Scoop.it!

Creating online magazines just got easy!

Scoop.it is a FREE publishing-by-curation platform. The makers of Scoop.it make curation a simple new form of expression on the Web. For the education world, it's completely free. For businesses and companies, there is a monthly fee. Thank goodness you're in education, huh? Below you'll find a teachers scoop.it page on seasonal freebies and another one of tools for learners. If you're interested in creating you're own, Click This!

Here's a Scoop.it page that focuses on Seasonal Freebies for Teachers.

And here's another one that focuses on Tools for Learners.

And here's one that I'm loving. It's a scoop.it page on iPads in Education.

I know I tend to focus on iDevices (iPads, iPods, iPhones) cause hey, I'm a Mac! So here's another scoop.it for those who love Android. It focuses on Android for Education.

Earth Touch

Earth-Touch brings multimedia of the Earth (including wildlife and the environment) into the offices, homes and daily lives of people around the world by using cutting-edge technology. They strive to to both educate and entertain as they raise awareness and provoke reaction to a range of environmental matters.

This South African company has a head office in Durban and a satellite office in London, UK. Below is a link to their main site and one to a specific area (I chose dolphins). View awesome media online or download it to your computer. Click This for more info on Earth-Touch.

 

gzaas It!

This neat little online tool allows you to create full screen messages. gzaas is a web service to create marvelous huge messages! And to associate them to links that you can paste anywhere! The following screen shoot is a gzaas and it states what a gzaas is according to it's creators. You can make it full of text or short with very few words. gzaas makes it possible to post a message in a powerful way which is what the company set out to do..."provide full screen messaging with awesome fonts for social networking and NOT be boring!"This could be used as a great attention getter for students so click this to check it out.

This is a screenshot of their gzaas for dummies tutorial. Super simple, even for the technically challenged.

Where to gzaas! A gzaas is a link. So you can paste anywhere you want:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Email
• Blog post & comments
• Forums
• Street wall?

Here's my first little/big gzaas. I added a launcher to this gzaas which is the preceding message that gives, at many times, sense to a gzaas:
Teachers aren't paid enough... http://gzaas.com/LeF3dYb. 

Little Bird Tales

Creative children + a story builder = Little Bird Tales, an online tool that:

• Encourages creativity and self expression
• Helps reinforce reading and writing skills
• A GREEN alternative to books
• NO ads, NO merchandising, NO external links
• Made with kids in mind!
• It's Fun and it's FREE for everyone!

Check out the YouTube video on how to get started and let your students imaginations fly freely.

Free Trials!

District Funding Low? Then try out trial version software. It’s for a limited time but hey, do what you gotta do to get technology integrated in the classroom. Here are some of my favorites I’ve used in the past.
Tumble Books has a 30 day trial. You can possibly access this jewel by going to your city’s library website and looking on the kids zone page.

Education City has a 30 day trial. Simply awesome. Used it for over 4 years.

Braining Camp has a 10 day trial.

iXL has a 30-day trial for teacher.

Rocket Reader has a 10 day trial. This is a download which can be upgraded is you later decide to get the full version.

Raz-kids has a 7 day trial.

Britannica has a 7 day trial.

GameGuroo has a 7 day trial. This is a Spanish eLearning site with 8200 games already created.

Accelerated Reading

AR is now available not only online but as an app in the app store. Build a reading culture and make reading practice more effective for every student with Accelerated Reader. This link is a pdf file on using the app.

Here are a few examples to help you promote the Accelerated Reading Program in your class or school:

Number 1
Based on a 9 week quarter:  divide students’ point goals by nine and they can earn a portion of a banana split for each week that they make progress toward their goal.

week 1 bowl
week 2 spoon
week 3 banana
week 4 ice cream
week 5 whipped cream
week 6 chocolate syrup
week 7 nuts
week 8 sprinkles
week 9 a cherry on top

Study Island has New Features

Study Island is a leading provider of standards-based assessment, instruction, and test preparation software programs for K-12 students. This school year they’ve added great new features including videos and slidesows within the lessons. To view a webinar on the new features and to learn more about SI, log in online.