Yad Vashem Auschwitz Album

Once upon a time, I taught English, and I spent an entire semester teaching the Holocaust through literature and research to my students. The project began as a simple reading of text, and over nine years developed into a semester long project that encompassed everything from books to art. It became a powerful way for me to connect current events with the history of the past. I learned so much from becoming a Fellow of both the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Kenne State College and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. I am beyond grateful for the opportunities to have extensively studied the events of the Holocaust through these two incredible organizations, and I would highly recommend studying with the Cohen Center , (if you are local to Northern New England) or a reputable local organization if you are invested in teaching the Holocaust. Becoming an Alfred Lerner Fellow to the JFR is an honor that is given after attending and being recommended by a connected Holocaust learning center.

Thank you to Tom White, Coordinator of Educational Outreach for the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Kenne State College in Keene, NH for this link to the Yad Vashem's Auschwitz Album, which is a powerful photo documentary of sorts that takes witness to the atrocities to the events leading up to extermination at Auschwitz. It is simple, yet quite powerful with the combination of photos and narrative.

Worth using in the classroom, and completely appropriate to use with all ages.

Why am I limited to 160 characters?!

As an avid texter, I have always wondered why on Earth I was limited to only 160 characters before I had to hit send. I can be a rambler when I want to be. I want to say what I need to say, and I don't want to be limited by some random number. Well, this article explains that indeed the number 160 is not random. Well, if you count sitting at a typewriter and pounding out random sentences "not random." 

It's an interesting article if ever you are curious; otherwise, don't bother. Just accept the fact that the number came about based on the number of characters that exist within a typed line or two. And when the number was created, no one anticipated how the phenomenon of texting would explode, especially amongst teens. Truly, I fall into the category of someone who would rather text than talk, but then, I also have massive conversations texting. It's a warped irony, I know, but I honestly think my conversations are more succinct because I am limited by that character number. Now, as educators? If we could transfer the succinct conversations that happen in texting to the papers our students write....

Holy Twitter App, Batman!

If you're a Twitter junkie and have time on your hands for this, get ready, because there are a load of apps you can download from this wiki! I'm not sure what some of them even mean, do, or should do, but I'm just impressed with the sheer volume of different apps available for Twitter.

I fall into the category of "Like what I have, can't take on more". Perhaps some of these apps are worth downloading, and I'd love for someone to tell me what I should be using other than my Tweetdeck. So go ahead... try them, use them, love them, and I'll trust your word and try myself. But, in the meantime, I'm good. Safe. Just my Tweetdeck and me.

Online Resources

This whole blog focuses on the concept of giving teachers resources to use to help integrate technology into their classrooms. This is an interesting article with some tips about how to search sources and which ones are the best to use. It's worth the read.

Here are a few tips from Ed Week & their article Hunting the Internet for Quality Content:

"Tips
1. Find social networks that allow you to consult with colleagues in your district, state, and across the country.
2. Search portals specifically geared to teachers that include links to curriculum materials and downloadable lessons, worksheets, and multimedia resources."

To read more, go to the article.

5 Best Mind Mapping Tools

It's a proven fact that mind mapping tools and graphic organizers help students work through processing skills better. They help organize, are visual, and in a computer setting, they can become interactive, to help the learner grow further skills. However, there are so many from which to choose. I am a fan of Inspiration, which my district graciously supplies to the teachers. However, if you are in position to look for other tools, some of which are free online tools and others that are fee based, check out this article from lifehacker titled Hive Five: Five Best Mind Mapping Applications. The online ones look quite useful, and when you put them up against programs that cost several hundred dollars per license, it seems likely you will be able to operate around whatever you're missing with the fee based license. Check them out, and see which works best for your needs.

Easy Photo Editing

Let's face it, Photoshop is a high end tool, no matter how you look at it. Not a Photoshop expert, but need to edit some photos? Here are a few online photo editing tools that might help you. Picnik is one of the easier tools I've seen online. It's fast, easy, and for something basic, it will do the job you need. Fotoflexer seems to work in a very similar fashion.

If you want something slightly more advanced, then I might recommend phixr or splashup. I have not used phixr, but I have used splashup, and there are some glitches, like my students and I were unable to save an image to our desktop. We were only able to do a screen capture to have the image for ourselves. It looks like it saves to a URL or you can immediately post to certain sites, but this wasn't our goal.

I found this article titled 20 Great Online Image Editors on Mashable, which is an interesting place to get tips and learn more about social media.

Check out the online photo editing tools and see which one works best for you.

Looking for that font?

Sometimes, we need to create that document or file that has to have that certain type of font because the suggested/given fonts just don't work for the context of the document. You've seen the font in use and can't find it. Enter WhatTheFont! You can insert the picture, or you can give the URL and WhatTheFont! will tell you what the font is. You can also search fonts to find that specific font. Have fun - it's one of those sites where you could get lost playing!

Second Life in the Classroom?

I'm always open to new ideas. I have to be in my line of work. But I have to admit here, this wanders in to territory that even I need to continually rethink. I'd like to try it, but am still, admittedly, pretty unsure. What am I talking about? Second Life.

Second Life is an online community where you can create your own avatar and live a literal second life online. Some people have abused this idea, and this is where online communities get their unfortunate bad name, but I'm hopeful when I read articles like this one, which talk about universities/colleges like Elon in NC who are now using Second Life as a regular and required part of their curriculum. When I read the article, I was beyond impressed with what the students could do, and it is candid about what the downsides are to using an application like Second Life (giving up a week of class time to allow students to learn the application). However, when you see the final products, you perhaps can see that these couldn't have been created in a real life environment, which is the ultimate online capability, giving students the chance to create something that couldn't otherwise be created in real life. This is where I need to think outside the box, and challenge myself to rethink my curriculum and allow my classes to explore a genuinely life-like virtual world.

Research tools

All of us have questions about how to when it comes to online research and the presentation of the materials. The folks at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Austin, TX have made the task of online research a little easier with their Upper School Research Tools link. There are some solid tips on everything from Research Assistance to Copyright Guidelines. It looks like and invaluable tool to help your students get their next research project up and going, and making sure they produce the best quality work possible. Give a good look! And thanks to the folks at St. Andrews for their work on this! It will be a great tool to have in your toolbox!

Public Domain e-Books

Budget issues have forced many of us to explore how to use online features and open source materials to help reduce costs. This link came across Twitter a few days ago about Public Domain e-Books. Normally, some of these are hard to come by as free e-Books, but if you're in the market for online books, check out this source to see if you can find what you need!

Google Docs in the classroom

Google Docs works quite similarly to the Microsoft applications, without some of the glam. Can you do everything Word, Powerpoint, and Excel can? No. But if you're looking for an easy way to get collaboration into your classroom, Google Docs may be just what you're looking for.

Having worked with the collaborative features before, I can say you and your students will perhaps find it slightly frustrating the first go out, since even though the documents are meant to be collaborative, if more than one person is trying to edit at any given time, then it could kick someone else's edit off. However, this is true of most collaborative applications. In other words, if you chose to explore this, know ahead of time that students should give each other some lag time between posts. The more people who are editing any given document, the slower it will go, too.

If you're looking to add technological collaboration to your classroom, check out this Google presentation on interesting ways to use Google Docs in the classroom.

Fun Science link

Looking for a cool link for Science? Looks like this might be a site geared for younger kids, but I haven't totally explored it. It might be well used to teach some of the basics. The articles seem thorough and detailed, and the experiments are goofy but fun. Check it out!

General Resource Site

Having a little help making something simple (or better, something complex) is always a good thing in my book. I find little shame in using something that isn't an original. I say this because I know there are those of you out there who want to recreate the wheel every time. And, hey, that's fine with me. I just don't have the time, and I know I'm not alone in that boat. So anything that can cut my time is a good thing, indeed. And with everything else that is dumped on our teacher laps, I need all the handy, helpful shortcuts I can get to create a quality end. Quality is the key.

Having said that, here is a helpful resource aptly named Make It & Take It. It has everything from rubric & puzzle creators to interactive sites for all ages. Whether you have the time to spend or are in a pinch and need a quick fix, you should be able to find something here. And guess what? Learned about it from one of my Twitter connections!

Flip Videos Cameras

If you haven't gotten on the Flip bandwagon to get video into your classroom easily, then it's time to join the new wave of video. Check out the site, and see how sleek and simple it is.

If you're wondering why you might want to use the Flip in your classroom, check out this article from Escobedo MS Tech Talk. It will help you realize how this piece of technology can enhance your classroom.

Here is a Jing tutorial created by some of my students to show how easy it is to use the video camera.

Music anyone?

Noteflight came across Twitter this afternoon, and what you'll see is a Jing tutorial showing you how to use Noteflight. If you need students to create an original score for something, or if you teach music, this may be something you want to check out. Looks simple enough to use and share. Give it a look, and let me know what you think. Again, if you think there is no application to this in your classroom, I would encourage you to think outside your comfort zone and see how something like this might fit into your curriculum.

Building Your Own Website? Need CSS layout code?

This certainly isn't for all of you, but for those who are more technologically adept, and you're looking for some free ways to lay out your site, here is a place that has multiple CSS downloads for you to use to format your page(s). This seems like a great place, and the time saved... My question is, does this code work in a place like Weebly? Might be worth a look with your students.

Gaming in the Classroom?

Now, this is a hot topic in many circles - should gaming be allowed in schools, and is there educational value to it? I'll let you decide which side of the coin you sit on. There are also theories, for those who feel it does have value, about constructionism vs. instructionism (the idea you will learn more when creating a game vs. just playing a game). It's a deep argument on either side: value or not, and construct vs. instruct. As I always suggest, try thinking outside the box here.

Either way, this looks like a great resource with regards to the topic. Sylvia has put together a plethora of information for anyone who is willing to explore the topic. Thanks to her!

Is this quality content? I'm curious to know...

Below is some of my students' first try at podcasting. Now, mind you, we have had long conversations about quality content, but they begged me to allow them to post this podcast. We had the conversation that if you begin posting silly content, then people may not take you seriously and likely won't follow you. This conversation proceeded the talk about one of the main ideas of Web 2.0 is to share content. I think you get my gist - that I tried to work with the students to get them to understand the whole concept of quality content. I previewed, and rejected, several drafts of the lyrics before we settled on this version.

But, then, I'm amused at the end of the day about silly content on places like YouTube. So my question here is, does content matter when students post original work to the Web? Am I the one being too serious here? I'd love your feedback.

OmniDazzle

Yet another great great tip that came across Twitter. OmniDazzle... Looks like a way to spice up presentations, and now it's a free download. Reasons from the website for why to try OmniDazzle:
"1. You've got a presentation this week, and you want to hear both "oohs" AND "ahhs" from the audience.
2. Your documentation could use some really great screen shots.
3. You want to point out something on your screen, without actually pointing."
Looks like it's definitely worth exploring to add pizzaz to presentations.

Here is a student generated Jing exploring the use of Omnidazzle. Remember, this is from a student's perspective, and they couldn't understand the value of some of the features or just didn't like others, but I think you'll get the gist of how the program works based on their presentation of the tool:

Student Led Podcasting Integration Presentation

Our Student Council here at WHS took on the challenge of looking at the Student Handbook this semester, and one of the things they wanted to look at was the use of iPods/MP3 players in school. Understanding they wanted to get the access during the school day for their music, one of the students on the Council who is in my 21st Century Digital Communications Class came to me and asked what we could do as a class to help change this policy. Podcasting was my 1st thought, and so, as a class, we set forth creating the following wiki presentation about the concept of the use of iPods/MP3 players in schools both for personal and academic purposes. Check it out, and hopefully, the information is useful.

Myths & Legends Story Creator

While at first glance this seems like a tool geared for younger kids, and it probably is, there is never harm in having a little fun during creative writing or in an upper level class. Myths & Legends Story Creator is an online application that allows you to plug in visual pieces, and it looks like it has an audio function. Have your students recreate a story line as a children's book. Even though this is geared towards kids, try it out with your older students and see what happens. As always, think outside the box.

Can't Stop Twittering

When I first heard of Twitter I thought, like many sometimes do, 'Yep, it's just another thing to do.' Then I started to hear more and more about it, and I finally joined and starting building my network. It only took me a short while to build my network, and I'm completely addicted now. It's fast, you can leave the Tweetdeck open all day, and you get updates from your network. Since I joined, I have learned so much about so many ideas, simply based on the fact that I built my network around people who share similar professional interests as me. Having said that, this article came across Twitter this AM. It's about how this social networking tool is now being used by police to help keep the public informed. This article talks about how Twitter was used to cover a high profile murder case in Memphis.

I guess my point is this - Twitter and other social networking tools are more than just a toy, more than just a phase. They have become integrated into daily life as a viable means to stay informed. If you're not there... it's time to get on board.

Weebly/Freewebs

After a fellow colleague (huge shout out to Scott Nichols -he loves to integrate technology into his classroom!) sent me some student work to be posted on our school website, I asked him about the application he used to have the students create their websites: Weebly. He said the students told him about it, and in their opinion, it was better than Freewebs. I've never heard of either, and certainly haven't explored either, but I love the work his students created using Weebly. If you're in need a a quick website for a student project, it looks like either Weebly or Freewebs is worth checking out. See Scott's students' work on WWI below:

WWI Timeline
WWI Facts
WWI
The Great War
WWI: The Great War

Rubric World

As we all continue to hear the buzz on why rubrics are good and enhance our teaching and our students' ability to produce quality work, some teachers need more information on how to create a good rubric, need a site to do this, and need quality examples to follow. This tidbit came across Twitter when I threw out a tweet asking for a quality rubric for a PPT for another colleague. Check out iRubric.

After briefly checking this site out, it looks like it has a rubric creator, and then you can store your rubric online and share with the global community of teachers. You can search for a rubric by subject, grade level, or type, and there are thousands from which to choose. While there are several other sites for rubric making and sharing, I haven't seen one with this many options in a while. Give a look, try it out, and tell me what you think!

Managing Twitter as a Teacher

Are you a teacher who tweets but finds it hard to keep up with it all? This article might help you by giving you some helpful tips. Hope you find it useful!

Social Media is here to stay

An interesting article on social media, and how it's not going away and what we should/can do with it.

Blip.fm

Now, for teachers, you might not see the immediate value in this, but think outside the box. Blip.fm is an online source where you can become your own DJ, and if you are linked into Twitter, your Blips are immediately posted for your followers. The students love this site for some obvious reasons, but if you're a teacher, how can this benefit you? Well, what if you have a blog/wiki or some other forum, and you want to share a song(s) that is relative to a lesson you've created. You can embed the Blip into the forum, and the students can access the song anywhere they can access the Internet.

One of my students asked if we can try to set up an online radio station for WHS... hmmm, if we're worried about what is school appropriate, this seems like a great online forum that our students can access where we ALL have access to what content is good. We're working on it. Keep you posted.

Glogster

If you're not on Twitter yet, you must get there and create your network! Wondering how you can build your network? Go to twitter4teachers, create an account, find your subject area, and start adding people to follow on your network. Trust me, they will also follow you, and your network will begin to quickly fill. My point in this is, I'm learning SO much from being on Twitter.

Ever heard of Glogster? Well, me neither, until today. Know how we all have done or still do posters for projects? And then, you have this massive pile of posters just setting in your class... well, Glogster is an online poster creator. Haven't been there to check it out, but the examples in this article (scroll down some on article) look incredible! Check it out. I'll have my class attempt examples this week and post the links here!

Check out some examples my students created for Mrs. Thurlow's Freshman "Pieces of Myself" & "Teen Troubles" units.

Animoto

Check out Animoto for a new way to do presentations. The sample below is what you can do with the free version (you're limited with time & number of pictures), but the upgrade to do unlimited timed presentations is small. Check it out - there's an educational component. The presentation I did below was created by one of my students and me to offer an example to Mrs. Tyler for her Animal Farm propaganda project. See what you think and how you can use this in your classroom! It's VERY, VERY simple to use! Also, check out Alex's slideshow after he studied the Vietnam War.

An iMovie tutorial using Jing

As part of their final for my Computer Applications class, several students chose Jing as their application of choice. Here the students created a tutorial to show the steps involved in making an iMovie using the screen/audio capture online application. Jing is a free download.