Tools 4 Tuesday: SMART Board Thinking Games, Audio Books & eBooks, and Interactive Maps

Librivox: Free books site (eBook links & Audio recordings of book readings) - books from public domain

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Cool Interactive Map Website
http://show.mappingworlds.com/usa/

Choose from the U.S., World, or Japan... "Select a subject from the top menu and watch the countries on the map change their size. Instead of land mass, the size of each country will represent the data for that subject --both its share of the total and absolute value."

 

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 SMART Board Logic Games
(Re-shared from Teachers Love SMART Boards)

Here are five strategy games that Teachers Love SMART Boards blog best qualified as "educational." You can click these links to view and/or download these SWF files which can be inserted onto a SMART Notebook slide/page. 1. Peg Solitare – Jump over other pegs until all the pegs are removed from the board.   2. Shot – Try to knock other balls off the grid. Be careful you don't leave a ball alone on the grid.   3. Code Master – This is my favorite game. You have to assign a number from 1 – 9 to a letter to break the code. This game uses handwriting recognition to recognize the numbers that are written. It works very well although it struggled a few times trying to recognizing my number 8.   4. Recognizer – This is another number recognition activity where students can write in the answer to a two-digit addition problem using the SMART Board pen or their finger and the activity will recognize what number they wrote.   5. Tacoyaki - Click tiles to change the color of the surrounding tiles trying to get all the tiles the same color.

Women's History Month Resources

Here are just a few sites to get started...

History Channel

http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history-month 

From Library of Congress

http://womenshistorymonth.gov/teachers.html 

Women's History Teaching Resources (From the Smithsonian)

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/women_resources.html 

Women's History Teaching Resources (From the "The Teacher's Guide" -- lots of ads, but lessons listed by grade level)

http://www.theteachersguide.com/womenshistorymonth.htm 

9/11 Teaching Resources

Image from: http://staroflifelaw.com/

American Institute for History (from Cicero)
http://americaninstituteforhistory.org/911/ 

Interactive Visuals (from History.com)
http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks/interactives/witness-to-911

9/11 Project Ideas from Edutopia (by Suzie Boss)
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/september-eleventh-teaching-resources-suzie-boss 

Teaching 9-11.org
http://www.teaching9-11.org/

K-5 Lesson Plans
http://www.teaching9-11.org/categories.cfm?16 

Take 5! Integration Update - April 27, 2011 (Vol.2/#24)

Issue #24

“Take 5” is a weekly update containing information related to teaching and learning for today and beyond...

Take just 5 minutes (or less) to look over these resources and see what might be helpful for your and/or your students. Better yet, set aside at least 15-30 minutes a week (yes, that's been increased from last year!) to focus on finding resources and ideas that will improve student learning and prepare them for their future!


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Tips and Tools for Teachers

• Tool: The Civil War's 150th Anniversary on iTunesU – Check out the 150th anniversary of the Civil War on iTunesU. LOTS of resources! 

From your iTunes, click on the iTunes Store, then at the black bar at along the top edge, click on "iTunesU" to begin your search.
 

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• 2 Safety Tips for Living in a Techie World! Although it may not seem likely with our recent weather, spring will eventually “spring” in NW Ohio, which is often followed by some less than rationale behaviors. So here are a couple safety pointers/tips for you and or your students, children, family members, and friends...THINK before you use that technology!

1 - Dangers (Possible Realities) of Texting and Driving (VIDEO): This 10-minute video should be watched by anyone who drives... Whether you text or not. The most enlightening part for me was that all it can take is a small word like “OK” or “LOL”. [Thanks to Diane B. for sharing this video!]

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2 - Smart Phone Pics Posted Online Can Show Location -- Do you know your camera’s or smart phone settings? Keep this video in mind and change your camera's settings, if needed!

Ponderings

• Coming Soon... Robot Teachers?!?!? - This goes beyond being “robotic” in your lesson delivery! Look what is coming soon to some schools in South Korea... But as David Thornburg once said, “Any teacher (who) can be replaced by a computer, deserves to be.” (or robot, in this case) [quote ref]
  

  

Learning Opportunities

• 1. REVS' In-District Professional Development Opportunities - upcoming... SMART Board Tips & Tricks, Web 2.0 Create Tools

• 2. INFOhio's 21st Century Learning Commons - Online Course: go HERE to begin learning more about 21st Century Skills and Tools to use in your classroom. Click on the Get Started icon. You can earn up to 45 contact hours (free or pay for) or 1 graduate credit hour.
  

• 3. In the right margin of this blog, enter your email to receive future postings into your email Inbox (Take 5s and more!) -- plan on 1-3 posts per week.

;-) Just for Fun?!?! (and a little learning, perhaps)

Why Didn't I Think of That? - Check out some 'great' inventions or ideas that surely we would have thought of if we had the time... right?

Take 5! Integration Update - April 19, 2011 (Vol.2/#23)

Issue #23

“Take 5” is a weekly update containing information related to teaching and learning for today and beyond...

Take just 5 minutes (or less) to look over these resources and see what might be helpful for your and/or your students. Better yet, set aside at least 15-30 minutes a week (yes, that's been increased from last year!) to focus on finding resources and ideas that will improve student learning and prepare them for their future!


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Tips and Tools for Teachers

• Grant Resources – Ohio – Dream Sources... Make your classroom dream come true!

• Google Earth Resources (wiki) – A great resource for Google Earth, which can be used in practically every classroom (some with more creativity than others) -- geography, history, social studies, literature tours, virtual street level tours, topography, earth science, space, moon, Mars, sky/stars, and more! Take a look at what Google Earth can do, then see if you have a lesson/objective that this tool can help students learn. Here's the Google Earth Showcase to learn more.

 

Ponderings

• Ed-Tech Quotes (Slideshow by solejea2 ) - Check out this Scribd slideshow... Should make you go "Hmmmmm" a little...
  

  (Hopefully this is not blocked, but if so, try it from home... it's worth it!)

Ed Tech Quote Slideshow

Learning Opportunities

• 1. In-District Professional Development Opportunities
• 2. Cyberbullying, Harassment, and Sexting: What’s a District to Do? April 20, 2011
   at Lucas Co. ESC. More information below... Check REVS email for registration sheet or email Carrie
•  3. In the right margin of this blog, enter your email to receive future postings into your email Inbox (Take 5s and more!) -- plan on 1-3 posts per week.

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Cyberbullying, Harassment, and Sexting: What’s a District to Do?
April 20, 2011
4:30-6:30pm (1.5 contact hours)
At Lucas County ESC   
Presented by
Margaret J. Lockhart, Esq.
Cooper & Walinski, LPA

With the increased use of social media and cell phones, bullying has moved from beyond the schoolyard and into students’ homes. Cyberbullies can anonymously and instantaneously disseminate cruel and malicious information or compromising photographs, often leading to tragic results for victims. Parents want schools to take action, but most cyberbullying and sexting takes place off campus. And perpetrators rely on the First Amendment to protect their conduct. This session will explore how school districts can respond to complaints of cyberbullying and sexting without infringing on students’ rights or increasing the district’s risk of liability.

Lucas County Educational Service Center
2275 Collingwood Boulevard
Toledo, Ohio 43620

;-) Just for Fun?!?! (and a little learning, perhaps)

¿uʍop ǝpısdn ƃuıʇıɹʍ ʇnoqɐ noʎ llǝʇ ı pıp ʇɐɥʍ 

 Flipped Text... Do you have a use for this? (other than confusing people) The text is still recognized as text (can change font, size, etc.), but spell check gets VERY confused!! (see images below)

 

 
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Constitution Day Resources

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caveman_92223/3193229606/ 

 

Happy Constitution Day!

Below are a few resources that teachers can use for studying Constitution Day (thank you Jen M. for the links!):

Slide Shows

http://www.k12.com/events/constitution_day_lessons/
This site has nice slide shows for each grade level.

Constitution Game 
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/constitution-day/game.html )
Last year I used this Constitution Game and I think it really gave the kids an idea of what the delegates had to go through to write our constitution. I think it could be adapted for the younger grades.
 

Constitution PowerPoints

http://government.pppst.com/constitution.html
This has a bunch of powerpoints and games.

Constitution Facts and Games
http://www.constitutionfacts.com 

Teaching Social Studies Resources

Thanks to Chuck Cox (HS) for these links!

Teaching Tips Index - great for ALL subject areas!
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm#syllabus

Powerpoint Palooza
http://www.pptpalooza.net/ 

Annenberg Media - Social Studies
http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html?discipline=7

Ohio Treasure Chest of Technology Resources
http://www.ohiotreasurechest.org/cgi-bin/course_list.pl?content_area=CSS