Cool jobs in Math and Science!

My math students are always asking me "when am I ever going to use this in real life?"

"Change the Equation" has some solid answers for both teachers and students. They also have a facebook (FB Link) page which is a great way to reach youth today.

I highly recommend checking it out. :)

Math Bingo for iPod touch, iPhone & iPad

My kids are in love with this app and it only costs $0.99!!!

There are a lot of kids out there with iPod touches these days. I consider this a very worthwhile investment.

Link to App within the Apple Site. -->Math Bingo

27 Videos About Teaching Online

Seeing how we are all reaching the end of a fully online masters degree program I found a recently released twenty-seven video series about teaching online courses to be of great interest. The videos cover a wide range of topics from planning a course to reducing plagiarism to building learning communities to collaborative projects.

27 Videos About Teaching Online -->Link to YouTube Channel where the videos can be watched.

Yummy Math

Yummy Math is a website that shares math problems and scenarios based on things happening in the world today. The site was developed by two math teachers and is a good place to start when looking to make math relevant to kids' lives.

Link to site --> Yummy Math

Wylio - Creative Commons Images for Bloggers

Wylio is an image search engine designed to help bloggers and others quickly find, cite, and use Creative Commons licensed images. I love anything that saves me time when trying to build online resources.

Link to Wylio site. :)

Seven Ways to Build Your Own Educational Games

If you have ever look for an online game to fit a lesson and couldn't find just the right one this article includes links to a bunch of sites that allow you to create your own custom games.

Well worth the time to follow some of the links included in this article. :)

Seven Ways to Build Your Own Educational Games

Equation of Success: Top Ten Responsibilities that Students Must Own

I found this article to be very worthwhile. I am definitely taking this Top Ten List back to my classroom for my own students.

Link to Article --> Equation of Success: Top Ten Responsibilities that Students Must Own

The "Top Ten" from the article

"To help students along, here is a list of some basic rules that children should follow to avoid their own failure and to step up as a variable in their own equation of success:

Number One: Be your own advocate. Stake a claim in the classroom by making sure the teacher knows who you are...in a good way.

Number Two: Ask lots of questions....and show confusion appropriately.

Number Three: Communicate your struggles to your teachers. What is going on that affects your work?

Number Four: Think of school as your office in training. Are you a good co-worker?

Number Five: Dress for success, but don't panic, you don't have to wear a suit to be taken seriously.

Number Six: At least do the minimum so you aren't creating gaps that are harder to bridge later. Better yet, do more.

Number Seven: Sweat a little. School is your brain gym. You have to work out your muscles, make them a little sore, if you're going to lift a heavier load later on.

Number Eight: Find ways to relate to your reading and writing. What original thoughts and experiences can you bring to the lesson to make it come alive for yourself?

Number Nine: Be in class. Don't jeopardize your own training.

Number Ten: Surround yourself with other students who can help you. You don't have to be best friends with everyone you seek advice from, but find friends or acquaintances that are rooting for you, the best of you.

Look, it's important that you trust adults when we say that your future is important, and that what you do now affects it. It's also important that you know that while many people may contribute to your struggles, you're the only one who will suffer if you fail. Rise above them. Be stronger than the hurdles that life throws at you.

Live up to your potential. Do your job. Look ahead. Keep up your end of the bargain in your own equation of success."

Free Calendar Templates

Cute little site that provides free calendar templates. I found an article that suggested that the calendars could be used to print calendars on the back of misprints that are found in the printer pile of most schools. Good way to save time and re-purpose paper that still has one good side all at the same time.

Link to RePrint

Three Ways to Cut, Mix, & Mash YouTube Videos

Great little article on a series of video editing sites that can be used to mash up clips from youtube videos. It's useful when you only need a piece of a clip to demonstrate a concept and you gotta love Free applications. :)

Link to Article --> Three Ways to Cut, Mix, & Mash YouTube Video

Links to Applications. . .

1) Tube Chop

2) Splicd

3) Drag On Tape

How to get MORE Educators using tech ed

Great article on the implementation of the use of blogs by an elementary school staff. The article addressed the basics of how the teachers were trained and what they were required to do. It is encouraging to see administrators doing what they can to get their staff on board when it comes to sharing their knowledge and resources via blogging. I am always amazed at how resistant some teachers are to new technology.

Link to the article --> "How to get MORE Educators using tech ed"

Attention all Math Teachers!

If you teach math, like I do, you need to watch this video.
The main focus is teaching our students math reasoning and patient problem solving.

He pumped me up to go to school tomorrow and revamp some of my math problems.

iPod accessories. . .lol

So. . . this has little to do with education but as I was reading my RSS feed this evening I was doing some reading on the new Droid phone (code named GingerBread) and followed a link that mentioned something about iPod/iPhone accessories. Turns out that it was for iPhone underwear/shorts. It's pretty funny and if you like tech gadgets as much as I do you will probably get a good laugh out of this one.

Here is a link to the article --> iPhone underpants: The best/worst iPhone accessory yet

Music in the classroom

Edutopia had an article on using Music in the Classroom to Inspire Creative expression. I think this is a great idea. I teach 7th grade math but, truth be told, when I started college I had plans to be a band director. Through a series of events I ended up changing from being a music major to working toward an elementary education degree with minors in math, music and language arts. I sing in my classroom all the time. Sometimes it's something the kids say that I have a song about, sometimes it's an educational song to teach a math property, sometimes it's just to get the kids ready to go. I often play music for them on my iPod or share videos from the iPod or YouTube if for no other reason than to connect with them on a more personal level and to remind them that work time can be fun and that music makes everything in life just a little better.

The article is worth checking out if you are a fan of using music in your classroom.

Link to Article --> Using Music in the Classroom to Inspire Creative Expression

"If you wouldn't put it on a bumper sticker, don't put it on Facebook,"

Read an interesting article today about a presentation given by a group of HS Seniors to their peers about the dangers of facebook and how personal information is shared and used to make money through advertising.

It's a good read and the quote that I will take back to my students is, "If you wouldn't put it on a bumper sticker, don't put it on facebook." In fact I think I'm going to jump over to BigHugeLabs and make it into a Motivational Poster to post in my classroom.

Link to Article --> Students Teach Peers Hard Truth About Facebook

Very cool free timeline app from LIFE

I came across this app this morning and thought it was worth sharing. LIFE magazine is famous for capturing moments in history on film. This app gives you access to a collection of photographs that you can drag and drop into a timeline. Timelines can be saved as private or published to the web as public.

Excellent free resource for any social studies teachers out there. :)

http://www.life.com/timeline

Troubling Apps Data

I found it sad to see that the most used app on a daily basis is facebook's Farmville used by approximately 16.6 million people a day. The top ten also included applications like, Birthday Calendar, Mafia Wars, Texas Hold-Em and Microsoft Instant Messenger.

It would be great to see the power of technology harnessed to make people more productive instead of finding new ways to waste time at home, work and school.

XBox Kinect

I am in awe of the advances in technology like the new Kinect controller for XBox. I remember thinking how incredible the Wii controllers were and now this new interface for XBox does what the Wii controller does and more without the controller! What's next? Flying cars? Look out Jetsons. . . here we come!

Link to article --> Could Kinect Control Your Internet of Things?

Happy Birthday, Android!

I found myself reading the article on the history of the Android phone this afternoon and although I have been waiting for Apple to come up with a sweet deal with Verizon I am starting to think that the Android may be the way to go. My biggest concern about the Droid and the iPhone for that matter has always been the touch screen keyboards. I currently have an LG Voyager with a very nice sized keyboard and I would be lost without it. There is something to me about the feel of the actual buttons that makes it easier and more comfortable. I have an iPod touch now that I use for reading email and keeping up with friends on facebook but I cannot stand typing on it.

With all that said, if you weren't aware of the history of the Android phones this is a pretty good read.

Link to Article --> Happy Birthday, Android! A History, in Screenshots and Video

How to Stay Caught Up with Curriculum

Edutopia featured a great great article on curriculum and the frustration that many teachers already feel this time of year about staying on track with pacing guides. One main point was that we need to focus our effort on what our students need to know and be able to do. My school has made this a primary focus this year. We also spend time looking at what do we do when students already know the material and what we can do when they are not learning it.

I really appreciated the comment that a reader attached to the article. . .

"I can't stand it when a teacher gives the impression that he/she is an effective teacher just because they are further into the curriculum. It's not how much you cover, it's how much are students learning."

I think that teachers sometimes tend to take things like no child left behind and race to the top way to seriously. I understand the intent but the reality is that these mandates and policies were written by politicians. I really try not to let the politicians decide how I teach in my classroom. I think my kids are better off that way. :)

Link to Article --> How to Stay Caught Up with the Curriculum

Schoology Aims to Fix One of the Greatest Pain Points of Education

This is a write-up about what looks like a promising combination of moodle, blackboard, text specific learning management systems with a little school appropriate social networking thrown in.

Best part is that it's free! I will be spending some time looking into this one and passing it along to my district tech department.

Link to Article --> Schoology Aims to Fix One of the Greatest Pain Points of Education
Link to Schoology Web Site --> Schoology

30 Reasons to Jailbreak your iPhone

I don't actually have an iPhone yet. I'm waiting for Apple to make a deal with Verizon since I am not and AT&T fan. In any event, I do have an iPod Touch which for all practical purposes is an iPhone without the ability to actually place a call or take a picture. Some of my 7th graders were showing me some apps on their iPods and I noticed that they had folders with way more than 12 apps in them. I asked them how they did that and they told he they used a "jail break" program. I went home and looked up how to "jail break" my iPod and quickly found out that Apple had made the available jail break apps unusable with updated iTunes software. I am still on the hunt for a jail break software that I can use but I came across this article and thought it was worth sharing. If you have an iPhone I would check it out. :)

--> 30 Reasons to Jailbreak your iPhone

Firesheep

I read the article on social networking hacking on readwriteweb.com this evening and was more than a little bit disturbed. I had no idea that there were programs like "firesheep" out there that make it so easy for people to gain access to your online identity. It pretty much gives people instant access you whatever social network you are connected to over a public wifi source.

This article made mention of setting up a Virtual Private Network to prevent this kind of online identity theft. I will be looking into the details of this before connecting at the local coffee shop for sure.

Smokin' Apps

Great site for finding the latest and greatest apps around powered by a global community that loves mobile apps. Case in point. . . they featured "Doodle Jump" this week which is one of my families favorite apps for my iPod.

http://smokinapps.com/

I can't find my phone.com

I found this website to be a little funny but also useful I suppose. When I misplace my cell phone I generally just call it from a land line or from a friend's cell phone but if I ever find myself with a lost cell phone and access to the internet I could try this out.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/lost_your_phone_try_icantfindmyphonecom.php

I tried this out and it was pretty funny. I called my phone from the site. . . it rang and when I answered it a computer voice said, "It looks like you found your phone. Have a great rest of the day." lol

Google Chrome

If you use Google you really want to get this free download. Google Chrome is great! LOVE IT!!!!

Faster and easier surfing. Gives you access to open tabs all at once as thumbnails the same way Safari does on an iPod.

http://www.google.com/chrome/

Best of the Web 2010

Slideshare presentation from the ACTEM's (Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine)annual conference.

Very cool stuff. Worth checking out. The author points out in his introduction that he only included sites that he discovered in the last 12 months. :) Enjoy!

Best of the web 2010

View more presentations from Richard Byrne.

"More Like This" feature in Google Reader

If you like treasure hunting try using the "More Like This" feature in Google Reader. You just click on the triangle to the right of your feed and hover over "More Like This" then a list of related feeds appears. If you have time to look you just might find a read/write web jackpot.

Testmoz - Free Online Test Generator

This morning I found a free online test generator called Testmoz. I checked out the site, ran through the demo and created my own quiz in a matter of minutes. If you have ever considered using an online quiz site I think this one is worth checking out.
The one downside is that it is only for multiple choice quizzes. If you are looking for open ended or matching capabilities you would need to use something else.
<--- Click the picture to go to the Testmoz site

As a side note. . . I found this site through my RSS feed for "Free Technology for Teachers" http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ It is a great resource and I highly recommend adding it to your RSS feed list. :)