Instantly message a class of students or their parents from your computer.
Safe.  Teachers never see students’ phone numbers.  Students never see theirs.
Students and parents join by sending a text message. No computer needed.

Another Beta project as a safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. Free.

This is similar to classParrot  that I blogged about in October.

If you want to try it out, sign up for my Technology Updates by following the instructions here:Technology Updates remind101.  Get info on outages, changes, etc. before they happen.

oneword™ is a simple writing exercise.
It’s not about learning new words.
It’s not about defining words.

If the word of the day is: pen, don’t write:
“a writing utensil that dispenses ink”
or
“OMG!—i don’t know what that word means, i’m SO freaking out…”

Write whatever that particular word inspires:
“my uncle was in the state penitentiary for penetrating pensive pentecostals…”

The purpose of this exercise is to learn to flow.

Imagine a film camera:

When a film is shot, the camera just rolls and captures everything—good and bad. When the filming is complete, the raw film is then edited into
a cohesive piece.

The camera operator doesn’t keep stopping the camera and rewinding and editing on the fly—the camera just rolls. If it were to stop, some of the best performances and spontaneous moments might be missed.

Google’s Chrome is rapidly becoming the most popular browser used worldwide, recently overtaking Firefoxin global market share. If you’re a Chrome user and a WordPress lover, we’ve got some goodies for you. Below you will find a collection of extensions that allow you integrate your browser with WordPress in unique ways. Add a few new ones to your browser for a quick productivity boost.

13 Chrome Extensions for WordPress Lovers.

Here is a great post about some of the tricks to use YouTube to its fullest.

Found this enlightening article about the pros of using social media with your students.  Food for thought:
Mentoring Your Students in Social Media or Vice Versa

Found these great (and short) articles about teacher’s observations on how they use the iPad.
iPad in every TEACHER’S hand

AND
How I’m Using my iPad as a Teaching Tool
 

I stumbled on this amazing site for those of us who have embraced texting as a major mode of communication. ClassParrot is a website for teachers. It allows them to send text messages back and forth with students and parents, without revealing anybody’s phone numbers. Think of it as a private texting service just for you, your students and parents.  Teachers, students, and parents can never see each other’s phone numbers, protecting the privacy of everyone involved.

• Are you an advisor and need to get an announcement to your class quickly? Text them all with ClassParrot.
• Need to remind your Math class of an upcoming assignment or test? Text them a reminder with ClassParrot.
• Are you a coach who needs to get a schedule change to all your players? Text them all with ClassParrot.

And it is free (You can send up to 500 messages a month)!  You can also conduct polls with your students via text for instant results (overnight in our case since they can’t use them, in class).

Why text you ask? Because students prefer text messaging to email, and because they actually pay attention to texts. Open rate for email is 22%. Open rate for text messages is 98%!  Unlike managing course details online, or checking email, texting doesn’t require that your students learn any new behaviors. They already text! And they like it!

Starting is simple: Add one or all of your classes. We’ll assign a unique, private code to each class.

Students Text The Code: With any type of cell phone, your students (and their parents!) can simply text the unique code to ClassParrot.

Start Communicating!: Broadcast reminders, updates, info & notices to your students (and their parents). Students can text back directly.

Just click here to get started.

Take advantage of my recent insomnia by checking out these great educational sites, all designed to make your classroom life a bit easier.

10 Minute Lesson Plans – Lesson Plans The Fast And Easy Way! Studies show that teachers that use and follow lesson plans produce better results. The reason teachers avoid creating lesson plans is that they are time consuming and complicated… that’s about to change. We’ve designed our lesson plan builder so that you can create a lesson plan in just 10 minutes… and, best of all, it’s FREE!

Easy Notecards – Easy Notecards is a place for students and teachers to create, study, print and share interactive notecards for their textbooks.

Ginger – Online Proofreading Service. Most advanced proofreading service available. Immediate feedback. Free to use.

Many US schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks – Food for thought article from Yahoo! Finance (Thanks John Bernosky)

Twiducate – twiducate.com is a free resource for educators. Our service allows only teachers and students to view classroom posts, thus creating a private network for you and your students and a safer online learning environment. Many students already use social networking sites. Why not give them an opportunity to develop their learning in this type of environment but with control over visibility and content. Talk about student engagement!

Practical Action – Practical Action uses technology to challenge poverty, working with poor women and men around the world.

Corkboard.Me – Create a board instantly without logging in or providing any personal information. Use your corkboard’s unique address to easily share it with coworkers, students and parents.

Snap.vu – Snap.vu is a free QR code generator, short URL and tracking service for personal use.

Squishy Circuits Project Page – Squishy circuits are a project from the Thomas Lab at the University of St. Thomas.  The goal of the project is to design tools and activities which allow kids of all ages to create circuits and explore electronics using play dough.

International Children’s Digital Library – The ICDL Foundation’s goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world.  Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children’s literature from the world community.

Kids.Net.au – Kids.Net.au is an Australian ‘not for profit’ kids safe portal, that is updated and maintained by a team of volunteers. Kids.Net.au went online in 2003 and at first just included a directory of kids safe web sites, since then the site has grown into much more offering a dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia, with more to come.

Check out Studyladder, it’s a great new (FREE) teaching resource that I have recently discovered.

Studyladder is a highly effective, logically organised, Mathematics and Literacy program. It has been developed by experienced educators to inspire and motivate learning. It is suitable for Elementary and Junior High School students and is very easy to use – students simply login with a username and password to access all the learning materials.

And did I mention it is FREE!  Teachers have access all of the resources, their students have full access during school hours with limited homework access from home (3 activities per day).

Be sure to check it out.

Count Me In Too is a professional development program developed to support the effective teaching of mathematics in years K-6. The program melds findings from research about how children learn mathematics, with research on effective professional development. It has three major components:

• A theory of number development based on research from around the world and described in a learning framework;
• An individualised Schedule for Early Number Assessment used by teachers to place each child at a point within this framework; and
• A professional development program designed to assist teachers better understand how children learn arithmetic.

“Count Me In Too“ uses a team-based approach to professional development with a focus on practice in the classroom. Teachers come to understand students’ thinking in mathematics by carrying out individual interviews and using the information from this assessment as a starting place for teaching. The research-based learning framework then provides clear guidance for instruction so that it can build upon the most advanced thinking that students can demonstrate. Although “Count Me In Too” started with a sole focus on number learning, it has expanded into other aspects of mathematics learning, such as measurement and geometry. In each case, the focus has been on using a synthesis of the research to provide clear direction for teaching.

“The program has made me a very confident maths teacher and also a teacher who enjoys teaching mathematics enormously. I found the children were very excited with the activities and enthusiastic about maths. They love the different activities that were set because they were set at the right level, thanks to the assessment. It’s a very worthwhile project.”