Whoa!

Pete MacKay's Teacher List is on summer holiday, so I'm dumping all the great ideas (which I never got around to posting) right here right now.

Here's a note from Pete - Well, this is it for the summer! As the last site of the year, I'd like to point you to the New and Improved Teacher List Website. I started to keep my emails in January 2001 and have now made each of them available in a blog format. Subscribers will find several new features such as an
improved subscription interface, full text of my email notes in each posting, and searchable archives. Now that The Teacher List is a blog, users can also utilize all of the RRS feeds. The one thing that I'm
rather excited about is the ability for members to now comment on each posting! I'm not sure where this will take us but it should offer a deeper experience for all.

One person I really need to thank is a student of mine, Ershad Chagani, who spent the last week moving all of my archived email over to the new blog. He did a great job and I'm sure we'll all appreciate his efforts
when things start up again in the fall. So - have a great summer and we'll talk again in September!

Pete

Thanks to Kelowna teacher, Sharon Affeld for finding this interesting article in which a veteran teacher shares the strategies he used to eliminate abusive language, put-downs and ridicule in his middle school classroom. Here

Manitoba List member, Y. Hogeveen, found this interesting set of
animations that help put long eras of time into perspective. The site
features a 90 second history of Religion and The Middle East - both of
which are very interesting. Here You must see this.

My pal, Shane Grundy, has had a vision to turn his website into a
discussion area - to have teachers talk freely about educational
issues. He hopes to post a new discussion topic every weekend and allow
people to add comments and discuss the issue. This weeks it's about Web
2.0 (on-line applications such as blogs) and its value in education.
Shane encourages any and all interested parties to read and discuss. Here

Redwater teacher, Fred Moody, found this interesting global
collaborative effort. After 2200 years, this group feels that it's time
to choose 7 new wonders of the world. You can have your vote by
visiting the site for some research and to cast your ballot. This would
make for some very interesting classroom discussions! Here

List member, Maureen Meuser, points out after yesterday's site that Not
only does Jenny Eather have great math sites but her Writing Fun site
should be mentioned. It is superlative. Here

Firstly, I want to thank you for all the understanding and kind words.
I simply didn't have time to respond to everyone - but please know that
I read and appreciated all that was offered by way of encouragement
yesterday. Hopefully, we're now over that nasty bump and can move on
with the business at hand.
-
I felt that a really special site was warranted today, so I thought of a
site that Sheila Rousey told me about. Julian Beever is an artist who,
among other things, is very talented at creating life-like pavement
drawings. They're a great lesson in perspective and proportion. Enjoy! Here Cool!

Edmonton teacher, Carmen Michaud, found this site that has very cool
slow motion photography. This is the gallery of a company that sells
high-speed cameras, showing off what their equipment can capture but it
has educational value. Carmen's favorite is the movie of a water-filled
balloon being pierced by an X-acto knife. The balloon falls away almost
instantly - and then the water holds the balloon shape for an
unbelievably long time. It's a great example of the way water molecules
stick together. Also very cool - though a little scary - is a
rattlesnake biting a boot (no foot inside, thankfully). Some of the
other movies are a little dicey topic-wise - gunshots and car crashes,
so check them out before you show your kids. Here

Kelowna teacher, Sharon Affeld found this one-stop shop for ecologoical
resources. Planet Pals is an earth-friendly organization who encourage
strong pro social and pro active values, deliver positive messages of
teamwork, friendship, responsibility, appreciation, encourages:
creativity, learning, problem solving, environmental awareness. For
educators they have a lesson plans, book list, an ecology association
list and a section that will encourage school eco projects and spread
the word about what other classrooms are doing worldwide. Here

Redwater teacher, Fred Moody, pointed out that this site wasn't in my
archives at all. I remember recommending San Francisco's Exploratorium
back when it was in its infancy (and probably before I started keeping
records) and it is definitely worth another look now. The site has
obviously evolved and contains a lot of information and activities that
apply to all grades. Here A favorite.

Leetspeak is a type of communications where a user replaces letters for
numbers or other characters. For example, "leet" in leetspeak would
become "1337". This site will help you start to understand how young
people are creating their own language on the Internet. Here

Joe Marcionette runs this free, online spelling tutorial for elementary
school children and their teachers. They just received the Editor's
Choice Award in the January 2007 issue of Children's Technology Review
and Joe invites us to visit spellingtime.com. There is a teacher
section and it appears to be applicable to several grade levels, even
high school! Here

Check out the above website from List member, Linda Hyler. This is one
of many interesting, new and different ways you can use technology to
improve education in your classroom. Making a list is usually
straightforward and requires little thought. But when it comes to
ordering and prioritizing items in that list, higher-level skills of
analysis and evaluation are put to use. The Visual Ranking Tool brings
focus to the thinking behind making ordered lists. Students identify and
refine criteria as they assign order or ranking to a list. They must
explain their reasoning and can compare their work with each other in a
visual diagram. This tool supports activities where students need to
debate differences, reach consensus, and organize ideas. Here

List member, Daria Izio, wrote to me the other day about this pattern
generator. "I am not sure if you have ever sent this one out, but it is
wonderful and the students in my Grade Four class just love working
through this interactive pattern generator. Their results in the
patterning component of Math have dramatically improved." Here

Here's another suggestion from my teaching-neighbour, Rob Petrovic. Media Convert will allow you to convert any movie that you view online to another format that you can use on your computer. Simply enter the location of a file on your system or enter a URL that hosts the video and choose your output format. This will be of use to anyone who wants to show videos in their classroom that are hosted on sites that might be blocked. Here

My pal, Wayne, told me about this potentially useful tool. With 7.5
Million monthly visitors and over 400 Million photos to explore,
Webshots is the world's largest photo sharing site. I'm sure it has
some potential to be utilized in the classroom in many ways. Here

I got this one from List member, Jennifer Hodges. ArtPad is a fun flash-based art activity that students may use to create whatever their imagination holds. When finished, they can add a frame and display it in a gallery. Careful - this one is as bad as freecell...! Here Warning! May be addictive!

Whether it's required training, meeting a district goal, or even
elective coursework, professional development has become a fixture on
the school-year calendar. In districts large and small, iPod is helping
educators meet requirements and promote teacher growth efficiently and
affordably. You can download a free copy of this white paper to learn
more about it. They do ask for a lot of information but you can opt out
of being contacted. Here

List member pfadoul found this interesting collection which inspires the reader with, "A tree is a wonderful living organism which gives shelter, food, warmth and protection to all living things. It even gives shade to those who wield an axe to cut it down." -Buddha. Here I love this site.

My pal Sandra Gluth sent me this intriguing collection of desktop art.
It contains some inspiring ideas for classroom lessons or just to
decorate your home computer workspace. Here

Got this one from my student teacher, Natanya Kinsey! She used it to
challenge some of our better students with Flash... Here Super cool... makes me want to learn Flash.

Here's a free site with 365 grammar quizzes which would be good for ESL
students or anyone wanting to practice grammar in the classroom. Here

I can't seem to figure out who told me about this site! My apologies if it was you, but do check it out. This is a no-charge stock photography site that is useful for students and teachers alike. Here

Irondale teacher, Maria Smith, found this great poetry resource for
teachers at Character.org. There are many teacher resources including
web and curricular resources. Here

My pal, Sandra Gluth, says that this site from the UK is intended for
elementary but a couple of the projects would fit better in junior or
even senior high. The focus is to inspire/develop writers primarily for
poetry. Here

Sharon Affeld told me about this article that discusses how students and
teachers are using global-positioning-system (GPS) technology to
accurately identify spots on the planet—not just to locate a city or a
town but to locate a bend in a stream, or the precise location of an
animal or a plant or a structure. Just like the real scientists and
historians they are becoming, they know they need to be accurate. Here

List member, Julie Radachy, found NetLingo. The description, as found
on the site is:NetLingo has thousands of definitions that easily explain
the Internet and the online world of business, technology, and
communication. Updated regularly with new terms, NetLingo is ranked #656
in Google's Top 1000 Web sites and is often featured in the news. We are
a resource for new users and industry professionals, as well as a
reference for students and educators. Here

Remember when the Internet was new to Joe Public? Many of our students don't. My friend, Kim Froehler, found this little gem in the CBC archives. We showed it to our students yesterday and it led to some interesting discussions about great intentions when things are developed and how naive we tend to be as a society. Here

Nova Scotia teacher, John MacKay, recommended this site to me for the
Fundamentals of Electricity. There are a lot of resources on this page
to teach about different types of energy. Be sure to check out the pdf
handouts called "Teacher Feature." Here

My pal, Bill Lomax, found CSS Play while troubleshooting a site. It is
full of great ideas, tutorials and little tidbits that will teach you
how to experiment with CSS web design. Here

My pal, Des, told me about this Macintosh application. Max is an
application for creating high-quality audio files in various formats,
from compact discs or files. Here

List member, Kim Grant, stumbled across this website while looking for
math worksheet ideas. Not only is it math, but also literacy, science,
humanities, assessment ideas, etc. - all that can be downloaded! Here

My pal, Craig Wilson, told me about this PBS Newsletter that promises to
hold a lot for classroom use. PBS CEO, Paula Kerger, says on the site,
"PBS is dedicated to providing you, your students and their families
with resources that transform teaching and learning. Through our local
stations' outreach, our program producers, and our online efforts like
PBS Teachers, we will sustain and enhance the role that teachers play in
our children's lives." Here

List member, Lucinda Marcello found this great site that has links to
different image databases. Categories include art, astronomy/space,
history/society, and animals. Here

My pal, Andy found Animacat’s House Web site, for children aged 5 to 8.
Visit Animacat’s House/La maison de Chanima, a fun and interactive Web
site for children, aged 5 to 8. Children can learn while playing games
and watching short animated films online. A teacher's and parents’
guide is also available on the site. The Web site can be used in
conjunction with classroom activities and themes or as a stand-alone
investigation into animation. Here

Kelowna teacher, Sharon Affeld, found this extensive theme-based list of
resources. There are resources here that will help with Optical
Illusions, Geology and other general science information. There's a
link to some French resources too! Here

Edmonton teacher, Joe Garreck, found this multi-level reading material
on space. Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system
covering the Earth and Space sciences for use by the general public. Here

My friend, Terry Korte, told me about this awesome blogging tool the
other day. A VoiceThread is an online media album that allows people to
make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they
wish. A VoiceThread allows an entire group's story to be told and
collected in one place. Here's what caught my attention from the site:
"Creating VoiceThreads will always be free for educators and the
students that fill their classrooms. This includes publishing them on
the web, and sharing them with the child's friends and family. It's
really important to us that there are no barriers; no cost to fully
participate, no software to buy or download, and no contracts to manage." Here

List member, John Pearce, thought we might be interested in a growing
video repository that has numerous videos some of which are potentially
useful for the classroom, especially in the science area. Teachers may
need to be careful in allowing student unfettered access to the site
however as some of the other videos on the site may not be as suitable
for students. Here

List member, Marie-France Leclerc has a new teacher website that has free printables such as certificates templates, word cards, number cards, classroom labels, and game cards. Here

Conway, Massachusetts teacher, Ruth Manna, found this site thanks to her
mathematics son, Dante, who teaches at Dalhousie. There are a lot of pi
resources here... Here