Hero Machine

Heromachine.com gives your students the ability to create their own superhero. With its user-friendly setup and process, students can design their own superhero and share it. Great way to work on creative writing and creative thinking: You could have your students create a superhero with this site and then provide the back story of how the super hero became a superhero, or how that superhero "saved the day" or the epic battles with the villain, etc. You could take it a step further and have your students design a "superhero" like Franklin Roosevelt, Walt Disney or Anne Frank and then have the students provide details about the life of this "superhero" complete with bio, special talents, environment, accessories, enemies, theme song, etc. This site gives all students the chance to create something they are proud of, whether they are good at drawing or not. Check it out! 

Perhaps it's time, for TimeMaps

Looking to add a little spice into your students' map use? Not happy with the maps in your boring, paper atlases? Well, then maybe it's time you try TimeMaps. 

This free site provides you with tons of interactive maps of World History. You can hit "play" and watch how things change/progress over time. On the map, you will find images to click to get further detail/info about that particular region/time period. There are over 1,500 maps, historical overviews, and in-depth articles, images, etc.  This is more than just maps. It's a maps website with power. You can zoom in and out to get the viewing experience you want. 

This could be a major element of a lesson, or simply provide the link to your students for them to have an opportunity to discover something new and share it. 

Teacher Websites: A good idea

I am a firm believer that teachers need their own website for their class. Our students practically live on the web, so why not provide them with a website from your class? They will visit your site, as long as there is something on there, and I'm not just talking about your lesson plans. Students love going on teacher websites, so let's give them some! 

There are many great website builder options out there that require you to have zero programming skills. Website builders like blogger, wordpress, weebly, wix, or many others allow you to make a great, professional looking website with a small learning curve. These are all free website making machines. I use blogger to build/maintain Speartip, but have also used wordpress, weebly, and wix. I think they are all solid options for building a website. Perhaps you will find one that you think is better, such as shutterfly and google sites. Yes, making these websites take time, but I'm here to help! The impact they can have on your classes is enormous. Plus, I think once you start building, you will find that it's fun to have your own website. It's like having your own piece of the internet.  I know you all use either google classroom or edmodo, which is great! It is still beneficial to have a website because there are things that you can or want to share that work better on a website. Classroom and Edmodo are management sites. A website is your central location on the internet for all things dealing with your class. 
Why it's a good idea to have your own class website: 
1. Extend the learning outside of your class time.
2. Post lesson plans
3. Post an "assignment calendar" so students and parents know when things are happening. 
4. Create and share interactive assignments, review tools, and learning tools. 
5. Gives students the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts. (blogging comments). 
6. Gives you another way of connecting with your students and getting them excited about your class.
7. Provides another (strong) communication channel. 
8. Gives students a place to go for anything and everything about your class. They want this. 

Teacher websites: spice them up or create a new one

At the beginning of the school year, you might be thinking about revamping your website or giving it a new look. I like to change my website's appearance a couple times a year. CoolText.com and Flamingtext.com are two sites I use to creator logos and fancy/cool text for my site. These two sites give you the option of many different styles and looks for creating words. They can be easily saved as images, then uploaded and placed where you want them on your site. Changing the look of your site every so often increases engagement and may bring kids back to your site who have quit using it. Using normal font, size 12, with no color makes it difficult to attract your students to the site. 

Teacher Websites
 If you are still using FrontPage to make your website, maybe you would like to think about going to a more dynamic website creator like blogger, weebly, or wix. Click the link to learn about some of these more in-depth and powerful website creator tools. 

Essential Teacher Tool: Teacher Website

Let's beat Fortiguard!

The Evil website evaluator of the World Wide Web

Even though YouTube is open, there are other sites you probably want to use and when you go to those sites, everyone's worst nightmare pops up: Fortiguard, the evil website-protector of the world wide web. Fortiguard blocks sites that should be blocked but it also blocks sites that should be open, sites that could/would be useful and helpful for teachers. Fortiguard is not an unbeatable force. We can beat it and here's how:
If you try accessing a website and get the fortiguard block, check to see what category it's listed under. If it's listed as "unrated" that means we have a chance to open it ourselves. It will say, "To have the rating of this webpage reevaluated, please click here." Simply click there and enter the webpage you want to open. Next, you will enter some information and then submit your request. In about 24 hours, you will receive an email with the results. I have done this many times and it always works (if the previous rating was "unrated"). Some pictures to help you out:

(click the picture for a larger view)

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Common Core and Social Studies

View Interactive Common Core-Social Studies Tech Tools

Blog Week on Techno.ED

Water for Sixth Grade: A Carousel on Prezi

You may not know this, but I like to blog. I don't just blog for the sake of blogging, I blog because I think it helps students learn. I think it gets kids involved with my class more so than without it. By definition, a blog is a "web log" that allows you to share your thoughts and provide readers the opportunity to "comment" on your posts. That is a blog in its most basic form. However, that is just the beginning. A blog in education can be a educational powerhouse. It's a website on steroids. This week on Techno.ED, I am going to share each day a different way you can use a blog in your classroom. The best thing about blogs is that whether they are basic or dynamic, it will still help your students learn! Also, blogs are so easy to use! All you have to do is try and not be scared. Plus, I am right here in the building and I love to help people set up blogs and work with them with ideas of how they can use it in their class. The above prezi is a sampling of what a blog can be used for. I will take a closer look at some of those items throughout the week.

Essential Tool: Teacher Websites

I am a firm believer that teachers need their own website for their class. Our students practically live on the webs, so why not provide them with a website from your class? They will visit your site, as long as there is something on there, and I'm not just talking about your lesson plans. Students love going on teacher websites, so let's give them some! Now, I am not talking about the state web space that we all have. The state space, that many teachers use, doesn't have much space and is not user friendly when it comes to producing an effective tech tool. 

Reasons NOT to use the state web space:
 --Not much space. Mine filled up very quickly. You need space in order to create a dynamic website that can really help and that kids want to go to. 
--NOT user-friendly. The state space makes things difficult and awkward to do anything.
 --Frontpage is annoying. How many of us have frontpage at home? Not many, would be my guess. So, with the state space and frontpage, the only place to work on the site is at home. NOT convenient.
 --No Interaction. It's just a website and unlike blogger or word press, students have no way of interacting with the site with their own thoughts/ideas. 

 I believe we must get away from the state web space and create our own site with blogger, wordpress, weebly, wix, or many others. These are all free website making machines. I use blogger and believe it is the best but perhaps you will find one that you think is better. Yes, making these websites take time, but the impact they can have on your classes is enormous.
Creating a website with these other options gives us many advantages: 
1. total freedom. 
2. Unlimited space. 
3. Work on them from anywhere in the world that has internet.
4. Create interactive assignments, review tools, learning tools, sharing, and collaborate. 
5. Gives students the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts. (blogging comments). 
6. Gives you another way of connecting with your students and getting them excited about your class.
7. Gives students a place to go for anything and everything about your class. They want this.