A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet

Rewards Work for All Ages: Here Are 24 Sites to Find Certificates, Awards and Coupons

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:50:00 +0000

We all love to be recognized. After all, who doesn't like being told they are wonderful? Students respond to the reward system, and with so many templates and online creation tools, you should have no problem finding the perfect coupon or certificate. I have even made available my own "Bonus Bucks" and a Reward Coupon I made for a fellow teacher.

123 Certificates- sports, music spelling bee awards and much more

Certificate Street

CertificateMaker-choose from a template and design online!

Certificates-from ABC Teach

Certificates and Achievement Awards- academic, attitude, great work

DLK's Custom Awards- create one from scratch

Education World- nice list of certificates

Francine's High Five- from PBS Kids, create your custom award; younger kids

Freeology.com- "Good Attitude", "Great Idea", "Student of the Month"

**Greller's Bonus Bucks**- this is a Photoshop file which has 13 layers and can be edited for your use

Internet 4 Teachers

Jan Brett's Certificates & Awards- for elementary teachers

KidBibs Awards- includes Industrious Worker, Terrific Writer, Super Citizen and Observant Scientist

KidzClub- simple design for very young children

Microsoft Award Certificates

No Homework Coupon

Official Seal Generator- add to your award certificate; requires download on Windows only

Printable Reward Certificates- for younger children; includes Best Pet Keeper, Student of the Month and Great Reader

Reading Certificates-very colorful designs the kids will love

Reading, Writing, Character Awards

Reward Coupon- for a pencil top eraser

Reward Coupon- I designed this one for a teacher in my school; it is a layered document and can be worked on in Adobe Photoshop.

School Express Online Award Creator

TeacherVision Awards and Certificates- includes Act of Kindness, Good Citizen, Student of the Day and Free Computer Time

iPad Apps for Autistic Students

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:35:00 +0000

Just yesterday a friend of mine asked if I could suggest any iPad apps for her autistic nephew. I had watched the 60 Minutes episode on the iPad's impact on autistic students, and knowing how large Apple's App store is, (and the fact that there's an app for just about anything you could think of) I began my search which led to this posting.

10 Great iPad Apps for Autistic Children- from the blog, Vitamin B12 Patch

10 Revolutionary Apps to Help Autistic Children

40 amazing iPad Apps for the Learning Disabled

60 Minutes Episode on the iPad:

Autism Apps- from Autism Speaks

Best iPad Apps for Autism- 5 apps reviewed

Dr. Gary Brown's Autism Apps- colors, numbers, shapes, letters

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism:

iPad Apps and Resources for People with Autism- spreadsheet created by Shannon Rosa, (parent of a child with autism) Corina Becker, (an Autistic adult with a BA in English) and Jordan Sadler. (speech-language pathologist) Very extensive listing!

iPad Educational Apps- all under $10.00 each

iTaalk's Top 30 Starter Apps for Special Education- all 30 for under $50.00!!

SNApps4Kids (Special Needs Apps for Kids)- click here to view apps for the iPad

Top iPad Apps for Children with Autism- from the blog Autism Key; list of 8 apps

Udemy Offers Loads of Free Online Classes

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:34:00 +0000

How would your students like to take classes in product development with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg? They can on Udemy's wonderful website. With ninety percent of the classes free, Udemy offers an array of categories, such as Language, Music, Test Prep, Technology and Internet and much more. Udemy also allows you to create your own online course.

The Importance of Keyboarding: 16 Resources to Get it Right

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:12:00 +0000

When I was in eighth grade, we were required to take typing. I remember the teacher passed down the aisles about twice per class period, and I made sure to show that I was typing the correct way with all ten fingers. The second she passed by my desk I went back to typing my own way, the hunt and peck method, the way I still type today. Back then, I had no idea how important keyboarding would be for me in the future, creating text documents, writing lesson plans and typing my masters thesis, which by the way was the first time I was ever able to do a report on a computer. (Yes, by now you have figured out my approximate age...) To this day I wish I had paid more attention to my keyboarding skills, and it always surprises me when I come across a student who never learned how to type with all their fingers. (They're teaching them as early as first grade.) Have a student who could brush up on their skills? Try these resources:

Alphabetic Rain- type the letters as they fall from the sky

Dance Mat Typing- for kids 7-11 years old

E-Learning for Kids Keyboarding- very young kids will like this site.

First Grade Keyboarding

Free Typing Game- test online

Good Typing- typing tutorials in several languages

Keyboarding Games- lots of fun games here with sound effects and music

Keybr- take a typing speed test or practice online

Power Typing- QWERTY keyboard

Qwerty Town- 30 day trials are available; $$ pricing for schools

Rapid Typing Zone- lessons, games, online typing test

Sense-Lang.org- tutorials, typing games and tests can be found on this site.

Super Hyper Spider Typer- for young kids; great sound effects the kids will love

TuxTyping- for younger kids; download for PC or Mac

Typing Lessons Online- lessons and tutorial videos

TypingWeb- "free online typing tutor & keyboarding tutorial for typists of all skill levels".

Why Not Use Political Cartoons in Your Teaching? Here are 15 Places to Find Them

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:13:00 +0000

As the Republican candidates campaign for their party's nomination, the cartoonists have been having a field day with their political cartoons. You can use these as you discuss many topics in your classroom, from drugs to gas prices.

America in Caricature: 1765-1865

American Political Prints- covers 1766-1876; some cartoons are colorized

Cartoon of the Day- from HarpWeek; search by theme: TOPICS, PEOPLE, PLACES; excellent!

Cartoonists of the Week - from TIME magazine

Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoonists' Index - huge collection of political cartoons

Billy Ireland Cartoon and Library Museum- located at Ohio State University

Dr. Seuss' WWII Political Cartoons

Historical Political Cartoons- there is a listing here from the Poway Unified School District; you should be warned that several of the words, descriptions, and images in these 19th-century caricatures are considered racially offensive by today’s standards.

Political Cartoons.com -current issues are covered here; large collection

Political Humor- from About.com; current candidates are featured

The Presidential Elections- political cartoons cover 1860-1912; from HarpWeek

Today's Political Cartoons- from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists; international, national and local

T.R. (Theodore Roosevelt)- nice collection all about T.R.

World War I Gallery

World War II Cartoons- teacher Mrs. Oz created this page with links that cover cartoons in print and film

Google Apps For Education: Is Your School Connected?

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Since last year, I have been trying to get my district to make the transition to Google Apps for Education.With free Gmail account for every student, access to Google Docs for all, collaboration is easy. Relying on Google's server, (ours crashed a month ago and had to be replaced-$$) schools have their files automatically backed up and protected from viruses. Google support is excellent, and these are just a few of the schools using Google Apps: Brown University, Wesleyan University, Oregon Public Schools, Boston University, Vanderbuilt University and Notre Dame University. If you would like to see more information or attend a webinar, Google has a treasure-trove of tutorials for you here.

Just remember: you need a functioning network with adequate bandwidth. Otherwise, you will never get to the cloud.

50 Famous People Who Were Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:55:00 +0000

When students talk about what they'd like to major in when they go to college, I always advise them to pick something they are passionate about. After all, they will be doing it for a long time. Every now and then I find a student who wants to be a teacher, even though our profession has recently taken a lot of hits from politicians who think we are overpaid. (I will not rant here....that's for another post) Here's a long list of famous people who were or are teachers. Perhaps some will surprise you and your students.

John Adams (Former President)- taught for a few years (left teaching for law school)

Madeline Albright (first female Secretary of State)

Louisa Mae Alcott (Author)

Maya Angelou (Poet, Writer)- College professor of international relations

Clara Barton (Founder of the Red Cross)- taught in dozens of schools

Alexander Graham Bell (Inventor)- taught speech at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes

Dan Blocker (Actor-Bonanza)- taught high school English and drama and 6th grade

Laura Bush (Former first lady)- former teacher-librarian

Jimmy Carter (Former president)- taught at Emory University in Georgia

Billy Crystal (Comedian-Actor)- worked as a junior high school substitute teacher

Sheryl Crow (Singer-Songwriter)- former elementary school music teacher

Tony Danza (Actor) - starred in reality program where he taught high school

Clarence Darrow (U.S. lawyer)

Roberta Flack (Singer)- taught music and English

John Fowles (British author)- taught English

Robert Frost (Poet)- taught English and music

Art Garfunkel (Simon and Garfunkel)- taught math for 2 years

John Glover (Actor) - taught college course on directing

Sir William Golding (Author)- taught at a boys' grammar school

Al Gore (Former Vice-President)- taught at Columbia's School of Journalism

Greg Graffin (Punk rocker)- College professor (UCLA)

Dennis Green (Former Minnesota Vikings Football Coach)

Andy Griffith (Actor)- was a music education teacher

W.C. Handy (U.S. blues composer)- taught music on the college level

Edith Head (Costume designer)-taught French and art

Hugh Jackman (Actor) - former teaching assistant

Lyndon B. Johnson (Former President)- once was a school principal

Stephen King (Author)- former English teacher

Kris Kristofferson (Singer-Actor)- taught English at West Point; was a Rhodes scholar

D.H. Lawrence (British author)- taught at the Davidson Road School, Croydon

Spike Lee (Movie Director-Writer)- teaches film at the Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) and Harvard University

Leonard Maltin (TV Movie Critic)-teaches at the University of Southern California

Christa McAuliffe (Challenger Space Shuttle Astronaut)- was an elementary school teacher

Frank McCourt (Author)-teacher for 30 years

Benito Mussolini (Italian dictator)- taught after serving in the military

Pat Nixon (Former First Lady)- taught high school

Barack Obama (President)- lecturer at the University of Chicago

George Orwell (Author)- taught in boys' high school

Thomas Paine (U.S. patriot)- was a schoolteacher in London

Kal Penn (Actor)- taught at the University of Pennsylvania

Mr. T. (Actor)- former part time gym teacher in Chicago

J.K. Rowling (Author)- taught at a school in Portugal

Salman Rushdie (Author)- taught at Emory University

Gene Simmons (KISS)- taught elementary school before forming the rock group KISS

Sylvester Stallone (Actor)- worked as a gym teacher to pay the bills

STING (Singer-Songwriter)- taught at a Catholic school

Raymond Joseph Teller (Penn and Teller)- taught high school English and Latin

Oprah Winfrey (Talk Show Host)- teaches a class via satellite (Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls)

Ron Wood (Rolling Stones)

Steve Wozniak (Apple Co-Founder)

Teacher-Librarians: Great Google Tips For Us

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:07:00 +0000

OnlineCollege.org has put together a super listing of 50 Great Google+ Tips for School Librarians. If you don't have a Gmail account, it's time for you to get one already! There are so many terrific things offered through Google, and one of them is Google+.

24 Places to Find Bulletin Board Display Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:21:00 +0000

I have worked as a media specialist in the elementary, middle and high school. The most creative teachers by far are those in the elementary school. Their bulletin boards are always eye-catching. They are constantly changing the displays and are never short on ideas. In gathering this list of resources for bulletin board ideas, I found that most of the lists are for K-6 teachers. Perhaps middle and high school teachers can modify some of the suggestions...

Bulletin Board Ideas

Bulletin Board Ideas!- lists grade level for each idea

Bulletin Board Ideas By Subject

Bulletin Board Resources for English/Language Arts Teachers- from @Web English Teacher

Bulletin Board Sites- nice long listing from Kathy Schrock (Discovery Education)

Bulletin Board Tips and Ideas for the K-3 Teacher

Bulletin Boards- TeacherVision's wonderful listing includes Ecology Themed, Famous Places, Rainbow of Flowers, Spring Theme and much more

Bulletin Boards for Business Teachers- includes computers, economics, technology

Bulletin Boards for the Music Classroom

Bulletin Boards to Motivate and Inspire- from Scholastic

DLTK's Bulletin Board Project Ideas

Fractions Bulletin Boards

Geometry Bulletin Boards

High School Bulletin Board Ideas

Hollywood Bulletin Board Ideas for Teachers

Ideas for Bulletin Boards- from Kim's Korner

Interactive Bulletin Boards- math subjects

A List of Bulletin Board Ideas- includes Start Your Engines, We Love This School

Monthly Bulletin Board Ideas- from Teacher's Corner

Motivational Bulletin Board Ideas- includes Keys to a Successful New Year, Swim in the "School" of Success

PE Central Bulletin Board Ideas- for physical education teachers

Problem Solving Bulletin Boards

School Bulletin Boards- printables cover many subjects, including the Civil War, Egypt, elements and compounds, dinosaurs, voting, Westward expansion and more

Top 5 Bulletin Board Ideas- from Scholastic

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The Weeding Game: Saying Goodbye to Reference Books

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:22:00 +0000

The librarian before me was a pack-rat. She didn't throw away anything! Our school's collection hadn't been weeded in decades, and the average age was 1976. I began to weed and feed the collection five years ago, correcting spine labels and database entries. Here I am today about to enter the "more aggressive" stage of weeding our reference section, and I find myself feeling sorry for the dozens upon dozens of books which have outlived their usefulness. To be honest, I have felt SO bad that I have laid out displays for each department, hoping that teachers will take some of these books to their classrooms. So now that you're wondering why I feel so attached, let me explain our budget situation: when I first arrived five years ago, the numbers were already pretty low. Given the recent super cuts (no, not the hair salon) from NJ Governor Christie, (our public school teachers have been vilified by him) what little I had was cut over 94%!!! So I have learned to use and reuse and reuse, if you know what I mean.

With the giant barrels lined up, I have weeded a few hundred books. Now comes the really fun part which is deleting each barcode. How do YOU weed your reference books? Do you think that print reference is close to dead? I've given you 14 resources to help you through this process. Please answer the survey at the end of the post.

Attack Your Collection: Weeding with CREW

View more PowerPoint from Dawn Krause

Be Proactive: Weed- blog post from School Library Monthly

Determining Use of an Academic Library Reference Collection

The Horrors of Weeding in Buffalo - the comments are as interesting as this public library's take

Is Print Reference Dead?- written by Sue Polanka; includes survey results from ALA librarians (2007)

Weed 'Em and Weep!- slide presentation by Awful Library Books

Weeding Guidelines By Subject

View more documents from Ed Sadowski

Weeding Library Collections- this wiki includes great ideas on what to do with weeded books, including book sales, donation and more.

Weeding Library Collections: A Selected Annotated Bibliography for Library Collection Evaluation- from ALA

Weeding and Maintenance of Reference Collections- book by Linda S. Katz

Weeding Presentation

View more PowerPoint from Jennifer Peterson

Weeding Reference Materials (Lis 60610)

View more PowerPoint from guestab667e

Weeding Your Library- tips from teacher-librarian Cindy

Weeding Your Library Collection- here's how they weed in New Zealand's schools

Let's Talk About MetaSearch Engines: See How These 15 Give You Results

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:55:00 +0000

The metasearch engine. My students couldn't even tell you what that means. Google is their only friend when it comes to searching. But what if someone wants to pool their results from more than one search engine? Perhaps Yahoo, AskJeeves or Bing? That's where these 15 metasearch engines come in. Perhaps my students will give them a try........

Beaucoup- 2,000+ Search Engines, Indices and Directories

Brain Boost- this is an answer engine rather than a search engine. What that means is that "Brainboost actually finds answers to your questions posed in plain English as opposed to directing you to pages that simply mention the questions.”

Dogpile- search Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, images, white and yellow pages.

iTools- search the following all at once: Bing, Blekko, DuckDuckGo, AskJeeves, Google Blog Search, Google Scholar, About.com Topics, Yahoo!, Open Directory, Wolfram Alpha PLUS people searches, Twitter searches, biographies and lots more!

Ixquick- they say they are the "world's most private search engine"

KartOO- KartOO is a metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. When you click on OK, KartOO launches the query to a set of search engines, gathers the results, compiles them and represents them in a series of interactive maps through a proprietary algorithm.

Mamma- "the mother of all search engines".

Metacrawler- search Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask all at once

Meta Search Engine- search over 25, including Kayak, Hulu, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

Pandia- searches Google, Yahoo!, AlltheWeb, Ask.com, Wisenut and more

qksearch- "world's only 3-in-1 search engine": clustering, blended or split search

Turboscout- "access all search engines without retyping"

Webscout- find the net's best websites

Yippy

Zuula

Is Dewey Done? See What These 17 Sites Have to Say and Then Decide

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Ever since bookstores have been selling books, they have shelved them by subject area. When patrons go to any subject section, they can usually find the book they are looking for by the last name of the author. This includes fiction and nonfiction books. Those of us who were taught to use the Dewey Decimal System are used to using decimals for the ten nonfiction sections from 000-999. When a student asks me to find a particular book, all I need is the call number to get to the exact location of that book. How would the bookstore model do in a school library? Some elementary school librarians like the idea because nonfiction books could be easier for young kids to locate. Judge for yourself.

Adams County Libraries Shelving Dewey- Denver, Colorado school libraries

Are the Dewey Decimal System's Days Numbered?- interesting article

The Demise of the Dewey Decimal System- Canadian librarian has incorporated the bookstore model in her school library

Dewey? At This Library With a Very Different Outlook, They Don't- New York Times article about the 15-branch Maricopa County Library District in Arizona. Here's a link to the NPR broadcast about the changes.

Dewey Decimal, Redone

The Dewey Dilemma- from the Library Journal

Dewey's Not Dead

Do We Dewey?-New York Times article from 2008

Has the Dewey Decimal system Finally Outlived its Usefulness?- blog post by librarian Roger Green

Red Hawk Elementary Scraps Dewey Decimal System for Bookstore Model

Saying Goodbye to the Dewey Decimal System- article about five Albany public libraries

Students Not Fazed By Dewey-less Library- Gilbert, AZ

Three Benefits of the Dewey Decimal System- from eHow

What's So Great About Dewey?

Will Dewey Still Do?- Massachusetts librarian airs her opinion about Dewey

Who's Killing the Dewey Decimal System?- article about the Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, IL

Would Your Elementary Library Work Better if You Scrapped the Dewey Decimal System?- from School Library Monthly's blog

Teaching the Gifted and Talented: 33 Websites Where You Can Find Good Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:49:00 +0000

I wish the Internet was available to me as a kid in elementary school. In New York City, where I attended kindergarten through sixth grade, they called the gifted and talented class "SP". I remember being put into a class to learn French, but very little else. I figured out how ahead I was only when I entered junior high school in New Jersey. The French language I had studied for three years allowed me to coast through French class for the next four years. Without anymore "SP" or "G and T" classes, I unfortunately developed a lazy attitude and eventually quit taking French in eleventh grade. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is important to nurture the gifted student, so that they can grow. I have personally seen some really smart kids turn into behavior problems because they were bored with the classwork and were not challenged enough. With today's digital learners having access to the Internet, there are more resources than ever for teachers in this area.

SITES
26 Livebinders for Gifted Teachers- by Teach a Gifted Kid blogger
ADHD and Children Who Are Gifted
Byrdseed Gifted Classroom Ideas- blog followed by 4,000 people
Characters of Intellectually Advanced Young People
The Center for Gifted Studies-
The Center for Talented Youth- for pre-collegiate students; through Johns Hopkins University
Common Myths About Gifted Students
Council for Exceptional Children
Crossover Children: LD and Gifted
Gifted But Learning Disabled: A Puzzling Paradox
Gifted Exchange-"blog about gifted children, schooling, parenting, education news and changing American education for the better."
GT Chat- Fridays at noon and 7 p.m.on Twitter; hashtag #gtchat
GT World- "on-line support community for gifted and talented individuals and those who support and nurture them."
HEROES (Higher Education, Resources and Opportunities for Exceptional Scholars)
Hoagie's Gifted Education Page- the "all things gifted"
How to Identify a Gifted Student
Mensa Games
National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) - educator links, publications, more
Professional Training for Teachers of the Gifted and Talented
Social Networking: Impacting the World of Gifted Children
Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted- site contains resources, news, programs
Teach a Gifted Kid- blog by teacher
Teaching Research Skills to Gifted Students- from the Texas Education Agency
Unwrapping the Gifted- article in Education Week
Venspired Learning- gifted teacher Krissy Venosdale
Working with Gifted and Talented Students- teaching strategies, how to spot a gifted student

LESSON PLANS
41 Ways to Go Beyond the Book Report
Edsitement- from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Gifted and Talented Education Lesson Plans
Helpful Sites for Gifted Students
Lesson Plan Resources- from Davidson Gifted
Mrs. Sunda's Gifted Teacher Resource Links
Talented and Gifted Lesson Plan- for elementary

Need Suggestions for Your School Newspaper? Here are 9 Places to Find Story Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

10 Sources for High School Newspaper Story Ideas

40 Great News and Feature Story Ideas- from the University of Vermont

40 Sports Features Idea

50 Places to Shop for Story Ideas

Article Ideas for High School and Middle School Newspapers

High School Newspaper Story Ideas

How to Find Story Ideas- from the Student Newspaper Survival Blog

Share Your Newspaper Ideas- hundreds of ideas for articles are on this page

Topics for a High School Newspaper

Geography Teachers: Try These 44 Web Sites With Your Classes

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:59:00 +0000

Animaps- create and view beautifully informative maps
Best Blogs for Geography Geeks- 50 listed

The Best Websites for Learning and Teaching Geography- from Larry Ferlazzo's site

Census Bureau Geography
Free Blank U.S. State Outline MapsGeoGame- interactive geography game

Geography for Kids- listing created by teacher Kathy Mitchell

Geography for Little People- kindergarten

Geography From Space Quiz 2009- from the Smithsonian

Geography and Maps-from ALA

Geography Online- huge listing of lesson plans, sites, games and printable puzzles for geography teachers

Geography Sites- from Internet4Teachers

Geography Teacher Resources- from TeacherVision

Geosense- interactive; students test their geographic knowledge alone or against other online players.

Google Earth Cool Places- "weird, cool beautiful places"

Google Earth Starter Sheet- pdf file

History Pin- "a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history."

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators- Geography resources

Library of Congress Map Collections- primary source documents

Maplandia- Google maps world gazetteer; covers over 2 million place around the globe

Mapping for Everyone- free mapping tools; create maps online

National Atlas- produce maps of all kids; hundreds of types available

National Geographic Maps- lesson plans, activities and other educator resources

National Geographic Xpeditions

Newspaper Map- shows the locations of newspapers around the world

Physical Geography Sites- from Pro Teacher

Quikmaps-doodle on Google

Scribble Maps- from Google; draw on Google maps
Seterra Online- free map quiz games; 16 languages offered

Show World- interactive world map

The Teaching Geography Page

Toporopa- geography of Europe

World Atlas

World Gazetteer

Worldmapper- a collection of 700 world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

LESSON PLANS
Discovery Education Geography Lesson Plans
Geography Lesson Plans- from the Awesome Library
Geography Lesson Plans- Teachers.net
Map Activities
Mr.Donn's Geography Lesson Plans, Games and Learning Modules

ProTeacher! -map lesson plans

PRINTABLES

d-maps- close to 26,000 printable maps

Maps of the World- printables

Megamaps- 10 collections of maps which can be printed at any size, whether small or large

Outline Maps- print outs for your students

New Page Posted: Graphics

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:07:00 +0000

I've just added a new page which has everything related to graphics: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Create Comics Online, Creative Commons Images and Photos and Fonts. The page will be constantly updated when new things come along.

19 Sites Where You'll Find Free Fonts

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Free is always good. And when it comes to fonts, there are so many out there, why pay for them? This list should keep graphic design teachers and other creative sorts like me busy. One thing to remember: the downloads are in a .zip file, so your school might block this action. My suggestion is to download and unzip the file at home, then have your tech person add it to your computer at school.

1001 Free Fonts

1001 Fonts- most popular ones are here

Abstract Fonts-13,447

Ace Free Fonts-20307 fonts for Windows and Mac

Acid Fonts-for Mac or PC

Better Fonts

DaFont- nice collection

Download 2200 Free Fonts

Ecofont- save ink by downloading this free font; works on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Macintosh and Linux

Font Burner- specifically for blogs; code works with WordPress, SWF, CSS and Javascript

The Font Pool

Font Squirrel

Free Fonts- 1001 to choose from!

Free Fonts from Bravenet

Font Space- 16,328 free fonts

Free Mac Fonts- for Macintosh users only

Freeware Fonts- categories from 3D- Valentine

Get Free Fonts

Mike's Sketchpad- free fonts for PC or Mac; this is a very large collection!

Urban Fonts- from 3D to Western

YourFonts- create a font from your own handwriting

The Shelving Issue: How Do You Handle it?

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Why do students just return books anywhere on the shelves? I have signs all over the library encouraging them to put them on our blue carts (they are marked) if they don't remember where they took them from. Yet, I always find them shoved above books, at the end of the wrong row or in the wrong section. Funny thing, I remember doing the exact same thing when I was a kid, and I just "figured" that the staff would take care of it.

Elementary school teachers use shelf markers (with a student's name) when they send their kids into the stacks to find books. Should I purchase them for my junior and senior high school students? Would they use them? Something to consider. Is there enough time to read the stacks every day? Not for me. I don't even have an assistant. How do YOU deal with this problem?

Here's a very funny video about a librarian who takes her shelving very seriously. Hope you enjoy it!

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Viber Allows You to Call & Text For Free!

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:16:00 +0000

Viber is an application for iPhone® and Android™ phones that lets you make free phone calls and send text messages to anyone who also has the application installed. This app makes it very useful for communicating with other teaching colleagues from all over the world (Relatives, businesses, schools, whatever) I personally haven't tried it yet, but if you have used Viber, please give us your feedback.

Teach Photography? Try These 22 Sites For Lessons and Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:48:00 +0000

PHOTOGRAPHY

21 Photography Lesson Plans- from PBS

100 Ways to Use a Digital Camera

Ansel Adams Photography Lesson

The Basics of Photography Lesson Plan

A Beginner's Guide to Digital Cameras- learn about pixels, aspect ratio, types of graphics formats, memory and digital/optical zooms.

Digital Camera Sites

Digital Imaging

Digital Photography Tutorials

Every Picture Has a Story Lesson Plan- from Smithsonian

Exploring Photographs Lesson Plans- from the J.P.Getty Museum

How to Take Great Group Photos- 12 excellent tips are listed here with a photo example for each one

HP Learning Center- sign up for free and take all 16 classes if you like; great resource!

Online Exhibitions from the Center for Fine Art Photography- inspire your students

Photo Essay Lesson Plan

The Photographs of Dorothea Lange Lesson Plan

Photographing Life's Images Lesson Plan

Photography Portfolio Lesson Plan

Photography Resources

Sports Photography Techniques- excellent and complete site with step-by-step information on shooting sports. You can view many sample shots taken for a school newspaper.

Ten Tips for Great Pictures- from Kodak; excellent!

Using Photography to Enhance a Story

Using Photography to Help Save the Oceans - from National Geographic

Check Out Word Hippo

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:27:00 +0000

The interface is simple. Students can enter a word and find its definition, similar words, opposite words or words which rhyme with that word. The translator offers 12 different combinations of translations and you can download translation software Babylon 9 for free. Word Hippo can be used by students of all ages, even though the name gives you the impression it is just for younger kids.

Nothing Quite Like a Real Book

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:49:00 +0000

A student asked me today if I own a Kindle or a Nook. My answer was simple; I still love feeling the pages and turning them one by one. And I also have a stack of books I haven't read yet lining my bookshelves in my home library. Yes, one day I personally will jump on the bandwagon, but for now......

Here's a video animation which was created by a bookstore in Canada named Type Books. It sums it all up for me:

Watch YouTube Videos with VuSafe

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:59:00 +0000

Looking for safe and secure place to save those videos for your class? VuSafe allows you to create your own library of videos, as well as "use VuSafe to find videos, post them to a VuSafe library, organize the videos using keywords and categories, and share them with their students safely. The service removes all outside content present on sites such as YouTube, eliminating access to inappropriate comments, advertisements or other non-approved videos." If your school presently blocks YouTube, you will still be able to show the videos on VuSafe, so pick your videos at home and put them on VuSafe for when you are at school. VuSafe is a free service for K-12 schools. The video below is an overview of the site:

Looking for Better Lessons for Your Class? Why Not Try BetterLesson!

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:07:00 +0000

BetterLesson is a great (and free) social network just for teachers. Collaboration is easy and you can use any of the thousands of resources on the site. Share your own lesson plans or download any which other teachers have uploaded. Here's a brief introduction to BetterLesson:

Loads of Educational Apps on APPitic

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Greller) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Reviewed by Apple Distinguished Educators, APPitic is a super site which boasts more than 1,3000 plus educational apps. Main categories include: SPED and Autism, Pre-School, Themes, Multiple Intelligences, Bloom's Taxonomy, ISTE NETS and Teachers. Many apps are free, and there are also those which cost $$. The site can be translated into 10 different languages. I've been an Apple girl since the first Mac computer, and I am very excited about what APPitic has to offer teachers.