When You Wish For A Great Application You Get Braingenie

The application Braingenie is a great way to access student understanding of concepts in math and science. The site can also be used as a review tool both in class and at home. This comprehensive math and science practice site will help to monitor student mastery and progress over time.  The material covered is directly connected to Common Core Standards allowing you to personalize learning for every student.  As a free site Braingenie is a great way to enrich your curriculum.  The aim is to provide a resource that teachers, students  and parents can count on for additional help.  Students’  learn by watching videos, solving problems and earning badges in what is a fun and effective tool. The site provides detailed reports so that both parent and teacher can monitor student progress.  The video below is an example from the Biology Section.

 

A Storybird Review in A Storybird Story

Please hit the link below to read my review of STORYBIRD.  This is a great application that can be used by students’ or teachers to tell a story, create an assignment, or assess content comprehension..

STORYBIRD REVIEWED IN A STORY by BEARAcademy on Storybird

Screen Shot of Storybird (Photo credit: Kathy Cassidy)

Two Of Many Sites That Can Help You Raise Funds For Your Classroom

Weather you are a teacher, administrator, business owner, non-profit or idea guy there is always a need to raise funds.  If you are not a professional in this area you can get great information from people in the twittesphere like @ianmadair and his site Chalkboard Fundraising  or use several of the great applications that are now available.  The first rule of fundraising is you are not going to get funding if you don’t ask . So be proactive in your venture.

1.  Pledgie  Pledgie is a platform that will allow you to fundraise for a cause. The amount that can be raised and the causes that can be funded vary from small (such as helping to purchase clothing and food for individuals in need) to larger causes such as (outfitting your classroom with the technology necessary for your students to compete in today’s world).  You are given a page dedicated to your cause where you can discuss the purpose or reason for giving, and share information about who will benefit from any donations. Visitors can see what your financial goals are, how much you have raised, and how close you are to meeting your goal. Your cause can be shared through Facebook and Twitter or you can even embed a link to be followed directly from your website. Pledgie is great for helping out in a variety of causes such as animals, education, health and technology.  You can view existing fundraisers, browse by category, and give or accept donations.

2. AdoptAClassroom  Mission Statement:  “Adopt-A-Classroom increases opportunity for student success by empowering teachers with community partners and funds to purchase resources for the classroom.”

The first step in the process is to register your classroom for free on the site.  One of the greatest aspects of Adopt-A-Classroom is that 100% of any and all donations go directly to the classroom teacher to be used for needed resources by way of online credit.  The way it works is like this:  A donor is able to select the classroom they would like to help either by location, institution or a specific educator.  The donor can also have the site choose a classroom that is in need to receive their donation.  The teacher then uses the funds in the form of online credit to purchase what is needed from a list of vendors that are affiliated with the site.  The donor is then notified in an itemized statement what was purchased with their donation.  The process is personalized so that both donor and teacher can communicate so that those who are giving can see the impact that they have made with their donations. This is a great way to get community donations from those who are hesitant to give cash but would like very much to help.

Related articles

• Giving Back: Raising $10,000 for Classrooms Nationwide
• Fundraising to Get SMART Technology in Classrooms

RunPee A Short Review So You Don’t Have To Hold It

It has nothing to do with education but as a movie buff this application was just too good not to review.  Need to pee during the movie but don’t want to miss an anything?  Want to know if you should stay until the credits are over so you don’t miss extra scenes or outtakes? Running late?  No worries, if you have RunnPee on your smartphone your golden.  The RunPee family (no really app founder Dan with his Mother and Sister) go to see wide release movies on opening day and hold it so you don’t have to.  What they do is look for a 3-5 minute stretch of the movie where you won’t come back and be totally lost.  And if you just can’t stand the though of missing anything they give you a synopsis of what went down while you were in the john.  If you have ever had to hold it during a movie there is nothing worse (other than the talker or phone addict) than not being able to enjoy yourself while concentrating on not having an accident.  Well, that does not ever have to happen again and for this I am thankful.  So go to the movies, relax, enjoy the escape, and don’t miss a thing as long as you have RunPee.

Blurtt A Review – Don’t Keep It To Yourself Blurtt It Out

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If you are looking for a way to express yourself in photos then Blurtt is your application.  An iPhone app that lets you use your own photos or search for others with their search engines Bing and Flckr., Blurtt is fun to use and a great way to spice up a tweet, text, Facebook post, or blog.  Be as creative, witty or profound as your imagination allows by adding text to compliment your photos. Originally a postcard sharing service the company shifted its focus with the advent of Postgram.  In response to the question Why should anyone download this?  co-founder Jeanette Cajide responds “Blurtt will put therapists out of business. Just think of all the crap you can get off your chest in one minute increments. Happy, sad, frustrated, elated.”  So save a co-pay or two.  As a free photo sharing application Blurtt is one of the best.   Go to http://www.blurtt.com to find out more and then the App Store to download.

Four Ways That Olympians Can Enhance Performance – Naturally

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1. Increase Blood Oxygen Levels

Every cell in the body needs oxygen to function properly.  When the body is deprived of oxygen, hypoxia occurs causing circulatory problems, respiratory problems, the build up of  lactic acid in the muscles and fatigue. Lack of oxygen can also cause short-term memory loss, confusion, and disorientation.  By increasing the oxygen in your blood  your body can more readily remove harmful toxins and increase your energy and alertness.  Physiologically the lungs extract oxygen from the air that you breathe in an exchange for carbon dioxide at the lining of the alveoli. Oxygen will then pass through the alveolar capillaries into the blood.  The following can increase the oxygen in your blood and prevent unwanted symptoms and illnesses.

• Breathing deeply  can maximize your oxygen intake and flood your cells with oxygen. You can accomplish this through daily  yoga deep breathing exercises.

• High impact exercises for 30 minutes daily or training at a high altitude increases the pathways in your body that take oxygen to your cells. The result is an instant increase in energy and oxygen usage.

• You can help your lungs take in more oxygen with good posture. Roll back your shoulders, keep your chin up, push your chest out squeeze your shoulder blades together and stand straight.

• Foods high in complex carbohydrates drastically enhance your blood’s capabilities to transport oxygen to all your cells.  Avoid foods high in fat which lowers the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood.

Livestrong

Livestrong 2

English: A comparison between human red blood cells differing in oxygenation state. The cell on the left presents an oxygenated appearance as it would while in arterial circulation (after loading oxygen and unloading carbon dioxide in the lungs). The cell on the right appears as it would when deoxygenated, or in venous circulation (after unloading oxygen and loading carbon dioxide in the oxygen requiring-tissue capillaries). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Improving Biomechanics –

Biomechanics in sports is defined as the muscular, joint and skeletal actions of the body during the execution of a given task, skill and/or technique. Proper understanding of biomechanics relating to sports skill has the greatest implications on sport’s performance, rehabilitation and injury prevention, along with sport mastery. As noted by Doctor Michael Yessis, one could say that the best athlete is the one that executes his or her skill the best. 

Swimmer’s Biomechanics Can Lead To Gold

English: Page sample with illustrations of biomechanical studies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. Nutrition

1. Aim for 3 balanced meals and 2 healthy snacks each day.
2. Include a pre-exercise snack. (3:1 carbs:protein) such as fruit & nuts, pita & hummus, yogourt & fruit, rice cakes & almond butter
3.  To replenish electrolytes before, during and after exercise naturally, try coconut water, fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice, bananas and dates.
4. Examples of good post-exercise snacks (which should be consumed within 30 minutes after you have finished your workout) include smoothies, natural energy bars, bananas, nuts and seeds.
5. Reduce your intake of foods that slow you down.  For example, refined sugar, flour and caffeine.
   
6. Drink at least 8-10 glasses of purified water daily with electrolyte replacement as necessary.
7. Take advantage of superfoods – salba, quinoa, pomegranate, dulse, green tea, tumeric, green leafy vegetables, berries, hemp, flaxseeds.

The above steps were taken from the article Improve Athletic Performance Through Nutrition by admin on Nov 22, 2010 in Balance Point  Healthcare, Inc.

Improve Performance Thru Nutrition

English: Fruit stall in a market in Barcelona, Spain. Français : Étal de fruits dans un marché à Barcelone (Espagne). Deutsch: Obststand auf einem Markt in Barcelona, Spanien. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Equipment

Over the years there has been tremendous advancement in the equipment used by today’s athletes.  Weather it is the streamlined suits worn by swimmers or the various athletic shoes seen in track and field, the specialized equipment has led to increased performance.  World Records are being broken and amazing athletic feats seem common place in part due to the technology used in the manufacturing of equipment.   The site below has specific information on the shoes used by today’s athletes in the Olympic Games.

The Shoes

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 10: The personalised shoes of Na Li of China are seen during her second round match against Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa during day three of the 2012 Sydney International at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre on January 10, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

ClassDojo Reviewed – Welcome To My DoJo

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Dojo  ClassDojo is a great management tool that is easy to use, fun to interact with and visually pleasing.  It is a quick and easy way to improve behavior with the added benefit of being able to create both written and visual reports for parents, students, or  your administration.  In the Dojo you can provide instant feedback to students weather they are doing what is expected or what is not.  Unlike a lot of other management tools the ability to provide positive reinforcement in real time is one key to this application.  You can customize your Dojo to meet your specific class needs and run the program on an interactive whiteboard, a computer with projector,  smartphone, tablet or even iPod touch.  All you need is one “computer” and an internet connection.  Students will respond so that they do not bring shame unto your Dojo.  As an added bonus it’s free.

Images That Make You Go WOW !

The Oxford Dictionary defines WOW Factor as the quality something has of being very impressive or surprising to people

As we grow older it seems  harder and harder to find things that make us go WOW.  One explanation could be found below as written by Paula Scott.

“Born brilliant, our molecules are encoded with billions of years of original intelligence – the primal power of emotive energy and intuitive wisdom designed to navigate us through these radically changing times. Unfortunately, for the most part, the culture has not recognized or valued children’s vast expressive abilities as the very source of their natural genius. We live in a culture that often thinks of childhood as a time when consciousness is less developed, less evolved than mature, adult awareness. The newborn is perceived as a blank slate onto which grown-ups inscribe social programs that shape a child’s malleable body into static postures, monotone speech habits, and limiting movement patterns in an attempt to inhibit emotional expression. As a result, natural genius is lost by the age of ten.” —WOWZA

Below is a slideshow of photos taken this year  that may make you go WOW.

What makes you go WOW?

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Interesting Applications and Web Sites in Education – An Ongoing Review

popplet – a direct link to the popplet homepage – popplet is a mindmapping website that is a great way to enhance instruction, blogs, or even create an educational app/site review.

voki – Voki is a free site that allows you to create a talking avatar. Easy to use and navigate, voki will allow you to customize your character as well as it’s features (including face and clothing), the background, and your voki’s voice.  It is a creative way to introduce a lesson, add some flavor to your blog/webpage or tell a story.  Your voice can be added via telephone, text to speech, microphone, or uploaded in a file.  There is a direct link to share your creation with many sites including wordpress, twitter, and facebook to name a few.  There is also a lesson plan database for educators to share how they use voki in the classroom.  You may also start a voki classroom account to manage your students’ work. You are limited to the time that your voki can speak so choose your words carefully.

10 Sites With Videos To Help Enhance or Flip A Lesson

1. TedEd –  This site provides a unique avenue to create lessons with the use of video. The videos are a combined effort of well known educators and the most talented animators. The site allows you to take any educational video not just those produced by TedEd and create a custom lesson.  The finished product can then be published and tracked either privately or publicly.  The site comes complete with a “flip this video” button to add context, questions, quizzes, and suggested follow=up activities.

2. SOPHIA – With over 25,000 videos and a platform centered on social education SOPHIA is a site that promotes both exploratory and cooperative learning. The site is affiliated with Capella University and offers tuition free professional development with a certificate in flipped classroom education.  The professional development and live webinars are given by educators who are already using SOPHIA in a flipped class environment.   The interface is not only great to look at but allows for easy navigation.                

3. ShowMe –  ShowMe is a free site and applications that will connect you to a global learning community.  It allows students to search out videos on just about any subject to supplement learning.  The ShowMe site allows a student to create his/her own video to be used as a way to create a lesson of their own as a class project or study guide.

4. Explain Everything – At $2.99 for the ipad this application is an excellent way to add narration, animation and files from any number of resources to your presentations.  Collaborate ideas, develop ideas, produce interactive presentations, import photos, PDF, PPT, and Keynote from Dropbox, Evernote, Email, and iPad2 camera. Export MP4 movie files, PNG image files, and share your .XPL project files.  These are some of the plethora of options given to you with Explain Everything. You can even use Explain Everything as an interactive whiteboard via your  iPad2 video display. A lot to do for a little investment.

5. YouTube Education – – YouTube was founded in February of 2005 and is a goto source for content of just about any kind.  If you are looking for it and can’t find it on YouTube it may just not be out there.  The Education site has subjects from Business to Science and spans educational levels from Elementary to Post Graduate.  If you are looking to supplement a flipped lesson this is a good place to go.   The service is free to use and has tutorials for creating your own content.

6.  BrainPOP – Founded in 1999 BrainPOP comes in all flavors and sizes from  BrainPOP Jr.(K-3), BrainPOP, BrainPOP Español, and, for English language learners, BrainPOP ESL  BrainPOP has also launched a new product GameUp which has educational games for the classroom.  BrainPOP Educators is a free community support system for all things BrainPOP.  The content you will find is associated with the Common Core Standards used at most institutions.  While BrainPOP fits perfectly into a BYOD or mobile learning classroom it can be useful in any environment.  Check it out if you flip or not.

7. Brightstorm – A great flip assignment can be found at brightstorm.  The site now has over 3,000 videos to help students learn core concepts and to help them with homework. The company has just come out with a mobile application with SAT, ACT, and AP test prep materials.  A unique feature of this site is that it can locate videos linked with your schools textbook.  While not comprehensive they are adding new books all the time.

Image via CrunchBase

8. Discovery Education – This is just about the closest to an all in one stop for resources you can use in a flipped lesson.  Here in a pleasant and easy to navigate interface you can find k-12 teacher resources, a puzzlemaker, lesson plans, ClipArt, brain boosters, and worksheets just to name a few.  The site can provide you with professional development and digital content to turn what may be a dull lesson into an interactive learning experience. If for some reason you have not surfed the site try it out as it might be the Waikiki of classroom material web surfing opportunities. 

9. CosmoLearning – CosmoLearning is a free educational website for students and teachers whose goal was to create a free online school.  At CosmoLearning you are provided with books, lecture notes, video lectures, documentaries, quizzes, and entire courses to  name a few.  All of these tools can be used to help you flip a lesson. While surfing the web for educational materials to increase their knowledge of the sciences CosmoLearning was launched in 2007, the result of work by siblings Gab and Rafa ages 15 and 12 which had begun just one year prior. Their Mission Statement “To centralize educational and cultural resources in a variety of formats, allowing anyone in the world to educate themselves and succeed in their lives.”

10.  WatchKnowLearn.org – This site offers free educational videos for teachers and students’.  The site works by organizing available internet video content into a master list after which they are reviewed, approved, and then assigned to a category in a wiki like format.  The process assures that the videos are of the highest quality and span a wide variety of content areas and grade levels. WatchKnowLearn is also starting a program whereby  both private and public schools capture their classrooms on video which will  then be hosted on the site free of charge.