Alternatives to EtherPad

EtherPad was a useful online collaboration tool, but it has been shut down.  There are several other very similar tools that will do the same thing.

Typewith.me is one service that you can use for online, real-time collaboration. Up to 16 people can edit at one time.

primarypad is another site you can use to do the same thing. The cool thing about Primary Pad is that you can also draw pictures to insert into the notepad. The drawings can be worked on collaboratively, also. This is a great tool for vocabulary, reading comprehension, art, or practicing visualization.


sync.in works much the same way as the other two resources I've listed.  

You Can Book Me!

Youcanbook.me has set up a service that allows people to see your Google calendar and sign up for a time slot.  This is a great tool for scheduling meetings with staff or if you need to set up conferences with students or parents.  You can embed it into a website or blog, or you can just share the URL.  You might notice that I've embedded it in the sidebar of this blog. The site e-mails you when someone signs up for a time, and adds it into your Google calendar. Check it out!

Blogging for Kids

Kidblog.org is a website designed for teachers to set up individual student blogs WITHOUT providing a student e-mail address.  I've used Edublogs in the past, but it requires a student e-mail, which means more work for the teacher!  I didn't use Blogger for my students, because they were under 13, and in Google's terms of service, users must be over 13 years of age.

Kidblog is very easy to set up, add students, and get blogging.  From what I can see, it looks far easier than what Edublogs is. The interface is designed for young kids.

Happy blogging!

Flashcards aren't just for math!

Flashcards are one of the best ways to study or review, and they are not only for math!  


Flashcard Flash is a customized search engine that searches different flashcard sites.  I searched the term "library" and got lots of hits on flashcards dealing with authors, book awards and library vocabulary.  You can also search grade levels, such as a search for "5th grade math" or "kindergarten sight words."  There are flashcards for every subject!  


One of the sites that Flashcard Flash searches is Study Stack.  At Study Stack you can search through their flashcards by subject.  Along with flashcards, they also have matching games, hangman, crosswords, unscrambles and other study tools.  You can also create your own customized flashcards and study games. Study Stack also works on iPod touches with the following apps: gFlash+, Touchcards, and Quizard.  

PDF-->Word Converter

Here's a handy tool for if you ever need to convert a PDF document to an editable Word document.  This would be useful if you scanned something in to the BizHub and sent it to your e-mail and then wanted to edit it. It is also useful if you find a PDF worksheet or activity online that you want to do.  You could change it to a Word document, have students fill in the answers and then submit it to your dropbox rather than print everything out.

Here's a 2 minute tutorial I created to show how to do this:

Creating Websites Easily

I've had a few teachers come in and ask me about what tools to use to create a website for their class.

There are two sites that I've used regularly to do this: Weebly and Google Sites.  Weebly is easier to use if you're a beginner in website creation (I had 5-8 graders use it that successfully created website portfolios). Weebly uses a drag and drop interface, so if you want a picture or text you drag a box down and then insert your content.  It's very simple, but doesn't have quite as many options as Google Sites does.

My favorite thing about Google Sites is that all things Google can be inserted: calendars, documents, slideshows, and forms (quizzes).  Since they're all Google, they all work together very nicely.  Google Sites is a bit more complicated, but still isn't hard.  Google Sites also gives you a bit more room to "do your own thing" whereas Weebly you have to drag and drop their pre-formated objects.

Here's a quick video about Weebly:



And here's a basic tutorial on Google Sites:



Other options for website creation would include: Kafafa, Webs, & SchoolRack (among millions of others!).

Back to school Podcasts

I found this link on Twitter, it shares some free educational podcasts. Check them out, especially if you teach English, Science, Math, History, Economics or Spanish. Podcasts can be a great resource.

http://mashable.com/2010/09/02/back-to-school-podcasts/

Google Reader--Make your life easier!

Using Google Reader, or any other RSS feed, is an easy way to organize all your blogs...such as this one!  The short video below shows you how to get started and use Google Reader.




After adding this blog to your feed, you should also add http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  This is one of the best tech integration blogs out there--he writes 5 posts per day about all different topics. You can quickly browse through them in your reader to see if there's anything of interest/use to you.