sharon's share

Testing Eclipse Crossword

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:27:00 +0000

Specialty

This is software to install on your computer. It allows you to make interactive / printable crosswords. http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/

Specialty

This interactive crossword puzzle requires JavaScript and any recent web browser, including Windows Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari. If you have disabled web page scripting, please re-enable it and refresh the page. If this web page is saved on your computer, you may need to click the yellow Information Bar at the top or bottom of the page to allow the puzzle to load.

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Welcome!

Click a word in the puzzle to get started.

Congratulations!

You have completed this crossword puzzle.
If you would like to be able to create interactive crosswords like this yourself, get EclipseCrossword from Green Eclipse—it's free!

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Blooms and You

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:37:00 +0000

The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom

Always worth a repost, Larry Ferlazzo!

Shining with Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Firefox has been crashing on me a lot lately (to be fair, I read that they will try to alleviate some of this in version 15). But due to the lack of stability, I decided to move entirely to Chrome. I must say that being an iPad user for about half the time, Chrome is proving to be invaluable. After clearing all my google / chrome connections and starting over with a sync setup on my main machine, I installed the iPad version and logged in on the mobile device.

WaLA! all my bookmarks, and active tabs were there - homepage, form fills etc. Genius. Now to install it on my Amazon Fire since it is available for Android on Google Play.

So, I will be watching for the version upgrade to firefox, but it will take a lot to bring me back, Mozilla.

Chrome: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/
Chrome for iPad: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome/id535886823?ls=1&mt=8
Chrome for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome&hl=en

and if you are game, Firefox Alpha: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/

Ge.tt your files

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:48:00 +0000

A simple file sharing site with 2 GB free - drag and drop to start an album and share by sending an email message. Slick as a whistle. Clean - Simple - Useful -
VISIT GE.TT

What is Ge.tt?

Ge.tt is an instant, real-time file publishing and sharing service. With Ge.tt there is no need for special software or plug-ins. It is a simple file sharing and publishing tool for all types of materials including documents, video, music and photos.

Technorati Tags: ge.tt

Learn with Sophia

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Sophia is a free social teaching and learning platform that offers academic content to anyone, anywhere, free of charge. The website, which has been described as a mashup of Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube that is focused solely on education, also lets educators supplement their instruction with tools to create a customized learning environment in a private or public setting. http://www.sophia.org
Sophia.org has enhanced its social teaching and learning platform to include more than 25,000 free tutorials on math, science, English, and more—all in an ad-free environment. What’s more, the site has become a key destination for teachers who are looking to “flip” their classrooms, its makers say.

Think before you post

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:25:00 +0000

Great poster from Common Sense Media. I hope we can teach every child to think before they type.

Teach Searching

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:05:00 +0000

Google has launched a new Search Education site.
As they say:

Web search can be a remarkable tool for students, and a bit of instruction in how to search for academic sources will help your students become critical thinkers and independent learners.

With the materials on this site, you can help your students become skilled searchers- whether they're just starting out with search, or ready for more advanced training.

The site includes Lesson Plans and Activities as well as video and more. Searching skills are a necessity for today's students - check this one out.

Technorati Tags: search, google

Take a World Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:49:00 +0000

360 Degree Aerial Panorama's of sites around the world - that is what you find at 360 AirPano.
from their site: AirPano is a noncommercial project focused on high resolution 3D aerial panoramas. AirPano team is the group of russian photographers and panorama enthusiasts. During the next 2-3 years we plan to shoot the aerial panoramas and create the virtual 3D tours of the most interesting places of our planet.

Most of us are not able to travel around the world - and even if we did, we certainly would not get this type of view. I was lost in both memories for places I have visited and awe at those never seen personally. What a great way to share the world with your students.

Every week they present a new virtual tour on the website - do NOT miss this one.

Technorati Tags: airpano

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:25:00 +0000

Wesley Fryer has long been one of my resources for what is right in education. He recently shared an introductory professional development workshop in Yukon, Oklahoma, titled, “Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources.” Here are his slides -

Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources

View more presentations from Wesley Fryer

Magical iPad Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Make Use Of has published a guide for iPad users. You will need to subscribe to their newsletter for the link, but it looks to be worthwhile if you need a little boost with your device.

Featuring the 40 best free apps for the iPad, this easy-to-follow guide contains a treasure trove of information that will make using your tablet that much easier. Learn the ins and outs of the market’s premier tablet, for free!

Ego - Eco

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:09:00 +0000

The following image has been making the rounds on Facebook. As an avid ecology buff (with a small ego, ha), I thought it was worth posting in my Share. I do not feel it needs any explanation - a picture is worth a thousand words.

Google Docs new Spell check -- WOW

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:24:00 +0000

Google has included the "Did you mean" technology into the Docs spell checking! and they have done it well. I have been reading about checks people are testing successfully: meat me in town. corrected Icland is icland was corrected. Your my favorite. corrected You can easily add words,mand make it 'always' correct a common error. This is a great improvement.

Tweet to FAcebook

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:49:00 +0000

You can choose when to send a tweet to Facebook if you have them linked. Just end the tweet with #fb! This is so handy when you are tweeting an event that you do not wish posted to your FB stream. Great addition for Selective Tweets.

Couldn't Resist

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:15:00 +0000

This was going around Facebook - and I couldn't resist - Just made me smile.

iPad App for Interactive Teaching

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:29:00 +0000

The Educreations iPad app is a free download in the App Store which transforms the tablet into an interactive whiteboard. It will record a teacher’s voice and handwriting as they teach. Teachers can add photos to their lessons from the Photo Library or camera (iPad2), or a Dropbox account. Animation is possible by tapping and dragging.

A teacher can then link to the lesson via educreations.com. These can be shared privately or to the world.

I believe this could be the ultimate for all the "IWB" - iPad hacks teachers have been using.
Great job, Educreations.

Save your Twitter Meet

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:21:00 +0000

BAW 2012 (Becoming a Webhead), just finished their first ever TwitterMeet! It was very informative and centered on the quesiton - "Why use web 2.0 in Language Learning". It the process, I discovered a great tool for saving the information - Tweetdoc
It records the participants - trending words - and conversation in pdf format. Very useful in education - especially if using twitter for a classroom discussion tool.
View our TweetDoc - and then make your own!

Technorati Tags: tweetdoc, baw2012

Stupeflix - free minute

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Stupeflix.com is an online tool for making videos from images and video clips. You can add music (or upload) from their library, place a map or text cel into the mix. Your materials can come from your Picasa, Facebook, Dropbox, Flikr accounts - where most of our materials are stored anyway.
It does cost for any videos over 1 minute - you can have a yearly account or pay by the video which is an interesting concept.
Here are some random items imported from my Facebook account.
http://youtu.be/v4XVzzhORgA

Taking a Bite for Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:55:00 +0000

The BBC has always been a resource for significant learning tools. Bitesize was one that I had recommended years ago and just came across again today. It has made major improvements since my last visit. The simple user experience allow it to be explored by children on their own, and yet it gives teachers resources that can be used for both RTI (Response to Intervention) to G/T (gifted / talented).
Note - personally, I do not differentiate children with these names, but the programs themselves. I feel each child is individual and does not deserve a label.)
Since this site is from the BBC, some of the terms may be different for US users, but that is quickly overcome.

I am glad I returned to this site - I hope you do, too.

Technorati Tags: bitesize, bbc

New Moodle Book available

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:32:00 +0000

The new book published on Packtpub.com is a good guide for newbies to Moodle 2.x. "Overview of Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion Beginner's Guide" by Ian Wild takes the reader through setting up a course to enhancing it with multi-media. I like how it exemplifies converting an existing course into one with blended learning. Mr Wild uses a Physics course of his own to demonstrate how this "conversion" would be done.

His examples are clear and he does a great job of sorting out and emphasizing the most important steps. You can easily see that this is written for teachers by a teacher. Anyone can use this book to make that first move to online learning without any prior knowledge of the Moodle platform.
Being a Packt publication, the book is also available as an eBook which makes it affordable and portable. You can find the book at http://www.packtpub.com/moodle-2-0-course-conversion/book

Please note that I was fortunate enough to be one of the reviewers on this book.

Need some Motivating Extras?

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:06:00 +0000

Upcoming Moodlemeet on Motivating Extras is coming up soon.

Join us for 5 days of experimentation - learning - and sharing. I am pleased to be able to lead you through my favorite Web 2.0 tools for motivating your students while moving them through your curriculum and toward meeting today's standards.

Finding it impossible to teach creativity, communication and safety while meeting the million requirements of your job? Discover tools to make this happen without adding on, but by embedding into your classrooms.
The purpose of this week is to give you motivating tools that will enable your students to meet the educational technology goals of today.

Hope to see you online. We begin on January 20th!

Comic Creators - courtesy of BAW2012

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:33:00 +0000

Using comics for students to demonstrate what they have learned is very motivating.

Comic Creators

Comic Creator: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/comic-creator-30021.html
DVolver moviemaker: http://www.dfilm.com/live/home.html
GoAnimate: http://goanimate.com/
MakeBeliefsComix: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Pixton: http://pixton.com/
ToonDoo: http://www.toondoo.com/
WriteComics: http://writecomics.com (example: http://writecomics.com/gen/4160.html)
ZimmerTwins: http://www.zimmertwins.com

Voice and Audio courtesy of BAW2012

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:24:00 +0000

Voice/Audio tools

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (recorder - MP3 converter)
AudioPal: http://www.audiopal.com/
Aviary: http://aviary.com/
Chirbit: http://www.chirbit.com/
EVOCA: http://www.evoca.com
HandyBits: http://www.handybits.com (to be downloaded)
Vaestro: http://www.vaestro.com
Viewpoint: http://clear.msu.edu/viewpoint/index.php
Vocaroo: http://vocaroo.com/
VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/
Voxopop: http://www.voxopop.com/

Sorry, been longer than I hoped as I have been deeply involved in getting ready for the EVO launch.
Starts on Sunday with the sessions first days on Monday, January 9th. Registrations are coming in fast and furious and excitement is building.

Join us and learn about these as well as many other tools.

Virtual Learning Environments

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The next few weeks, I would like to post lists of tools - these are resources that have been gathered by the "Becoming a Webhead" team 2012. This session from the Electronic Village Online 2012 "conference" has long been a group I love to work with. Dedicated educators from around the world (English as a Second Language being the main theme).

Starting with VLE's

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) or vClassrooms

BigMarker: http://www.bigmarker.com/
Elluminate: http://www.elluminate.com/
Learning Times: http://www.learningtimes.org
Scribblar: http://scribblar.com/
Tapped In: http://tappedin.org/tappedin
Twiddla: http://www.twiddla.com/
Vyew: http://vyew. com/site/
Webhuddle: https://www.webhuddle.com/
WiZiQ: http://www.wiziq.com (no longer free)

I could review each one - but, I leave that to you.
enjoy! next up will be their tools for working with video.

YouTube for Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:46:00 +0000

Before I retired, my district was using YouTube extensively. Any "unacceptable" videos that happened to appear on a student screen (not caught by the filter), was expected to be quickly clicked off and reported. But now, Google has helped - Meet YouTube for Schools:

New way for Feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0000

From Jotform - Wishbox!

Places a Feedback button on the bottom of your webpage and allows for user feedback WITH screen shots. Could be a great way to improve help desk type support for an informational site.

It is extremely easy to install. Give it a try.
Once your screenshot is annotated, you save and submit via a form. Below is my "feedback" for their website.