Instructify

I have to shake my head every time I hear some Congressman arguing for cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because, “Cable TV provides plenty of early childhood educational programming.” Don’t get me wrong, my son learned a ton about inductive and deductive reasoning from watching “Blue’s Clues” and “Dora the Explorer,” but for actual reading skills like letter identification, phonics and blending, Public Television is the best source of materials. I will never forget how hilarious and memorable Gawain’s Word made learning the concept of blending. But how to get these great lessons into your classroom on your time?

Enter Teachers’ Domain, a resource for teachers from WGBH in Boston. There are a number of special collections, Early Literacy (with Between the Lions), Civil Rights, and Polar Sciences. A special collection is in the Open Educational Resources which will allow you to download, share and remix. Get some of this educational video goodness and start blending up some learning in your class. -ALICE MERCER

Teachers’ Domain: Gawain’s Word: box
Teachers’ Domain: Open Educational Resources
Teachers’ Domain: Home

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If you’ve ever wanted to write a book, but you never thought about how it could possibly come to fruition, then you should know it’s easier than you think. With Blurb, you can create a book of just about any size or shape, with any number of pages, and a fully customized look and feel. The content is all up to you, though, so you’ll be responsible for the hard part.

Once you finish your masterpiece, you can download the easy-to-use editor software to arrange and layout the book the way you want it. After that, pricing per individual book starts at $12.95. You can order as few or many as you like, and your work can be featured on the site for purchase by others if you wish. You’ll retain the copyrights, and you can even set your price to determine your own profit level.

Blurb‘s self-publishing platform could make for an awesome class project. Your students could be responsible for creating a collaborative project full of their own musings, pictures, stories and drawings. If you’ve got a web-savvy class, you can also take advantage of the blog-to-book feature and have them blog throughout the year, and then collect their works into a group project or individual books. The service and software are so easy to use, who knows, maybe you’ll see an Instructify book sometime soon. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Blurb

“So how about this weather, huh?”

For your average citizen, that question is at best a clichéd icebreaker. If you’re an earth science or biology teacher, however, it’s often a jump ramp to thrilling topics like hurricanes, ocean levels, and adiabatic heating and cooling. To help you out, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA, because I am not typing that again) has some great educational resources for all grade levels. These tools will let your students do everything from learning about the biological importance of coral reefs to checking out how the National Weather Service alerts people to approaching storms.

My one gripe is that NOAA equates “for kids” with the Comic Sans font, the most obnoxious of all type faces. Their “Primarily for Students” page is also pretty text-heavy, especially for their resources geared toward younger learners. That said, the content itself more than makes up for any graphical deficiencies. And after you check out the materials on the NOAA website, you’ll be able to overcome the conversational deficiencies of folks who lead with, “So how about this weather?” -BILL FERRIS

NOAA Education

When my parents went to school, they ran drills covering what to do in the event of an atomic explosion. We’ve come a long way since then, but nuclear weapons remain a danger. The Global Disarmament Hub wants students to do something about it. That’s why they created Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World. If your pupils are concerned about the threat of nuclear weapons, they have a chance to win a trip to the organization’s annual seminar in Geneva.

To enter, students must respond to the question, ”What do you think can lead governments to stay away from, or do away with, nuclear weapons?” They have three options to do so: write a 1500-word essay, produce a 2-5 minute video, or design a poster.

Entries must be received by May 31, so they’d better get started pretty soon (sorry, we just found out about this ourselves). The Students for a NWFW website has lots of links and resources to get your kids started. An essay or poster might be easiest this late in the process. If your students do decide to shoot a video, make sure that “Duck and Cover” isn’t part of their solution. -BILL FERRIS

Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World

Photo credit: AlbinoFlea on flickr

Way at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy is the often ignored task of creation. Now the Ad Council along with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation is working to “inspire invention.” You certainly have a couple kids in need of a project like this, the bored, the kids who are already inventing mayhem in your classroom, albeit in an unfocused way. Give them a chance to use that inventiveness for the forces of creativity and good, instead of dropping stink bombs during class.

First, there is the InventNow.org – World which is an interactive online cartoon environment where kids can learn about inventors, and invention and get a creative spark to get the brain cells going. Then go to InventNow.org – Invent, and have kids start to put their ideas together. The website has had a redesign since I first used it last Fall, so if you haven’t seen it recently, or have never been there, check it out. -ALICE MERCER

InventNow.org
Ad Council : Inspiring Invention

In high school, I swore off backpacks. Therefore, my goal was to carry as few things as humanly possible. So I would get one of those huge 5-subject notebooks which worked great for that purpose; that is, until the end of the semester approached, and it would be practically exploding with a disorganized mess of notes and papers. What I would have given for a laptop and Springnote.

In essence, Springnote is a wiki, but really it’s like a virtual three-ring binder that you can share online. It works similarly to Google Docs, but it’s hyper-organized and super easy to use. All of your documents are organized into a drop-down tree menu with categories and tags, so you can see and access all of your content quickly. And with two gigs of space and the ability to add attachments and embedded links and images, what more could you ask for?

Well, the text editor is simple and intuitive, you can set your documents as private or public, and you can invite collaborators to edit documents, too. Springnote is a great tool for sharing class notes with your students, having your students work on group projects together, or even for collaborating with colleagues on event planning with to-do lists and details and everything you need all in one shareable place.

It’s probably too early to rid the world of backpacks entirely, but it’s a start. – LAUREN FROHNE

Springnote

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If you watch Lost, you’ll be familiar with some of the references I’m about to throw your way. Who wouldn’t want to explore an island, all the while hanging out with Kate (or Jack, ladies) and solving mysteries? First thing I’d do would be to [Spoiler Alert] and then [Spoiler Alert], because, really, what was up with [Spoiler Alert]? We might never know!

One thing I do know for sure is that its not really a place for kids, as most of them end up getting kidnapped once or twice per season. There has got to be a kid-friendly island out there that they can explore… someplace like, oh I don’t know, BBC’s Adventure Rock. Adventure Rock is an online 3D island that includes games and creative studios where children can get immersed.

According to this article from BBC News, virtual worlds are a stimulating way for kids practice what they might do in real life. For as much escapism as a virtual world like Second Life provides for people who already lead real lives, something like Adventure Rock would exist on the opposite side of things. Kids can practice social skills and figure out their identities in a consequence-free environment all before leading their own lives in the real world. –NICK YINGLING

Adventure Rock

We almost put this in Monday by the Numbers, but Sesame Street deserves a post of its own. Babble, a parenting blog, presents the 50 Best Sesame Street Moments. It’s not just a list, either – there’s a video clip for every entry, so you can relive great Sesame Street moments like the “Rubber Ducky” song, Bert and Ernie’s fishing trip (“Heeeeere, fishy fishy fishy!“), and that pinball machine song that counts to twelve.

For years, Sesame Street has helped young kids learn about spelling, colors, the concepts of near and far, not to mention teaching them not to fear monsters. These are great videos to show to young students, or if you’re a parent, your own kids. If you’re a sucker for nostalgia like me, you’ll probably enjoy viewing these again yourself. Just try not to cry when you watch “Mr. Hooper Isn’t Coming Back.” -BILL FERRIS

50 Best Sesame Street Moments via Babble

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Dress Up Your Data with These Visualization Methods
Are you looking for a new look for your data? Are you tired of the same old boring bar graph? Do you wonder if you have the right visual for the occasion? For answers to these and other vexing questions with graphics, check out these resources.

Help Your Struggling Spellers with These Great Tips
Do your students struggle on spelling tests? Education.com has a few spelling tips designed for teachers and parents in their article, The Fast Track to Spelling Success.

Avoid Killing Students’ Interest and Attention with Power Point
Stop killing your audience’s attention and start making killer presentations with these helpful tips.

Explore the Final Frontier with SETI@home and WorldWide Telescope
Want to get kids interested in space? Here are two sites that should be helpful.

National Geographic’s Explore a Pyramid: Archaeology with No Risk of Snakes or Nazis!
With this fun and educational game, your students can coast through an ancient pyramid using a robot to search for hieroglyphic clues. It’s a great way to start a lesson on Egyptian history and to discuss the significance of pyramids and hieroglyphics.

In any given classroom you’ll find lots of different talents and interests, and it can be difficult for one teacher to find the time and resources to address them all. And, with school budget cuts hitting arts departments hardest, schools in general have fewer resources to let kids explore their talents and and give them a much-needed creative outlet. So, wouldn’t it be great if a virtual utopia dedicated exclusively to the visual and performing arts existed in which your student could run wild with their creativity?

Believe it or not, this utopia of the arts exists! Artopia is a free, interactive Web-based arts experience designed for middle school students that lets them explore the arts, including: theater, sculpture, dance, music, painting and media arts. Your students can go behind the scenes of a theater, learn about choreographing dance performances, create storyboards, get behind the soundboard in a music studio, view important paintings and works of art, and so much more. And, on top of all that, they can even watch performances and write critical reviews of them. There’s so much to do and see in Artopia, and luckily your students can keep track of it all with their own virtual portfolio, which they can access by registering and logging into the site.

Artopia also offers a special area for teachers with downloadable lesson plans and classroom materials that tie in with the activities on the site, making this a great way to let your students’ creativity shine and also encourage them think critically about art.

So cater to all the artistic talents and tastes that co-exist in your classroom, maybe they’ll even find some common ground in Artopia. -LAUREN FROHNE

Artopia

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Are you looking for a new look for your data? Are you tired of the same old boring bar graph? Do you wonder if you have the right visual for the occasion? Will a line graph tell the story, or would a Venn diagram do a better job?

For answers to these and other vexing questions with graphics, check out A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. This site lists the major (and minor) visualizations and separates them by category: data, information, concept, strategy, metaphor, and the combo special of the visualization world, the compound visualization. With so many choices, you’re bound to find the right one. Another version of this type of site is also available at Information Design Patterns.

After that, you’ll need some ways to make your visualizations come true, and plain old Excel by itself, may not make that happen. Fortunately, there are some options. One is Chart Chooser, which has ready-to-go templates for Excel and PowerPoint, organized by type. For the adventurous, check out Many Eyes, an online data visualization site from IBM, where you can view visualizations by others, or upload data of your own to play with. To broaden your palette to the possibilities, check out a site like information aesthetics which highlights new and innovative data design. Really, you’ll never use that default pie chart in PowerPoint again. -ALICE MERCER

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Information Design Patterns
information aesthetics – data visualization & visual design
Chart Chooser
Many Eyes

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Do your students struggle on spelling tests? For every easy word like “cat” or “dog” you have tricky ones like “perceive” or “through.” It’s as if the English language were designed to fool people. “I before E except after C?” Capricious and arbitrary, if you ask me. And why would you have silent letters? Are they spares in case other letters in the word break down?

Education.com has a few spelling tips designed for teachers and parents in their article, The Fast Track to Spelling Success. One method they advocate is the “Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check,” method:

“Ask your child to write his spelling words in the first column, one underneath the other.

• Look. Ask your child to look at the word and read it aloud. For example, “friend”
• Say. Then spell the word letter by letter while continuing to look at it. “f-r-i-e-n-d”
• Cover. Your child should now cover the word “friend” (either with her hand, another piece of paper or by folding that column underneath the others) and try to write “friend” in the second column, without looking at the first column.
• Check. Now, have your child check her work by comparing the first column with the second column. If it’s correct, move on to the second word. If it’s incorrect, ask her to repeat the steps, this time trying to write “friend” in the third column.”

The article also has other ideas for different learning styles. My favorite, designed for the kids who can’t sit still, is to have them practice spelling while doing a physical activity, such as jumping rope, shouting out a letter with each jump (also a good way to burn off some of their extra energy).

All the methods listed in this article require lots of practice. However, if you follow their advice, that practice will be more productive – and more fun. -BILL FERRIS

The Fast Track to Spelling Success via education.com

You may have had the opportunity to read this earlier piece on Scott Elias and how to improve Power Point presentations. Dean Shareski adds his two-cents to the discussion in YouTube – PowerPoint Extreme Makeover, which gives concrete before-and-after examples with a few helpful tips.

The highlights:

1. More high-quality visuals: use a picture to not just illustrate but to tell the story;
2. Don’t try to make your PowerPoint stand alone, your delivery counts;
3. Don’t show the text you are reading in your narration;
4. Make the text you use stand out using contrast and fonts;
5. Get a remote clicker.

Stop killing your audience’s attention and start making killer presentations with these helpful tips. -ALICE MERCER

YouTube – PowerPoint Extreme Makeover
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Plautus once said, “No guest is so welcome in a friend’s house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.” He obviously never met Flat Stanley.

If you haven’t met him, either, Flat Stanley is a little guy cut out of paper, sent to young students from other children in schools the world over. The program works like this: students make their own Flat Stanleys and take him around with them, keeping a journal of their activities (went for ice cream, cleaned their room, etc.). After showing him a good time, the kids mail Flat Stanley and a copy of the journal to another school. These students there take Stanley out on the town, too, jotting down what they do, before sending him back home again, often with souvenirs and pictures. As someone who enjoys travel, I’ve never been so jealous of a paper doll.

The Flat Stanley Project is basically a souped-up pen pal program. Thousands of schools participate every year, and the only costs are paper and stamps. As the Flat Stanley website says, “By sending a Flat Stanley it’s as if the senders and the recipients have a mutual friend – a little flat guy they can both talk about.” The Flat Stanley Project is a fun way for your students to interact with kids from far-away areas, and they can associate a face with their new friends, even if its only made of paper.

You can sign up your class to send and receive Flat Stanleys at the Flat Stanley website. It’ll be a fun class project, and you’ll never have a more considerate guest. -BILL FERRIS

Flat Stanley

I don’t know how I’ve been living without Skitch. This Mac only (sorry Windows users!) application has loads of great features wrapped around a simple screen grabber. I use the built in screen capture function on my Mac (shift+apple+fn+3 (or 4) will copy it to your clipboard) all the time for blogging, but Skitch goes an extra mile and a half with all the extra bells and whistles you could ask for. For starters, it’s a free application that sits as a tiny heart icon in your top toolbar, and all you need to do to take a crosshair or full screen snapshot is click the drop-down menu.

Things just get easier from there, as you can then take advantage of the stuff that really makes Skitch stand out. You can resize, draw, add arrows and other shapes, add text, and easily upload your caps to your free account, which you have to set up in order to download the application. There’s even a sharp intro video that will get you started in minutes. I could go on about this amazing tool, but I really recommend grabbing it for yourself.

Windows users, fret not, we haven’t forgotten about you. While I can’t completely verify that any of the tools available are what you might get with Skitch, they at least sound comparable in usability. Try Screenshot Captor which has features like a deluxe thumbnail maker, or Jing, which is available for both Windows and Mac. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN