Well, it looks as if we have come to the end of another year. I hope everyone had a great one! I won't be writing any blog entries over the summer, but as we both have to admit, September will be here before we know it, and I'll be back to write about all those great tools out there for you to use with your new classes! So, take some time in the next few weeks to enjoy the weather and relax a little! Happy Summer!!
~Amber
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Did you Know About Gmail +1?
A lot of the sites I feature require a log in and or registering with an email. I know that this can be a dangerous area for many school districts due to the legal issues associated with school-sponsored emails, cyberbullying, etc. So today I wanted to share one of the solutions to this problem that I use.
If you want your students to sign up for a Web 2.0 site such as Animoto, Prezi, Toon Doo, etc, you can sign up for a free Gmail account. If you sign up for a Gmail account, say penguinsslide@gmail.com [NOT ACTUAL EMAIL!...At least, not an email where you can contact me], you automatically get access to a plus-one feature. This means that you can use your Gmail account as many different email accounts, simply by adding "+1". For example: penguinsslide+1@gmail.com is seen as a different email from penguinsslide+2@gmail.com.
You could assign a different +number to each student in your class so they could each have "their own" email!
The best part about all this is that while each email with a different +number is seen as individual, all emails sent to that address get sent to the main email: penguinsslide@gmail.com. You, being the only one with the password to the account, are the only one able to check the email. While this makes for quite a few emails to check for account activation, it ensures that your students are not getting any inappropriate email.
Try it out and leave me a comment to let me know what you think! If you have any questions, just email me!
You could assign a different +number to each student in your class so they could each have "their own" email!
The best part about all this is that while each email with a different +number is seen as individual, all emails sent to that address get sent to the main email: penguinsslide@gmail.com. You, being the only one with the password to the account, are the only one able to check the email. While this makes for quite a few emails to check for account activation, it ensures that your students are not getting any inappropriate email.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sheppard Software - Educational games and review online
Today's site is Sheppard Software, a collection of fun online games that helps students review, learn, and progress in several subjects. The site can be used K-12 and beyond. They even recommend the best games and activities to use based on grade level (seen by scrolling down to the bottom of the home page).
Some of my favorites are:
Geography - Practice at different levels of difficulty; explore, learn, and test yourself in identifying capitals and countries for all the countries of the world.
Science (Animals) - Learn more about the food chain, and producer/consumer relationships in these fun games!
Grammar - Practice parts of speech and punctuation placement! Or, for higher level students, check out SAT and GRE vocab!
The site also offers free software downloads of some of their games for teachers! Have fun and check it out!
**NOTE: I found that this site is best used with internet explorer.
Some of my favorites are:
Geography - Practice at different levels of difficulty; explore, learn, and test yourself in identifying capitals and countries for all the countries of the world.
Science (Animals) - Learn more about the food chain, and producer/consumer relationships in these fun games!
**NOTE: I found that this site is best used with internet explorer.
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