Create Authentic Text Based Lessons I think we all know how potentially motivating authentic materials can be for our students, especially if those materials deal with something current and of direct relevance to our students' interests. The web is abundantly rich in these kinds of materials, but creating lessons based around authentic online materials can be time consuming and complex. There are issues of copyright to deal with, as well as the fact that once we have created our lessons, the text we build them on may disappear. If this is a problem you regularly face, then Lingle could be the answer to your prayers. Lingle takes the process of finding text and creating lessons and exercises and turns it into a quick and simple 'click through' process. Once you have registered on the site you will see a search field at the top of the page. Lingle will then show you a list of results that match your search along with dates and information about each article. Once you have found your text though, the real fun begins. Best
12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials Ever wondered how people show you so clearly what is happening on their computer, like in the Photoshop Video Tutorials we shared with you? Thanks to screencasting software, anyone can do it. So what's stopping you now from making your own how-to videos? Try out one of these 12 tools and get to making your first video! Free AviScreen - As the name would imply, this capture program records the video into AVI files, but can also do BMP photos. CamStudio.org - An open source program for capturing your on-screen video and audio as AVI files. Copernicus - A free program for Macs that focuses heavily on making quick and speedy films by recording the video to your RAM for quicker access. JingProject.com - Beyond recording video, Jing allows you to take a picture of any portion fo your desktop, draw on it, add a message, and immediately upload your media to a free hosting account. Wink - Screencasting software that focuses on making tutorials with audio and text annotation abilities. Commercial
The Principal of Change Storify your English classroom Washington Post Storify (Photo credit: cfpereda) This year, I’m teaching Year 10 English. In our team discussions early on, we decided to apply some SAMR thinking to modify a task that was normally completed as a paper folio, with pictures pasted in and students adding their comments as handwritten text or something that was computer generated pasted in. Our focus this term is a thematic study about power and greed, perfect as a lead in to out text study of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The students have adopted it quickly and find it intuitive to use. I can see us using Storify for other purposes throughout the school year. Our students have blogs they use as ePortfolios. Obviously, Storify could be used in a myriad of classroom settings. Google+ Like this: Like Loading...
EmbedPlus TEDxIB @ York | TEDxIB @ York Books–supplemental materials « Links to All Things Free for Homeschoolers These are lapbooks, study guides and other various read and response type things. :) The books are just listed in Alphabetical Order. To see if the book is available on this site for reading online or download, type it into the search box. Most of the advanced books on here, I put on specifically because I could also put on the book. *Here are some “other” resource. Sparknotes.com has Shakespeare plays with the original text and modern-English text side-by-side for translation. LitCharts.com has complete literature guides for high school level literature like Animal Farm, Brave New World,… This site has hundreds of children’s books listed along with lesson plans and/or worksheets and activities. Edsitement! Here’s a site with great study guides for hundreds of books. Units for many books for elementary school children Here are webquests on books for all ages. Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books lapbook The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Study Guide Lesson plans Aesop’s Fables lapbook Holes Unit
30+ Alternatives to YouTube Over the last year I've done a few posts about alternatives to YouTube. This post consolidates all of those resources into one list. If you have a suggestion that should be added to this list, please leave a comment. 1,2,3. 6,7. 8,9 Vimeo and Blip.tv are two user generated content video sites that have gained some traction over the last year. 11. 12, 13. 15, 16, 17, 18. 19, 20 TED and Big Think offer intellectual discussions and presentations about a wide variety of social, political, scientific, and economic topics. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. iCue, presented by NBC News, features videos about history and current events. 27. 28. 29. 31. 32. 33. 34.