Google Science Fair

On 11 January, 2011, Google is launching the inaugural Google Science Fair. They have partnered with NASA, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American and the LEGO Group to create a new STEM competition that is more open, accessible and global than ever before. Google is reaching out to educators prior to launch to let you know “the Google Science Fair is coming” and to extend an invitation to schools and teachers to get involved early in our global competition.


To sign up for fun and free resource kits for your classroom or school (with bookmarks, stickers, posters and more!) and a reminder notification when GSF registration opens, please visit the Google Science Fair at:
http://www.google.com/events/sciencefair/ .

The Google Science Fair is a global competition that any student aged 13 - 18 from around the world is eligible to enter. Students can enter as individuals or as teams of up to three. There is no entry fee and registration and submission will happen online. The deadline for submissions will be the 4 April, 2011. The Science Fair will culminate in a “once in a lifetime” celebratory event at Google headquarters in California in July 2011 where finalists will compete for internships, scholarships and prizes in front of a panel of celebrity scientist judges including Nobel Laureates, tech visionaries and household names.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

This is old news for most of you, but PBS has launched a new animated show, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!" 

The show is designed to promote science among early learners.  There are great teacher resources that supplement the episodes available on PBS Teacher's Cat in the Hat Web site.  If you haven't seen the show or checked out these resources yet, take the time to do it today! 

GaETC 2010--Day 1

There are over 1800 attendees at this year's GaETC at the Georgia International Convention Center. Today was a great first day. We attended an opening session, concurrent sessions, and heard a hilarious keynote speaker--Jeanne Robertson. You can check her out on YouTube. You won't regret it!

Resources to note from sessions I attended today:

GPB/Discovery Education--http://www.multiurl.com/l/3JS (All of the links and handouts from their presentation are linked here.)

Tammy Worcester--If you've ever been to GaETC, you've probably heard Tammy before. She presented great materials today, as always. You can access all of the handouts from her presentations here: http://www.tammyworcester.com/TWHandouts/New_Handouts/Entries/2010/11/3_GAETC_2010.html

We saw several familiar faces today from our Chattahoochee-Flint RESA ETC counties!

Stay tuned for more resources and updates tomorrow!

Your Play by Play is Coming Soon...

GaETC is here again!  November 2-5, we will be in Atlanta at the annual Georgia Educational Technology Conference.  I hope I will see some of you there.  For those of you that can't make it, I will again blog each day with the conference highlights and happenings!  Tune in here for your GaETC play by play!

Printables and Pumpkins!

Thanks to my friend, Alice, I have a new site for great printables to pass on to you!  Print pdfs about pretty much every topic for every grade level.  From coloring sheets, to maps, to physics worksheets...there is a lot of variety!  Here is an example:

Also, for a little fall fun, check out this cute video all about PUMPKINS!

Web 2.0 Tools for Web Design

I am conducting a workshop on web design using free, web 2.0 tools this week at the ETC.  We are focusing on tools that can be used with students in the project-based learning competition, PROMOTE.  You can learn more about PROMOTE here, and view winning Web sites from last year's competition. 

It's helpful to start by teaching students about properly evaluating Web sites.  Eduplace has a simple tutorial.  Kathy Schrock also has several great resources on this topic.

What does "modern web design" mean?  This is a great explanation of common modern (2.0) design elements:  Web 2.0 How To Design and Style Guide.

View other award-winning web designs at the Webby Awards Web site.

Free Web site builders:
Webstarts
Wix
Weebly
DoodleKit
Moonfruit
Yola
Wordpress
Google Sites
EZWeb123

New Mimio Software

Have you downloaded the new Mimio 7.01 software?  You can download the latest version here.

Need a User Guide to help you get started?  You can find that here. 

(It's only available for Windows users now.  The Mac update will be available later this Fall!)

Which Founder are you Like?

September 17 is Constitution Day!  The National Constitution Center has a fun Interactive that lets your students determine which Founding Father they are most like.  Great activity for your Interactive Whiteboards!

Don't Forget about Thinkfinity

Great Back to School links to Interactives and other Technology Activities at Verizon Thinkfinity!  Scroll down to select your grade level.

ATTENTION Promethean ActiVote or ActivExpression Users

For all of you Promethean product users out there, they have announced a new partnership with BrainPop.  There is a new BrainPop "tab" that will appear in your software to use seamlessly with your Promethean ActiVotes or ActivExpressions!  Your students will be able to take BrainPop quizzes with their remotes.  Of course, you will have to have a subscription to BrainPop, or just take advantage of the free videos and quizzes.

Get more information and the download instructions HERE.

Discover Discovery Education

Have you spent some time lately @ Discovery Education's Web site?

I'm sure you are all familiar with the wonderful educational videos offered through Discovery Streaming.  But, do you know what else is available through their site?

One really neat area on Discovery Education is the Writing Prompts Builder.  Access thousands of writing prompts submitted by other DE users or create your own using images or videos from DE's library.

This is an example of a writing prompt posted by a DE User:

These are also a great way to teach character education topics.

You can access the Writing Prompt area on DE by visiting http://www.discoveryeducation.com/ and login.  (If you have not ever created an account, you will need your school's passcode--see your media specialist or email me!)  You should see the Writing Prompt Builder under My Builder Tools once you login.  There is even a pdf QuickStart Guide to help you get started!

WatchKnow

Originally posted in November 2009, but stumbled across WatchKnow again today, and wanted to share this site again.  It is worthy of a re-post!


As I've written, I will continue to use this blog to post new ideas and tips that I stumble upon.  The latest neat site that I heard about this week is a clearinghouse for educational videos.  The site has organized any educational videos from anywhere on the web (YouTube, TeacherTube, etc...) by subject.  They are rated by other educators using the site.  If you find an educational video that you deem worthy, you can submit it to be included on WatchKnow.


Check it out:
http://www.watchknow.com/


If you have problems with the site being blocked, we've discussed before resources for downloading streaming videos to .flv files to save and bring back to school via a flash drive or attach to an email to yourself.  Sites for this are:
http://www.keepvid.com/
http://www.vixy.com/


OR if you've downloaded the latest version of RealPlayer, it will automatically put a little control bar in the top right corner of a video you are viewing that allows you to download the clip.  Once you've downloaded it, you can open your RealPlayer library, right click on the video file, and change the file's location to your flash drive or desktop to attach to email.

Time for the Magic Wands!

Time sure does fly when you're having fun, huh?

It's time to find those magic wands and get those classrooms ready for the upcoming year!

Now is the perfect time to begin a teacher website!  A teacher website is a great way to stay in touch with your parents and community, and it is a helpful way to keep yourself organized!  There are several great ideas you can incorporate into a teacher website:

• A calendar to summarize classroom events
• A "student spotlight" area to give recognition to students
• An extra resources area for those students who like to go deeper
• An area for website links that you use often in your classroom or that students can access at home

Teacher websites have never been easier to set up, and there are plenty of FREE ones out there!  Sometimes school districts provide teachers with a webpage as part of their school's website.  But, these may be hard to work with.  You can always just post a link on that page to your new teacher website that you create!

These are just a few of the many sites where you can create a free teacher website:

Scholastic Teacher Home Page Builder
EducatorPages
ClassNotes Online
Classtown

Please let me help if you have questions! And, I'd love to see your pages you create or have already had set up!  Send me the link!

And, check out this really cute back to school bulletin board idea!

Jennifer Smith
Chattahoochee-Flint RESA ETC
jsmith@chattflint.org
(800) 541-9442

Need something to do on the last day of school?

Stretching to keep your students occupied for the last day or two of school?  Let them make a to-do list for the summer!  Maybe a list of books to read while they're out?

My to-do list for the summer:

Character Counts!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a podcasting workshop with Tony Vincent.  It is always fun to hear Tony speak. He is an excellent presenter.  Tony has been at the forefront of podcasting since it started becoming popular in schools a few years ago.  He has worked with a school that creates "Character Counts" podcasts.  Click here, and listen to a few.  Then, have your students create their own "Character Counts" podcasts!  Tony's website gives you lots of information on podcasting!  Or, contact us, and we'll come and teach a podcasting workshop at your school!

Smithsonian's History Explorer

The Smithsonian History Explorer has awesome interactives for your social studies and history classrooms!  Great for use on interactive whiteboards or on your computers!

The What??

Have you checked the Porta Portal lately?  I know.....the WHAT?  Yes, the Porta Portal!

I've added several links recently, ranging from ipod touch's in the classroom to project based learning through web design.

Check it out and bookmark it!

http://guest.portaportal.com/jsmith0404

The shrimping boats are late today...

The shrimping boats are late today;
The dusk has caught them cold.
Swift darkness gathers up the sun,
And all the beckoning gold
That guides them safely into port
Is lost beneath the tide.
Now the lean moon swings overhead,
And Venus, salty-eyed.


They will be late an hour or more,
The fishermen, blaming dark's
Swift mischief or the stubborn sea,
But as their lanterns' sparks
Ride shoreward at the foam's white rim,
Until they reach the pier
I cannot say if their catch is shrimp,
Or fireflies burning clear.

Nocturne: Georgia Coast
By Daniel Whitehead Hicky

April is National Poetry Month!  Visit this site to read more poems about Georgia, explore poets from our State and find other interesting facts about poetic history in Georgia!

Capitol Tech 2010

It was our pleasure at the ETC to accompany a group of students and their teacher to Capitol Tech 2010, held at the Georgia State Capitol, March 8.  The students showed off their technology expertise and used the same equipment that they have in their classroom to do demonstrations for legislators and others that attended.  They were outstanding!

We had the opportunity to meet several legislators, including Representative Mike Cheokas, from Americus.

Play Storybook Adventure

Play Read.gov's Storybook Adventure and explore stories like the Wizard of Oz and collect treasures.  Cute site that would be fun to use on the big screen in the classroom or in the computer lab.

"Digg" the Olympics

From the Digg site:

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users.

Check out what the world "Diggs" about the Olympics!

Love Poems

Celebrate Valentine's Day with your students and read a few of these love poems from giggle poetry!!

Dollar Days

Not necessarily technology related, but head over to Scholastic to visit their Dollar Days and find 125 books for $1.  Stock up for your classroom OR for home.

While you're there, check out their Interactive Whiteboard links for some cute classroom activities.

Podcasting

We've been teaching podcasting workshops the last couple of weeks to our T3 Grant schools. We've been talking about what "consumers of media" our students are these days. So, when I saw this cartoon flipping through Good Housekeeping this week, it gave me a good laugh!

We've collected several podcasting resources while preparing for our workshops. Visit the portaportal site to find those links and many others on other various topics:

http://guest.portaportal.com/jsmith0404

Tag Galaxy

If you or your students are looking for pictures to use in your classroom, Tag Galaxy is a really fun site to visit.

When you arrive at Tag Galaxy they will ask you for a "tag." A tag is a keyword or term that is assigned to a piece of information. If you are looking for pictures of volcanoes, the tag you would type in is "volcanoes." It is simply a keyword.

Click GO and it will show you a "galaxy" of available images. Click on the planet that looks the most appropriate. It will then show you a world of photos. You can navigate through the world using your mouse.

Tag Galaxy is a really cool way to search for photos!

Question of the Day

Embed the BrainQuest Question of the Day html code into your class webpage, and have the question of the day appear automatically each day.  Or just visit http://www.brainquest.com/!  Or, sign up to receive the Brain Quest question via email.