Brain Pop

My Primary job is as a Special Education teacher. I really enjoy working with the students I have despite the learning disabilities. The challenge is in scheduling. It is difficult to help students an individual level, addressing the individual needs of each students. Enter Brain Pop. Brainpop.com Brain Pop offers a vast series of flash movies that cover topics across the curriculum. the movies I have used are fun and entertaining while covering key facts and information. The movie is followed by a quiz that students can print out results to turn in. The movies and quiz take from five to ten minutes. This has become a valuable tool that I use daily in my instruction.

The downside is definitely price. It is somewhat reasonable for a whole school ($850) implementation as compared to other resources, yet the $150 price tag for English only and over $200 for bi-lingual versions put it a little bit out of reach for a single resource. Even with the price tag it may be worth looking at.

Download an informational brochure

BrainPop.com produced a great book Popular Science: Almanac for Kids that can be found on Amazon.com

AOL to pay bulk eMail fees for nonprofits eSchool News

Responding to sharp criticism about a proposed bulk-eMailing fee, America Online Inc. said nonprofit organizations will not have to pay to send mass messages to their members after all. The Dulles, Va.-based company on March 3 said it would offer qualified nonprofits--including school systems and education groups--a bulk eMail service comparable to one that will be available to commercial eMail senders. It also said it would pay the fees for the nonprofits and advocacy groups. The company's original plan would have required all bulk eMailers to pay a small fee ranging from 1/4 cent to 1 cent per message to route their eMail directly to a user's mailbox without first passing through junk-mail filters. AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., said the system would help reduce spam, because only legitimate groups would be likely to pay the fee. Click this URL to read the rest of this
story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6179
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Where are the e-textbooks? (Primary Source)

I came across an article written by CNN back in 2002 about colleges beginning to adopt e-textbooks. The article stated that this move would save students money, and provides publishers an opportunity to update content easily as new information becomes available. You would think with the cost effectiveness schools would be looking at making a mass migration to e-textbooks, but aside from the occasional school that tries a pilot project here or there, there is certainly not a mass migration to this medium. In my opinion we will likely never see this spread across the country in a large scale in k-12 schools.

What I have been seeing and what I expect to see significant continued growth in is in two web based information sources that will significantly reduce print book use in public schools. One is primary source materials, and the other is wikipedia, and similar technologies. A great book for using primary sources in history can be found at Amazon.com
First, are primary source materials. Why should we study the documents of our founding fathers through the biased view of a textbook author, when we can go directly to the source and read not only the founding documents, that are published in most textbooks, but also the personal and public letters of the founding fathers, something rarely found in textbooks.

It is often frustrating to have a report and find that the country you have a report on doesn't exist in your 1980 encyclopedia. We live in a rapidly changing society. To meet the evolving political and societal changes we need a source of information that can adapt and change quickly. This is where resources such as Wikipedia come in. Wikipedia is created by it's users and includes a vast amount of information that is constantly updated. Not only is it good because it's current, it is not limited by space, and therefore I can even find an article on my home town Enterprise UT Population 2,000. Try to find that in any print encyclopedia.

I will have more on both these great tools in upcoming articles.

Our Plans "Video Podcast"

We are considering adding a video podcast to our review site. It would be a 20 minute weekly show, that covers the software and hardware, and education related news. If you are interested in subscribing to the podcast check back often for updates on the process. Also suggestions are appreciated, Simply click on the comments, and let me know what you would like to see.

Inspiration 8 (2of2)

Inspiration 8 Continued (Diagram View)

Version 8 Diagram view appears much the same as previous versions with a few noted and welcomed changes. The first and most exciting is the addition of symbols. With an internet access you now have access to over 1 million symbols. There is no longer a need to make do with a picture that just doesn’t fit. In order to accommodate this capability a search bar is located at the bottom of the symbols library. The diagramming is intuitive and simple to use. Simply click on the screen and a new symbol and it’s ready to add the text. Linking symbols is as simple as clicking on a symbol and dragging it to the symbol you would like to link to. As with previous versions you can label links to identify relationships between symbols. It is possible to add hyperlinks to symbols to provide instant access to more detailed information. Inspiration also includes a word guide that is like a dictionary and thesaurus in one that is very easy to use. Simply highlight the word you would like to look up, and click on the word guide in the toolbar.

This tool is great for brainstorming, creating flow charts, concept mapping, organizing information, classifying, and much more. I realize this article may be a little difficult to understand if you are not familiar with the Inspiration interface. But there is a simple remedy to that. Inspiration offers a free download that includes some very good instructional videos to get you up and started with this fun tool.

Download Inspiration 8

Or Buy Inspiration 8 at Amazon.com

Inspiration 8 Preview (Post 1 of 2)

Inspiration 8 is out as mentioned in a previous post, and it is actually an upgrade to get excited about. I have been using inspiration in my personal instruction for years, and have been very happy with the results. Inspiration and it’s younger sibling Kidspiration, is essentially a visual mapping tool, that helps organize information into a logical interlinking format. It provides students with a tool to organize and brainstorm for writing, list steps in a process, create effective visuals for reports, and even organize notes in a way that makes sense. This method also known as concept mapping, is very effective because it works in much the same way our brains do. We don’t naturally remember a bunch of random bits of information; we learn new information by linking and tying that information to previous knowledge. By linking to previous knowledge we create a vast web of information that is easily recovered if that web structure is good. As a resource teacher, this type of tool is especially valuable because many of my students have trouble with this natural linking system, and thus they are served by me because of learning disabilities. By creating these visual maps for the concepts I teach it supplements there natural abilities or disabilities, and gives a good structure for memory. I have been very happy with the results. Inspiration has been primarily known as a writing tool but it is so much more.


Note: If you are wondering this is not a paid advertisement. I received no compensation for the writing of this or any of the following articles. It just happens to be a product I really like and use regularly.

Download Inspiration 8

Or Buy Inspiration 8 at Amazon.com

Microsoft Learning Essentials

If you are using Microsoft Office on a Windows machine, there is a tool available that will greatly benefit both you and your students. It is Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office. It provides both teachers and students with powerful enhancements to benefit instructional use of the office applications. Learning Essentials includes both teacher and student module that includes a vast array of templates and tutorials produced by leading education publishers.

The teacher module opens to let you view tutorials on using office applications specifically for classroom use. It teaches you to use Excel to make interactive photo’s and diagrams that give information about specific parts of the picture. It also includes many templates for creating worksheets with a powerful equation editor to make even advanced math, algebra, geometry, science, and calculus a breeze. I also like the classroom management templates including a grade book, seating chart, and grading rubrics, and more.

The student module includes instruction on the writing process, from the well known Write-Source writing program. Other publishers include Intelligence Online, Pearson-Prentice Hall, Tom Snider Productions, and McGraw Hill. You ca also customize and create your own tutorials and templates to add to the student interface. This training enables students to use hands on computer based manipulative, and helps instruction in math science and writing. It also includes templates to help kids get stared on projects, and writing assignments.
Learning Essentials is a high quality and very valuable program. I’m not just saying that because Microsoft is giving me the equivalent of cost of 100 licenses of this program to write this article, oh by the way the program is free. It can be downloaded from Microsoft. The free price tag and the valuable content make this program a must have, if you are fortunate enough to have a Windows PC, running Microsoft Office XP or above.

Download: Learning Essentials