Free Hot Technologies

~ Jotform.com . . . Website for creating electronic forms.  Best of all, data can be collected and imported to Excel.  This site allows you to be much more paperless and “green.”

~ Qik.com . . . Website that allows you to share live video.  (Teachers, if you assign your class a project that requires them to interview people, they can use their phones to record and then use qik.com to store and playback the interviews for their project almost immediately.)

~ Wolframalpha.com . . . Computational knowledge engine  [Example given:  3x + 2, enter your birth date, enter your name, Burger King Whopper, AAPL Stock Look-UP.]  Also does data comparison.

~ Xtranormal.com . . . You are able to animate movies by typing text, picking characters and camera angles.

~ Toondoo.com . . . Easily make comic strips about a variety of topics.  Cartoon characters are easy to edit and the gallery has a vast amount of pictures and backgrounds to choose from.

~ Glympse.com . . . Geographic location sharing with your smart phone.  Useful for parents!!!  (New York Times rated it as one of the top 10 must have iPhone applications!)

~ Posterous.com . . . From any email address (Gmail has largest capacity to send attachments), send Posterous PowerPoint attachments, Word docs, music, etc, and it will create a free webpage with all your content.

~ Live.com . . . Can open any version of Word, PowerPoint, etc.  Has a sky drive (25 GB free) to save per account and internet TV useful for showing clips.

See my previous free technology site recommendations here:  Technology Tools to Try

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As a teacher of a senior writing course and as a mother of a college freshman on an academic full-ride scholarship at a Top 25 university, I have particular interest and personal experience in college preparation.  Below is a collection of videos, sites and articles that I’ve used personally and in the classroom.  Share these and let me know what you think:

VIDEOS I SHOW MY SENIORS:

1.  William and Mary Admission Prompt:  Many students envision the admissions officers as formal, unapproachable, stuffy old souls.  This illustrates that they are, in fact, normal peeps just like them.

2.  Did You Know? . . . Fabulous video on the progression of technology!!  This is a few years old now but still very powerful message.  Students need to understand why they must keep up – correction – stay ahead.

3.  The 2010 version of “Did You Know?  Not as powerful but the statistics are worth reading:

SITES I SEND MY STUDENTS TO:

1.  7 Prestigious Undergrad Scholarships:  Students should apply for these!!  I’m having my second semester students choose (at least) one.  The essay they create for the scholarship will be a graded assignment!

2.  100 Blogs That Should Be Required Reading in College:  very comprehensive!!!

3.  NY Times – DeMystifying College Admissions and Aid:  The New York Times has a wonderful site devoted especially to college-bound students.  My seniors love exploring this!

~    Going Beyond Cliché – How To Write a Great College Essay:  from that same NY Times site . . . another example of how practical the site is.

4. Beloit College Mindlist List – These lists put it all in perspective, illustrating the cultural milestones that helped shape their lives thus far.

ARTICLES I ASK MY SENIORS TO READ:

1. Five Impractical College Majors That Just Might Make You Rich : Food for thought as students ponder their future majors

2.  The Joys of Attending College Far From Home:  For those wondering if they should attend out-of-state, one student perspective . . .

3.  Which College Ranking Set Should You Use: A helpful debriefing of distinctions between the listings.

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This week, I attended a workshop on practical ways to incorporate my school’s new net books into our Title 1 classes.  Besides training on the net books, my colleagues conducting this shared some great online tools they use in the classroom.  Here are the new tools I’d like to try in all of my classes – Title 1, accelerated, and college-bound.   ⇒

To my followers who are not educators, these sites offer great resources for you as well.  Create a Photostory with your family photos, utilize BrainFlips to help your child memorize terms, turn to Diigo if you’re taking college courses and want to bookmark and organize your online research, peruse TedTalks when you’re looking for videos from credible speakers, etc.

Diigo – a great way for students (and teachers) to organize, store and share research.  This can be a convenient method to move toward paperless research that can be available on-the-go.   I would like to try this with my senior expository writing class.

Photostory – I’ve heard so much about how much the most reluctant reader enjoys this.  I watched some powerful examples from students who normally never turn in homework (I was told).  I’m definitely using this VERY SOON with my reading students!   It’s a user-friendly way for students to create slide shows that go beyond the average PowerPoint with voice narration, fun effects, etc.

Brain Flips – I may try these with both my reading students and my accelerated freshmen.  Another method for internalizing vocabulary is always welcome.

Voice Thread – This could be an interesting motivator as a personable way to comment on blogs, videos, artwork, etc.  Besides the usual typed comments, one can leave voice messages. Perhaps I’ll use this with online book talks.

Ted Talks – Use these video resources here to supplement discussions and units of study.  More organized and less commercial than YouTube, these credible, educational speakers and presentations are categorized by theme.

TeacherTube – I’ve already been using this, but I felt the need to add it here.  You will find videos specifically recorded for classroom use.    (Search for “Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration” for a ‘rocking’ take on the Declaration of Independence.  I never thought I’d see Ben Franklin play the electric guitar! )

Edmodo – this social network for teachers & students looks like Facebook once you log in.  I’m not sure what I’ll use this for.  I’m having my students each create their own blogs (via WordPress) and the discussion threads on those blogs should be sufficient for sharing comments.  We’ll see . . . there’s so much great stuff out there!!

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My mini-me working the mouse

These are the latest sites I’m obsessing over: 

~ One Word: Every day brings a new word!  Click on “go” and you have 60 seconds to free-write on the word of the day.  Submit your response to a podcast for even more opporunity to share!  A stretching brainercise for the creative juices!!! → 

http://oneword.com/ 

~ Despair DIY: Create your own demotivational posters.  You can have your students create these to reflect theme or character OR create some for fun yourself and give them as gifts!!  (warning:  it may be hard to maintain appropriateness!!) → 

http://diy2.despair.com/ 

~ Literature Quizzes & Games – Sporcle: Got a few moments?  Test your literature know-how. From Hamlet to Lord of the Rings to Tales of Beatrix Potter . . . you will have fun getting lost on this site.  Fun for everyone at many levels and ages → 

http://www.sporcle.com/games/category/literature 

Click here for more sites I find EXTREMELY helpful! 

And here!!!

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It seems there are social networking sites for everyone these days . . . Facebook, Twitter,  and MySpace pioneered the way for numerous specialized sites such as The English Companion Ning where English teachers connect, BroadwaySpace for theater enthusiasts,  and CafeMom where moms exchange ideas.

Try CreateDebate!

There’s a new face on the networking block that looks quite different from its predessors - CreateDebate is a new social networking site built around “ideas, discussion and democracy.”  It’s a community for creating debates that scratch your brain and existing arguments that currently rile others up.

Bryan Orme invited me to try out this site.  I dabbled with it a little myself and then had my senior expository students explore it to precurse their argumentative paper research.  The goal of Orme’s team is to build a useful learning tool that will help “people sort through issues, viewpoints and opinions so that consensus and understanding can be reached and better decisions can be made.”  I believe the site does this.

My favorite aspect of the site is the CreateDebate communities tailored just for classroom use.  This is a great technological tool easily allowing students to discuss and debate thoughts with others outside of their classroom or even possibly outside school building walls.  I like that CreateDebate allows teachers to have complete control regarding public accessibility.  If you choose, you can create a site that only your students can access – students can access this from home, but only their classmates will see their reactions.  Pretty nifty – a tool that makes research motivating and fun.  Additionally, CreateDebate makes it simple to keep track of who’s online and what sort of activity is taking place on your site. The administrative panel allows you to manage and customize your community from a central location. Complete control!

Grading Girl gives CreateDebate an A for effort in creating a manageable, motivating debate community that brings current, relevant events literally at students’ fingertips to participate in.  Give it a try!

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This week, I received a request to review an online resume service.  I was a little hesitant since I imagined the typical fill-in-the-blank format that online resume services may offer.  I knew I was wrong as soon as I clicked on BriteTab and explored its offerings.

Your resume will definitely stand out from the others with BriteTab!

I’ve always been a firm believer that you have to make your resume stand out from the crowd; I used unique 8 X 8 cards to supplement my own resume when interviewing for my first teaching position.  But, in today’s highly technological, social networking society, it’s not enough just to type in a different font.  Your resume needs to be dynamic, succinct, and easily accessible.  You need to show that you are as progressive and tech-savvy as your words describe.  BriteTab allows you to portray yourself in exactly this manner.

Here’s a breakdown of the grade BriteTab earned:

Stand-out Appeal:  BriteTab is designed to accentuate personality and speaks to specific industry standards at the same time.  Whether you are searching for a teaching position, engineering job, or nursing career, the site offers a variety of themes (both traditional and more colorful modern designs) with user-friendly customization options.  You can incorporate these themes options with a simple click of the button.  I played around with the site myself and found you can create a professional, comprehensive resume in as little as 15 minutes.

Online Advantages:  You can upload videos that correspond to each particular section of your resume so that hiring managers don’t have to navigate through one long video to find out why you’re the perfect candidate. This is a very distinct feature from other online resume sources.  The videos are so easy to upload and, in turn, effortless for hiring managers to view.  You can send your resume to as many people as you want, and it won’t include distracting advertising or branding. BriteTab also allows you to make, save, and edit multiple resumes; each with a unique URL that is kept private.  Additionally, potential employers can contact you directly from your resume via a simple click – your email and/or website are actively linked right on your resume.  You are virtually eliminating the use of paper, envelopes and stamps, saving money, labor and environmental supplies in the process.

More Comprehensive Resume:  With BriteTab, you can easily attach graphics, videos and supplementary materials.  Moreover, you can edit and add to your resume at any time.  You can also create different resumes under the same account.  This makes it easier than ever to customize your resume according to the specific position you are seeking.

Monitor Your Progress:  BriteTab gives you traffic monitoring capabilities – see how many times and when your site is viewed!!

What organization wouldn’t be impressed with this progressive promotion of yourself?!?  Grading Girl gives BriteTab an A+ for its completely comprehensive resumes with stand-out appeal and effortless access.  If I was in the market for a new position, I would definitely take advantage of this opportunity and use BriteTab!!   I am recommending this site to my friends, family, and GG followers!!

Go to BriteTab today.  Check out the video tutorials and FAQs.  Explore and see for yourself how easy it is to create a resume that will help you land that new job and/or career.

I enjoy getting requests to review A-quality products and services.  Put yours to the test and let Grading Girl give the grade.

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I am continuously amazed at the resources on the web.  What did we do before we had information at our fingertips?!?  Here are practical, useful sites I stumbled upon this week – both for educational and personal use!

My Mini Me finding great resources at the click of the mouse!

Sites Helpful In and Out of the Classroom

Outta Ray’s Head English Lesson Plans – this is an oldie but a goodie.  If you are an English, reading or Language Arts teacher and you haven’t already discovered this, click on this NOW – a plethora of literature and writing assignments:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/`

American Rhetoric – this is a comprehensive collection of famous speeches by political figures and entertainment icons.  You can read and/or hear them:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

Neuroscience for Kids – Experiments and Activities . . . Very unique experiments and activities.  I’m using some for my communications class and some for my reading classes:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/experi.html

This slightly scaringly illustrates how easily accessible our personal information is in this computerized society . . . I’ve used it when studying 1984:

http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

These are great visualizations of what is ironic.  Take a peek at these for your enjoyment as well:

http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2009/09/signs_of_contra.html

A visual dictionary!  Watch the short clips that narrate the definition of words accompanied by still cartoons illustrating the meaning.  Great for visual and auditory learners who can’t grasp meaning just by reading it.  A more fun approach to SAT practice:

http://www.wordahead.com/Home/tabid/37/Default.aspx

A smattering of graphic organizers teachers can use in any content area and business leaders can use to plan meetings, to-do’s, etc:

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

JUST FOR FUN!

This will drive you nuts!!  The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls.  If you can go longer than 18 seconds you are phenomenal. It’s been said that the US Air Force uses this for fighter pilots.  Be careful . . . it’s addictive:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

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Whether or not you are an educator, many of these sites may be of interest to you.  The following are links to helpful tools, interesting reads, and practical advice I’ve happily discovered or revisited within the past couple of weeks as I plan for the new school year.  For those I stumbled upon via my invaluable Twitter friends, Grading Girl thanks you!  Here goes . . . GG’s first savvy site faves:

Sites that will help classroom organization and incorporation of technology

• Twitter in the Classroom: (yes, yes . . . must try!)

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcf23zfg_27fdcsg9gs

• Twitter for Teachers: (need I say more!  I’d like to require my students to open a Twitter account and use it for interactive quizzes )

http://www.diigo.com/list/cedpaine/twitter-guides-for-teachers

• Links to School Bloggers: (click on these when you have some time to read . . . great advice and ways to incorporate blogging, technology)

http://supportblogging.com/page/diff/Links+to+School+Bloggers/83381337#htmldiff2

• Teaching with Technology: (so, so, so many tools and links here – bookmark this!)

http://ipt286.pbworks.com/Index

• Teaching English with Tech:  (many excellent links here for those wanting to know where to begin to incorporate blogging into the classroom)

http://tewt.org/englishteachersites.html

• A  simple management tool: (I looove this stopwatch tool!!)

http://viigo.im/0rep

• Top 5 Citation Applications: (very good cites for students to use when writing analysis and research papers)

http://instructify.com/2009/07/16/top-5-citation-applications

• Interactive Graphic Organizer: (very cool for teachers and/or students)

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

• My Backpack – Online Applications (many tools here!)

http://www.goodhue.k12.mn.us/school242/genie224/images/files/backpack2009d2.html

Sites I will use with my Speech Communication classes:

• How Obama could eliminate his ums: (very interesting and practical)

http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/obama-eliminate-ums/

• Ad Views: (this is excellent for my persuasion unit)

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adviews/

American Rhetoric:  The Power of Oratory in the United States (wow, what a plethora of famous speeches at one’s fingertips)

http://www.americanrhetoric.com

Sites I will use with my Reading classes:

• Three-Minute Fiction: NPR (an excellent way to open a class . . . can also serve as supplements to units)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=105660765

• Kelly Gallagher – Building Deeper Readers and Writers (I continually refer to Gallagher when planning reading and writing workshops)

http://www.kellygallagher.org/index.html

• Story Quotations (excellent motivators and class openings)

http://www.storycon.org/quotations.htm

• Skype other Classrooms: (a few years ago at a conference, I presented a way to connect students to other classrooms via online journals . . . this brings it to a whole new level)

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/want-to-connect-with-other-classrooms/

• ReadWriteThink:  Student Materials (a classic site I always turn to!)

http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

Sites I will use for my Senior Expository Comp classes:

• Beloit College Mindset List (this is eye-opening!!  I’ll use it as a reflective essay opener)

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

• Brainstormer Applications (a cool little tool when you students say they have nothing to write about)

http://www.distractionbeast.com/brainstormer.swf

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