Apr21
Do you have students who take family vacations or have special opportunities to travel during the school year? What sort of assignments do you require them to do while away? Do they journal their adventures and gather brochures to report back to the class? If so, you’ll be very interested to read how today’s guest writer, Mary Rizzo, a Technology Assistant and Webmaster at Parsley Elementary in Wilmington, North Carolina shares with you her travel buddy project ideas. I was thrilled she contacted me and I hope you’re inspired about this twist to the travel buddy project. Thanks Mary for sharing your story at Making Teachers Nerdy. Hopefully, many schools will be inspired to duplicate the idea and start their own traveling mascot program.
Parsley Elementary (www.nhcs.net/parsley), a K-5 school in Wilmington, NC, is home to the Patriot Kids travel buddy mascots named Liberty, Justice, and Freedom. These school mascots have been active members of the school family for 6 years and had some amazing adventures. Among other 21st Century integration skills, the Patriot Kids have recently added blogging to their bag of tricks.
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Apr13
We all know that Word does a whole heap for the business world, but there are some features that work great for educators. Whether you are creating a test or worksheet, or helping your students format a formal paper, these tricks should make things easier. Plus, I just love easy, don't you?
Yes, there are more tricks up my nerdy little sleeve, but today I'm going to start with my top ten. Master this list and your nerd points will increase enough to handle my future posts. Good luck everyone.
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Apr09
Are you ever overwhelmed with searching for classroom resources? Do you seem to suffer from brain fades as you stare in the Google search engine wondering where to begin? No worries. Today, I’m offering my personal keyword and key phrase arsenal to help you navigate Google in record time and still find the best resources for your students.
I would recommend printing off this list before you begin searching as a quick reference. Goodness, even I have the list close to my computer as I get stumped on playing the Google word game from time to time.
Good luck and may the keyword be with you.
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Apr02
Ah, Spring. Poetry writing, field trips, research papers, and all those great units we love to teach after the state assessments. It’s definitely one of my favorite times of the year, yet I know how much we all cram into those last few weeks. Even I have been guilty of playing beat the clock with content until Field Day rolls around.
Today’s blog post will feature one of the most common spring teacher projects – the end of the year slideshow. Yep, you’ve seen dozens over the past few years and even created one or two, but today I’ll discuss ways to improve, simplify and enhance them. I mean, there has to be an easier and cooler way, yes? You bet!
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Mar22
Yes, today’s post is another freebie for teachers featuring webcam feeds you could be incorporating into your classroom. Consider these as teleportation devices to many of the world’s greatest landmarks, national parks, and historical significance. In addition they are virtual eyes that allow students to study animal behavior patterns and habitats. Possibly they could be regarded as voyeuristic tools where students can ride along with a big rig truck driver or observe the physics of skateboard parks. The choices are vast, but they do bring a bit of the outside world into the walls of your classroom.
As I was gathering these sites, I have come to a few conclusions.
First, webcam technology is drastically improving. I did find many cameras allowed the viewer to take virtual control of the camera. Students can zoom, move the camera around, and even switch camera feeds.
Secondly, some of the best webcam feeds have been disabled and replaced with better internet broadcasting. The concept is the same, except the image is fluid and more of a television show feed. I do believe this is going to be the mainstream for webcams within the next few months, so I will most likely be making modifications to this blog post periodically.
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