Free Ebooks from Microsoft

Microsoft Education has some books and guides available for teachers to download. Here are some of them:


Windows Live Movie Maker Guide

Microsoft Office Web Apps: Teacher Guide

Developing Critical Thinking Skills through Web Research

Free Tools for the Classroom

Digital Storytelling

Free Lesson Plans from Microsoft education

We had mentioned the Microsoft education website earlier and some of the tools that were available. This time we are looking at the lesson plans that are available on their website. MS Lesson Plans .

You can browse by subject, the subjests being:
Arts, Design, History, Social Studies, Music, Digital media literacy, Language arts, Physical education, Geography, Mathematics and Science.

There is a newsletter that you can sign up for too. 

Free Educational video with Snag Learning

SnagLearning features carefully selected films from SnagFilms’ award-winning library of over 1,600 documentaries that are appropriate for students from middle school and up. Our titles cover nearly every classroom subject and many are produced by well-known educational sources, including PBS and National Geographic. The goal of this site is to highlight documentaries that make for engaging educational tools. We will also feature guest teacher bloggers as well as special programming stunts like Q&As with the filmmakers.

Teachers can submit and share their own lesson plans, quizzes and homework ideas with fellow educators. The commenting area on each film page functions as public forum to share and discuss.

Collaboration around the world with Skype in the classroom.

Skype in the Classroom, a video networking service for educators worldwide, is officially out of beta today.
The service, which has been in beta since December, allows educators to collaborate with others around the world over video. The VoIP provider said it developed the service "in response to, and in consultation with, the growing number of teachers using Skype to help their students learn."

 

Teachers all over the world are using Skype to make learning more exciting and memorable. It's easy to see why: Skype offers an immediate way to help students discover new cultures, languages and ideas, all without leaving the classroom.
Cultural exchange: Introduce your students to new ways of seeing the world with a cultural exchange between your class and another classroom anywhere in the world.
Language skills: Bring language to life with real-life conversations where students can practice a new language with a class of native speakers, or help English learners practice their skills.
Discovery: Try mystery Skype calls, where classes connect online and give clues to help each guess the other's location. Or introduce your students to a classroom in the location of a book they're reading or a subject they're studying.

 http://education.skype.com/

Sticky Notes for Class

As teachers what would we do without sticky notes? I have been looking for the different sites where you can create and share walls of post it notes for you and your students to share quick scraps of information. Here are some of the best sites. Clcik on the images to go to the websites.

Scrumblr: no registration required

Stickr: need to install the Stickr browser extension or bookmarklets.

Wallwisher:

Fun Lesson Plans from funlessonplans.com

Here are some fun preschool lesson plans for you to use. Many of them can be downloaded as PDF files. some of their offerings include: Across the curriculum lesson plans include shapes for math, the water cycle for science, health, manners, a free alphabet banner for reading, and a free numbers book for writing.

Youtube.com what more can you do with the site?

We all have been to Youtube and watched videos there, commented, uploaded video, read comments by others. But have you stopped to check all that is there on offer from the site.
If you are a video creator, there is a special creators cornerwhich has ideas, tools and helpful ideas to make the most of your YouTube experience.
Some of the options allow you to: edit your video online, optimize it, find a community online, create your own videos and more. And now you can create videos using Stupeflix, Xtranormal and Go Animate within your YouTube account. What are you waiting for? Try this out.

Current Events - The Best sources for what is happening in Libya

Here are some resources to keep your class updated on the latest from Lybia.


The BBC links 


Timeline Muammar Gadaffi


Map of how the rebellion is unfolding in Libya 


Civil war in Libya  from CNN

GroGebra! Free mathematics software for learning and teaching.

Math teachers and students will find helpful resources on GeoGebra, a
free and multi-platform mathematics software for all levels of
education that joins geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics,
and calculus in one easy-to-use package. Users will learn how to create
images for paper worksheets and interactive websites with a single
click. Educators will also find access to the GeoGebraWiki, a free pool
of teaching materials. Any user can contribute and upload material,
and all contents of the pool may be used free of charge.

http://www.geogebra.org/cms/en

Are you teaching History? Try Hyper History

Hyper History presents 3,000 years of world history with interactive simultaneous lifetimes, timelines and maps. I do like the fact that they present their history in a synchronoptical manner.  The parallel views that they present convey a different prespective on world history and show how so many of the things that are in different sections or chapters in the book were actually taking place at the same time. 

The People Index was another amazing  resource and you are able to see which lifelines intersect and the influence that one person might have had on others in their lifetimes.

Tsunami News and Updates

AS we read and watch disturbing scenes from the Tsunami that has hit Japan, we can keep up-to date with what is happening right now.

Here is the BBC's live news and updates
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

Pictures from the disaster
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12721552

CNN  breaking news
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/12/nhk.nat.kamaishi.cnn?hpt=C2

Google is doing its bit to help families of the missing with a person finder tool
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

Preparing for your CBSE?

The Central Board of Secondary Education is the Board of Education for school level in India of Central Government. http://cbse.nic.in/

It is the largest nationwide education board in India and was set up with the following in mind.

• To prescribe conditions of examinations and conduct public examination at the end of Class X and XII .
• To grant qualifying certificates to successful candidates of the affiliated schools.
  
  
• To fulfill the educational requirements of those students whose parents were employed in transferable jobs.
  
  
• To prescribe and update the course of instructions of examinations.
  
  
• To affiliate institutions for the purpose of examination and raise the academic standards of the country.

The prime focus of the Board is on

• Innovations in teaching-learning methodologies by devising students friendly and students centered paradigms.
• Reforms in examinations and evaluation practices.
• Skill learning by adding job-oriented and job-linked inputs.
• Regularly updating the pedagogical skills of the teachers and administrators by conducting in service training programmes, workshops etc.

http://cbse.nic.in/aboutus.htm

If you are an Indian student or a student in India preparing for the CBSE board exams, here is a list of sites that you can get help and sample papers from.

Sample papers, mock tests and tips.

http://www.cbsemath.com/

CBSE Social Science

Free Educational Resources from Discovery Education

Discovery Education has a wide range of free educational resources for teachers.  They are lesson plans, worksheets, learning adventures and brain boosters.

Microsoft Mathematics 4.0

Microsoft has released Microsoft Mathematics which is a free tool to help students with math problems.
With this free download you get:
A fully featured graphing calculator, a formula and equation editor, a triangle solver and a unit conversion tool.

Today is World Spelling Day

Today is the first ever World Spelling Day. This is brought to us by the creators of World Math Day.   Students will compete in real time against other students from around the world playing spelling games on the World Spelling Day website.World Spelling Day encourages students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to have a go at spelling in a fun, interactive and accessible way. Best of all participation in World Spelling Day is free – all you need is internet access.


www.worldspellingday.com

Integrate Technology into your classroom with 4Teachers tools

We have already looked at Rubistar earlier on this blog, but now there is a whole lot more from the same creators, 4Teachers.org. These tools are all easy to use and a free teacher registration is required. This is a good website too and I feel is totally worth checking out.

"4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom
by offering online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate
and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom
calendars. There are also tools for student use."