"I Learn, You Learn, We Learn" Blog

Discovery provides teachers, students and parents and the entire school community with all kinds of tools for a successful school year. From clip art  and homework help, to eating healthy and being safe; Discovery’s  Classroom Resources and Homework help make going back to school fun! Check out these free resources at http://school.discoveryeducation.com/index.html.

”Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com”
Cross posted from NY LC Blog

    From the exploration of weather tools to Clifford story book activities, Scholastic’s website of interactive white board acitivies has many lessons for your to use with your SMART board. Click here to visit  and get started with these fun activities!

 Website – http://teacher.scholastic.com/whiteboards/learninggames.htm

Vital NY Teachers Domain  is a repository of public television resources. The resources include videos, audio, images, Flash interactives, documents, lesson plans and more.  The resources are aligned to the NY State Learning Standards and Core Curriculum.  You can organize the content within ”My Folders” and “My Groups”  and easily share with colleagues.

Click Here to register for some great resources from WMHT.

Art is such an important part of a child’s overall learning experience. I can’t imagine not having learned about color theory, design elements, perspective, or art appreciation. 

Here are the top 10 sites for creating digital art compiled by David Kapuler.

The photo is an example from the Live Brush website. Try some  of the sites and HAVE SOME FUN!

1.  Art Pad  – A great painting site that records a picture while it’s created to create a time lapse effect.
2.  Slimber – An excellent site for drawing & painting with some beautiful examples.
3.  Bomomo - A fun site where users can create unique pictures with different templates (ie, Pixie).
4.  Doink - A great site for creating animated art with a Web 2.0 flare.
5.  Odosketch - A wonderful site for creating beautiful sketches with colored pencils.
6.  Sketchpad - Create excellent paintings and drawings with this cool site. Many styles, effects and gradients for users to choose.
7.  Sumo Paint  – One of the most popular digital art creators on the web, very similar to Photoshop.
8.  Live Brush  – A wonderful free application that lets users create some beautiful designs. Includes a gallery of examples to view, too.
9.  Crayola Digi-Color  A very user friendly site for kids.
10.  Voice Draw – A unique site that lets users create art with their voice/sound.

I’m sure this is old news to some of you; however, whether you are a fan of Google or not, Picnik is a must for online photo editing.  I was reminded of this site by my daughter, who sent me this photo of her and our Howie.

Picnik  , recently acquired by Google, is a fast, fun, easy to use and powerful set of photo editing tools for editing, sharing and printing images using any Internet browser on any computer platform. Picnik is integrated with a wide variety of websites like Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, Flickr, and Photobucket. With Picnik, you can edit your photos wherever they are from wherever you are.

You don’t have to create an account to use Picnik  and it is FREE! Upload a picture and customize it in many, many, many, different ways. You’ll have loads of fun!

Hmmmmm…… I wonder who she was kissing before in this picture? An old boyfriend maybe?

CDW-G and Discovery, Hall Davidson and Steve Dembo; team up to help you make sense of the web, computers, and all it has to offer you and your students.   Conquer your fears and learn just as much as your students by utilizing Hall and Steve’s lesson plans, activities, links and resources, and videos to help make Web 2.0 fit seamlessly into your classroom. There is even a 16 page PDF document for you to keep with you for reference at all times. Visit http://cdwg.discoveryeducation.com/web2.0/index.cfm and star it in your favorites. This is a resource you’ll use over and over.

Here’s a blog full of websites, tips, and tools for you to peruse for ideas for using the SMART Board in your class.  Be sure to click on and read through some of the older posts as well. There are still some great resources hiding on previous posts.

Website: http://mrscoggin.edublogs.org/

The NCES Kids’ Zone provides information to help you learn about schools; decide on a college; find a public library; engage in several games, quizzes and skill building about math, probability, graphing, and mathematicians; and to learn many interesting facts about education.  There might  be something you could use in your classroom at http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/index.asp.

I love my Flip video camera. Its a great little gadget for taking quick, short videos. It is very easy to use, there are no cords needed and you can generate still pictures from your videos.

Flip has just released a new, FREE, version of Flipshare – the software to edit the videos taken by the Flip video camera.  Click this link to see an interactive video of the camera and software – http://www.theflip.com/demos/amazon/flipshare/#scene=sceneMain.

Here is a very short sample of a video I created in about 5 minutes from individual photos taken from videos – vid00156.wmv

 Click here to learn more about Flipshare and to download the newest version for free – http://www.theflip.com/app/prius/31/update/index.aspx

 Buy Flip products Here

Check out this jam-packed list of FREE webinars offered by Discovery Educator Network. Get ready for back to school with a visit to one , a few or all of the sessions listed below.

All sessions begin at 11 AM ET. Register Here. It’s free and easy.

Digital Storytelling Week
8/3/09
Thinking Outside the Slide: Creating non-linear PowerPoint presentations and learning centers with Discovery Education Media
8/4/09
Digital Storytelling Made Easy: Using Discovery Education Content with Animoto and PhotoStory
8/5/09
Director’s Cut: Discovery Education Media and MovieMaker (PC)
8/6/09
Director’s Cut: Discovery Education Media and iMovie (Mac)

Leadership Week
8/10/09
The Information Society is HERE: Are our schools up to the task? with Dr. Scott McLeod
8/11/09
Policies, Safety and Social Networking
8/12/09
Web 2.0 for Administrators and Others: Schools, Tools, and the 21st Century
8/13/09
Data Driven Decisions with Discovery Education Assessment

Science Week
8/17/09
Myth Busted: Easy Ways to Integrate Digital Media into Your Science Classroom
8/18/09
Getting Your Hands Dirty with Discovery Education Science
8/19/09
Differentiating Instruction with the Discovery Education Science Assessment Manager
8/20/09
More and Muir Tech Tips for Going Green

Web 2.0 Week
8/24/09
Get Your Glog On! The DE streaming Builders and Glogster
8/25/09
The Thread that Ties it All Together: Discovery Education Content and Voicethread
8/26/09
Two Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere in the World: Designing Virtual Field Trips with Discovery Education Media and Google Earth
8/27/09
Learning Through the Funnies: Mixing Discovery Education Content with Free Comic Tools

Enroll today.

I love PhotoStory 3 and Windows Movie Maker for creating stories in the classroom; however, the UDL Book Builder deserves a few shout outs for being a free  online tool to create books and stories. Along with the tool itself, there are tips for authors, model books to explore and resources galore for creating the online books. I think I’ll have my 7th grade students create children’s books using this site as part of my Child Development unit.

Check it out at http://bookbuilder.cast.org/.

Digital Storytelling week begins at Discovery on Aug. 3. Sign up today to learn many ways to incorporate Digital Storytelling in your classroom.

Aug. 3  Thinking Outside the Slide

Aug. 4  Digital Storytelling made easy with Discovery Education Content, Animoto and PhotoStory

Aug. 5  Discovery Education Media and Windows Movie Maker

Aug. 6  Discovery Education Media and Windows iMovie

All webinars start at 11:00am ET. Click here for a complete list of webinars and registration information.

Do I need say more? A terrific celebration with digital gifts for everyone!

 

30 Twitter Tips for Teachers

Our district had the fantastic opportunity to host Will Richardson for his presentation of A Web of Connections.  During an informal chat session for about 40 educators before his presentation, Will mentioned and showed a little about Twitter.  The mention of this tool sparked quite a bit of interest in this group of teachers. Many of them  set up accounts and are busy tweeting with each other and have found others around the country to tweet with. I know a couple have found some interesting people to collaborate with professionally about the content area in which they teach. Some even have some interesting ideas of how Twitter can be used as a classroom tool by their students.

The problem is it is blocked in our district(surprise, surprise). Twittering by our professionals has to take place after school hours away from our district network.  In time, I think Twitter might be something that teachers might eventually have access to. In the meantime, for those teacher who wish to begin using it, here is an article I learned about that might help some beginners get started: 30 Twitter Tips for Teachers

To find teachers using Twitter who teach in the same content area as you, check out: Twitter4Teacher Wiki

A  few weeks ago, a group of about 12 teachers from my district started a “book” club focusing on technology and literacy. To make a long story short, the books have not arrived yet so for the past few meetings we’ve been reading articles about emerging technologies in education.  Diane Wilkinson , the group facilitator and technology instructional specialist extraordinaire, chose some great reading to get our brains thinking and the discussions rolling.

Last night’s topic was cell phone usage in our schools. We have been a bit behind in talking about the issue in our district, but yes, we do have the “ban” policy.

Some of the questions that came from our discussion were:

1. Cell phones have tools that can take the place to tools districts are not providing for students.  Cell phones that students have have calculating and organizing capabilities not to mention built in photo and video tools. Web 2.0 applications readily available on the web can be downloaded for little or nothing onto phones .  Do we as educators have the obligation to tap into the tools the students already have and show them how they can be used for more than socializing or should we  deny students the use of the tools (they might have) because we don’t have them as resources to give to our students?

 2. The cell phone is a staple in our student’s world. Are  we doing them a disservice by not allowing them  and showing them how that tool can be used appropriately from 8am to 3pm while in school?

See excerpts of what Hall Davidson had to say at last year’s National Educational Computing Conference at http://ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/necc-2008-july-1-hall-davidson-on-cell-phones-in-education/.

Here are a few more articles or blog posts to ponder:

Making the Case for Cell Phones in Schools from Vicki Davis Cool Cat Teacher

Get Cell Phones Into Schools from Business Week

Cell Phone Curriculum - Wes Fryer

And for those of you who are still on the flip side:

Teens, Nude Photos and the Law - Newsweek

Explosion in Teen Texting May Have Unexpected Costs

Post your thoughts as a comment.