Monday, September 5, 2011

Quick Hits #EdChat

One of the things I love to do is review products, but with school starting, I just do not have the same time as I once had. I decided one cool thing I could do would be write a bunch of quick hits.

A quick hit is a very brief overview of a site I think is worth your time. A few sentences on why I like it and why you should check it out. I'm starting with a few cool things here, so I hope you like them. I encourage you to go and explore these sites/apps on your own.

ImageChef.com

Here is a great site that allows you do great things with pictures and words. Using templates, you can create word mosaics like this one.


You can also do Photo Frames, Poetry Blender and Sketch Pad. I could have countless hours of fun using this site and students could as well. I will be having my students blog regularly this year, and ImageChef.com will be a site that I will be directing them to. 

ImageChef also has an app called Framed! I'm not screaming, that ! is part of the name. A fun mobile way to use ImageChef on the go. It is $0.99 and worth a look. 

Chopsticks Culture

Here is a fun little app that shows the English and Chinese names for various foods. It is a fun and simple app to challenge your friends and yourself as you try and learn Chinese. The app could also be helpful if you are traveling and need to the exact name for a Chinese dish. The app is $2.99 and might be worth picking up if you are trying to learn Chinese. 

Present.Me

Present.Me is an exciting tool that should be able to find a place in your classroom. This is a free tool (There are paid options that give access to more tools) that allows the user to record their PowerPoint presentation and share it with others. The free account allows for 15 minutes of recording time. I think this is the right amount of time for any classroom presentation. A student shouldn't need any more than this.

I really like the idea of having students record their presentations and posting them so others can see it. Making presentation a bit more social will widen the audience and hopefully motivate the students to do a better job.

I definitely recommend checking out Present.Me to see if it is what you are looking for in online presentations.

Report Card Comments

Here is an interesting site that allows a user to use pre-made report card comments or upload their own. Here is a video that shows how the system works.

I like to give personalized feedback to my students, but this could be a nice way to get some of those common phrases I find myself writing over and over again. I think this is worth checking out, especially when it comes to report card time.

3 comments:

  1. Wow these all sounds like great ideas! I know my 5th graders will have a ball with all of them. I especially like the ImageChef.com. This will be great when writing poetry. I can see my students having a ball with this while being creative all at the same time! I enjoy websites like this. I like the website toondoo.com. Here students can create their own comic strips. I use this so students can retell a story in their own words. It's fun and you get their best work!

    Tiffini

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