Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June Instructional Technology Resource Update


It's time for another instructional technology update! Below you will find six of my favorite online resources that I have learned about in the last month. I hope that you will find at least one of the items useful for your classroom, and that you will be able to try it out if you are teaching this summer, or next fall!


Zingerbug has a big selection of Glitter Graphics, Backgrounds, and other cool stuff that you could use for your teacher web page, online course announcements, or any profile or blog! The items on this page will be sure to get your students attention! This page even has graphics IN SPANISH! :)

Here are some ideas and examples:

Wish your students Happy Birthday on your web page! 
They will love to see this and feel special to be recognized. 
(You might want to use only first names for privacy reasons.)


Welcome students and parents to your homepage!

Thank students for good behavior or hard work!

Encourage them on days before assessments!

The "Fun Note Generators" could be used for student activities (Personalized Fortune Cookies, Graffiti Generator, Secret Scratchcard Message Generator, etc.), and the Glitter Generators are a fun tool for teachers to use for blogs and websites.

Here are some examples:

You could use the graffiti generator to have students practice commands.


Cool Myspace Generators
 

The secret code generator could be used for a lot of different activities. One idea would be to have students write each other messages in the target language, and they would have to figure out what they mean. 


Orkut Scrap Toys


 
You could use the fortune cookie generator to have students practice the near future tense or future tense.

Myspace Code Generator 
Co-Sketch
"CoSketch is a multi-user online whiteboard designed to give you the ability to quickly visualize and share your ideas as images. Anything you paint will show up for all other users in the room in real time. Free and without registration."

Co-sketch is a good tool for group projects. It would also be a great tool to use for units on giving directions and downtown since it works with Google Maps. You could open a Google Map, give students directions in the target language, and see if they end up at the right spot. After you give them the answer you, could trace the directions right on the Google Map!
View more PowerPoint from COSKETCY
Paint Map
"Paintmap is a geolocation-oriented painting sharing website with the following goals: on one hand, it allows painters all around the World to locate physically the subject painted by others and learn about the artistic activity at a given area. On the other hand, Paintmap allows Google Earth users to complement the physical and photographic knowledge of a given area with the artistic descriptions provided by users." This site looks like a great resource for art, social studies, and world language classes!

Your Paintings (BBC)
"If you’re a teacher, you can now draw on paintings by nearly 20,000 artists, in a wide range of styles, painted over the last 800 years. Most of the great masters are well represented, with some of their best known works - but also examples of their lesser known paintings."

TooLoud? App (via Momma Cronan on Pinterest)
This free app is great for teachers who need to limit the noise level in their classrooms. You could put your iphone, ipad, or itouch under your doc cam and project the app so that your students have a visual of their noise level. If students get to the red zone they know they are being too loud.


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