Alternative to traditional assignment notebook

For the kids who have a tough time keeping up with their assignment notebook,
offer them an alternative.  Let them use their cell phone to take a picture of the homework assignment that's written on the board.  Whatever works, right?

submitted by Mr. Morgan

Turn your words into animated movies

You type in what you want to say, then it has characters say what you want.  Sounds a bit odd, but it's amusing and interesting to the listener.

http://www.xtranormal.com

Simple voice recording - on the web

On this site, you can record your voice.  It saves it and you can email it to others.  Perhaps explaining to your students specifically want you want them to do on a project.

http://www.vocaroo.com

Free supplies - in dumpsters???

In an effort to go green, we started "dumpster diving" for supplies a few years back.  Now, with any disposable model intended to be used for instructional purposes (such as our first discussion about plot plans) we will use discarded cardboard to create elaborate terrains.  The resulting projects sometimes look better than their foam core counterparts and are free to build!

submitted by Mr. J. Berg

Using a student document as the answer key

When we do worksheets on the computer, I like to tell the students that we will use one of theirs as the answer key. They tend to really try to be that first person to get it done and all correct.   When all are done, we go over it as a class and project it on the screen.  If the "key" person makes a mistake, I fix it as a teacher and make it sound like it was no big deal to make that mistake.  Everyone else has to fix theirs as we go over it, but the key person does not have to, since I am doing it on the screen for them.  Works well in Accounting and other classes.

Recommended links that I haven't tried yet

http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Exit slip on main points

We like to have our students complete a quick exit slip at the end of class to reinforce whatever main point we've made in class for the day.  However, we've been going through a lot of paper by doing this.  So we have started having the students write on a white board.  We have small white board paddles, but you can also make your own with a piece of white paper and a page protector.  Students must show us their answer before they can walk out the door! 

From Ms. Vaccarello and Ms. Umansky

Google Calendar for journal prompts

I also created a Google Calendar to track all of my journal prompts for various classes. This way I could create and print a blank journal template for all classes and use my calendar to share the prompt. I always set my prompts for the entire semester so that I have quality prompts, versus 'on the fly' prompts. I can still edit, re-organize, or change prompts rather than having students scribbling out incorrect prompts in their journal. 

submitted by Mr. Wallace

Fact Swap for videos or worksheet alternative

I wanted to share my 'Fact Swap' worksheet that I love to use with videos for a quick and easy something to do instead of a set worksheet.  I pass this out (or have them recreate it on scratch paper) and they only fill in the top three while they are watching the video.  After it is over they walk around the room and fill in the other six boxes with facts that their classmates wrote down.  All nine must be different once they are done!  :)  Great way to turn three facts into nine!!!  

submitted by Mrs. S. Anderson

see http://www.rachel-lynette.com for more tips

Assignment organization in Google Calendar

Instead of using Moodle, I use Google Calendar to organize my assignments. I automatically shared the calendar with the school email of each student. I also had them come up and put in their personal email address. Easy access and no excuses when they miss a day! Making the switch to Google Calendar has been a GREAT change!

Submitted by Ms. Fluegge

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Tagxedo - a cool way to make a graphic image

Take your words and turn them into any shape you want.  Use in a document, print on a t-shirt, any many other uses.

Much better and more user friendly than Wordle.

http://www.tagxedo.com

Interview a student - first day of class

On the first day of class I have the students "interview" a friend and introduce them to the class. As they introduce their partners to the class, I write down their names (in pairs). I then complete a seating chart and put each partner on opposite sides of the room. 

It's helped a TON in the beginning of the semester. 

from Mrs. Jones

Prezi - a much better way to make a presentation

A prezi is a way to make a presentation like PowerPoint, but the images and words fly in and out of the screen.

Here is an example my daughter made.
http://prezi.com/xwzgcs9zurzk/mary-rose-favs/

http://www.prezi.com

One way to get students' attention when they wander

One thing I do is to tell the students that when I say "Bring it up front".  This is their verbal cue to turn and pay attention when things go astray.  I found it to be more effective than "shhhhh" or other cues.

Submitted by Mrs. Ingersoll

Great site for tutorials

kahnacademy.org has numerous and informative tutorials/videos to reinforce concepts/topics covered in class

contributed by Mr. Cless

Use Symbaloo as a one stop shop web page

Put all your links you normally use on one page in small icons.

http://www.symbaloo.com

Getting to know the students' names

One trick to make myself know the students' names is forcing myself to know them by the third class or they get extra credit.

Use Google Docs for quizzes

Google Docs is a great tool for making a quiz.  Go to Create, Form and then make your quiz there.

There is a script called Flubaroo that you can add to grade the quizzes, under "Script Gallery".  It grades them in about five minutes.

If you need more detail, let me know.

Do a screencast for free

If you want to record how to do something on your computer, you can record it to show it to others at www.screenr.com

It allows up to five minutes of recording.  It works great.  Here is an example.
http://www.screenr.com/R5O8

Good to use if someone is absent, too.

Make your own app for free

You can make a "web app", which looks like a real app, but you don't have to download it from Apple or Google.  You can do this for free at http://www.ibuildapp.com

Here is an example I made.
http://gbhsweb.glenbrook225.org/GBN/athletics/fbsite/index.html

Welcome to our blog!

Hello.  I always thought it would be great to have a place to get cool, effective things to do in the classroom.

I didn't want to read a bunch of text.  Just quick thoughts, with a link, and possibly an example.

Feel free to add ideas that you think other educators would benefit from.