Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pearltrees: Mind-mapping and Social Bookmarking in One

Pearltrees could be a great tool to use with students.  It is a mind-mapping and social bookmarking tool all in one.  After creating a Pearltree on a specific topic, you simple add a new "pearl" or website link.  You can continue to add to the Pearltree as new websites are found.  What a great tool to use during a research project or as a cumulative list of important class websites.  See an example below to get an idea of how it works.
Internet safety in (bostonrunner08)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Learn it in 5- Online Technology Professional Development

It can be difficult to keep up with the technological changes of our times.  That's why I love Learn it in 5.  This site is focused specifically on educator technology professional development.  By watching short (five minutes or less) video clips, you can learn about a new tool or gadget.  Want to learn how to create a classroom blog or a podcast?  Videos are available to teach you just that.  There are also videos for your students.  This is the perfect resource for the busy teacher who also attempts to keep up with innovative classroom technologies.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Sweet Search: A Reliable, Safe Search Engine for Students



Those of you who know me know how frustrated I get when I see kids "Googling." I personally have nothing against Google.  (In fact, thanks to them I have this blog!)  I just do not think that a "Google" search is the best way to conduct academic research.  Our students are not sophisticated searchers nor are many of them adept at evaluating a website. 

If not Google, where do they go?  Students should always begin research with our print resources and highly reliable (and expensive) subscription databases.  (Our databases can be accessed electronically day or night, from home or school).  If students still need further information, I would like to introduce them to a search engine created especially for students with information reviewed by information professionals.  This search engine is called Sweet Search.  Since all Sweet Search indexed websites do go through a prior review, you can feel confident that students are accessing highly reliable information that fits their research needs.  I challenge you to try this with your next project and see what a difference it makes in the amount of time that students spend searching for information and the quality of information that they access.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Rhyme 'n Learn- Learn Math and Science through Music

Sometimes it just takes a good rap song to get the attention of our students.  Thanks to Rhyme 'n Learn, this is possible!  Rhyme 'n Learn contains rap songs and videos about various science and math topics.  See a sample video below on Pi.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Class Tools: Create Interactive Games and More!

One of the coolest discoveries yet: ClassTools.net.  This site lets you create interactive, arcade style games and diagrams in minutes!  No sign-up is required, and all tools can be embedded into websites for classroom use.  The site also includes samples and video tutorials to aid in creation.


Some of my favorite tools include Fakebook and PlagiarizrFakebook is an educational tool for making fake Facebook pages.  Right away I'm thinking about how fun this would be to use with students doing biography projects or research on historical figures.  I also love Plagiarizr.  Simply place suspicious text into the text area, hit submit, and wait for an analysis.  So easy!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Best Websites of 2011

Tech & Learning just published their Top 100 Websites of 2011.  Many of these are some of my current favorites and new favorites.  Now it's just a matter of finding the time to browse through all of them.  It's worth it though as these simple tools can transform your classroom!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Jeopardy Labs: Easy Online Jeopardy Creator

We all enjoy playing a good Jeopardy game with our students once in awhile.  I just discovered a website that makes it so much easier.  Jeopardy Labs is a fun way to create your own online Jeopardy game.  You can create your own games for free with no account set-up required.  (You can enter a password if you want the option of modifying your game later).  Once you enter your game information, a unique URL is created, giving you the ability to link it to your own website.  What a great tool for SMARTboards as well.