Swiss Man Soars with DiVinci’s Design
This was so cool, I came across this article from one of my favorite blogs http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/04/29/swiss-man-proves-after-500-years-that-da-vincis-parachute-works/ to see a swiss man use Leonardo’s parachute design. It really worked and the man sailed safely to the ground. Check it out and see for yourself. Leonardo, a man before his time, a genius and true visionary for the future.
Nota – Cool Web2.0 Tool!!
This is a new one. I have been testing out many note-taking Web 2.0 tools and love this one. Create a free Nota page at www.nota.com and allow others to edit and/or comment. It reminds me a little of voicethread, but allows for much more. Check out the how to page. http://notaland.com/cappy/8591 It is so easy post photos, clipart, google maps, movies and more…. Jpeg, png, bmp, gif, mp3, swf, doc, xls, ppt, pdf, and any other formats are allowed. Big image files will be automatically compressed. I’m thinking (virtual fieldtrips, digital stories…J, collaborative projects etc… ) Embed the page or share the link. Get students to build content and collaborate. They will love this one! It’s a wiki, but without the boundaries. Leave me a comment or join and edit my page. http://notaland.com/ccapozzoli/9869
Have fun with this one. Oh wait, are we allowed to have fun and teach at the same time? Of course!! J
Happy Monday!
Tikatok – Create a Free eBook
Wow!! What a fun way to get kids to write and share. Check it out! You will enjoy playing with this one for hours.
I just had to share this one. Create an online ebook and get it published. Very much like Mixbook. You can choose from story templates and topics or create your ebook from scratch. If you choose a to use a template students can complete a simple form to customize their story characters, settings, and events. Check out this sample book. http://beta.tikatok.net/view/book/the-spooky-monster I know it’s elementary, but HS kids actually like writing to younger audiences. They are great at making more complex ideas very simple. However, the content doesn’t have to be elementary at all. Give it a shot. I bet they will enjoy it.
Forvo – World’s Words Pronounced
Wow, what a great website!! All the words in the world pronounced. You can learn a listen or add pronunciations for words and add to the the dicitonary. Very nice tool for teaching any language at any level. http://forvo.com/
Donors Choose
Looking for project or equipment funding? You have to go to Donors Choose to see if you can get classroom support. Belive it! People actually give donations to make these projects or needs a necessity. A teacher in my school district just go funding for a collection of the 2008 Caldecott books. About a $350 Value. If you sign up maybe you can get what you need to integrate it into your instructional practices.
Teachers at STSD Making Digital Strides in the Classroom
Some Great ways to Use Blogs in the Classroom!!! I just wanted to recognize some of our colleagues who are making strides in their classrooms while integrating technology into their instructional practices. As you all know, it takes some time and creativity, but the pay off is very well worth the efforts. The more you use the tools the easier it becomes. Just take a look at what some of the students in these classrooms are sharing. http://marthur.wordpress.com/ A great way to find out what the kids are thinking. This is a third grade blog here in STSD. Mrs. Arthur is getting her students engaged at home by posting questions for students to respond to. They love this activity and so do the parents. http://dlroyer.wordpress.com/ap-us-govt-blog/ap-us-government/ Another teacher here at the HS, Mr. Royer is developing higher levels of thinking, collaboration and communication through his US Government blogs. Password protected – password is election2008 The 6th Graders at the MS are writing about books they are currently reading. Mrs. Jacobs has students post to their blog to share their thoughts, as she scores their comments with a writing rubric. Visit Gab Central Listen to their podcasts at Gabcast here. http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=16432 If you would like to see a wiki being integrated into a classroom, check out Sarah Fuge’s Wiki There are other teachers across the district using Moodle to enhance and further classroom discussions and participation. Pick their brains if you see them, they have some great ideas. Pete Frengel, Bill Burns, Jeremy Sutton Duffy Batzer, Mary Richards, Dave Langston, Fong Ho are integrating Moodle the online classroom environment. This is just a sampling of what is going on in our district. If you have any classroom sites that you would like to add to the list please post the activity and link on my blog. Teknowledg-E-Matters Integration Exchange page.
Traverso DAW – multi track audio recording and editing
This one is really hot!!! Traverso DAW, a free open source ap. for audio recording editing. It is really worth downloading and installing if you are into creating podcasts and recordings. It has so much capablity. There are many features that you would see in Garage Band. It is fairly simple to use, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get around. Download the application here. http://traverso-daw.org/download.html It works with Linux, Windows, and OS. How cool is that!!! Music teachers get ready to compose. Podcasters get ready to cast. Do it for free with Traverso DAW. If you can get this application installed for students they can create robust audio files for mixing with video and presentations. It’s worth giving it a try.
