Dr. Carlson's Science Theatre

Dr. C teaches Physics and Chemistry just outside Lafayette Indiana.  At the time of writing this he had 40 science videos.  You can see them by clicking here.

Clipping Magic

This website allows the user to upload a picture and easily remove the background so you are left with just the main object or objects from that picture.  You might want to use these for an icon to use on glog or a word document.  It is free and simple.  Just upload your picture.

Then mark the foreground object green and the background object red.  You can zoom in to make this easier.

Save it and you are done.  I know that you can do this with photoshop but not all the computers in our school have photoshop imaged on them.  To try this click here.

Smarthistory - Art History

According to their website, "Smarthistory at Khan Academy is the leading open educational resource for art history. We make high-quality introductory art history content freely available to anyone, anywhere. Smarthistory is a platform for the discipline where art historians contribute in their areas of expertise and learners come from across the globe. We offer nearly 500 videos and these are being translated into dozens of languages."

Smarthistory has video and audio lessons about themes and eras in art history that would be an asset when teaching art history.  You can go to their website by clicking here.

Perfect Storms

From

If you are teaching Social Science the History Channel now has on their website "Perfect Storms".  It shows 3 big cataclysmic events that rocked the world. If you teach anything to do with natural disasters this might be a good starter.  You could put your schools address in Your Storm to get their attention.  To see the site click here.

Poetry Resources for Teens

If you click here you will get  to the "Poetry Resources for Teens" webpage.  This page has links to Poetry 101, Poems Teens Like, Writing Help and Online Resources.

Ten Marks Again

Just reminding you junior math teachers and students that Ten Marks offers over 20,000 practice math problems that are aligned to the common core standards.  See my previous blog from November 19 2012 on this by clicking here.

Edmodo Again

On Friday November 30 2012 I posted about

click here to go to their site

It is a great teacher tool and I thought I would repost what Richard Byrne says about Edmodo.

Here are fifteen things teachers and students can do with Edmodo.
1. Post assignments for students. Edmodo allows teachers to attach files to assignment announcements. If there is a file your students need in order to complete an assignment, they can access it at the same place they view the announcement. Less clicking is good.

2. Create digital libraries. Students and teachers can create digital libraries for housing their important files. No need to keep track of USB drives because you can access your files from any Internet-connected computer.

3. Post messages on the "wall." This allows students to ask questions of each other and their teacher. Teachers, of course, can post messages for all students to read.

4. Create learning groups. Teachers can create groups of their students according to the courses they teach or create groups of students who are supposed to be working together.

5.  Post polls for students. Use the polls to gather informal feedback on a question like, "do you feel prepared for next week's quiz?"

6. Post a quiz for students to take. You can attach links and files to each question and answer choice. This allows you to post a document and ask students to read and respond to it. Quizzes can be in multiple choice, true/ false, fill in the blank, or short answer form. You can allow students to see their scores immediately or you can disable that option.

7. Connect with other teachers. Join discussion groups to share ideas about lesson plans, teaching strategies, and project development. Discuss tools and content that you use. In some cases you can find webinars like this one from Buck Institute for Education about project based learning.

8. Create a calendar of events and assignments.

9. Access Edmodo through the free Android and iPhone apps.

10. Turn in assignments. Students can upload assignments for their teachers to view and grade. Teachers can annotate the assignments directly in Edmodo.

11. Create parent accounts. Teachers can create parent accounts. Parent accounts allow parents to see their children's assignments and grades. Teachers can also send alerts to parents about school events, missed assignments, and other important messages through Edmodo.

12. Generate printable class rosters. If you're going to have a substitute teacher in your classroom who needs a printed roster, you can print one from your Edmodo account.

13. Embed Wallwisher into your Edmodo wall to host a brainstorming session.

14. Embed videos, images, and audio clips into your wall to spark a class discussion online.

15. Use the Google Chrome extension or browser bookmarklet to quickly add content to your Edmodo library. Anytime you find something on the web, click the Edmodo extension or bookmarklet to save it in your Edmodo library.

Here is a 45 minute video from TTV on how to use Edmodo

School officials not understanding irony

On June 25 2013, The Wall Street Journal published an article about Top New York city school officials not being evaluated yet lobbied hard to have public release of teacher evaluations.  To see the article click here. 

Button Beats

Button Beats is a free site that allows the user to create music with various instruments, mixers and beatcubes and record them.   For example there are several pianos.

There are several cubes, such as



Take a look at their site by clicking here.

Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon will appear this week and NASA ScienceCasts explains the Harvest Moon in this video.

The 49th Parallel

I previously posted (May 8 2013) about CGP Grey and their video about The Vatican City, see my post by clicking here.  This time they take a very interesting look at the the border between Canada and the US.

Awesome Stories

Would you like lesson plans, student assignments and specific learning tasks.  Joining this site is free.  Choose from:

Some tools to support your instruction are:

Too see this website click here.

BBC Knowledge Explainer: DNA

BBC commissioned Territory studio to create a short 3 minute video on the fundamentals of DNA.

BBC Knowledge Explainer DNA from Territory on Vimeo.

I pick "C"

I thought I would post two items today.  How important is good teaching?  I thought this short video (3:20) had a nice message to it.

Piktochart

I previously posted about infographics on December 19, 2012.  Click here to see the post.

Do away with boring data and engage your students.  According to Piktocharts site "Like you, we've sat through over 1,000 boring presentations. We worked in big corporations. Information is supposed to be fun and exciting, not dull and boring. So, we did something about it. ", according to their website.  They provide seven free templates.  Check them out by clicking here or take a look at the following video.

Life on Minimum Wage Game

This game was made by Richard Byrne and according to him "The purpose of Life on Minimum Wage is for students to recognize how difficult it is to save money when your only job(s) pay minimum wage without benefits. To win (prize not determined yet) at Life on Minimum Wage the students have to reach five financial goals that they select. To earn money the students have to complete the tasks of their assigned jobs. The students then have to pay required bills before using money for their selected financial goals. As the game progresses students will be issued "surprise" cards which require them to spend money on things like speeding tickets, trips to a health clinic, and increases in rent.

All of the jobs in Life on Minimum Wage are connected so that if one "business" slows production or closes, the workers of another business are also effected. The goal here is to demonstrate the effects that a business closing has on a small town's economy."

To see the game click here.

9/11 remembered

Today is the anniversary of 9/11.  I thought most students will not remember that day that so some videos from the History Channel would be appropriate.  I remember the day like yesterday, as my wife was still teaching at KCI and I was teaching Calculus next door to the library.  I remember when I found out a plane had also hit the Pentagon that I went and found my wife as my brother-in-law worked for NATO in Washington and I was not sure if he would have any dealings with the Pentagon.  My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones that day.  Also on a personal note I competed in my first irondistance triathlon a few years ago on the anniversary of 9/11.  The beach was covered with tiny American flags.  There was a pathway for us to walk through.  It kind of put in perspective that my 11-12 hours of pain was nothing compared to the pain that the victims families would endure. 

 

Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers on VHS has been entered into our Professional section of Library (right behind my desk).  It was a donation by Mrs. N.  Sign it out like any other book.

mon ecole

This is a French school webpage.  I thought the art history section was done well.  Here is an example but there are over 100.

To see the website click here.

ULearniversity

There are many free math websites out there.  Here is another one.  

Here you can watch tutorial videos and then try some problems.  You get instant feedback.   It is free to register, if you want.  If you do so the site will keep track of your progress.  To go to the site click here.

Teacher Professional Development and MOOCS

I blogged earlier about Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCS).  See my post on May 2 2013 by clicking here.

 Coursera was one of them and has now added a new category of courses that I thought might interest you, Teacher Professional Development.  To see the course selection click here.

Google Art Project - Another look

On March 28, 2013 I posted about the Google Art Project.  To see the post click here.  Google has now updated this project since then so that it is easier to find the specific piece of art by artist, location or date.  The latest version also allows you to compare two pieces of art.  This could be used to critique art work.  See the following video by Google.  Around 1:20 into the video they show how to compare.

Google Earth for Beginners

If you ever wanted to use Google Earth here are a few excellent sites for beginners.  Google Earth is not only for social science only as it can be used in English for a Lit Trip.  Here are some beginner sites:

Google Earth Basics - Google Earth Blog

Beginner Tutorials - from Google Earth

Google Earth 6: Beginner's Tutorial 1 - a Youtube video

Advanced Features and Tutorials: Google Earth Tutorials - From Google Earth

Google Earth 101 for Educators - From Teaching Hacks

Crafting Stories with Google Earth - From the National Writing Project

Google Lit Trips - From Jerome Burg

10 Interesting Ways to Use Google Earth in the Classroom - Creative Commons

Google Earth Lessons - from David

Teaching with Google Earth - from Starting Point

Google Earth for Educators: 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom - From Associates Degree

Welcome back to the first day of school

Hope you had a great summer.  You may have noticed that I am not at school.  Well I got in a bike versus car accident training for an Ironman (not my fault) and had to have surgery on my acromio-clavicular (AC) joint in my shoulder.  I now have a plate and screws holding it together .  So I will not be back at work until some time in October. Needless to say, no Ironman this year or next as I have to have a second surgery down the road.   Here is my x-ray of the damage.

I have banked up some posts and will try and post them for you as some teachers told me that this was worth continuing to do.  

Story Toolz - Resources for Authors

This free site has an abundance of tools to get you started with your writting or to finish up by checking for cliches.  To use the Readability or Cliche Buster just copy and paste your work into the tool.  You might want to use these tools before having your work edited by a friend.  The tools offered include:

You can see this site by clicking here.