Suppl_eMINTS

Earth Day Suggestions

Earth Day is approaching and I figured many of you would like some suggestions of how to utilize your new machines for this very timely event.

Carbonrally offers its users an opportunity to challenge each other in carbon-reduction behavior. Challenge the classroom down the hall to recycle paper or turn the lights off when not in the classroom and measure the effect on the environment. Middle school and high school students could probably run their own challenges, while the site is better used between entire elementary classes or families.

EarthLab, according to their website, “is a leading climate crisis community that provides a practical guide to green living through community interaction, exclusive environmental news, advice from experts and key analysis.” What does EarthLab have to offer? Where do I begin? They have the carbon calculator, a survey that determines an

Tox Town allows students to look at various human environments and the environmental factors that affect them. It is geared toward middle and high school students, but the interface is inviting to upper elementary.

EcoKids contains many interactive games with environmental content. However, beware of the trap to just set students free on the games. What are you goals for using games? What content do you want the students to gain from using class time playing games? This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use games to teach the content; it just means be careful and purposeful. Your friendly, neighborhood EPA also has a site with environmental games at EPA Environmental Kids Club.

I hope these resources will give you some ideas for Earth Day. It’s important to address these issues throughout the school year, but Earth Day provides a great opportunity to peak student interest.

[Picture of Earth source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Earth-Erde.jpg]

More Online Tools

I thought I’d take some time and share a few online resources that are free. (I bet that got your attention.)

In keeping with our last module (Tools for Thinking), the first resource is bubbl.us. This website allows you or your students to create webs and brainstorm online. You can save and share this work on bubbl.us, print it out, or even embed it onto your website or blog. It’s very easy to use and is somewhat similar to the mapping software with which we have already worked.

Quizlet is a vocabulary tool that when used for good (and not evil) can greatly enhance vocabulary skills in any and all subject areas. There are flashcard tools, instant quizzes, and (eMINTS friendly) collaborative tools. Think of the collaborative All you have to do is enter or upload your vocabulary list and let the kids go to work.

ClassTools.net allows for teachers personalize flash games, graphic organizers, and lesson templates all for free! This tool gives a teacher plenty of opportunities to create interactive learning activities that take the content to new levels.

Click here for full screen version

More Creating & Editing Digital Images

After Monday’s training session, I felt that there were some holes in the content and instruction I provided. In keeping with the purpose of this blog which is to supplement your trainings, I am providing the following links for you refer as you prepare your images for our website building day.

For basic information about Adobe Fireworks, go here. You can check for updates as well as search the help topics. The help portion of the website as well as online manuals can be accessed here. Boston College has made a useful tutorial website complete with basic instructions and screen shots. Just click here. The secrets behind the vector and bitmap images can be easily explained in Sue Chastain’s article on the subject here. SmartWebby provides some useful tips and tricks at this location. SmartWebby also provides some fantastic design tutorials here. There are also some video tutorials at this site where you can sign up for a free thirty-day trial.

I know that some of you have not had the opportunity to search for right clip art for your sites. Remember that my boss (Stephanie Bengston) has a vast list of resources that should now be filter-proof…at least in Wellsville.

In the meantime, keep working on your images and graphics. They will be needed for next Wednesday’s all-day session.

Image Conscious

As many of you begin collecting images and clip art for your classroom websites, there are a few places you can look for unique images that can really enhance the look and feel of your sites.

The first place to look is in your own classrooms.  Digital photos of your classrooms and student projects can give your websites a personal touch.  You may also scan student artwork.  When we work with altering images, we can edit these peices to be more functional elements of your websites.

Another place to look is Wikimedia.  This site comes from the same people who brought you Wikipedia, but it offers various media that are open to the public for free use.  The images on Wikimedia are under the classification of “public domain”, so users can publish the images with proper credit given.  The best place to search for images is in the “Commons” area.

Another great source for original images is .  You can use Fickr in a couple of ways.  First of all, you could join Flickr for free and post your own images or pictures for easy access anywhere.  Another useful feature of Flickr is that you can ask the actual photgrapher if you can use his/her photos for your site.  I’ve done this with some blog posts and people have been very willing to share.

(Snowmen in Moscow image courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Snowmen_moscow.jpg.)