Volume 5, Issue 1
Last year became incredibly busy for me as I began working on my National Educational Technology Stan-
dards for Teachers certifications – something akin to National Board certification simply with technology. It
was a long process and consumed much of my spare time so I didn’t get out newsletters like I had in the past. I
apologize. I will make an effort this year to make up for last year by finding as many new, interesting and usa-
ble items as possible.
I am aware of the pressures everyone faces this year. Please let me help you. I know many of you are skep-
tical of the benefits of technology use in the classroom – try it, you might discover it can help.
Internet Safety Lesson
Don’t forget to teach a lesson in
Internet Safety this year and turn
in the lesson plan reflecting this to
your tech coach.
ThumbScribes
http://thumbscribes.com/
Thumb Scribes is a new plat-
form for collaboratively creating
poems and short stories. It was
inspired by Chain Novels and a
1900s parlor game called “Exqui-
site Corpse.” Thumb Scribes can
be used in two ways:
1. You can contribute to story or
poem that someone else has
started and placed in the public
gallery.
2. You can start your own story
or poem and either place it in
the public gallery or invite
others to collaborate with you.
If you put your poem or story in
the public gallery anyone can add
to it. If you don't want the whole
world adding to your poem or sto-
ry you can mark it as "private" and
invite individuals to add to it.
While joining the site is free, it
does require an email address to
join. Language Arts teachers can
always display the works from
their laptops or even use the be-
ginning of a story or poem as a
writing prompt. You could also
use these examples for critiquing
various forms of writing. (As al-
ways, preview a work prior to
showing it to your students.)
Visual Dictionaries
Snappy Words is a free visual
dictionary and thesaurus. Enter
any word or phrase in the search
box and Snappy Words returns a
web of related words, phrases and
definitions. Hover over any word
for the definition. Click and drag
to see other branches of the web.
(http://www.snappywords.com/)
Visuwords online graphical
dictionary also uses a web design
to show definitions and the con-
nections between words.
(http://www.visuwords.com/)
Lexipedia also provides a
webbed diagram of related words
and definitions. Lexipedia pro-
vides audio pronunciations but the
sound quality isn’t very good.
(http://www.lexipedia.com/ )
Visual Dictionary Online
(Merriam Webster) is a different
type of visual dictionary. Rather
than showing relations between
words, the “visual” means the de-
finitions are accompanied by im-
ages.
(http://visual.merriam-
webster.com/)
Wordia is a video dictionary
featuring user-submitted and pro-
fessionally created videos expla-
nations of the words, focusing on
the everyday meanings of the
words. Text accompanying the
videos provides dictionary defini-
tions of the word.
(http://www.wordia.com/)
Got Brainy features two sec-
tions - Brainy Flix and Brainy
Pics. Brainy Pics is comprised of
(mostly) student-submitted images
that demonstrate the meaning of a
word. Brainy Flix is comprised of
short videos (also student-
submitted) that illustrate the mean-
ing of words.
(http://www.gotbrainy.com/)
WordStash is “half vocabulary
builder, half dictionary, and full
awesome.” The site provides con-
textual examples supporting defi-
nitions, and many words have au-
dio pronunciations (much better
quality than Lexipedia’s).
For the vocabulary building
portion users can create free ac-
counts in which they create and
save lists of words to study. Users
can create as many lists as they
wish and expand lists as they go.
WordStash will create quizzes
based on the words in a list. Lists
can be shared with other users.
(http://www.wordstash.com/)
US History Tours
by Google Earth
WW Norton, author of Ameri-
ca, A Narrative History, has pub-
lished ten free Google Earth tours
as a supplement to the book. Us-
ers do not need to purchase the
book to gain access to the tours.
The list of tours includes the Re-
volutionary War, the path to the
Civil War, WWII, the Vietnam
War, the Civil Rights Movement,
Lewis & Clark's expedition, the
Indian Removal Act, Pre-
Columbian North America, the
national parks system, and the
20th Century power grid. All of
the tours include multiple images
and references. Some of the tours
also have "tour questions" for stu-
dents to answer.
A reminder: Anyone can access
these tours even if you don't own a
copy of the book. Links to the
tours and directions can be found
at
http://www.wwnorton.com/college
/history/america8/full/historytours.
aspx
These tours could make a great
alternative to using PowerPoint
and provide a geographical con-
text to the lessons.
Project Vote Smart’s
Vote Easy
http://voteeasy.org/
Vote Easy is an interactive
map of the United States designed
to help voters identify the Con-
gressional candidate that most
closely aligned with their views on
a selection of twelve issues. Select
your state then answer each ques-
tion and specify how important
that issue is to you. Based on those
responses Vote Easy will indicate
which candidate in your Congres-
sional district is most closely
aligned to your views.
Try having students vote and
then take the poll again to see
what types of answers it takes to
align with other candidates.
Dewey Digger
http://www.deweydigger.com/
Ever wonder what the web looks
like according to the Dewey
Decimal system? DeweyDigger
makes an attempt a cataloging the
World Wide Web according to
Dewey. Choose your category
then select a topic. From there
you are offered a cloud of topics,
choose one and select your search
source.
Super Hero Squad
http://superherosquad.marvel.com/
create_your_own_comic
Super Hero Squad is another on-
line comic creator. Use it for writ-
ing assignments. Use it to let stu-
dents demonstrate knowledge.
You don’t have to be an artist
here. Students can create a comic
strip or even a comic book. You
are limited to super hero type cha-
racters.
PD360 - "Professional
Development on De-
mand"
Do you need recertification
points? You can get them on your
own time, at any computer with
high speed internet access. In ad-
dition to How To Master, ACPS
has also purchased PD360 online
professional development.
HowToMaster primarily trains
the user in Microsoft Office appli-
cations and integrating technology
into the classroom.
PD360 offers training in a
much broader array of fields.
They have videos on how to reach
autistic students, classroom man-
agement, cooperative learning,
instructional strategies, etc.
PD360 offers social networking
for teachers--it puts you in touch
with other teachers and fosters on
line discussions on whatever edu-
cational issues are on your mind.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks are soon upon us.
The iTest application is working,
and all but two teachers are set to
go. I will be attending a training
session on November 2 about the
administration side of Interactive
Achievement (adding students and
courses, editing access for teach-
ers).
Middle school benchmarks are
at the same time as elementary,
not sure where I will be during the
window.