Smilebox is a fun, free, easy, creative way to show photos, allowing the user to create scrapbooks, photo albums, postcards, eCards, and slideshows. Lots of templates are available. You may also choose to add music to your creation – your own or a selection from the site. Try it out 
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I’ve been using PDF to Word for a while now and have to say it is an extremely handy little tool. The name pretty much says it all. Once a document has been converted to Word, you can edit it of course – something I need to do from time to time. You can convert up to 20 files per day, which is plenty adequate for me. The paid version (downloadable software for Windows) has some nice features for those who need a more robust file conversion product.
Although this blog is devoted to sharing ideas for integrating technology into classroom instruction, I’m taking a break from that today to tell you about an extraordinary documentary film, a brave (and funny!) young man, and a group of college friends who embark with him on the adventure of a lifetime and make a movie about it. The young man’s name is Darius Weems, and the title of the award-winning film is Darius Goes West. Darius lives with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that claimed his older brother at the age of 19. Although confined to a wheelchair, Darius does not shrink from life, but instead embraces it with love and irrepressible joy. His spirit and courage make this story one you will not want to miss. The film can be viewed free on the Darius Goes West website. You can also order the DVD there and / or make a donation to help fund Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research. Spread the word – let’s find a cure!
Several of the schools in our district are involved in a technology integration project: the schools have received new computers, SMART Boards with short-throw LCD projectors, video cameras, still cameras, and several other pieces of equipment. As an Instructional Technology Specialist, one of my jobs is to help the students learn how to use the technology. There will be occasional posts in this space that are directed to the students participating in this project.
TO STUDENTS:
Students have been visiting some selected educational websites. Students, we want to hear which sites you liked best. Click on the word Comments below and talk to us. Sign your comment with your first name and your grade level. (Example: Joshua, grade 7) You do not have to put in an email address or website address even though there is a place to put both. Thanks – and we will see you again soon!
NOTE: To get back to the MCSTechKids website, click here.
I opened the newspaper this morning to find an article on a newly developed (free) website for educational videos, called watchknow.org. Developed with the help of Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, the site operates in much the same way: users create accounts (there are several levels here) and contribute educational videos from TeacherTube, SchoolTube, YouTube, National Geographic, Google Video, and other sites. WatchKnow.org does not actually host the videos but does embed them /link to them. Of course YouTube and Google Video are both blocked in our district, so those videos would not be viewable at school, but perhaps there are enough from other sources to make up for that. A centralized location like the WatchKnow.org wiki is an interesting concept and I plan to explore the site more thoroughly. If you visit it, please leave a comment here and tell me what you think.
I love to browse James Hollis’s Teachers Love Smart Boards site. I’ve found so many interesting resources through his work, which I ‘ve blogged about from time to time. One I ran across this evening is Lit2Go, a wonderful source of literature in both written (web page and .pdf) and audio (.mp3) forms.
Wow! This site is so cool! Science teachers (elementary / middle / high) will all find something here that they can use. The animations in Freezeray are inviting, interactive, and great for use on a SMART Board if you have one in your classroom. Check out animations for Biology, Physics, Scientific Literacy, Technology, Chemistry, and more. You will love this site!
It’s been many years since I took high school chemistry or even looked at a periodic table, so it was interesting to run across The Periodic Table of Videos produced by the University of Nottingham. My middle school son came home very excited this evening after having just learned about a very cool element from his science teacher. This element, Gallium, melts at 85 degrees Fahrenheit, so it easily melts in a person’s hand and is used in thermometers as a substitute for mercury. His teacher suggested to her students that they view a video about this fascinating element on YouTube, which is where we came across the ones from the University of Nottingham. Since the videos are housed on Youtube, I thought that our students would not be able to view them at school, but Erlinda (a reader whose comment is found in full below) wrote to say this:
If you look towards the bottom of the right navigation bar, there’s an option to view the videos on a different server in case YouTube is blocked at your school.Erlinda, thanks so much for pointing that out – I completely overlooked it. Chemistry teachers, check out this great site! P.S. I’m having a hard time getting the videos to load on the alternate server (outside of YouTube), but maybe you’ll have better luck.
Are you interested in helping your students master their multiplication tables? You may want to check out Timez Attack, a free downloadable program (for both Mac and PC). Those with bigger budgets can get the paid version, but the base version is free and contains all of the instruction. Timez Attack’s format is like the popular video games your kids are playing at home, so they should have no problem getting started. You’ll want to go online first and do the background work (very minimal). I haven’t actually tried the game myself, so I would be interested to hear from anyone who is using it. Click here to go to the Times Attack site, view the short video, and download the free version of the game.
If you aren’t in the habit of reading Laura Smith’s blog, you are missing a treasure. She’s the computer lab teacher at the Downtown School and routinely posts valuable insights and experiences in a school lab setting. Her September 17 post about Google Forms is excellent. At the end of the post she shows an example of how this tool can be used to assess instruction.
Once you establish a Gmail account, you can begin using Google Forms to create assessments of your own. Students don’t need Gmail accounts; results will automatically be sent to your Google Docs where they can be viewed in several formats. Don’t miss this post!
