My grandson and I were playing on my new iPad the other day and we tried out the BrainPOP app for the iPad. I had looked at BrainPOP some time ago, but since it was for younger students I didn’t pay too much attention to it. As I played along with my nine-year-old grandson, I [...]
Posts under ‘Neat Things On the Web’
Choices
Last summer, I had the opportunity to work with a lovely group of educators from the Montcalm School District. They invited me to lead a two-day teacher workshop on using technology in the classroom. Recently I had a chance to visit their schools and talk to a few of the teachers that participated in the [...]
World Math Day Contest
Lights, Camera, Action! Are you looking for the ultimate class project? Now your students can show off their creative abilities and talents online in the World Math Day Video Challenge! Move over American Idol! In anticipation of World Math Day on March 4th, students from across the country are competing in this year’s World Math [...]
Why Do I Twitter My Time Away?
I’ve asked myself that question several times. At one point, I even said that Twitter is the biggest waste of time and technology I have ever seen. I’ve talked to several other Twitter users that felt the same way when they started using Twitter. My attitude about Twitter has changed. I now like, enjoy and [...]
Maybe I’m the Slow Kid
On the CAST web site they introduce Differentiated Instruction by stating: Not all students are alike. Based on this knowledge, differentiated instruction applies an approach to teaching and learning so that students have multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas. Teachers some times think they are being asked to “water” down [...]
Screencasting With Jing
Jing Gets Even Better TechSmith just released a Professional version of Jing. The good news is the Jing software we have all grown to love is still free. Just in case you haven’t used Jing, Jing is a free screen-recording program from TechSmith. It will record anything you do on your computer along with your [...]
Student Storybooks
Student publishing and writing for an authentic audience has been a theme of many of my blog posts and my presentations. That’s why I was excited when I discovered Tikatok.com. The lead sentence on their web site is “Tikatok™ is where kids channel their imagination into stories – and publish those stories into books for [...]
Is there a Monster Under the Bed?
This is a great little project for second or third graders. It is coordinated by Ann Oro and Anna Baralt’. Both of these teachers are active in the K12 Online Conference and Twitter. Is there a better way to learn about adjectives in elementary school than drawing and describing monsters? Anna and Ann have designed [...]
Another Collaborative Tool
Inspiration and Kidspiration are two great programs for teaching writing and for concept mapping. Numerous schools use these two programs. I recently visited a school for students who had problems with writing. One of the seniors told me he was planning on buying Inspiration to have with him in college. He used the outline mode [...]