Saturday, October 29, 2011

Recording Using Your Cell Phone


It used to be that we had our students get a video camera from the library to take movies for their projects. With Qik.com (yes it has been out a while), students can record (and even stream live) to the Qik site and instantly download it onto Youtube.com.  (here is a post on how you can download from youtube) so you can use it as part of a presentation.  Qik is compatible with 200 types of phones and probably many of your students already have the app.  

Thursday, October 27, 2011

How to Make Hieroglyphics

Here is a site that allows you to write in hieroglyphics.  Above is my name that I made from the site. 

Scribes in Ancient Egypt

Above is a great video that briefly shows you how to make papyrus and paint on it as well as how tells about the scribes who did the writing in ancient Egypt.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Screencast-o-matic.com


I like making screencasts to show my students what they should do and/or teachers I am working with for in-services.  Above is a how to video I made for Screencast-o-matic.com which allows you to make up to 15 minute screencasts (movies of what you are doing on the computer screen) and instantly upload them into Youtube.  Since you do not first need to download onto your computer (as you might do for Snagit) and then upload, it can all be done very quickly.  Finally it is entirely free which makes the price just perfect. 

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Prezi and Bloom's

Here is a great way to get teachers to think of all the levels of Bloom's taxonomy and a super example of how you can use Prezi.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Prezi on Mesopotamia


As you can see from the comment two posts ago a young blogger, Dan Klumer, asked me to e-mail him (which I did).  So I went to his site and the Prezi above is what I found.  Well this is what I like about being online.  He has a great Prezi on Mesopotamia which you or I could now use and reformat to our liking and could thus be collaborating with another teacher we may never meet.  This is why I started this blog, so thanks Dan. 

We had a storm yesterday at school and I was being kidded as to how I could teach without the power.  Fortunately it stayed on because I do rely on the Internet.  Above is one example of a PowerPoint I have created.  You will notice that one of the later slides includes a great (albeit old) nine minute video of Mesopotamia of which I show the first five minutes.  

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Google Earth of Machu Picchu

One of the teachers in a technology integration course I am teaching gave me the above video on Machu Picchu. It is an excellent view using Google Earth which would be a nice way to show it to your students. 

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Focusing While Reading e-books


Because I have been pushing e-books for four years now, I get lots of good and some negative comments (the positives have greatly increased with this article from the WashPost on my classroom).  One negative comments is that it is harder to focus using online books.  Of course I point out that the kids' cell phones are never far away and that they already do so much of their work online anyway.  But the temptation is still there for sure.  Well I just read this post on FreeTech4Teachers for the site StayFocused which allows students to set a time limit for how much a person can be on a site before they will get kicked off and not allowed back until tomorrow.  If the kids are sure that it is a serious problem, then they will use it or perhaps their parents will have them do so or I could just be dreaming! Above is a video explaining it. 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Tweeting World History

Most kids now know about Twitter as they like to use it to communicate with their friends.  Well one of the teachers in my department is using that fact to her advantage.  She found out about FakeTweetBuilder which allows the kids to create characters, add images and Tweet what they would have said.  So you could take an historical figure and have them Tweeting back and forth with someone else.  The nicest thing is that there is not login, password or e-mail needed to do the exercise and at the end you have a url to send the teacher.  Here are some great directions she wrote up to help out her students - and you.  The one limitation is that you can only do six Tweets per time, but you could have your kids each do it twice.  Here is actually a very nice site that has built its own historical examples which you could show your students before asking them to do the project. 

Sunday, October 2, 2011

World History e-book

This is a good overview of every topic you will teach this year and is thus a good way for kids to go over the main points you cover in class. 

We Are the Mesopotamians

They Might Be Giants is a mainstream band that likes to come up with songs that teach kids - in this case about the Mesopotamians.  Play it after your unit is done and it will be a nice way for your students to more easily retain the information.   If you are extra crazy like me, you might even dance around the room while it is playing!

Audio and Written Notes in an e-book

Kno is a start-up that is just about two years old, but is already working with tons of e-books to make them even better.  If you are toying with buying e-books, you can see what is starting to be out there.  In the above video, one sees how a journal is kept of pictures and notes the student takes so that one does not need to go back to each page.  Additionally a new feature allows students to quiz themselves on any picture that includes text.  As I tell my students and their parents e-books do not equal textbooks.  Above is proof. 

Saturday, October 1, 2011

NOTA Collaboration Posters

NOTA is a new collaborative poster maker similar to Glogster.  The added benefit is that it can add Google Maps in addition to pictures, video, words, etc.  Here is a video showing how to make a post.  One disadvantage is that it does not come (yet) with a way for teachers to create their own page for their students which Glogster does.  I found out about this a Tweet from "HPTeacherExchange." 

How to Create a Quiz in Google Survey

This week or next I am showing my students how to make a simple quiz in Google Survey.  Above is a short video explaining how to create a Google Survey (quiz) which I found using a simple search on Youtube. Below is a video that tells you how to correct it automatically.  It is only 4 minutes long.  I know social studies teachers tend to recoil when they see math formulas, but it is an easy one and might save you a lot of time in the long run.  I found it by using the search engine on FreeTech4Teachers.