Catch of The Day - Thinking Blocks - 9/29/2011

 

Thinking Blocks is a group of tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently using brightly colored blocks. Thinking Blocks makes it possible for teachers to easily integrate model drawing into their math curriculum.

Students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The Thinking Blocks models help students organize information and clarify the problem solving process with a powerful visual image. Students can develop stronger reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition to higher levels of mathematics.

The Thinking Blocks activities provide both guided instruction, Tutorials, and independent practice, Modeling Tool.

The Tutorials sections cover addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions, and ratios. Videos show completed examples from each section.  Students may work on specific skills or randomized problems in each category.

The Modeling Tool sections cover addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions, ratios, decimals, percent, and algebra. Included are hundreds of word problems or you can enter your own problems. The self-checking feature enables students to compare their own models with those dynamically generated by the program.

Thinking Blocks features:

• Student-driven tutorials
• Numbers and question marks are draggable
• Tutorial programs include a calculator
• Full screen option complements interactive whiteboards

See a video showing Thinking Blocks used to model a ratio problem

Thinking Blocks was developed by Colleen King in 2003 to help students who were struggling with math word problems. Thinking Blocks is free to use in the classroom.

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Catch of The Day - Easy File Sharing - 9/28/2011

Sharing files as email attachments has been a staple of digital life for many years, but it can be awkward and limited, especially if multiple or large files are involved. There is now a ton of better file sharing options available online. Kicksend and MediaFire are two easy-to-use tools that make sharing and distribution of digital content (even fairly large files) relatively simple and efficient.

The goal of Kicksend is to make sharing and receiving files extremely simple and effortless. Send files of any size (using the desktop app) directly to any email address. You can build lists of as many people as you want, and send to all of them with one action.

File recipients do not need to signup to download a file. An email is sent to each person to whom you send files, along with URL links to download the files directly.

The desktop app lets you send files of any size (using the web app only supports sending files smaller than 150MB). It also has an automatic download feature that will download and organize any files that are sent to you by others on Kicksend and notify you via desktop alerts when you have new files waiting.

You can upload as many files as you like, but files are stored for a maximum of two weeks and then deleted from their servers.

MediaFire has the features you need to easily upload, download, manage, and share your digital content. To upload a file, simply drag it into the browser window and drop it anywhere.

MediaFire allows unlimited uploads and downloads, unlimited storage, and large file sharing (up to 200MB with a free account). Files can be designated as public or private and can be password-protected.

File recipients do not need to signup for an account. Anyone can download files from Mediafire so long as they have been provided with a URL link to a file.

The Update File feature allows you to replace a file with a newer version while keeping its original URL.

So long as you access your account occasionally, there is currently no time limit on how long uploaded files will be stored.

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Catch of The Day - Animaps - 9/27/2011

Animaps extends the My Maps feature of Google Maps by letting you create maps with markers that move, images and text that pop up on cue, and lines and shapes that change over virtual time.

An Animap is displayed like a video. Viewers can play, pause, rewind, fast-forward, slow, or speed up the action.

See an example of an Animap

Animaps can be designated as Public or Private. Public maps will be searchable using the internal Animaps search function and also by normal Google searches. Private maps cannot and are available only through a sharable link.

You can sign in using your Facebook account, or create and register a new account with Animaps.

Note: Animaps will not work with Internet Explorer versions before IE9. The site has been tested in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

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Catch of The Day - GM Education - 9/26/2011

The General Motors Education website offers teachers and students resources and activities that highlight energy, environment, and sustainability topics.

Teachers can find many resources at GM Education, including free lesson plans, that have been developed for the classroom through partnerships with Weekly Reader, Junior Achievement, and Keystone Center covering a variety of topics around energy, advanced technologies, and alternative fuels.

GM Education lesson plans are designed for specific grade levels and meet national education standards for a variety of subjects. Games, articles, technology animations, and career information designed specifically for students can also be found on the site.

GM Education's Teach Green blog is a place where educators share their tips and inspirations for teaching lessons about the environment. Teach Green encourages conversation, information sharing, and the exchange of advice among teachers who want to promote "green" lessons in their classrooms. The blog was recognized with an Impact Award by the New Jersey Technology Education Association.

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The Rearview Mirror 9/24/2011

For those of you who may have missed a Catch of the Day or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

 

Monday

Have Fun Teaching is a rich source of supplemental teaching materials such as  worksheets, coloring pages, songs, videos, and fun activities.

Tuesday

BigMarker is a free web conferencing community where you can teach a virtual class or support students beyond the school walls with unlimited access to live events.

Wednesday

Danica McKellar, perhaps best known as Winnie Cooper on the TV series The Wonder Years, is the author of three books about studying and learning math targeted mainly at teen girls.

Thursday

Deliver real-time classroom updates to parents by email, text message, or both, right from your cell phone using SnappSchool.

Catch of The Day - SnappSchool - 9/22/2011

Deliver real-time classroom updates to parents by email, text message, or both, right from your cell phone using SnappSchool.

Send your message to SnappSchool, either by email or text message, and it automatically gets forwarded to all of your students’ parents who have subscribed to the service. Parents can choose to receive your updates via email, SMS, or both.

SnappSchool features:

• No managing contact info, parents subscribe to your updates by sending SnappSchool a single text message or email.
• Communication is one-way, SnappSchool does not allow text recipients to respond directly to you through the service. Your contact information remains confidential
• You can create different groups for parents who speak different languages.

SnappSchool provides both a PDF user guide for teachers and a parent flyer template in Doc format.

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Catch of The Day - Danica McKellar Math Books - 9/21/2011

Danica McKellar, perhaps best known as Winnie Cooper on the TV series The Wonder Years, is the author of three books about studying and learning math targeted mainly at teen girls.

In the first of these books, Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, math lessons are presented in the style of a teen magazine. It was a bestseller in 2007, and earned her "Person of the Week" honors from ABC World News with Charles Gibson. Math Doesn't Suck was one of Amazon's top 100 books of 2007. The success of Math Doesn't Suck lead to two subsequent books: Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss (2008) and Hot X: Algebra Exposed (2010).

Read an excerpt from Math Doesn't Suck

Get Danica McKellar's math books: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Danica McKellar graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a BS in mathematics.

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Catch of The Day - BigMarker - 9/20/2011

BigMarker is a free web conferencing community where you can teach a virtual class or support students beyond the school walls with unlimited access to live events.

The BigMarker desktop sharing system, interactive whiteboard, instant messaging system, and live audio/video chat let users conduct collaborative and productive online classes.

Features of BigMarker:

• Multipoint video conferencing technology supports numerous participants.
• Share your screen with participants.
• Mark up the shared whiteboard.
• Unique virtual classroom URL.
• List your event publicly or set up a private and secure session.

Try a demo of BigMarker

With instant access and BigMarker's functional user interface, users can quickly be productive with little or no training required. Use any Flash-enabled web browser. There are no downloads or installations necessary.

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Catch of The Day - Have Fun Teaching - 9/19/2011

Have Fun Teaching is a rich source of supplemental teaching materials such as  worksheets, coloring pages, songs, videos, and fun activities.

The mission of Have Fun Teaching is to:

• create the best online resource for teachers, parents, home-schoolers, and kids.
• provide teachers with more time with kids and less time with lesson plans.
• give hope and encouragement to fellow educators.
• help teachers to have fun teaching.

Have Fun Teaching offers songs and videos for kids and teachers on topics like the alphabet, math, phonics, grammar, counting, and character.

In the Get Connected section you can link to Have Fun Teaching on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites to get updates, tips, videos, free stuff, and more. The Tools area includes teacher tools, lesson plans, teacher resources, free stuff for teachers, clipart, signs and posters, and more.

You can sign up for the Have Fun Teaching email newsletter for website updates, blog updates, lesson plan ideas, and the latest resources.

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The Rearview Mirror 9/17/2011

For those of you who may have missed a Catch of the Day or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

 

Monday

There is no paucity of online tools that can be used to create attractive charts and other kinds of data visualizations. Here are four free, easy-to-use options worth looking at.

Tuesday

The mission of Edufy is to "provide all teachers with the tools that make it possible to build an individualized learning experience for students to promote STEM education" by making it easy to find specialized activities.

Wednesday

Featured today are two websites offering free resources for science classrooms: ScienceMonster.comand Succeeding with Science.

Thursday

Parents, Students, Teachers of Mathematics is a free online site designed to supplement teaching and learning math.

Catch of The Day - Parents, Students, Teachers of Mathematics - 9/15/2011

Parents, Students, Teachers of Mathematics is a free online site designed to supplement teaching and learning math.

Register and create a class on PSToM. Only invited students can join your class if you designate it 'private'. Any student can view the list of public classes on PSToM and join them. Whether your class is 'public' or 'private', send your students email invitations to join your class.

You'll soon see activity in your class. Follow your students progress and performance and the 'feeds' they've been generating. Know how far a student has progressed on the system. Drill deeper to see how well an individual student did in a particular lesson. Discover strengths and weaknesses, and direct your attention where this student most needs it.

The heart of PSToM lies in its assessment system. PSToM adapts to each student. All students who reach a given level have successfully responded to a similar, but not identical, set of questions.

More features of PSToM:

• Solve algebraic problems with step-by-step solutions for students to follow.
• Open educational resources have been indexed so students can connect to simple tutorials to help learn the basics.
• Recommend a tutorial and your students will be notified in their feeds.

PSToM currently offers only Algebra 1 content, but more is promised for the future.

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Catch of The Day - Free Science Resources - 9/14/2011

 

Featured today are two websites offering free resources for science classrooms: ScienceMonster.com and Succeeding with Science.

ScienceMonster.com is a collection of free science games and related lessons and is one of the seven Coolmath.com websites.

ScienceMonster.com includes games and lessons for learning about the Earth, life and physical sciences, astronomy, and technology.

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Succeeding with Science is an educational program from the UK designed to foster enthusiasm for science, engineering, technology, and mathematics in young people.

Succeeding with Science resources are developed by teachers. They are designed to fit into the curriculum and are produced to exacting standards. You can use all Succeeding with Science online resources for free. Many resources are available to download for Windows and Mac.

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Catch of The Day - Edufy - 9/13/2011

The mission of Edufy is to "provide all teachers with the tools that make it possible to build an individualized learning experience for students to promote STEM education" by making it easy to find specialized activities.

At Edufy, STEM-area teachers can find a broad range of activities on every topic that can be used to build a differentiated learning experience meeting every student's needs. Share, rate, and edit learning activities contributed by a community of teachers each contributing their best content.

Quickly and easily find the right content to build lessons that challenge every student. Search terms and matches are organized using criteria such as learning style, learning stage, and grade.

Edufy was started by an Earth Science teacher and can be used at no cost, without ads.

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Catch of The Day - Data Visualization Tools - 9/12/2011

There is no paucity of online tools that can be used to create attractive charts and other kinds of data visualizations. Here are four free, easy-to-use options worth looking at.

Rich Chart Live

Rich Chart Live is a free online web app that can be used to create visually attractive and interactive charts. All you need is an Internet connection and a Flash-enabled web browser in Windows, Mac, or Linux. Data can be imported from a spreadsheet or enter it directly. Charts can be exported as a Flash animation, as a PowerPoint presentation, or embedded directly into your blog or website. Rich Chart Live has no limitations, however a small logo is placed in the bottom-right corner of each generated chart.

OWTChart Generator

The OWTChart Generator at MapTools.org is an on-line tool that can be used to produce a variety of charts. Choose the desired chart type by clicking on a Pie, Line, Simple Bar, or Multi-bar Chart icon, then define the chart's parameters on the subsequent page. A GIF image of the chart type that you specified will be generated and displayed. The chart image can be saved to your desktop and used in other applications.

ChartGizmo

Use ChartGizmo to create free charts for your website, blog, and social network profiles. ChartGizmo can be used to visualize scientific, social, or other types of data. Create charts from imported spreadsheet data or dynamically collected information. The following types of diagrams are available: Pie, Bar, Line, Ring, 3D Pie, 3D Bar, 3D Line, Candle, Scatterplot, Time Series. All chart settings are customizable, and chart modifications and updates are easy.

Google Chart Tools

Perhaps a bit more sophisticated than the other tools presented here, Google's online chart tools are powerful, simple to use, and free. A variety of chart types are available, from simple scatter plots to hierarchical treemaps. Configure an extensive set of options to customize the look and feel of your charts. Cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility with HTML5, no plugins needed. Connect to your data dynamically in real time using a variety of data connection tools.

Other similar tools: Hohli Charts | amCharts Visual Editor

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The Rearview Mirror 9/10/2011

For those of you who may have missed a Catch of the Day or who didn't have the opportunity to look at some of them during this past week, here's a second chance.

 

Monday

No Post / Labor Day Holiday

Tuesday

With roots in the famous World Game, o.s.Earth's Global Simulation Workshop is an exciting, innovative interactive game that builds critical skills, social bonds, and global awareness.

Wednesday

Real World Math is a resource offering free math lessons and activities for grades 4-10. The unique feature of these lessons is they are presented on the virtual globe of Google Earth.

Thursday

The catch today actually pulled in two simple tools that you might find useful, PageFlip-Flap and CiteThisForMe.Online Flash-driven page flipper PageFlip-Flap transforms your doc, pdf, or movie file into an interactive flipbook. CiteThisForMe is a free tool designed to help students prepare their whole bibliography or reference list quickly and easily.

BetterLesson adds Dropbox, Box.net Import and More

BetterLesson, a website to connect teachers and enable them to create, organize, and share their best curricula, has been the subject of two earlier posts.

BetterLesson recently added some popularly requested features including Dropbox import, Box.net import, and Upload new version. Promised for the fall are a lesson page redesign and lesson calendar. If you’re interested in being one of the first to test the new lesson calendar feature, email BetterLesson at feedback@betterlesson.com.

Go to the earlierBetterLessonposts.

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Catch of The Day - PageFlip-Flap & CiteThisForMe - 9/8/2011

The catch today actually pulled in two simple tools that you might find useful, PageFlip-Flap and CiteThisForMe.

Online Flash-driven page flipper PageFlip-Flap transforms your doc, pdf, or movie file into an interactive flipbook. Simply upload your file. PageFlip-Flap accepts pdf, doc(x)/ppt(x)/xls(x), ods/odt/odp, jpg, png, gif, avi, mov, flv, zip, and more file types.

You will shortly receive an email with the URL to your creation. You can share this with colleagues, students, or friends by email, on your blog or wiki, or on your favorite social networks. It's free and no registration is needed.

See an example I made from one of my Pixelmator tutorials

CiteThisForMe is a free tool designed to help students prepare their whole bibliography or reference list quickly and easily. It uses the Harvard referencing style, one of the most common referencing styles in academia, to generate citations for books, newspapers, journals, websites, and more.

Complete the form corresponding to the kind of source you are citing and an appropriately formatted citation will be added to your reference list. These can then be downloaded as an RTF document for copying and pasting.

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