Secrets at Sea, a fishy caper!

Secrets at Sea is a really fun interactive scenario where students can play as Ace, an environmentalist detective on the hunt for the terrible villains responsible for the failing health of the local whale population.  Students must click around the town to find clues and learn about sea creatures and food webs. The quest is very engaging and split up into manageable chapters.  I would say students in grades 5-10 would enjoy doing this activity.  Have fun!

Goodbye to the snail

Just a side note....Unfortunately, Mr. T. Nahlogee had to return to his native UK.  I don't think he'll be coming back....ever.  Sorry to those of you who will miss him and his "glitchy-ness". 

P.S. "Glitchy-ness" would be defined as "constant malfunctioning", for those wondering...

TweenTribune

I was alerted to this site by a Massena principal.  I am thrilled with how easy to use and kid-friendly this site is!  I took the description from the site itself because they explain it so well:

 "Engage, inform, and educate your students with TweenTribune. TweenTribune lets students interact with the news, while fulfilling requirements for language arts, computer skills, and other classes.

Customize TweenTribune for your classroom. Register your classroom with TweenTribune using the form at the right [When you click  "For Teachers"].  Then ask your students to sign up. (They’ll need to create a username and password, then select your classroom.) Once your class starts using TweenTribune, the site will automatically generate custom pages showing:

• The stories your class has commented upon
• Individual comments by each student, on his or her own page
• All comments by your students, in one report that can be sorted by students’ names, comments, or dates

And don't worry – you can moderate, edit, or delete your students’ comments before they’re published."

Basically, students can look for stories that are interesting to them or read articles you direct them to.  Then they can leave comments and have forum-like discussions with kids all over the country and even the world.  (Some classes from Australia, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan exist in this online community.)

Pandora

Pandora is a music site that allows you to "program" your own "radio station" by simply putting in an artist, song, or genre that you like.  Sign up to save your favorite stations and like/dislike songs that are played on your stations for a more personalized experience.  It can be background music, a demonstration of music genres, or simply a source of relaxation.  My favorite channels are Classical, Bob Marley, Brooks and Dunn, and Movie Soundtracks.  See if you can find one you like!

Dr. Amber says, "Don't forget to do your upgrades!"

Ok, so I'm not really a doctor, but you will definitely want to do this update!

SMART has released an update for the Notebook software that is awesome.  Especially if you're a math teacher.  With the new update, you get some new features such as the transparent notebook that allows you to write anywhere on your screen without having to open the ink layer.  You also get the clear page button which will clear everything off a notebook page that is not locked in place.  Then there are the measurement tools, which include a ruler, two protractors, and a compass!

Finally, you also have the option to add in a 30 day trial of the math notebook software which includes the irregular polygon tool, the XY table, and graphing tool.  There is also a function in the trial that allows Notebook to work with the TI Graphing Software, TI-Nspire, TI-Smartview 84, or TI-Smartview 73.

So, there's my sell for the update.....now here's how to do it:
1. Down in the toolbar at the bottom right of your screen (you may have to extend it to see the icon), look for the SMART icon.  It looks a lot like a powdered donut on a square blue plate.
2. Click on it once and choose "Check for Updates...."
3. The SMART Updater will come up and say that Notebook needs an update (version 10.6.94.0). Click on Update.
4. Click Yes to continue.
5. Now the Updater will download the installer file.  This should take about 5-10 minutes.
6. Now you will see the Installation Wizard pop up.  Click Next to continue.
7. Accept the terms and click Next.
8. Click Next again (this step lets you know that the program will be installed in Program Files, which is where you want it.)
9. Click Next again (this step just confirms your user name registration....you do not need to put in an organization name or activation code.)
10. Now you have the option to install a 30 day trial of the Math Tools.  I DO recommend this for math teachers, but it is not necessary for others.  But hey, if your curious, check it out! No harm done either way.  Just check or uncheck the box based on your decision.
11. Click Next (this just makes sure that your Lesson Activity Toolkit and Gallery Essentials are updated as well....leave them checked!)
12. You can now choose from a list of languages to add to your handwriting recognition.  Unless you are a foreign language teacher, I would just choose Next.
13. Now click Install!
14. Let it go on it's own and you will see when it's done when the Finish button is click-able.  Just a note though....the installer is not able to proceed if any Microsoft Office application is open or web browsers, so make sure these programs are closed. 

One last thing....if you want me to come in to do a demo of the new features of notebook, I would love to!  Just send me an email and we can schedule a time!! agooshaw@sllboces.org

Multiplying the fun in multiplication facts

Happy Monday everyone!

But don't worry, I've got something to help spice up the math lesson for today!  Multipilcation.com has a fantastic collection of  fun flash games to reinforce multiplication skills.  Your students will love it!

As requested

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was straight out!  But, I did notice that I got a request for websites having to do with the Constitution or citizenship (Thank you, by the way!).

So, here are a few sites for any grade level (one is a repeat from before, but one of the best!):

Ben's Guide to US Government - Contains lots of information and games having to do with learning about our government.

Kids in the House - Information about the House of Representatives from a kid's perspective.

Congress for Kids - Information and games about topics such as balance of power, the constitution, citizenship, and elections.

If YOU were President - A fun game from Scholastic that puts your student in the shoes of a President.


Hope this helps!  Let me know if any of these help you, or if you would like me to keep searching!

Edheads, Science Potpourri!

Edheads is a super fun site that you can use on your whiteboard as a class activity, or allow your students to use on their own.  The activities available range from disgustingly realistic surgeries (yes, YOU perform them) to learning about simple machines and weather.  The activities are all animated, and while I think the site is geared towards middle school, I would say that any 4-12 grade  student will get a kick out it.  Actually, at 24 years old, I think I could sit and play with the site all day!  Hope you like it!

Tonematrix

The link today is for music teachers.  I could see this extremely simplistic tool being used by teacher and students alike to create beats, play with rhythm, and have tons of synthesized fun.

Here's Tonematrix.

Vitual Field Trips! Travel from your desk!

Good morning!  I've been meaning to post this for a while now!  Ever since I've been to the NYSCATE Conference, I've been dying to see a teacher in one of my districts try out a virtual field trip.  There are so many to choose from!  They do cost some money, but not too much, and I believe some are free!

So here's my challenge: browse through the sites listed below to find a trip you want to take with your class.  Then, I will do everything I can to make it happen for you!  It will be so fun for your students, I promise!

These sites have trips ranging from museums to Nasa to universities around the country.
Electronic Field Trips
-or-
VC Content Providers

One more tool for finding great pictures...also really fun to play with!

Just a quick post today, I have a workshop to present in like 5 minutes!  Flickr is a site dedicated to storing and showcasing pictures uploaded by their users.  A great way to search for specific groups of photos under one tag (descriptor) is to use Tag Galaxy.  Tag Galaxy lets you search for a specific tag, say "penguin" for example, and then will show you your results in a very imaginative way....

Check it out!

I'm now taking requests!

Hello for the second time today!  I was looking at my collection of websites to share, and I am a bit overwhelmed!  I have so many, I don't quite know what to post!  I am asking you to please leave me some comments so I can post websites that will correspond with your specific subject areas, problems, or curiosities.  Bring it on! Thank you!!

More add-ons for Firefox

I hope you are all enjoying your time with Firefox!  What do you think so far?  Let me know!

In the meantime, allow me to share some more add-ons with you...

Fireshot: A tool used to capture whole webpages...even if there are sections not showing due to scrolling!  Images are svaed as .png and can be opened in Paint, Photoshop, Preview, Fireworks, and others.

Video DownloadHelper: This is faster than Zamzar...but requires a little bit of configuration.  But, as always, I can help you with this upon request.  Use this at home to download videos from YouTube to bring in to school.  It will also do converting (the part that requires some configuration).  You can save videos in .flv or .mp4 format.  If you already have QuickTime on your computer (you do if you have iTunes) I recommend downloading the mp4 format.



Download Status Bar : Tired of the annoying download window popping up whenever you download something?  This add on makes it so downloads show up inconspicuously on the bottom bar of your browser.


I also recommend that you look here to search for more addons that meet your fancy. Don't forget to share anything good that your find by leaving some comments here!

Zamzar! ...now you can't live without it.

Good morning!  Sorry for posting a bit later than usual this morning...I was getting over the shock of being in the spotlight on the Ogdensburg district site!  I was also making sure that today's post works well.  It does!  Zamzar is a fantastic website that is multi-purpose.  You can: 1) convert files from one thing to another.  Convert a mp4's to wmv's...or pdf's to Word documents!  2) Download videos from a URL! Paste in the address of the page a video is on and get it sent to your email in the format you need.

Zamzar is free, but there are file size limits, and it is not instant.  I converted a video from mp4 to wmv this morning and upload time and conversion time together took about 30 minutes.  Either way, this tool is priceless.

Amazing pictures

I discovered last week, from one of the Massena teachers (thank you!), that Life.com has fantastic pictures available that are reliable and free to use.  I was just playing around with it and you can see pictures from all over the world and all different time periods.  I was looking at civil war, current politics, and pop culture pictures in the same visit!

I imagine that students can use this site as a reliable source for getting pictures that they can use in PowerPoints and other projects.  All you have to do is click and hold on the picture and drag it to your desktop.  As for citing, there is a LIFE watermark on every bottom corner.  Have fun!

You downloaded (or already had) Firefox, right?

Ok, so now that you have Firefox, you can begin adding add-ons to it to make it an even better browser!  Here's the first one: Adblock Plus  This little add-on will block almost all annoying advertisements on webpages, making them less distracting and more reliable to display to students.  In fact, to prove the effectiveness of this add-on, look at the website from Wednesday (Fact Monster).  Look at it using Internet Explorer, then look at it using your newly-enhanced Firefox with Adblock Plus.  Amazing, right?

Stay tuned for more great add-ons!

Firefox...so much better than Internet Explorer

Sorry for the personal opinion today, but by golly it's true. If you download Firefox today...free by the way...I will continue to post awesome addons for Firefox that will take your Internet journey to the next level.

Ok, so enough of the silliness...Let me explain quickly what Firefox is.  I am assuming that most of you use Internet Explorer (the blue "e") to get to the Internet.  Firefox is just another way of doing that.  You may already have it installed on your computer and if so, great!  Maybe you could download it at home too?  Either way, I recommend using Firefox for any Internet browsing.  And that is the end of my pitch.

Here is the download. (For Windows)

download (For Mac OS X)

Fact Monster

Today's site is a neat place to find all sorts of facts about anything.  While there may be an annoying amount of ads (check back later for a resolution to this...), there is a good amount of information that is in a kid-friendly set up.  Check out Fact Monster.

WritingFix

Need your students to get writing?  Sick of the "I don't know what to write about..." excuse?  Here's the answer to your problem: WritingFix.com!  Not only does this site contain great ideas for literacy lessons, it also has excellent writing prompt ideas!  Check out the Writing Prompt section (in the left blue side bar) and choose from many different types of idea catalysts.  These range from writing about photos to writing a story to match a crazy title.  Any student from elementary to secondary will benefit from this site.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that WritingFix is a site designed for the Nevada State Curriculum.  But, the writing prompts and literacy lessons available here are still applicable to our curriculum as well!

Aviary - Online Image Editing

Welcome back to the grind everyone!  The posting today is an amazing tool.  Edit images from any computer using Aviary, a free online creation tool.  I recommend starting with the Image Editor (Phoenix)  for beginners, but for more advanced users (possibly Art teachers and their students) go crazy with vector editing,  effects, or even the new Audio Editor (Myna)!

To get started, simply sign up for a free account so you can save you work, and start creating!