My Fake Wall - A compromise?

Today's site is My Fake Wall.  I'm really excited about this site because I think it will get your students excited.  Basically, My Fake Wall is a site that imitates a Facebook wall.  There are no ties to Facebook and the "social interaction" like that of a real Facebook wall is removed.

The site can be used to create personalized Facebook walls for literary characters, historical figures, or even elements, scientists, inventors, mathematicians, and more!  Just use your imagination!  Believe me, this is more work than it sounds like.  Students who are tasked with creating a Fake Wall have to find pictures, think of the appropriate friends to add, find pictures for the friends, and then make comments and posts that would be relevant to the person and their friends.  I truly believe that this would be a worthwhile project....and one that the students would enjoy!

I spent a little time creating the beginning of a wall for one of my favorite characters: here.  Also, here are some other examples: Hermes, Ben Franklin, Cinderella.  Check it out and leave any comments telling me about any ideas you are having for how to use this with your students!

**NOTE** - This site may be blocked in your district.  If so, I would like to inform you that it was designed to be an educational site only.  There is no inappropriate content on the site.  I think that this is a great way to meet the students halfway and it would be an excellent tool to get them to analyze the important information surrounding a real or fictitious person.  To unblock the site, simply write an email to your principal, and explain that the site is educational.  They should then be able to speak to a tech and unblock the site.

NCES Kids' Zone - Awesome Graphing Tool

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has a section of their site called Kids' Zone.  It drew my attention the other day when I was shown (by a wonderful teacher) the graphing tool from the site, called Create a Graph.  I was blown away with how easy to use the tool is as well as what great graphs you are able to print from it. 

Create a Graph allows you to create bar graphs, line graphs (both of which can be turned into multiple bar or line graphs), area graphs, pie graphs, and xy coordinate graphs.  It is a simple process of working through simple tabs to set up the design, enter the data, and preview your graph.  Once it has been created, you can print it, download it as a picture file, or email it to yourself so you are able to edit it in the future.

The tool would be a great way to integrate graphing into your lessons; an important piece for students to gain an understanding of data.  Try collecting data from your own classroom and plot out the results!  How do the heights of boys vs. girls compare?  What have the temperatures been for the past week?  How many students in the class prefer pepperoni pizza over cheese?  Try it out as a class or have your students make their own!

Super Teacher Tools, games made easy and so much more!

Hello everyone!  My day was just made when my good friend Mr. Tom Place, over at The Giga Bite shared a wonderful site with me.

Super Teacher Tools is a fantastic site where you can go to find FREE, easy to use, customizable review games and teacher resources.  You can download them, play them online, or customize and download your very own game.  I tried the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game (in honor of Regis' retirement, of course) and it was very easy to fill in the questions and answers!  The game even comes complete with sound effects and lifelines!  Also check out Jeopardy!

There are also teacher resources available such as the seating chart and random group maker.

I also loved the world population counter; watch the population rise right in front of your eyes!

Go check it out!

***NOTE*** Please note that the Who Wants to be a Millionaire game library has been attacked by spammers.  Please do not click on any of the games currently listed.  Tom has emailed the site administrators for Super Teacher Tools and they should fix the issue soon.

Get those brains warmed up, it's time to go to Archimedes' Lab!

It's time to shake ourselves out of this mid-winter slump!  Maybe it's just me, but I've been starving for some good brain exercises lately and I've found just the site to help me out.  Archimedes' Lab has an amazing collection of math puzzles and mental activities that can get steam coming out of your students' ears.  Look at the puzzle of the month or the online magic card trick (can you figure out how they do it??) in the Puzzles and Tests Section.  Check out reality-bending illusions in the Illusions and Paradoxes tab....

Which way is the man facing?

Try your reaction time with the infamous Stroop Test.  Solve the Droodle of the month... what's a Droodle, you ask?  Here's an example...

What are these?

 1. A shark returning from Disney World.  hehe

2. A koala climbing the other side of a tree. See him?

There is so much to explore!  Check it out and get your students thinking in different ways!

Embedit.in, Now Anything Can Be On Your Webpage!

Have you ever wanted to put something on your website, but didn't want to bother with making an attachment?  Or maybe you have a blog or wiki that won't allow attachments.  Well, so I have a solution for you!  Try using the free service of Embedit.in! 

With this site, you simply upload a file, for example, a Word document or a pdf.  Change the size and background color if you wish, change permissions on printing and sharing...all with the click of your mouse, I might add!  Then click to copy the embed code to your computer's clipboard and you're ready to put your document in your website.  (All you do is paste the code in the html code section of your website or blog and you will see it on your page!)

Here's one I did.  It was originally a Word document, OH and did I mention that Embedit.in also allows you to draw over your file?  This can help you point out the important details....or draw a smiley face of course!

Free Documentaries - Inspire Knowledge, Debate, and more.

I wanted to share today's site because I think it can be the source of fuel for a great many debates in a high school classroom.  Have your students watch one of these documentaries on Free Documentaries.org and shake them out of their "blissfully unaware" status quo.

This site offers free steaming (and promised future download capabilities) of a couple hundred documentaries.  There are several topics including history, popular culture, politics, and more.  I have previewed several of the videos and I found that I only had to watch one advertisement at the beginning.  I was unable to watch the movies in their entirety, but I assume that they are uninterrupted by ads for the rest of their duration. 

I was excited to see that well-known documentarian Michael Moore also had some of his films listed on the site, but I was unable to get them to play.  However, that does not mean that the others are of a lesser quality.  Why not use the film Santa's Workshop in your economics class to provoke discussion on cheap labor and it's moral costs.  Maybe you would use the 6-part mini series Hitler's Holocaust to give your students a chilling story of what happened during that terrible time.  Or have your health class take a look at The Tobacco Conspiracy and have a debate over business vs. general good.

What's great about documentaries, is you can use them to show first hand facts.  If you are using them to spark a debate, you can show how not all issues are black and white, or the news you hear at 7:00 each night might not be the whole truth.  Share these with your students and see what you can spark within them.

Get Your Kids Interested in Government with iCivics!

Today is the big day!  Time to vote!  In celebration of our nation's finest quality, I want to highlight a great site that will help your students understand the different branches of our government and see that the jobs of politicians are not always easy!

Check out iCivics and go to the game section where your students can be immersed in the life of a lawyer in the Supreme Court, a legislator, or even the president!  These are real eye-openers!

Scholastic SMART Lessons Collection

Hey K-12 teachers!  Did you know that Scholastic offers pre-made Notebook files for you to download?  The activities available from Scholastic's SMART Lessons Collection are under the following categories: Back to School, Math and Science, Earth Day, Famous People, or Phonics Lesson Activities.  There are activities under each of these for students K through 12.  You can download them and use them as is or tweak them for your own specific uses.  There is also a link to the SMART Exchange.  Check them out!

SchoolTube - Videos for Education

Hello all!  Boy, what a busy month it has been!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been so crazy in both districts!  Anyway, I have a great post for today! 

SchoolTube is a fantastic place to find educational videos that won't get blocked by Youtube filters.  Ads are minimal and, as far as I've seen so far, safe for school...no dating advertisements that is!  You can browse through featured videos and search for videos that are specific to what you are teaching.  The videos are made by students and teachers around the country and uploaded here to be shared.  Comments are controlled so you won't get any cyber-bullying here.

You can sign up for a FREE teacher account so you are able to favorite videos and upload videos that you or you students made.  This is a great way to share movie projects and photo slide shows that your students have made.  Even your students can create accounts, but it is up to you as the teacher to moderate all video submissions before they can be seen on the site.

There is so much available on this site!  But what's great is there are plenty of video tutorials to help you figure out things along the way.  Check it out!

Make Beliefs Comix

There seem to be a growing collection of online comic strip editors.  The most recent one I've found is Make Beliefs Comix.

Students are able to go in to the site without making an account and choose from pre-made characters with various emotions.  Students can also customize the number of cells in the comic, the size of objects, background color, and more.  When students are finished, they simply print the comic out (either to a printer, or by "printing" to pdf).  The finished comic can also be emailed.

The site is a bit limited in the character selection, and you have to be careful since the site does not store comics...a reload or using the back button will cause you to lose your work.

Have fun!

 

CLICK TO MAKE LARGER

Creative Writing Video Prompts

Ok, forgive me for getting into the Halloween spirit before it's even October, but I just can't help it!  I found this video today while browsing for Halloween lesson ideas to post for the month of October.  I got so excited about how you all could use this that I just could not wait for Friday.

Anyway, I found this video on the UK site, teachers.tv.  It's basically the United Kingdom's version of Teacher Tube.  The video explains it's use in the first couple minutes and then supplies seven different story starters that are dramatic and a bit creepy....but I guess that depends on where your little writers take the story!  Watch the video below and let me know what you think!  Maybe you could even come back and post a student's story!

Mission US, a fantastic US history resource!

I have discovered that there is a wonderful new online resource to learn about the Revolutionary War.  Mission US is an free online adventure game.  You as the teacher can preview by playing through each of the chapters and then set up a class of students so your students can do the same.  You can also track your students' progress through the game!

As you play, you will see the preceding events of the  Revolutionary War in 1770 Boston from the viewpoint of young apprentice, Nat Wheeler.  You can click on your surroundings, learning about daily life, political cartoons, and vocabulary of the time.  You can also unlock a Rock Band-esque mini game where students practice playing the penny flute and songs of that era.  It is loads of fun and completely educational, your students will LOVE it!

Register for FREE and share any experiences here!

Remembering 9/11, looking forward to peace.

Welcome to week two everyone. I hope the weekend went well for you all.  As you may well know, September 11th was this past Saturday.  9 years ago, a terrible tragedy happened and I think part of our job as teachers is to look at the past as a way to help our students envision a better future.  I have found a website that helps do just that.  Part of the Tribute to the WTC website is a collection of stories gathered from people who were affected by the tragedy but have taken great strides towards peace and rebuilding. 

Personal Stories of Transformation shares stories from individuals and teams of people who have done something to commemorate victims, move towards peace, or assisting those affected by the terrible day.  The site, geared towards grades 5 and up, comes complete with discussion questions, accompanying videos, and a complete teacher's guide with standards included.

Awesome online science with LHS Kids

The first site of the year is a branch of Lawrence Hall of Science from the University of Berkley called LHS Kids. 

LHS Kids has some really great places to check out.  Your students can do an online experiment like testing materials for cleaning up oil spills and learning about the functionality of different bird beaks.  Students can follow along with the experiments, fill in their answers, and even submit their final findings for comparison with other kids using the site!

Students can also check out pictures and videos of ongoing exhibits at the museum, take online quizzes, play arcade games, listen to whale sounds, and learn about interesting animals.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Happy Summer!

Well, what a year it has been!  I have learned a lot by keeping this blog, and I hope that you all can say that you learned something by reading it.  I am wrapping things up for this year because next week is jam-packed with training and because I've been busy this week, I doubt I'll have any time to post!

I will be back at posting come September, and I am anticipating an address change for the blog since I will be taking a new last name! Either way, check back here (http://ambergooshaw.blogspot.com) and I will steer you towards where you need to be. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

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