99

iTunes Links:
Primary Edition: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-jammers-primary-edition/id386384446?mt=8
Elementary Edition: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-jammers-elementary/id386393185?mt=8
Middle Edition: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-jammers-middle-edition/id386394517?mt=8

Word It Out

2011-04-27T13:22:00.002-05:00

Word It Out is a free site that creates word clouds out of any text that you paste into the word cloud generator. You can change the word cloud to the color and size you would like. You can also choose to "Word It Out" meaning you can have the word cloud take out any word of the text that you don't want included. This is great for when you are pasting large amounts of text into the cloud such as a presidential speech.

Curriculum and Instruction Picks the App - Science

2011-04-25T10:31:00.001-05:00

Our next C&I Reviewer is Debbie Richards Bryan ISD's secondary Science Coordinator.

App Title: K12 Periodic Table

Grade Level: 6-12

Purpose: Interactive Periodic Table

Overall Educational Value: The app lets you explore each element on the periodic table by simply dragging over the element's box. The elements are color coded as metals, nonmetals, metalloids, other metals, noble gases and halogens.

Cost: free

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/k12-periodic-table/id408779560?mt=8

App Title: Air Sketch

Grade Level:Any

Purpose: Turn your iPad into a wireless whiteboard.

Overall Educational Value: This program allows you to annotate PDF documents and images live. Emphasis points in your presentation by circling or highlighting in one of 8 different pen colors.

Cost: 7.99

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-sketch/id376617790?mt=8

Pics4Learning

2011-04-20T11:32:00.002-05:00

Pics4Learning - This free copyright friendly site consists of thousands of photos hat have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers. Students and teachers may use ANY image in the Pics4Learning collection. The photos are organized by topic.

Ge.tt

2011-04-18T18:30:00.003-05:00

Ge.tt is an easy to use site that lets you share files. You don't have to register either if you want to use it for quick transfers (Ge.tt storage is temporary unless you register.) After you click which file you want to share, you are given a link to send to the person you want to share the image, doc, zip files, etc. with.

5 Interesting Historical Events Timelines

2011-04-15T15:16:00.000-05:00

HyperHistory

Conflict History

Timeline of Art History

Life

Google News Timeline

Curriculum and Instruction Picks the App

2011-04-13T08:42:00.001-05:00

This is the first of a new series of reviews courtesy of our Curriculum and Instruction Coordinators. Each coordinator will pick an app from their instructional area that they would like to highlight. Our first reviewer is Kristen Beesaw, Language Arts Coordinator for grades 6-12.

Reviewer Name: Kristen Beesaw

App Title: My Writing Spot for iPad

Grade Level: K-12

Purpose: Use this app to write journal entries, keep class notes, or begin a novel.

Overall Educational Value: Great app to help students organize and archive their writing on the iPad. The built-in dictionary and thesaurus give students a tool to improve their word choice. The notebook itself is customizable for font type and size.

Cost: $4.99

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-writing-spot-for-ipad/id363412884?mt=8 http:

Visuwords

2011-04-12T11:16:00.001-05:00

Visuwords is a free, online graphical dictionary that allows you to not only find the definition of a word, but also its association with other words and concepts. When you look up a word, a web pops onto the screen showing its connection to other words and its part of speech. By hovering over a word you can see its definition and also a list of synonyms.
Try out Visuwords by clicking here.

5 Free Paint Apps for iPad

2011-04-12T09:35:00.000-05:00

SketchBook Mobile Express App, which has been described as professional-grade free paint app for iPad. It includes the color wheels that contain all primary colors and the customizable color swatches, the dynamic symmetric drawing mode, flood fill, photo import and several levels of undo/redo.

MyPaint Free App is a free iPad painter where you can start to develop a new art work directly from scratch on a black canvas. You can paint with all sorts of colours, scribble and even edit a photo directly from your library.

Kids Paint HD App is a great app that can keep kids busy on the iPad. The user interface on this free iPad paint app is so simple, containing random colours and brush sizes which make for easy painting from the scratch.

Doodle Kids HD App allows you to create wonderful painting effects on a black canvas with full screen.

Drawing Box Free App for iPad, is so easy to use as all it requires you to do is to pick up a brush, choose a color and paint away. Paintings made can also be saved in the gallery in real time and shared with friends and colleagues.

Civil War Resources

2011-04-08T09:01:00.002-05:00

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.
Below are some great resources, most notably the
A Civil War Interactive Timeline from The New York Times

Other great resources include:

150 years later: Civil War anniversary stirs controversy an interactive site from The Associated Press
The Civil War is from Mr. Nussbaum
Civil War: 150th Anniversary is from The History Channel
Faces of The Civil War is a Washington Post slideshow
Decisive Battles of the Civil War is a U.S. News interactive
How Stuff Works has many Civil War related videos

Watch Know

2011-04-07T11:19:00.002-05:00

Watch Know is a collection of thousands of educational videos that are divided into categories such as history, math, language arts, holidays, etc, or you can search for them through the search box. While many videos are hosted by YouTube, there are thousands of videos available through that come from other sources such as Teacher Tube. There is a "classroom accessible" button that allows you to search for non YouTube videos.

March Techy Rewards Prize Winner

2011-04-05T10:15:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to the

March Techy Rewards Winner

Laurie Wimberly

Carver Early Childhood Center

Laurie won a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera with an extra 8GB memory card to use in her classroom!!

Thanks to Laurie and all of the other teachers who had their names entered for the month of March for working to integrate technology skills into their daily instruction.

All names entered in March will also be entered in the Grand Prize drawing in May for an iPad.

To enter Aprils's drawing do the following:
•    Leave a comment about how you would use one of the tech tools posted on the Techy Things Teachers Should Try blog.
     http://bryantechnology.blogspot.com
State how you would use the tool in your classroom along with your first and last name.
    You must have a Google account to post to the blog.
•    Get caught having students using technology in your classroom by Tech Specialists doing walk-throughs.
•    Request and attend technology training at your campus or attend the T/Th tech trainings at the Technology Support Center

Your name can be entered multiple times each month!!

SMART Notebook Search Engine

2011-04-04T11:00:00.001-05:00

SMART Notebook Search Engine was created by Google Custom Search, and designed to help you find resources designed for teaching with SMARTBoards.

Music Tech Teacher

2011-04-01T13:38:00.001-05:00

Music Tech Teacher is a free site designed to help elementary school students learn to read music, learn to play music, and learn about music technology through online music lessons, quizzes, and games.

Google Bloom’s Taxonomy

2011-03-30T13:13:00.000-05:00

Google Bloom’s Taxonomy is a clickable interactive map that was assembled by Kathy Schrock. Each of the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy is covered by various Google (or Google related) applications.

Sendoid

2011-03-29T11:02:00.003-05:00

Sendoid is a new file transfer system that lets you share files as large as 1 GB. Because Sendoid is a link-based service, your files are only passed directly between parties. Simply load the file you wish to share, and once it is uploaded use the unique one time link that is created to send to someone else to open and download your shared file.
There’s no software to install for this use, but for files larger than 1 GB, you'll need to download the free desktop app. Once you download the app, and you no longer have any limitations on the size of file you can transfer.

View Pure

2011-03-28T13:45:00.001-05:00

View Pure is a free and simple site that strips way all of the distractions of YouTube.
With this site, you can watch YouTube videos without comments, suggestions, or promoted videos on YouTube. To use View Pure just copy the link of a video into the "purifier," click purify, and your video will be displayed on a blank white background.

Minus

2011-03-25T14:19:00.002-05:00

Minus is a free file sharing service and supports all file types (pictures, documents, music, videos, etc). Once you create an account, drag and drop files from your desktop and folders directly to your browser to share the files. There are also desktop and mobile apps to use and a Chrome extension and web app. There is a maximum file size of 25MB and you can only put 50 items in a gallery (folder). But, there is no limit to the number of galleries you can create. There is even a way to share files as a guest without an account which could be useful for students who want to share a file with a teacher.

Flubaroo

2011-03-24T12:52:00.001-05:00

Flubaroo is a free tool designed by a classroom teacher that works with Google Docs to automatically grade quizzes or tests that you create in Google Forms. Not only does it grade the assignments, it computes the average score per question, flags low-scoring questions, shows you a histogram of the class results, and allows you to email each student their score. In order to use Flubaroo, you must have a Google account.

To learn how to grade an assignment with Flubaroo, view the user guide.

Edmodo - Social Networking

2011-03-22T14:21:00.001-05:00

http://www.edmodo.com/

Edmodo is a social networking site for teachers and students. Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for collaboration in the classroom. Make sure you read the terms of service for teachers and students before you get started.

This is a free tool and does work in real time. If you are looking for a social networking tool to engage students that has a similar feel to Twitter or Facebook, this may be the tool for you.
Ideas:

Use this tool to support a backchannel discussion during lecture.
Create an assignments and ask students to reflect

Support: Introduction Video

If it Were My Home

2011-03-22T09:32:00.002-05:00

If It Were My Home – This is a great site for social studies teachers. At this site, you can compare your own country to another country, and you can find out what your life would be like if you were born in that other country as it compares the various aspects of two countries.

Wikimedia Commons

2011-03-21T13:41:00.001-05:00

Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is the largest online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. When you or your students need free to use images this is the site you'll want to check out.

Diagram.ly

2011-03-15T22:37:00.002-05:00

Diagram.ly is a free site that offers a drag and drop interface for creating diagrams using clip art and pre-drawn shapes. There is no registration and you can save your work to your computer in either a xml, png, jpg, or svg format.

Maths Starter of the Day

2011-03-11T11:35:00.000-06:00

Maths Starter of the Day is a free site that offers a starting point for numerous math lessons for students from elementary to high school. Click on the date in the calendar below for the Starter Of The Day.

You can even jump ahead or find a starter by topic. This site would be great to use with an interactive whiteboard.

Gudli

2011-03-09T08:41:00.001-06:00

Gudli is a free PreK-second grade educational site that offers activities in math, language arts, reading, and social studies. The interface is very appealing to young students, including a cute way of scrolling through the available activities by using a rainbow colored squirrel to "barrel roll" through the menu.

Two Finance Sites for Kids

2011-03-08T10:06:00.001-06:00

Planet Orange This fun, interactive website sponsored by ING Direct teaches kids in grades first through sixth the basics of earning, spending, saving, and investing money. Kids start by creating a character astronaut who is assigned a mission that revolves around money. They then design their own spaceship and begin their mission.

Why It’s Great: Whether it’s earning, saving, spending or even building a portfolio and investing, kids will learn the basics of money and how to use it. You have to sign up to use Planet Orange, but the program is free.

Rich Kid Smart Kid
Rich Kid Smart Kid uses free, interactive, animated games to teach kids everything from what debt is, to the importance of saving money. It even covers how to make a profit in a business.
The two main characters, Reno and Toki, take kids on adventures that teach lessons along the way. Each of the games has four levels for kids who range in age from K2 to twelfth grade.

Why It’s Great: Adorable characters appeal to kids’ imaginations while teaching them life skills. The site also has a Grown Up section for parents and teachers where they can find tips and lesson plans for teaching financial know-how (and maybe even learning a bit themselves).

DOGO News!

2011-03-04T10:18:00.001-06:00

DOGO News offers interesting current event articles that students can read and discuss. If you sign up as a teacher they offer lesson plan resources and ideas on how to build your own online classroom newspaper. It also offers kid website reviews and maps with articles linked to sites around the world. Thanks to Jerilyn Cleere at SFA Middle School for sharing this resource.

Vocaroo

2011-03-02T09:57:00.002-06:00

Vocaroo is a free site that makes voice recordings without any hassle (no registration, no software download, etc.). Simple choose the "click to record" icon, record your voice, and then choose from the option of downloading your recording or using an embedded code for use on a blog or web page.

Emailerr

2011-03-01T13:04:00.000-06:00

Emailerr gives you a PNG image of any email address you type. Sharing the image instead of typing your email on websites will prevent spambots from detecting your email address and spamming it.

Google Art Project

2011-02-25T13:23:00.001-06:00

The Google Art Project is a website that lets you explore art museums from around the world. After selecting a museum, such as the Van Gogh art museum in Amsterdam, you can select various paintings to view in high resolution, or find paintings by virtually navigating through the museum. Once a painting is selected an information panel can be viewed where you can read about the artwork, select other works by that artist, and even watch YouTube videos related to the painting. If you sign in a with a Google account, you can create your own collection of art that can be shared with others.

World Read Aloud Day Skype Project

2011-02-18T14:14:00.002-06:00

March 9, 2011 is World Read Aloud Day. A very interesting project has started via Twitter, called the World Read Aloud Day Skype Project. By following this link you can sign up to Skype with another classroom to to read or listen to various books.
World Read Aloud Day Skype Project Sign Up

For more information on how you and your school can participate in the events of World Read Aloud Day here:

You can also follow the Events on:

MyFakeWall

2011-02-18T14:02:00.001-06:00

MyFakeWall is an easy to use site that allows you to create a fake Facebook page for a historical figure or character. In order to make a wall you must create an account and sign in. Once your wall is completed you are given a url which can be shared.

Little Bird Tales

2011-02-18T07:54:00.002-06:00

Little Bird Tales is a free site for early elementary grades that allows the user to create a narrated story by either drawing an image with the program or uploading images. Text can be added to the images as well. Then the user can add narration to the story and then share it.

Bibme - Bibliography Maker

2011-02-16T09:13:00.002-06:00

Bibme is a free website that is an automatic bibliography maker for citations that can be used to conduct research on books, magazines, newspapers, websites, journals, and film. Once you have your citations, you can download the bibliography in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian formats and include it in your paper.

My Avatar Editor

2011-02-14T14:47:00.001-06:00

My Avatar Editor is a free online site where you can create and edit avatars. Gender, height, size, hair and eye color, along with other physical characteristics can be chosen. Once an avatar is created, it can be exported as a .png file without the background.

By combining this with Comic Life, students could create historical scenes. Normally, you are only able to drag one picture into a frame in Comic Life, but by saving the Avatar without a background, and using the "command" key while dragging the image onto a background image, a scene like above can be created.

Storybird - Collaborative Storytelling

2011-02-08T14:34:00.001-06:00

http://storybird.com/
Use this collaborative storytelling tool in your classroom to enhance reading and writing skills. Storybird has a vast library of artwork to choose from for your story. Once you have chosen artwork, simply drag and drop that artwork into a storybird book. You can easily create a multiple page book in one class period.
Ideas:
Rewrite the ending to a story.
Simply complete a creative writing assignment focusing grammar skills.
Complete a poetry activity.
Retell an event in History.

January Techy Rewards Prize Winner

2011-02-02T13:21:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to the

January Techy Rewards Winner

Allison Dippel

Kemp Elementary School

Allison won a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera with an extra 16GB memory card to use in her classroom!!

Thanks to Allison and all of the other teachers who had their names entered for the month of January for working to integrate technology skills into their daily instruction.

All names entered in January will also be entered in the Grand Prize drawing in May for an iPad.

To enter February's drawing do the following:
•    Leave a comment about how you would use one of the tech tools posted on the Techy Things Teachers Should Try blog.
     http://bryantechnology.blogspot.com
State how you would use the tool in your classroom along with your first and last name.
    You must have a Google account to post to the blog.
•    Get caught having students using technology in your classroom by Tech Specialists doing walk-throughs.
•    Request and attend technology training at your campus or attend the T/Th tech trainings at the Technology Support Center

Your name can be entered multiple times each month!!

Typewith.me

2011-02-01T13:06:00.002-06:00

http://typewith.me
Collaborate in real time using this document tool. Students/Colleagues can seamlessly work together to develop ideas, brainstorm ideas, peer edit, plan, and summarize.
Each document you create will be given a unique URL. Simply share the document through email by clicking on the Share This button and following the process. Make sure your bookmark the URL for your document if you want to come back to it later.
The word processing features are similar to most and you can export your document to a Word or PDF file when finished. Another cool feature is the Time Slider. It will allow you to playback the development of the document from beginning to end.

Word It Out

2011-02-01T12:41:00.001-06:00

http://worditout.com/

Another great tool for creating word clouds. Have your students create a word cloud to brainstorm ideas for a project, activity, or essay. It’s fun and easy.

FunnelBrain

2011-01-31T12:38:00.001-06:00

FunnelBrain is a new site for creating flashcards and quizzes in a web 2.0 style.

Qwiki - the next Big thing

2011-01-27T09:08:00.001-06:00

Qwiki is a visual search engine that works like Wikipedia. It gathers information for millions of topics pulling together an interactive image and text presentation on whatever topic you choose to search for.

Standford Solar Center

2011-01-26T16:53:00.001-06:00

This site focuses on the sun and solar science topics. It is geared for grades 4-12 and provides an abundance of information. Videos, photographs, and student activities are some of the resources available.

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/

3x3 Links

2011-01-20T09:30:00.001-06:00

3x3 links allows you to easily create a visual start page with links you would like your students to access quickly and easily. The site creates a unique URL that you can give to your students, or you can set it as the homepage on your browser for easy access. It even works on mobile devices, so if you have iPads your students can access the page through Safari.
To create a links page, you must first sign in with a Google account.
Check out the links page I created by clicking here: http://www.3x3links.com/sranderson6

Bryan ISD Recommended iPad Apps

2011-01-06T09:40:00.000-06:00

Please visit the Google Doc link below to see a list of recommended iPad Apps for our schools. This is not a comprehensive list, but a start. We would love to hear your favorite apps. Please post back to this blog and share your ideas.

Bryan ISD iPad Apps

QuietWrite

2011-01-05T15:05:00.001-06:00

QuietWrite is an online writing workspace where you can write in a safe/online forum by giving a unique URL. When you are ready, you can then share your writing via that URL. It also works on an iPad.

Museum Box

2011-01-05T14:09:00.001-06:00

This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others.

Museum Box

Tag Galaxy

2011-01-05T08:39:00.001-06:00

Tag Galaxy is a visually cool site that allows you to explore relationships between words. Type in a word and the screen becomes a floating model of a galaxy with the original word at the center and words that are similar or associated with it orbiting around it.
If you click on the word in the center, a globe populates with pictures from Flickr that are tagged with that word. If you click on one of the other words that are orbiting around the original search word, you will get a combination of the terms and pictures related to both, as well as a new galaxy model with further choices of related terms. The more orbiting words you choose, the more specific your pictures will be.

Tag Galaxy is great way to visualize word and idea relationships.

AirDropper

2011-01-03T14:39:00.001-06:00

AirDropper is a site that allows users to email "others" and request files from them. Once the files have been requested people can then "drop" those file into a unique drop box just for them.

This was found thanks to David Andrade's blog.

NASA Educational Materials

2010-12-17T09:10:00.000-06:00

NASA's website has a section for educators where teachers can search for lesson plans, activities, videos, and other resources to use in the classroom. Teachers can search by grade level, subject, keyword and type of resource. A section for students is also included with games, a student dictionary, NASA images, and other fun activities for kids to learn about science and space.

The Periodic Table of Videos

2010-12-17T08:42:00.001-06:00

The Periodic Table of Videos is a site from the University of Nottingham that created short YouTube videos for each of the elements on the periodic table.

Each element seems much more exciting after you’ve seen what happens with simple experiments with each.
The group also puts out a non-YouTube version of the site for schools that have blocked the site.

10 essential iPad apps for high school students

2010-12-16T08:25:00.000-06:00

The free Dictionary.com app delivers trusted reference content from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, including nearly 1,000,000 words and definitions and 90,000 synonyms and antonyms. No Internet connection is needed. The app also features audio pronunciations, similarly spelled words and Dictionary.com’s popular Word of the Day that is enjoyed by millions of people.

Accessing Wikipedia has never been faster and easier than with Wikipanion, designed for easy, search, navigation and display of Wikipedia entries. Streamline your browsing with history grouped by visit date, and bookmarking that not only bookmarks individual entries, but individual sections within an entry.

Graphing Calculator turns your phone or iPod into an intuitive high-resolution function plotter and scientific calculator. Features include the following:

- Includes a powerful, yet easy to use scientific calculator.
- Quickly plot and trace multiple equations on the same graph.
- Custom keyboard to speed up entering in equations.
- Pinch to zoom and drag/slide for scrolling the graph in real time.
- The graph view supports portrait and landscape modes.
- Take screen shots, and e-mail graphs to yourself.
- Evaluate your graphs at any x value using the calculator screen.
- Find the exact (x,y) coordinates for roots, intersections, minimums and maximums using the trace mode.
- Supports graphing polar and parametric equations.
- Currently supports the following functions: log, log2, log10, ln, exp, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, sinh, cosh, tanh, asinh, acosh, atanh, csc, sec, cot, gamma, lgamma, nCr, nPr, min, max, degrees to radians, radians to degrees, absolute value, square root, ceiling, floor, and mod.

myHomework is a simple and easy to use iPhone application that allows you to keep track of your homework, classes, projects and tests while interacting with a really cool design. myHomework’s design tends to resemble our day to day notebook, the sections are separated by colorful “sticky pads” that marks the page.

You can quickly enter your class schedule and use it to differ between homework assignments. myHomework will also notify you when you have late and upcoming assignments by numbering them on your application icon. Late assignments will be marked in red, next day upcoming assignments will be marked in orange, and all other upcoming assignments will be marked in blue. So you can easily identify which homework you definitely need to look into.

Like reading? Fire up Books and download a few of our 23,469 classics, free of charge!

We take 23,469 classic books, package them up, and make them all available to download and read with our fully featured ereader.

Books unlocks a menu of public domain content, allowing you to acquire some of the great books of human history. Letters of leaders, the collected works of geniuses, the finest Victorian novels, the plays of Shakespeare, the philosophy of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Carnegie.

Explore the properties of the elements, the standard amino acids, and the nucleobases with The Chemical Touch. A touch sensitive periodic table and chemical information companion, it provides a wealth of information right at your fingertips. Recolor the periodic table by selecting properties other than Atomic Mass to visually investigate periodic trends. Having exhausted the built-in information, the internet button opens the Wikipedia page for the selected element, amino acid, or nucleobase.

Mathematical Formulas is the perfect app for you who likes mathematics and easily forgets formulas which you need in certain situation. Without a good app, it's tough to remember all these complicated and easy forgettable formulas. You don't even want to write down all you formulas on ten or even 20 different post-it papers and loosing them all the time. But hey, why don't have them in ONE place and easily access them whenever you want to?

This app is especially made for this kind of a situations. Mathematical Formulas contains all the basic functions you'll need. You won't no more worry about forgetting the basic formulas such as the quadratic formula and etc.

History:Maps of World is a fun and educational collection of high-resolution historical maps.
Check it out to keep up with your history, learn something about history.

Features
- Wide variety of historical displays
- Support for Category/Era view
- Keyword Search
- Displays the source about each map
- Zoom in/out (zoom-in/out with pinch, zoom-in with double tab, and zoom-out with two-fingers tap)
- Free screen rotation
- Not require a network connection

The complete CIA World Factbook at your fingertips, including extensive information on more than 250 countries and locations throughout the world. Whether you're an avid traveler, a busy student, or someone who just likes to stay informed, this is the app for you!

Not only does it translate English sentences into foreign languages – it
READS THEM BACK TO YOU IN THAT LANGUAGE!

iTranslate is a great way to:
- Study vocabulary the fun way.
- Have a list of important phrases on hand while you are on vacation.
- Communicate immediately with someone who normally couldn’t understand you.

Features Include:
- Up to 500 characters per translation.
- Unlimited number of phrases.
- Real dynamic text-to-speech translation, these are not prerecorded

Thanks to Scott McGlynn at teach2thefuture.net for this one.