Friday Treats: 4.20.2012

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

First up this week is the Twitter link to #edchat has discussions, ideas and connections with people interested in education.

Here are some other Twitter Chats you can check out: http://www.sociableblog.com/2012/02/01/twitter-chats-for-educator/ - I get a lot of great info & ideas from Twitter (& Pinterest)…you can follow me on both.

SMART Notebook has an update coming next week.  Want to get a sneak peek at some of the new features?  Check out this blog.

Have you always wanted to take a class at Princeton or Stanford and it just never worked out?  Try coursera.org which offers free courses from some of the most prestigious colleges & universities (did I mention it’s free?) here’s an article about it:  http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/18/11270140-top-universities-to-offer-online-courses-for-free?lite

These next ones are free teaching kits from Tech4Learning (the people who make Pixie).  You have to sign up for them:  Elementary Science Resource Kit (grades K-2), English Language Acquisition Resources, Bring Technology into reading (Grades 2-6), Meeting Common Core with Pixie (which we don’t really use, but might have some good ideas)

Need to print a poster on a regular printer?  Try Blockposters.com

Check out this article from the Washington Post

iPads especially helpful for special-needs students

Schools in the Washington region are using tablets to assist special-education students, especially with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders.
Read the entire story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/advice/ipads-especially-helpful-for-special-needs-students/2012/04/17/gIQAQn1iQT_story.html

Use baking soda & vinegar to inflate balloons: http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/01/blow-it-up-exploring-gas-with-balloons.html 

Another great way to incorporate “social media” into your classroom:

Interesting article the effect of drinking water has on test scores: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17741653

Wallpaper Paste.

If you've been following my Twitter feed (@techinteaching) you know that the iPad lab has finally arrived.  We unveiled it to the teachers on Monday and they seem pretty excited.  I noticed that some of them also seem pretty unsure, which is an indication that I have a lot of work to do. 


I thought I would write a couple of blog posts about getting the iPads and prepping them for student use.  One of the things that have made the iPad management easier is numbering them, but as a number of people have expressed...who wants to write all over the front of an iPad with a marker?  Not this lady.  So, I got an awesome idea from another techie friend (@fmigdal) to use Photoshop to take a creative commons Flickr image and add the school's contact info.  Genius!  

I love that I can add a little sassiness to the iPads with the different images and make them a little more exciting than they already are (if that's possible).  I think it will definitely help us manage them, and I know the students will enjoy them too.  These are all of the images I used on our 27 iPads: 

There are some pretty amazing images on Flickr.

I used Flickr to find photographs of numbers, but limited my search to only images that the artists have allowed use of through creative commons.  Additionally, I used Photoshop to add a copyright of the artists' Flickr username (it's good practice for the students to see, anyway).

This image (along with #6) was one of my favorites.

I imported the images into Photoshop, added our school's contact information and saved them as individual images.  The creation of the wallpaper was actually pretty quick.


After I finished creating the wallpaper, I realized that I didn't want to sync all of the different wallpapers onto all of the iPads (I only wanted #15 wallpaper on iPad 15), so I made a folder called iPad, then made a subfolder for each iPad as well as a folder called iPad Images.  Each wallpaper was dropped into the appropriate folder and synced.  I added the iPad Images folder so that if a teacher is doing work with images (like a flower for diagramming), I can drop it into the images folder and then quickly sync it to all of the iPads.  


Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I saved all of the wallpapers as Photoshop files, too- so I can go back and change some of the numbers if I get tired of them or for holidays or something.  I did have a master plan of having each classroom create a number and pose with it and I would take their photo and make that the wallpaper.  The logistics of it proved to be a little much for this time of year, but it's still a possibility.


Once I order cases (which is on my Outlook Calender, with reminder, for today), I'm going to print stickers with the same photo number to stick onto the case.  Nothing like getting a little Martha Stewart-esque technology design going on.


How are you numbering/managing your iPads?

Friday Treats: 4.13.2012

Happy Friday the 13^th.

I love this resource for Math (or just fun)…it’s all interactive from Glencoe that would work stupendously on your SMARTBoard.  It has stuff for all grades, great backgrounds, game boards, manipulatives, balances, all sorts of fun.  It might also be great practice for your kids to use on their own to get used to using Math tools online (since they’ll be doing their SOL online next year).  http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html 

This is called Adventure on the Titanic and it goes through what someone might have experienced aboard Titanic.  It’s from Nat Geo.  Kind of neat.  http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/titanic/adventure-on-the-titanic/

Did you know Ms Frizzle has a Magic Schoolbus Science Club?  You can join! http://www.theyoungscientistsclub.com/themagicschoolbus/

Nice for older kids…Probability & Game Theory in The Hunger Games!  

Get ping pong balls and write prompts on them for writing, then have kids choose:

This is kind of fun…discovery bottles:

Discovery Bottles: These were just a few that I made and took a picture of.  Bubbles: Add half of the bottle with colored water, then add a drop of dish soap and shake!  Waves: half colored water, half oil (I only had veggie oil on hand, but baby oil works much better).  Sink or Float: Water/glitter.  Oddly, half of it sunk and half of it floated!  Static: Add tissue paper squares, rub on either carpet or hair!

Along those same lines, here’s a fun experiment with liquid densities:

*In most cases did not create these, nor am I taking credit for them.  See the links above for the person who owns the rights to them (where applicable)