Testing Eclipse Crossword

This is software to install on your computer.  It allows you to make interactive / printable crosswords.  http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/

Specialty

This interactive crossword puzzle requires JavaScript and any recent web browser, including Windows Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari. If you have disabled web page scripting, please re-enable it and refresh the page. If this web page is saved on your computer, you may need to click the yellow Information Bar at the top or bottom of the page to allow the puzzle to load.

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EclipseCrossword © 2000-2011

Welcome!

Click a word in the puzzle to get started.

 

Congratulations!

You have completed this crossword puzzle.
If you would like to be able to create interactive crosswords like this yourself, get EclipseCrossword from Green Eclipse—it's free!

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Blooms and You

The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom


Always worth a repost, Larry Ferlazzo!

Shining with Chrome

Firefox has been crashing on me a lot lately (to be fair, I read that they will try to alleviate some of this in version 15).  But due to the lack of stability, I decided to move entirely to Chrome.  I must say that being an iPad user for about half the time, Chrome is proving to be invaluable.  After clearing all my google / chrome connections and starting over with a sync setup on my main machine, I installed the iPad version and logged in on the mobile device.

WaLA! all my bookmarks, and active tabs were there - homepage, form fills etc.  Genius. Now to install it on my Amazon Fire since it is available for Android on Google Play.

So, I will be watching for the version upgrade to firefox, but it will take a lot to bring me back, Mozilla.


Chrome:  https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/
Chrome for iPad:   http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome/id535886823?ls=1&mt=8
Chrome for Android:   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome&hl=en

and if you are game, Firefox Alpha: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/

Technorati Tags: mozilla chrome firefox

Ge.tt your files

A simple file sharing site with 2 GB free - drag and drop to start an album and share by sending an email message.  Slick as a whistle.  Clean - Simple - Useful -
VISIT GE.TT

What is Ge.tt?

Ge.tt is an instant, real-time file publishing and sharing service. With Ge.tt there is no need for special software or plug-ins. It is a simple file sharing and publishing tool for all types of materials including documents, video, music and photos.

Technorati Tags: ge.tt

Teach Searching

Google has launched a new Search Education site.
As they say:

Web search can be a remarkable tool for students, and a bit of instruction in how to search for academic sources will help your students become critical thinkers and independent learners.

With the materials on this site, you can help your students become skilled searchers- whether they're just starting out with search, or ready for more advanced training.

The site includes Lesson Plans and Activities as well as video and more.  Searching skills are a necessity for today's students - check this one out.

Technorati Tags: search, google

Take a World Tour

360 Degree Aerial Panorama's of sites around the world - that is what you find at 360 AirPano. 
from their site: AirPano is a noncommercial project focused on high resolution 3D aerial panoramas. AirPano team is the group of russian photographers and panorama enthusiasts. During the next 2-3 years we plan to shoot the aerial panoramas and create the virtual 3D tours of the most interesting places of our planet.

Most of us are not able to travel around the world - and even if we did, we certainly would not get this type of view.  I was lost in both memories for places I have visited and awe at those never seen personally.  What a great way to share the world with your students.

Every week they present a new virtual tour on the website - do NOT miss this one.



Technorati Tags: airpano

iPad App for Interactive Teaching

The Educreations iPad app is a free download in the App Store which transforms the tablet into an interactive whiteboard.   It will record a teacher’s voice and handwriting as they teach. Teachers can add photos to their lessons from the Photo Library or camera (iPad2), or a Dropbox account.  Animation is possible by tapping and dragging. 

A teacher can then link to the lesson via educreations.com.  These can be shared privately or to the world.

I believe this could be the ultimate for all the "IWB" - iPad hacks teachers have been using.
Great job, Educreations.

Save your Twitter Meet

BAW 2012 (Becoming a Webhead), just finished their first ever TwitterMeet!  It was very informative and centered on the quesiton - "Why use web 2.0 in Language Learning".  It the process, I discovered a great tool for saving the information - Tweetdoc
It records the participants - trending words - and conversation in pdf format.  Very useful in education - especially if using twitter for a classroom discussion tool.
View our TweetDoc - and then make your own!


Technorati Tags: tweetdoc, baw2012

Stupeflix - free minute

Stupeflix.com is an online tool for making videos from images and video clips.  You can add music (or upload) from their library, place a map or text cel into the mix.  Your materials can come from your Picasa, Facebook, Dropbox, Flikr accounts - where most of our materials are stored anyway.
It does cost for any videos over 1 minute - you can have a yearly account or pay by the video which is an interesting concept.
Here are some random items imported from my Facebook account.
http://youtu.be/v4XVzzhORgA

Taking a Bite for Learning

The BBC has always been a resource for significant learning tools.  Bitesize was one that I had recommended years ago and just came across again today.  It has made major improvements since my last visit.  The simple user experience allow it to be explored by children on their own, and yet it gives teachers resources that can be used for both RTI (Response to Intervention) to G/T (gifted / talented).
Note - personally, I do not differentiate children with these names, but the programs themselves. I feel each child is individual and does not deserve a label.)
Since this site is from the BBC, some of the terms may be different for US users, but that is quickly overcome.



I am glad I returned to this site - I hope you do, too.

Technorati Tags: bitesize, bbc

Need some Motivating Extras?

Upcoming Moodlemeet on Motivating Extras is coming up soon.

Join us for 5 days of experimentation - learning - and sharing.  I am pleased to be able to lead you through my favorite Web 2.0 tools for motivating your students while moving them through your curriculum and toward meeting today's standards.

Finding it impossible to teach creativity, communication and safety while meeting the million requirements of your job? Discover tools to make this happen without adding on, but by embedding into your classrooms.
The purpose of this week is to give you motivating tools that will enable your students to meet the educational technology goals of today.


Hope to see you online.  We begin on January 20th!

Comic Creators - courtesy of BAW2012

Using comics for students to demonstrate what they have learned is very motivating.

Comic Creators

 Comic Creator: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/comic-creator-30021.html
DVolver moviemaker: http://www.dfilm.com/live/home.html
GoAnimate: http://goanimate.com/
MakeBeliefsComix: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Pixton: http://pixton.com/
ToonDoo: http://www.toondoo.com/
WriteComics: http://writecomics.com  (example: http://writecomics.com/gen/4160.html)
ZimmerTwins: http://www.zimmertwins.com

Voice and Audio courtesy of BAW2012

Voice/Audio tools

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (recorder - MP3 converter)
AudioPal: http://www.audiopal.com/
Aviary: http://aviary.com/
Chirbit: http://www.chirbit.com/
EVOCA: http://www.evoca.com
HandyBits: http://www.handybits.com (to be downloaded)
Vaestro: http://www.vaestro.com
Viewpoint: http://clear.msu.edu/viewpoint/index.php
Vocaroo: http://vocaroo.com/
VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/
Voxopop: http://www.voxopop.com/

Sorry, been longer than I hoped as I have been deeply involved in getting ready for the EVO launch.
Starts on Sunday with the sessions first days on Monday, January 9th.  Registrations are coming in fast and furious and excitement is building.


Join us and learn about these as well as many other tools.

Virtual Learning Environments

The next few weeks, I would like to post lists of tools - these are resources that have been gathered by the "Becoming a Webhead" team 2012.  This session from the Electronic Village Online 2012 "conference" has long been a group I love to work with.  Dedicated educators from around the world (English as a Second Language being the main theme).

Starting with VLE's

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) or vClassrooms

BigMarker: http://www.bigmarker.com/
Elluminate: http://www.elluminate.com/
Learning Times: http://www.learningtimes.org
Scribblar: http://scribblar.com/
Tapped In: http://tappedin.org/tappedin
Twiddla: http://www.twiddla.com/
Vyew: http://vyew. com/site/
Webhuddle: https://www.webhuddle.com/
WiZiQ: http://www.wiziq.com (no longer free)

I could review each one - but, I leave that to you.
enjoy!  next up will be their tools for working with video.

YouTube for Schools

Before I retired, my district was using YouTube extensively.  Any "unacceptable" videos that happened to appear on a student screen (not caught by the filter), was expected to be quickly clicked off and reported.  But now, Google has helped - Meet YouTube for Schools:

New way for Feedback

From Jotform - Wishbox!

Places a Feedback button on the bottom of your webpage and allows for user feedback WITH screen shots.  Could be a great way to improve help desk type support for an informational site.

It is extremely easy to install.  Give it a try.
Once your screenshot is annotated, you save and submit via a form.  Below is my "feedback" for their website.

Searth the Earth

Searthing - searching the earth for art.  Not, man-made - but, geographical art.

from their intro: Searthing is the concept of searching the Earth for art via virtual globe such as Earth 3D Viewer, Edge Whole Earth, KeyHole, Google Universe, and now Google Earth. This art is actually satellite imagery, remote sensing, aerial photography and combinations thereof.  Only in the past decade has technology made it possible to scour the Earth and see things we would otherwise never see.  Searthing is the concept of searching the Earth for art via virtual globe such as Earth 3D Viewer, Edge Whole Earth, KeyHole, Google Universe, and now Google Earth. This art is actually satellite imagery, remote sensing, aerial photography and combinations thereof.  Only in the past decade has technology made it possible to scour the Earth and see things we would otherwise never see. 

They have video clips posted for using Google Earth and Maps to "searth".  You can turn this into a motivational way for students to explore their world.
Searth HERE.

Copyright Advice for Teachers from Kristin Hokanson

An interview from ISTE 2011 by Wes Fryer

Copyright Advice for Teachers from Kristin HokansonTechnorati Tags: wfryer, copyright, iste2011

Finally - Docs are Synced

Just finished syncing my Google Docs with both my laptop and my desktop.  This is a fantastic product and I am lovin' it.  I can see where it fills that gap missing from my Dropbox account. 
Syncdocs - Simply select a folder on your PC, like “My Documents”, and Syncdocs copies it online and across all your computers, automatically. This folder is then kept in sync.
Or you can map a drive directly to the share.

Syncdocs integrates right into your desktop opening your files in Google Docs.  It is a small download and so far has not drawn my CPU power.  I have extensive files and it took awhile to sync the first time (especially when the laptop went to sleep overnight).  But, now it is done and I am really loving it.  You can even right click a file and "open in your docs" - it has really integrated the process.

Technorati Tags: syncdocs, googledocs

Chemistry for Middle School

This new site puts a curriculum at the hands of students and teachers.  Chemistry for the Middle School complete with Lessons and activities.
I think that this could be a great differentiation tool for those teachers without time for individual lesson planning.  The student that wants the extra piece of 8th grade Science - or needs a refresher on the Periodic Table - or misses a section due to illness.  The possibilities are endless.

Since it is from the American Chemical Society, I am assuming the facts do not need to be vetted - and it should be modern knowledge.

Why do we need books with this type of online curriculum?  just a netbook, laptop - or tablet and connectivity.


Technorati Tags: middleschoolchemistry, ACS