Recent Changes

I know that there are probably thousands of sites that offer the ability to publish short stories online. There are two main reasons that I appreciate this particular site: it offers the ability to collaborate, so students could work together (even from home) to write or to edit, and the site offers original artwork to use as story prompts and illustrations. Each author may choose whether his/her writing is private or public.
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Kerpoof
Kerpoof is a site used to create animations, stories, videos, cartoons, etc. It is a free site that has some special offers for educators. As a teacher, you can make a free account for each of your students - without providing any personal information aside from an e-mail address. (I have them use their safe monitored emails from ePals). Students do not have to create an account to use Kerpoof, but the site will be a more useful tool if they do.
With an account, the students can save, edit, share, and e-mail their work. Anyone can use Kerpoof - and create pictures, stories, and movies - as a guest only, but all their work will be lost when they navigate away from the site. Students may chat with each other, post creations on a class message board (moderated by you), and collaborate on a project in real-time from different computers.
Classroom Ideas - Visit this page for broad Kerpoof brainstorms that you can mold into your own lesson plans.
Educational Standards - cross-referenced Kerpoof activities with the state and national standards they can be used to meet.
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This monitored site is very like YouTube, but all content is student-appropriate. You must be a member to submit a video. Every video that is submitted is checked before being posted, and that process can sometimes take up to 24 hours. Comments are also monitored, and student comments are allowed in the form of choices from a list. You can search by topic, grade level, person posting (when you become a member, you get your own "channel"), and school district. Posting a video on SchoolTube also provides you with an embed code for adding a large video to a site.

This site has images that you can scroll through. Once you have selected an image, you can add text over it in two ways: either in a traditional text box, or by dragging over "refrigerator-magnet" style words from a suggested word bank that goes with the picture. I use this in lessons on adjectives and word choice and expanding sentences. This is a good fit for grammar lessons, and can be engaging for reluctant writers, since it is very structured and visual.
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Animoto
Super-easy video creation - simply drop in a few images or short video clips, add text, and choose a theme. 30-second videos are free; anything longer than that requires a subscription. These are easy to upload to a website or wiki to share. My class used them this year for book reports and for making commercials.
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National Geographic For Kids Online

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answer is "squirrel""squirrel")
This site lets you share multiple links in one url - a great strategy for sharing sites with students.
I don't personally use this site, but I've had several other educators tell me that it is great for YouTube video links!

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Skype
make telephone and video calls via also free. You can make calls to other land lines and mobile phones, but for a fee. Skype also right -- voicephone calls AND video calls to are free. Videoconferencing to other Internet-connected computers is also free.
So, what might you
Skype has a myriad of potential uses in the classroom - connecting classrooms around the world for research, interviewing authors and your students doexperts, communicating with Skype? I have heard of cases in whichfamilies, keeping an injured or ill student was able to stay connected to herthe teacher and classmates via Skype, returning to school caught up, not behind. Inclassmates.
In January 2009, with Skype. I have to believe this is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Because of its profoundly simple power to connect people to people in a variety of ways at an extremely low cost, I know many other great things have to be happening with Skype as well.
Edutopia article about using Skype
Time: Tech blog post about Skype in education
Skype blog: Skype in the classroom community
Skype In The Classroom: Skype's global community for educators
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For Mac users, another option would be iChat or Facetime. Similar scenario, but not as globally supported as Skype.

This site has images that you can scroll through. Once you have selected an image, you can add text over it in two ways: either in a traditional text box, or by dragging over "refrigerator-magnet" style words from a suggested word bank that goes with the picture. I use this in lessons on adjectives and word choice and expanding sentences. This is a good fit for grammar lessons, and can be engaging for reluctant writers, since it is very structured and visual.
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National Geographic For
A great nonfiction resource for engaging reading material! Includes games, writing prompts, and great visuals. The site has two different reading levels from which to choose.
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The Education & Tech blog looks at the new U.S. Common Core standards for math, noting that “the spirit of inquiry and curiosity is back” and that game-based learning is one way to support this educational paradigm. As author Nigel Nisbet states, “…To build true conceptual understanding during the learning process, students will need considerable practice at being challenged to make sense of mathematics for themselves … A game is inherently about challenge.”
“Learning” doesn’t mean rote memorization—it means acquiring the skills and thought processes needed to respond appropriately under pressure, in a variety of situations.
is to makeensure that your learning objective is integral to
Once you've done that, you can use games to:
Make learning funEngage reluctant learners
Liven up your classroom
Motivate your students to learn outside the classroom
Games often have a fantasy element that engages players in a learning activity through a storyline.
Games support and access the multiple learning styles.
response in the real life.
In other words, it will become a repetitive behavior transferable to his learning environment.
In order to create a truly educational game, the instructor needs to make sure that learning the material is essential to scoring and winning.
game Immerses themstudents in the more effectively.
Encourages them
An effective game encourages students to learn
Learn from your mistakes in
Learn other ways or more effective techniques to carry out something in particular.
The context of a game is generally more engaging because at every stage there is a challenge to achieve that keeps the learner motivated.

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Warning: I think there's a possibility that this page should be subtitled "Carla's Soapbox";
I have some strong opinions about the opportunities we are being given during this time of transition!
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As educators, our goal is always to work together to ensure that all students learn and grow at high levels. We clarify learning goals, monitor students’ progress, craft engaging and differentiated learning experiences, intervene when students don’t respond to learning experiences, and extend and enrich learning experiences for students that already demonstrate mastery. As we implement the College and Career Readiness/Common Core standards, we continue to focus on delving deeply into subject matter and facilitating conceptual mastery. We search for connections between content areas and for new tools that will ensure that our students are EXCITED about learning and exploring.
Utilizing technology is a perfect fit with many of the College and Career Readiness/Common Core standards and initiatives. Truly exemplary educators are set apart by their constant desire to continue learning, always searching for new & better tools or strategies, driven to improve their students' educational experiences.
College and Career Readiness/Common Core is a wonderful opportunity for us to explore, implement, and grow professionally as educators!
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Standards for Mathematical Practice:
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.