Jing is a piece of free software for screencasting and screen capture. It can be downloaded for both Mac and PC from http://www.jingproject.com/. Jing allows you to take a picture of anything on your screen. You can then annotate your still image and add objects like arrows. Here is an example of what a Jing screen […]
Tools, Sites, And Apps
Great Overview of Web 2.0 Tools
David Kapuler, who writes the blog Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero has created this excellent “blog companion” which is an overview of educational Web 2.0 tools. It’s well worth a look for all teachers and educational bloggers.
Adding a Bubbleshare Slideshow to your Blog
There are a number of sites where you can embed a slideshow of photos into your blog. One of them is Bubbleshare. I have used a Bubbleshare slideshow on my sidebar of my class blog to display pictures of my classroom. I have also embedded slideshows into posts on my blog about excursions, student work […]
Whyzz
Whyzz is a site that provides kid friendly answers to children’s questions. The tagline of the site is “answering your child’s whyzz, whatzz and howzz”. It is aimed at answering the questions of children aged 4-7 although could be used for children older than this. Registered users of the site can submit and answer questions. […]
Student Avatars
If you need student avatars for blogs, Voice Thread or other Internet applications and don’t want to upload photos of your students, there are a few options for creating avatars. I had my students draw a self portrait which I then photographed and uploaded (as above). Alternatively, there are a number of sites you can use […]
Future Me – Email Yourself
This week, I came across this cool online application called FutureMe where you can send your future self an email. I thought it could have a number of uses in the classroom. It would be interesting for students to send themselves an email that they would receive in one/two/five/ten years time. You can receive your […]
Xtranormal Movie Maker
Xtranormal is a site that provides a really simple way to make an effective looking animated movie. Their motto is “if you can type, you can make movies” (you just type in the script and your chosen characters speak it). The program was very intuitive and I didn’t need to read any instructions to make […]
Finding Online Images
There are many places on the Internet where you can find images for you or your students to use. Here are just a few. You can search Google Images – the first place many people look for images. While Google Images provides a comprehensive search, the problem with this is that most image results are copyright. Flickr is a […]
Skwirk – a great resource!
I came across this great site this week and instantly found so many things that I would love to use immediately with my Grade Two class. Skwirk (an abbreviation of School Work) is an “online education portal” designed for use by teachers and students in both primary and secondary schools. Skwirk covers all core subjects […]
Using an iPod Touch
Note – I updated this post with a more comprehensive guide to using an iPod Touch in the classroom in August, 2011. Click here to find it. For the past twelve months I’ve been using an iPod Touch in my classroom. My students love using this form of technology and I am finding it is […]
Behind the News
Behind the News (BTN) is a fantastic Australian site by the ABC that helps students learn about current issues and events around the world. Each week a new episode of BTN is released comprising of about 5 different stories each under 5 minutes long. The stories can be watched individually on their website or on […]
Tutpup!
Here is a site that my Grade Two students love. It is called Tutpup and is a place where students are matched up with other students from around the world to play maths and spelling games in real time. There are several games to choose from, each with multiple levels. The maths games cover addition, subtraction, […]
Make a Screen Saver for your IWB
This year I’ve started making screen savers for my IWB that help student revise certain concepts. Some may call these subliminal messages! Here are just some of the screen saver slides I have made weekly timetable monthly calendar morning routine reminders (eg “have you changed your reader?”) spelling words M100W words (100 most frequently […]