Instructify

BY BILL FERRIS

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way — Get High Now has to do with optical and audio illusions. It in no way advocates getting hepped up on goofball. To quote from the site itself:

“Get High Now is an illustrated, mind-blowing magic carpet ride of more than 175 ways to alter human perception and consciousness—without drugs or alcohol” (emphasis added lest you think Instructify is promoting anything inappropriate for a school audience).

See? We’re still a family site, more or less.

Anyway, the Get High Now website is a companion to a book of the same name. Both catalog stunning illusions of sight and sound, explaining the biology and neuroscience that makes them possible.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

I can’t really imagine a teacher not using technology in his or her classroom, especially a reader of Instructify.  And, we all could use a little more money to purchase more of that technology, couldn’t we?  So please take some time to look at and apply for the Vernier & NSTA Technology Award.

According to the website, “The Vernier Technology Awards will recognize and reward the innovative use of data-collection technology using a computer, graphing calculator, or other handheld in the science classroom.” You’re eligible to apply if you currently teach science in K-College. Each award will consist of $1000 cash for the teacher, $1000 in Vernier products, and up to $1000 for expenses related to traveling to and attending NSTA’s 2010 National Convention in Philadelphia. Not a bad deal, eh? Make sure to apply by November 30.

Vernier & NSTA Technology Award

Related stuff:

Bright Ideas Grants — Still time to apply in some counties!

Go on a scientific expedition to the south pole with PolarTREC

BY BILL FERRIS

Do something subversive this week — read a book.

It’s time once again for the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week (September 26 through October 3). Every year, hundreds of books are banned or challenged by people or groups who try to restrict others’ access to certain books.

You can help raise awareness of these censorship attempts by celebrating BBW. The ALA has lots of ideas, including some creative display ideas, sending a letter to the editor, and spreading public service announcements.

Of course, it’s also a good occasion to pick up one of these oft-challenged books to see what all the fuss is about. It may provide good discussion fodder for your class, as well as prompt a debate about who should decide what books are available to whom.

Banned Books Week

BY BILL FERRIS

This is a friendly reminder that you can still sign up for the free LEARN NC 2009 Interactive Conference, to be held on Thursday, October 1. The morning face-to-face session is full, but we’ve got plenty of room in the afternoon from 1-5 p.m. And tune in at 3 p.m. to see yours truly and contributor Jason Don Forsythe presenting on various productivity tools for teachers.

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Go on a scientific expedition to the south pole with PolarTREC
Win a trip to Antarctica. Yes, that’s supposed to be an incentive. PolarTREC will send 36 teachers to the Arctic or Antarctic to work with polar research teams. They’ll take a mittens-on approach to learning about atmospheric chemistry, biology, history and culture in the coldest places on earth.

Bright Ideas Grants — Still time to apply in some counties!
I think North Carolina’s Electric Cooperative’s Bright Ideas grant program may be one of the best-kept secrets in the state.  I’ve been very successful at receiving these grants when I’ve applied.

Explore environmental science with the Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Educators
As a teacher, it’s my responsibility to make scientifically literate students able to engage in reasonable and logical debate, using sound evidence as their basis.  There are many tools available to help me with this, and the United States Global Change Research Program has recently come out with a new one, the Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Educators.

Try to balance the state budget with the Backseat Budgeter
Try your hand at balancing a state budget with the Colorado Backseat Budgeter, an online application from the Bighorn Leadership Development Program at Colorado State University. The Backseat Budgeter lets you decide how much to spend on health care, roads, education, social services and so forth, while raising or lowering tax rates to make up for budget shortfalls.

BY BILL FERRIS

Many years ago, Walt Disney drew a little cartoon mouse who in turn built a theme park with his own four-fingered hands. Or something. Today, your elementary students can create cartoons of their own, as well as stories, drawings, cards and more at Kerpoof, an online creativity site brought to you by Disney.

Kerpoof gets kids creating with a simple interface that has a surprising amount of options. The movie section is particularly impressive — you can have several characters onscreen at once, and direct their movement, actions and speech. Compared to online animation tool Xtranormal, Kerpoof gives you far more control over your characters — Xtranormal’s free version only allows two characters, and they can’t walk around. However, Kerpoof doesn’t allow you to switch camera angles, nor do the characters have voice simulation (which may be a positive, depending on your point of view). (more…)

BY BILL FERRIS

Try your hand at balancing a state budget with the Colorado Backseat Budgeter, an online application from the Bighorn Leadership Development Program at Colorado State University. The Backseat Budgeter lets you decide how much to spend on health care, roads, education, social services and so forth, while raising or lowering tax rates to make up for budget shortfalls. In keeping with these hard economic times, the Backseat Budgeter starts you approximately $800 million in the hole.

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BY NICK YINGLING

Dear Everyone,

For the past 17 months I’ve been allowed to work with a great group of people and help write for a website that actually provides something useful to its readership. I’ve been allowed to write pretty much whatever I wanted, work insane, bizarre links into my postings, and suffer delusions of grandeur while occasionally acting as stand-in editor. I also caught a lot of writing advice site management tips from Bill that really helped me step up my game. The best thing by far, though, was writing alongside such a great group and knowing that you were out there reading it.

Now, I’m leaving LEARN NC and Instructify now to go find my fortune, but I’d like to thank all of you first! Your feedback and comments have always been welcome and helpful.

I hope to drop in with a posting every now and again because this has really been a lot of fun!

Related stuff:

Oh, how about every posting I’ve ever made here, ever?

Boyz II Men – End Of The Road
(Couldn’t resist this link. How about how I can follow along with the spoken word part at the 2:38 mark?)

BY BILL FERRIS

As further proof that my pop-culture awareness stopped sometime in the mid-90s, this month’s random roundup features Indiana Jones, apparently Instructify’s go-to reference to convey that a history or archaeology tool is exciting or adventurous in some capacity.

Of course, now that they’re making a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I don’t feel quite so dated.

National Geographic’s Explore a Pyramid: Archaeology with No Risk of Snakes or Nazis!
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist like Indiana Jones and I dreamed about being on Nickelodeon’s Legends of the Hidden Temple. Sadly, I’m not currently exploring foreign lands for ancient artifacts and getting chased by Nazis, nor did I ever get the chance to be a Blue Barracuda. But with National Geographic’s Explore a Pyramid, your students can have the opportunities that I never did, and learn while doing it!

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

With the Health Care Reform debate in the forefront of national news, other major legislation, such as the Climate Change Bill, has been pushed aside.  However, I have no doubt that the climate change issue will rise to the top again.  As a teacher, I feel it is my responsibility to make scientifically literate students able to engage in reasonable and logical debate, using sound evidence as their basis.  There are many tools available to help me with this, and the United States Global Change Research Program has recently come out with a new one, the Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Educators.

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

I think North Carolina’s Electric Cooperative’s Bright Ideas grant program may be one of the best-kept secrets in the state.  I’ve been very successful at receiving these grants when I’ve applied.  The maximum amount varies by the actual electric cooperative that serves that county.  However, they seem to range between $1,000 and $2,000 awards. Unfortunately, the deadline for many counties has just passed; however, a few counties still have time to apply.

The application process is easy and online, so if your county is still accepting applications, I encourage you to apply — unless you live in Carteret County because then you’ll be competition for me (I’m kidding).  A sampling of counties where you can still apply is below, but you can search for your county at the website.

Cabarrus, Jones, Onslow Counties’ deadline: September 25, 2009

Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Carteret,  Craven (some schools) Counties’ deadline: September 30, 2009

NC Bright Ideas

BY BILL FERRIS

Win a trip to Antarctica. Yes, that’s supposed to be an incentive.

PolarTREC will send 36 teachers to the Arctic or Antarctic to work with polar research teams. They’ll take a mittens-on approach to learning about atmospheric chemistry, biology, history and culture in the coldest places on earth. (more…)

Hit the road and apply for a Target Field Trip Grant
Even during hard times, your class doesn’t have to be confined to quarters. Target is again offering field trip grants worth up to $800 to 5,000 teachers this year.

Once again, into the maelstrom, via social media
I’m a huge fan of the social media blog Mashable, and this posting about tracking Hurricane Bill through social media is another example of them just destroying the competition. Okay, so Hurricane Bill is yesterday’s news, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use their storm-tracking suggestions for future weather patterns.

Learn about Egypt as you run for your life in Escape from the Mummy’s Tomb!
In Escape from the Mummy’s Tomb! your elementary students must recover Egyptian artifacts from inside a pyramid. As the title of the game has no doubt alerted you, you’ll have to wrest these artifacts from an undead mummy’s cold, dead, bandaged fingers.

Instructifeature: Reach special-needs students using a Voki and Trailfire mashup
Many K-12 teachers are very interested in and/or are already effectively leveraging free Web 2.0 tools and other forms of media (audio/video) in their classrooms. Teachers of special needs students are no exception.

Read faster with ReadSpeeder
Web app ReadSpeeder can help you improve your reading speed. It works by letting you copy and paste text into the app. It then breaks the text down into tiny chunks displayed in rapid succession, as fast as you’re comfortable with.

BY BILL FERRIS

Web app ReadSpeeder can help you improve your reading speed. Much like Spreeder, ReadSpeeder works by letting you copy and paste text into the app. It then breaks the text down into tiny chunks displayed in rapid succession, as fast as you’re comfortable with.

Where ReadSpeeder differs is that it automatically divides passages of text into natural two-to-four-word phrases. Further, by registering for an account, you can save text for later reading. This is perfect for electronic books, and ReadSpeeder comes prepackaged with dozens of literary classics like Great Expectations and Alice in Wonderland.

If you have students who groan about slogging through heavy reading, tell them about ReadSpeeder. It may also be ideal if you’re working on your master’s degree and have a bunch of reading to catch up on. And if you’re a true glutton for punishment, you can always take a crack at James Joyce’s Ulysses, one of the books in the ReadSpeeder catalog.

ReadSpeeder

Related stuff:

Speed up your reading with Spreeder

Put books on your phone with Google Book Search Mobile

BY LISA HERVEY

Many K-12 teachers are very interested in and/or are already effectively leveraging free Web 2.0 tools and other forms of media (audio/video) in their classrooms. This reality was especially evident to me this summer as I worked with teachers from all over the country at The New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute, a week-long professional development institute that focused on new literacies and associated Web 2.0 tools and multimedia.

Several of the teachers attending the institute work with student populations such as English as a Second Language (ESL), Hearing Impaired (HI) and Visually Impaired (VI). Many of the internet-based tools and applications available to teachers are certainly wonderful, but may immediately marginalize these same students. Tools that use English in text or audio may not be accessible to an ESL student. Videos and podcasts may prove difficult for students with hearing impairments. Engaging with tools or media that have small fonts and or images may be untenable for visually impaired students.

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