November 20, 2009
Learn to type at TypingWeb
If there’s one foundation skill kids need for the 21st century, it’s typing. It only makes sense that kids develop a good working knowledge of the keyboard beyond the hunt-and-peck method. They can do that without signing up for a typing class at TypingWeb.
apostrophe.me takes the confusion out of using apostrophes
Do your students struggle with apostrophes? Or is that apostrophe’s? Aaugh! Lucky for them, there’s a handy chart available on the web that shows how those flying commas work. Go to apostrophe.me and check out “How To Use An Apostrophe,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
Google offers scholarships for minority and special-needs students
Google, apparently fed-up with the stereotype of programmers being a bunch of pasty white dudes, is trying to open up the computer science field to women, minorities, and special-needs students with a series of scholarships. These $10,000 scholarships will go to qualifying students who intend to pursue computer science in college.
Map out your classroom with Classroom Architect
You could use mind-mapping resources such as Gliffy to create your new floor plan digitally, but why not use a purpose-built application to do the work for you? Classroom Architect from 4teachers.org lets you drag and drop your desks, tables, chairs, TVs, and whatever else you have in your classroom without breaking a sweat.
Write, edit, collaborate online for free: Zoho Writer
Longtime Instructify readers know there are a bevy of free and web-based word processors out there. Only a few of them, however, are powerful enough that I wouldn’t miss Word. I dare say that Zoho Writer is one of those few.
November 20, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
A lot of schools and families shell out big money to Microsoft every year for MS Word. It’s my word processor of choice, but I’ve been lucky in that it came pre-installed on my computer. If I had to actually find a word processor on my own, I’d face a real dilemma: on one hand, I’ve gotten really used to Word’s format, as well as the level of formatting I can do on documents. On the other hand, I’m a cheapskate.
Longtime Instructify readers know there are a bevy of free and web-based word processors out there. Only a few of them, however, are powerful enough that I wouldn’t miss Word. I dare say that Zoho Writer is one of those few.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 19, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
Who doesn’t love moving furniture? The answer, of course, is pretty much everybody. Changing up the floor plan for your classroom involves moving desks, rugs and shelves around until you achieve feng shui (or you just say “good enough” and give up), or killing a few trees as you sketch up then toss out flawed, not-to-scale maps of possible layouts.
You could use mind-mapping resources such as Gliffy to create your new floor plan digitally, but why not use a purpose-built application to do the work for you? Classroom Architect from 4teachers.org lets you drag and drop your desks, tables, chairs, TVs, and whatever else you have in your classroom without breaking a sweat.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 18, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
Google, apparently fed-up with the stereotype of programmers being a bunch of pasty white dudes, is trying to open up the computer science field to women, minorities, and special-needs students with a series of scholarships. These $10,000 scholarships will go to qualifying students who intend to pursue computer science in college.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 17, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
Do your students struggle with apostrophes? Or is that apostrophe’s? Aaugh! Lucky for them, there’s a handy chart available on the web that shows how those flying commas work. Go to apostrophe.me and check out “How To Use An Apostrophe,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 16, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
If there’s one foundation skill kids need for the 21st century, it’s typing. Yeah, it seems basic, but in a computerized society, pretty much everything is done on computer. The keyboard is how we interact with computers and the internet, and therefore, much of the world. It only makes sense that kids develop a good working knowledge of the keyboard beyond the hunt-and-peck method. They can do that without signing up for a typing class at TypingWeb.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 13, 2009
You’ve got a couple more days to apply for a Planet Connect environmental grant
The $1000 Planet Connect Environmental Grant deadline has been extended until November 15. If you read our post about last year’s grant, you know it’s awarded to the best solutions proposed by students to solve environmental problems.
Download chemistry podcasts at ChemPod
The most recent episode features two Nobel-Prize winners chatting about ribosomes and the reprogramming thereof. Count on developments involving the usual heavy hitters in chemistry, including DNA, RNA, MIT, and the GFP (that’s green fluorescent protein, a discovery that netted Martin Chalfie a Nobel Prize — do you see a trend in the quality of guests this program gets?).
Stop by Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on the web
When I was a kid, I always wanted to go to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Like actually go there, meet Speedy Delivery, check out the Trolley, all of it. If I’d only had the good sense to be born twenty years later, I could have paid a visit via the internet to the excellent Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood website.
Build your own typefaces with FontStruct
The most obvious use for FontStruct would be as an art project — students can really exercise their creativity, as well as learn about typography, an important skill for any future graphic designers. World-language teachers can get in on the act, too. FontStruct lets you develop letters for several different alphabets, including Katakana (Japanese), Bopomofo (Mandarin Chinese), Arabic, Hebrew, Bengali, and others.
November 13, 2009
BY EMILY JACK
In Europe in the early 1600s, witch hunts were common practice and people were burned at the stake. Health care included bloodletting and surgery without anesthesia. And expeditions to the so-called New World were launching a new era of cruelty and genocide. But even during those dark times, a scientific revolution was underway that would change the way humans understood themselves and their place in the world forever.
It was 1609 when Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to the skies and began the observations that ushered in modern astronomy. 400 years later, the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO have declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy to honor Galileo and to celebrate the advances in astronomy since his time.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 12, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
As the perpetrator of some of the worst handwriting in a fifty mile radius, I’ve grown to love choosing the right font. The right typeface can produce the sort of artful lettering my hands can’t. Or so I thought. FontStruct lets me use my hands (by way of my mouse) to create my own fonts that I can download and use. Oh, okay, so it’s not exactly handwriting, but it’s the most legible thing my hands have ever produced.
FontStruct works via a grid method. Simply fill in the grid with blocks of various shapes to form each letter. Some of the existing fonts on the site allow you to clone them, so you can get a better look at how the magic happens. There are a lot of shapes to try out on the grid, and creating an entire alphabet will take some time, but isn’t it worth it to have your own custom-built typeface?
Read the rest of this entry »
November 11, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
Are you one of those forward-thinking teachers who uses smart phones and text messages in class? Do projects like a 21st Century scavenger hunt make you excited? I’m going to go ahead and assume the answer is yes (a bold assumption I know, but please humor me) so I can tell you about textPlus, an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets you send unlimited texts for free.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 10, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
When I was a kid, I always wanted to go to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Like actually go there, meet Speedy Delivery, check out the Trolley, all of it. If I’d only had the good sense to be born twenty years later, I could have paid a visit via the internet to the excellent Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood website.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on the PBS Kids website lets you look at classic clips from the show. Elementary kids can watch video field trips in which Fred Rogers takes in a performance by Yo-Yo Ma, visits a museum, and guides kids on a trip to the doctor’s office for a checkup. Kids can read stories, play games, and build a neighborhood of their own.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 9, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
A friend of mine recently lamented the decline of citizen science. Whereas guys like Newton would conduct all manner of experiments himself, if today’s non-university-employed Average Joe even tried to order the equipment necessary to conduct a proper experiment he’d likely find himself on some terrorist watch list.
I’ve no idea how much he was exaggerating, but It makes me wonder if, were there a greater scientific interest among regular citizens, do-it-yourself science would make a comeback. That may or may not be realistic, but a good place to start would be the ChemPod podcasts from Nature.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 7, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
The $1000 Planet Connect Environmental Grant deadline has been extended until November 15. If you read our post about last year’s grant, you know it’s awarded to the best solutions proposed by students to solve environmental problems.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 6, 2009
Experience an online archaeological project at Interactive Dig: El Carrizal
By clicking to Interactive Dig: El Carrizal from Archaeology Magazine, students can see photo updates and read first-hand accounts of this in-progress archaeological project.
Video DownloadHelper helpfully helps you download helpful videos. Helpfully.
The fine folks at Video DownloadHelper have created a plug-in for Firefox that makes video downloading as simple as pressing a button.
60 Second Recap summarizes classic literature
Everyone needs help wrapping their heads around a book from time to time. If you teach literature, that time occurs every day. You can outsource some of the necessary explanation by sending your students to 60 Second Recap, a site that summarizes the plot, characters, and themes of a book in 60-second episodes for each.
Get Library of Congress Videos on iTunes U
You now can access lots of free audio and video from the Library of Congress on iTunes U. There’s a lot of great material suitable for a history class, such as early films made by Edison himself (or his company, at least). There are also fascinating oral histories from actual slaves in the Voices from the Days of Slavery collection.
November 6, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
You now can access lots of free audio and video from the Library of Congress on iTunes U. There’s a lot of great material suitable for a history class, such as early films made by Edison himself (or his company, at least). There are also fascinating oral histories from actual slaves in the Voices from the Days of Slavery collection. For a look at how people entertained themselves before TV, radio and the interweb came to be, you can look at early American animation, and even olde timey Vaudeville performances.
Read the rest of this entry »
