BookBox is an easy way to display covers of your favorite books in your blog or webpage. This might be a useful tool for teachers to advertise required reading. Students might use it to show the bookcover when writing book reports for their classroom blog or wiki.
BookBox is very simple to use. All it requires is the title, author, or ISBN number of the desired book. I entered four of my favorite titles for my classroom reading, created a password, and clicked on save and embed. The site generated an embed code for me to copy and paste onto my blog.
My BookBox is located below. If you click on one of the books, it will take you to its Amazon page. This might be convenient in that it gives the student or parent more information on the book as well as pricing information. It is also good for Amazon. The creator of the site indicated that plans were in place to offer additional book stores in the future.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
LIve Binder - An Online Notebook for Teachers and Students
Like most teachers my lesson plans are located in a three-ring binder. I have hard copies of any electronic documents, presentations and notes located in this binder. I also have a flash drive that contains all of my electronic items. Bookmarks of relevant sites to my curriculum are saved in Google Bookmarks as favorites. I have always wished that I could keep all of these nice and organized in one place. Live Binder is the answer to this wish.
Live Binder allows you to add text, upload files, and upload links to an online notebook. There are options to share the notebook by email or by embedding it on a blog or webpage. I found it to be pretty easy to create a notebook. It took me a while to gather all of my materials that I wanted to place in the book. The sample notebook that I created below is an AP Statistics unit that is a work in progress. I can easily update it with new items or remove outdated items that I no longer need. The link will always find the most current version.
Live Binder is still in beta and I hope that they add a few more features. I would like to be able to copy and paste pictures from my computer to illustrate some of my lessons. Pictures can be uploaded, but won't appear until they are dowloaded. Currently, pictures from Flicker can be added to illustrate the text. I would also like for there to be an option to turn my documents into ipaper. I could have gotten around this by uploading my documents to Scribd then uploading that link to my Binder. However, I was in a hurry and did not take the time to do this.
I see LiveBinder as a valuable tool for teachers. They can use it for personal use to keep track of their lesson plans as I did in my sample. A department could also display common items to all teachers to embed in their webpage for students and parents to access. The science teachers at McCullough Junior High School have created a Live Binder for their common science forms, links, and assignments. It is located at www.livebinders.com/edit?id=2440 This binder is private and requires an access code. The access code was given to students and is on the science teachers' websites. However, I will not list it here to maintain their privacy. It is nice to have the privacy option available for the content in Live Binder. My sample is public so that you can view it. There are also several other public notebooks at the Live Binder site. Hopefully, you will find this application useful for your classroom.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Presentation Tools - Technology Session IV
A collaboration between Jill Malpass and Debbie Shepard
Before we begin please access the presentation tools wiki by clicking here. This page includes other types of presentation tools that you may find interesting and want to learn more about on your own or later this year.
Before we begin please access the presentation tools wiki by clicking here. This page includes other types of presentation tools that you may find interesting and want to learn more about on your own or later this year.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Five Helpful Tools for the Math Classroom
I am always on the lookout for really cool internet applications that I can use in math. If you know of others, please comment.
Equation Editor
You might notice that I have added an equation editor to the sidebar of my blog. Click on the format of the equation needed, make a few modifications and you have a very nice looking math equation. Normally, I use MathType on my own computer with MS Word. However, MathType is not free and not available in the cloud. Thus, when working on internet based computers, other options have to be utilized. I wouldn't want to have to type a whole worksheet using this gadget, but it isn't bad for one or two equations to use in a presentation.
Flash Cards
I am a big fan of Quizlet for vocabulary flash cards. I previously wrote about quizlet here. Quizlet is great for learning vocabulary. It is wonderful for differentiating instruction with minimal effort on the part of the teacher. This summer students in a PSAT Prep class typed in 16 word lists with definitions of 25 words each in under an hour. Afterward, they were instructed to concentrate on learning the first list. It was fun to watch students make their choice on how to learn. Some of them reviewed the flash cards electronically. Many of them played one of the two games available on quizlet. Several others practiced the words by taking a quizlet generated test. A few chose to learn the old fashioned way by creating index cards for their words or by studying the list on paper.
Students often are required to memorize many formulas in math as well as trigonometric identities. I wasn't able to figure out how to get quizlet to handle a math formula. Then I discovered another flashcard application called Cobo Cards that uses Tex to make beautiful flash cards with equations. Once I learned how to copy and paste the Tex commands into Cobo Cards, writing equations was a breeze. Click here to see my set of trigonometric identity cards.
Graphs
Math teachers u
se many graphs on their tests and worksheets. Students, too, need to be able to use internet based graphing options if they are to create presentations. My twitter friend @JackieB introduced me to Graphsketch shown at the left.
Another option for creating graphs would be to utilize the computational
knowledge engine at WolframAlpha. I typed in an expression, then used Photo Filtre to copy it and save as a jpeg. It does not have the grid lines like graphsketch, but it is very well done.
Animoto
I found the animoto embedded below at http://teachingcollegemath.com/?p=654. I thought it was great and plan to show it to my students once school starts. Hopefully, this will help them understand the concept of a function. Another use for math animotos might be to illustrate a theorem or develop a proof in geometry. Students could create an animoto illustrating the steps of solving an equation. The site mentioned above describes the method for creating the function animoto using PowerPoint slides. I think Google Doc Presentation slides could easily be substituted. Each slide would need to be saved as a jpeg and uploaded to animoto.
Games
One of the best sites for math games is coolmath.com. Here you will find all kinds of games for all levels, elementary to secondary. The games are interactive and just plain fun. Be prepared to lose a few hours while exploring this site.
I hope that you will find these tools useful as well. Please leave me a comment regarding your favorite internet math tool.
Equation Editor
You might notice that I have added an equation editor to the sidebar of my blog. Click on the format of the equation needed, make a few modifications and you have a very nice looking math equation. Normally, I use MathType on my own computer with MS Word. However, MathType is not free and not available in the cloud. Thus, when working on internet based computers, other options have to be utilized. I wouldn't want to have to type a whole worksheet using this gadget, but it isn't bad for one or two equations to use in a presentation.
Flash Cards
I am a big fan of Quizlet for vocabulary flash cards. I previously wrote about quizlet here. Quizlet is great for learning vocabulary. It is wonderful for differentiating instruction with minimal effort on the part of the teacher. This summer students in a PSAT Prep class typed in 16 word lists with definitions of 25 words each in under an hour. Afterward, they were instructed to concentrate on learning the first list. It was fun to watch students make their choice on how to learn. Some of them reviewed the flash cards electronically. Many of them played one of the two games available on quizlet. Several others practiced the words by taking a quizlet generated test. A few chose to learn the old fashioned way by creating index cards for their words or by studying the list on paper.
Students often are required to memorize many formulas in math as well as trigonometric identities. I wasn't able to figure out how to get quizlet to handle a math formula. Then I discovered another flashcard application called Cobo Cards that uses Tex to make beautiful flash cards with equations. Once I learned how to copy and paste the Tex commands into Cobo Cards, writing equations was a breeze. Click here to see my set of trigonometric identity cards.
Graphs
Math teachers u
se many graphs on their tests and worksheets. Students, too, need to be able to use internet based graphing options if they are to create presentations. My twitter friend @JackieB introduced me to Graphsketch shown at the left.Another option for creating graphs would be to utilize the computational
knowledge engine at WolframAlpha. I typed in an expression, then used Photo Filtre to copy it and save as a jpeg. It does not have the grid lines like graphsketch, but it is very well done.Animoto
I found the animoto embedded below at http://teachingcollegemath.com/?p=654. I thought it was great and plan to show it to my students once school starts. Hopefully, this will help them understand the concept of a function. Another use for math animotos might be to illustrate a theorem or develop a proof in geometry. Students could create an animoto illustrating the steps of solving an equation. The site mentioned above describes the method for creating the function animoto using PowerPoint slides. I think Google Doc Presentation slides could easily be substituted. Each slide would need to be saved as a jpeg and uploaded to animoto.
Games
One of the best sites for math games is coolmath.com. Here you will find all kinds of games for all levels, elementary to secondary. The games are interactive and just plain fun. Be prepared to lose a few hours while exploring this site.
I hope that you will find these tools useful as well. Please leave me a comment regarding your favorite internet math tool.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Differentiate Instruction with Technology - Presentation with Prezi
Recently, Amy Mayer wrote a post about what an amazing tool Prezi is for education. The community manager of Prezi contacted her to see if she would be interested in testing an embed feature, which will be available shortly. They kindly allowed me to test it as well.
Embedded below is a prezi presentation of a brief description of Web 2.0 tools that would be helpful to teachers who are just getting started integrating technology into their lesson plans. It is organized by study tools, presentation tools, audio tools, and teacher tools.
Truly, I created this Prezi so that I could improve my own prezi skills. In my opinion Prezi is one of the most incredible presentation tools available. Prezi's showcase contains several examples that I thought were very creative. There is one using rings to create a giant Venn diagram about books. There is a really cool religious one in which verses from Psalm 33 of the Bible have been placed into framed pictures that sit on a shelf. The one that interested me most featured a photo that was used as a background to incorporate the presentation. This is what I wanted to try. I chose a picture, created a presentation about technology, and used their newest embedding feature.
Thank you Prezi developers. Now, I can't wait to try your next new feature!
Embedded below is a prezi presentation of a brief description of Web 2.0 tools that would be helpful to teachers who are just getting started integrating technology into their lesson plans. It is organized by study tools, presentation tools, audio tools, and teacher tools.
Truly, I created this Prezi so that I could improve my own prezi skills. In my opinion Prezi is one of the most incredible presentation tools available. Prezi's showcase contains several examples that I thought were very creative. There is one using rings to create a giant Venn diagram about books. There is a really cool religious one in which verses from Psalm 33 of the Bible have been placed into framed pictures that sit on a shelf. The one that interested me most featured a photo that was used as a background to incorporate the presentation. This is what I wanted to try. I chose a picture, created a presentation about technology, and used their newest embedding feature.
Thank you Prezi developers. Now, I can't wait to try your next new feature!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Collect and Organize Online Videos
Have you ever wanted to keep track of all your online videos in one place? Vodpod allows you to collect videos found on the web in one convenient place. The site makes it easy to organize videos used to support your curriculum. When you are ready to show the video, go to your vodpod account and select it. Create an account at vodpod and start collecting. See my collection here.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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