Saturday, June 15, 2013

Class Dojo Presentation Materials



ClassDojo Presentation Materials

Student Introduction to ClassDojo


It is no secret that I am a HUGE fan of ClassDojo.  It is the best classroom management system I have ever used.  If you want to present ClassDojo to teachers in your building (or just want more information) click the link below to view materials.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Quizlet


This is a fantastic site to make, share, and study flash cards.  There is so much that this site offers.  The only way to see it all is to set up a free account and try it out.   





What is Quizlet?
Quizlet is an online tool designed to study key vocabulary terms and other concepts.  It allows teachers to create flash cards and have students practice online.  Teachers can make their own, or choose from millions of flash cards sets created by others.  But that's just the beginning - once you've got flashcards, you can use several study modes including multiple choice tests and study games. You can add images and listen to audio, and even study on the go with Quizlet-compatible mobile apps.  This is a great tool for classroom quiz/test preparation.

What Are the Benefits of Quizlet?

For Teachers: This is a very easy site to upload terms and create study tools.  It is free and offers many great tools to make studying vocabulary fun.  There are millions of already made vocabulary flash card decks already made and ready to share.  Often times the perfect card deck is already created and ready to go!  All a teacher needs to do is create a list of terms and definitions.  If these are already created in Excel they can be copied right into the web site and auto-create study cards.  Each term card can be individually created as well.  After the terms are entered they can be shared by a web link with students to study.

For Students:  This is an easy tool to use.  Quizlet will help students study terms with a few entertaining methods to help vocabulary retention.  Best of all, no student account is needed.  All a student needs is a link from the teacher and a computer with Internet access.  Perhaps the best part of Quizlet, and what sets it above many others, is the options offered for studying.  There are 5 different study formats to work with (Speller, Learn, Test, Scatter, and Space Race).  These offer different ways to practice and learn the same terms, and best of all the teacher doesn’t need to set them up.  They are part of Quizlet!

Visit http://www.quizlet.com to get started!

Friday, June 7, 2013

Teachers Pay Teachers


Teachers Pay Teachers is a great online resource. This is a site to find teacher created resources for novel studies, activities, calendars, workbooks, and a million other useful documents for your classroom. This is a great place to find useful documents for your classroom at very low prices.  Best of all, they are created by teachers just like you!





What is Teachers Pay Teachers?
Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original downloadable educational materials, hard goods and used educational resources.  There are units of study for nearly anything (novels, science units, Common Core, assessments, behavior, and WAY more!).  The site is searchable by grade level and subject to make it easy to find the perfect resource you need.


So…What Does all this Cost?
As of the writing of this Tech Tip there are 59,692 free resources available for download.  Most other resources are very reasonably priced and very useful   I have purchased a few things from the site over the last couple years (a few quizzes  units for novel studies, and class management ideas).  Also, each week they send an email with a link to the 10 free downloads.  I have downloaded many of the free resources and shared with other teachers.  What a deal!



Money Maker for You?
Teachers Pay Teachers is not just for you buying resources; it also allows you to see what you have already created.  Here is your chance to make a little money for the work you ave already done.  All you need to do is upload created documents and price them.  If you have something good, others will buy it.  Sign up and give it a try!

Visit Teachers Pay Teachers to get started:  http://www.TeachersPayTeachers.com

Create your account today to start downloading and selling! 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Dropbox


Dropbox is perhaps the most used application by many teachers including myself. It replaces your “Documents” on your computer and allows syncing to any device. I have not used a flash/usb drive in over 2 years since I started using Dropbox. This is a great for working on files at school, home, and anywhere. Best of all it is FREE and easy to use!


Works On Your PC/Mac or iPad
All you have to do is download a program to your computer (and any device you want to sync files with) and log into or create an account.  You will then put all your documents that you usually store in your Documents folder into your newly created Dropbox folder located on your desktop.  This will now be your saving location for all files.

Instantly Sync Files
When you install and log into Dropbox on another computer all the files will automatically sync. In other words, whatever is in your Dropbox folder at home will also be in your Dropbox folder at school, on your laptop, or any other computer you have Dropbox installed (I sync 4 computers, 1 phone, 1 tablet, and my iPad).  Every change I make to a file at school will also be made on the documents on the other devices.

What Does This Mean For You?
As teachers we all work at school and home.  If you are like I was before Dropbox you have a flash/usb drive that you work off of or are constantly emailing files from home to school to work on.  With Dropbox here is how simple life is.  Let’s say you start a newsletter at school and realize there is no way to finish it.  You close out like normal and shut down your computer.  You drive home and turn on your home computer.  You open your Dropbox folder and there is the newsletter you started.  You finish from where you left off and save it as normal.  The next day at school you open the Dropbox folder on your school computer and “ta-da” there is the finished newsletter all ready to print.  In addition to the convenience of auto syncing and accessing files from anywhere, Dropbox acts as a web based back up location.  You can also set up “shared Grade Level Folders” to work as teams. 

With the free account you get 2 GB of free storage, but you will get more if accepting referrals and giving referrals.  Get a referral from me or another Dropbox user and get an additional 500 MB of free space!

Monday, June 3, 2013

Tech Tips: DROPitTOme

Tech Tips
Issue 24


This Tech Tip will look into a fantastic way to allow students, parents, and staff a way to upload files to your Dropbox account without giving them access to the files.  DROPitTOme is perhaps one of the slickest add-ons to Dropbox that I use.  It is a great tool for collecting student work, parent images, or peer documents out there.  There are a couple of steps you need to set up before you can begin using this great collection tool.




What is DROPitTOme?




  
This is an add-on to your existing Dropbox account that will allow you to have others "Drop" files to you.  Instead of all those emails with attachment, your students/parents/teachers can go to your personal DROPitTOme web link, browse for the file they want to send you, and upload it. It will then sync with your Dropbox account and be an all devices using that account.  Email...without the email!  There are only 2 things those others need to know.
1.                    Your DROPitTOme address
2.                   Your DROPitTOme upload password.




Collecting files form others just got easier!  Go to http://www.dropitto.me/ to begin.  You must first have a Dropbox account to link this to.

Create an account and get started:  http://www.DROPitTO.me

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Apps Gone Free


This is an app that is worth much more than it costs (FREE).  Find great high quality paid apps for free each day. Go to the App store on your iPad to download.









iTunes Store Description:
Find great apps without spending a dime! Get high quality paid apps for free each day. Unlike other apps, we offer no paid listings - these are expert-picked top-ranked apps, for FREE! 

Every day hundreds of apps reduce their price to free for a limited time to try to stimulate excitement. AppsGoneFree finds ONLY the apps worth owning:

* Our AppAdvice.com app experts personally handpick ONLY the best apps. If it's on the list, it's worth owning. 

* These same experts write a quick summary to tell you about the app, and why you need it (or if you don't).  Not PR, honest personal advice.

* We filter out the junk. Don't waste your time looking at all the free apps generated by robots, scouring through them to find something worth downloading, let us do the work for you. 
* It's an honest to goodness human-curated list of the best free apps each day (about 5-10 each day). 

There are dozens of apps that provide long tedious lists of every single app that ever goes free or short lists of apps that paid a lot of money to be included.  But only AppsGoneFree gives you authored, handpicked recommendations from an AppAdvice.com app expert of apps that belong on your device.
**INTRODUCING APP BUMP**
Being part of the very large AppsGoneFeee community has its perks.  Collectively, you have the power to convince apps to go free.  With AppBump, simply nominate great apps that are not getting the attention they deserve because the price tag is standing in the way.
We'll approach the developers of these apps, and let them know we have a community of users who will all try their app if they go free for just a single day.  So it's your way to give back to the community, by sharing great paid apps with each other and getting them free.  Remember to nominate every paid app you love, and when you see a bumped app, give it a shot!  Our community vouched for it, and the developer did it just for us! =)
Visit the App Store to get started: http://tinyurl.com/czglld8