Truly Touching Stories from Ordinary People at StoryCorps

 This website has recently come to my attention and in the short time I've known about it, it has become very near to my heart.  Story Corps offers short recorded stories from real people telling their real stories.  The stories on this site tell everything from pain, to joy, to learning, to loving, and beyond.  They are usually not longer than 4-5 minutes but the amount of feeling and true emotion put into each recording is incredible.

The site also gives other educational resources, including suggestions for interviews and a list of "Great Interview Questions"

Play these for your students, play them for yourself.  Either way, you will not regret listening to these truly touching accounts of pure humanity.


Here's a special sample to help all of you out on a rainy Monday when being a teacher may not seem so glamorous (click here if not showing):

As a side note:   Sorry for taking such a big break from posting!  I'll try to get better at posting more often!

Say what?

Have you ever wondered where some of our figures of speech come from?  I actually do all the time!  I mean, if you really think about it, some of them sound pretty silly; Why would you bury a hatchet in the literal sense?  What does that have to do with ending an argument?

Well, today's website, The Phrase Finder has many of the answers you might be looking for!  The site is a searchable collection of proverbs, American phrases, phrases coined by Shakespeare, nautical phrases, and phrases from the Bible.  Search or browse for any idiom or expression and find the historical origins of the common saying.

And by the way, "burying the hatchet" comes form a Native American custom of literally burying a hatchet as a way to make peace.  It was a symbolic motion that removed a symbol of war so it would never be seen again, hence promising peaceful relations.

Timetoast

Timelines seem like an essential part of any history lesson.  Reading and creating timelines is a skill all students should practice, so I would like to share an online option for doing so:  Timetoast!  Timetoast is a website where you can browse for or create your own digital timelines.  Creating an account is required to make your own timelines, but doing so is free!

If you would just like to browse an account is not necessary and you can search for a specific term, or look through categories to find the timeline to fit your needs.  Timelines that are available for viewing on the site are made by other users....so be sure to look them over carefully for accuracy before sharing them with students.

If you can't find one that works, try making one!  Creating a time line is easy!  Simply click to add an event, put in the date, add a title, and a description, and even add a picture if your would like.  The time span is automatically put in for you as you build your timeline.  Click here to see a timeline I made in about 5 minutes.

Once you have found a timeline or made your own, you can link to them, or embed them in your website.  Below is an example timeline I found about the life of Steve Jobs:

Happy timelining!

This.......Is.......Jeopardy Labs!!

Everyone loves a good Jeopardy review game!  And, I've seen them come in all forms....from overhead projector transparencies, to poster board, to game consoles, to SMART Notebook templates, and beyond.  Here is another to add to your repertoire!

Jeopardy Labs is an online resource for creating your very own Jeopardy templates.  It's very easy to type in your own answers and questions in the editor.  The site even allows you to save your template with a password so you can come back to edit it at another time.  You do not need to create an account to use the site, since each game created gets it's own URL address.  However, creating an account is a possibility for (what I am assuming is) a one-time price of at least $20.00.  An account allows you to see a list of all your created templates, control privacy settings on your templates, and delete templates.

Once you've finished creating your template, you can play the game with up to 12 teams, and even keep track of the score and used Answer clues right in your web browser.....or download it and play it from a Flash player on your computer, no Internet needed!

If you're not in the mood to create your own Jeopardy game, you can browse for games created by others and use them as-is or tweak them to fit your needs.

Check out this 8th Grade Science Vocab Game that I found and modified:
http://jeopardylabs.com/play/8th-grade-science-vocabulary2


Oh, and the theme song is NOT included. For those of you who would like to download it from televisiontunes.com click -----> HERE   :)

Storyline Online, stories from the stars!

Looking for an extra addition to that book you're reading to your K-2 students? Check out Storyline Online! This site is offered by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and brings video of your favorite actors reading childrens' books for free!

Check out Ernest Borgnine (The Dirty Dozen ....or to the kids, the voice of Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants) reading Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, or watch Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) read A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon, or watch my personal favorite, Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, read by Betty White!

The stories also show the illustrations in the books that are accompanied by some animation.  You can also look for suggested activities to go with each book.

Check out the site today to see if the book you are reading is in the list!

Welcome back! Let's kick it off with Daily Infographic.

Hello and welcome back everyone!  The first week of school is just about over!  I won't go on to tell you how many are left....but just know that it's going to be a GREAT year!

I wanted to post about a neat site I found just a few days ago: Daily Infographic.

So, what is an infographic, exactly?  Well, Information Graphics are simply visualizations of some form of data or knowledge.  It can be the results of a survey, a how-to method, or some other set of information.  The graphic part makes the info easily followed and pretty.

Daily Infographic publishes an infographic, found from the web, every weekday.  The topics vary greatly, but they are always jam packed with great information.  If you find one that relates to your lesson (and yes, the collection is searchable and "browse-able" by category!) you could literally take a whole class period to scroll through and discuss what's shown.

Here is an interesting example about jobs for recent grads...something to show seniors, maybe?
Click on it to enlarge:

Check out the site and even follow it to stay updated on the newest Infographic each day!

Another School Year Done

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

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!

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.

eSkeletons - No Bones About it!

Let's face it, we all have some "skeletons in the closet", right?  Maybe one of yours is lack of cool resources about skeletal anatomy?  Let's face it, drawings in text books can be "bone dry".  Well, the resource for today is one you can use to really "bone up" on skeleton info about human and several primates.  Ok, sorry enough with the puns.

E Skeletons from The University of Texas at Austin offers more information about human and non-human primate skeletal anatomy than you can shake a femur at!  Click on one of the specific skeltons to look more closely at all the different parts.  You can get different views of each specific bone (just click on an area, choose the bone you want to see {listed under the skeleton}, and choose the different views to get an in-depth look).

The site can definitely be used at a college level with all the information available.  However, being able to just see the bones isolated from the rest of the skeletal structure would be beneficial for as low as a 5th grade class studying human anatomy. 

The Bald Eagle Cam - Decorah Eagles on Ustream

Another amazing live webcam for today!  Watch a pair of bald eagles care for their newly hatched chicks 24/7!  Watch the embedded video below, or go to the Ustream page to check it out for yourself. One note though....don't forget that bald eagles are carnivores so be prepared to see dead animals brought back to feed the chicks!





Live TV by Ustream

This webcam is brought to you by the Raptor Resource Project.  The eagles are located in Decorah, Iowa at a fish hatchery.  

Future Me - Time Traveling Through Email

Here's a really cool site: Future Me.  Use it to send an email to yourself in the future!  The time span can be days, weeks, months, even years (up to 2061)!  All you do is compose an email to your future self and the site will keep it until the the delivery date that you choose.  The only trick is to make sure that you send the email to an address that you are most likely to still have in that all-mysterious future....possibly a gmail, yahoo, or hotmail account instead of a work account.
 

Possible uses for this in your classroom?  Have your students write emails to themselves with goals for the school year.  Did they accomplish in June what they were hoping to accomplish in September?  What about freshman students writing to themselves as seniors?  What would they say to themselves?

One note: you may want to add "mailer@futureme.org" to your non-spam list since that is the address from which your email will be delivered.

Online Word Searches

 Looking for word searches that you can use on your Interactive Whiteboard?  Here's a couple:

Online Word Search has a few hundred pre-made word searches that you can complete online.  Choose from different categories to match what you are doing in your curriculum.  I like how the words are sometimes a little challenging...making for a great vocabulary-expanding teachable moment.

Freeology offers a Make Your Own Word Search tool that creates a simple word search, perfect for use on your Interactive Board.  Simply list the words you would like to include and then use the tabs above the gadget to customize further, if so desired.  Once you create a puzzle, it appears in a new window or tab and you use the cross hairs to locate and highlight words.  Once found, the question mark by the word in the list disappears.  The only downfall is that the puzzles cannot be saved.  So, make sure you print them out if you would like to keep them before you reload the page or close your browser. 

Happy searching!

Scale of the Universe - Wow. Just wow.

Do you ever get the feeling that you're like a speck of dust compared to all that's out there?  Maybe you get the feeling that you're a giant walking among all the tiny bits of existence?  Either way, the website for today will amaze you!  You're both, really!  Check out The Scale of the Universe to give you and your students a look at how small and how large we really are.

I can't help but love the mystical sounding music that comes with the site too.  I think it really sets the atmosphere for "scientific wonderment".


NOTE:  As long as you don't scroll down the page, you should be alright, but just so you all know, there are comments below the Scale and not all are exactly appropriate.  Again though, they will not be visible unless you scroll down.

Project Gutenberg - Free eBooks and audio books online

I would like to share the Project Gutenberg site today.  This is a site where you can download thousands of free eBooks, and some audiobooks.  While the site does not house the most recent, NY Times bestsellers, there are thousands of classics for your perusal. 

Some examples of the content that I found on the site are:
The works of authors such as; William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain.  There are also such classics as; The Odyssey, The Scarlet Letter, Turn of the Screw, The Bible, Wuthering Heights, Heart of Darkness, The Sherlock Holmes tales, Beowulf, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre,and hundreds more.

Project Gutenberg is also available to download the books to your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android, iPod, or other portable device!  Read them at home or on the go!  I'll be starting Jane Eyre soon!