Creative Commons Extension

Creative Commons has long been a useful tool for both finding public domain
images as well as those available for reuse.  Now instead of having to visit the
Creative Commons site, you can use their chrome extension to find, save
(via a bookmark), and download both images and citation information.

Richar Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) has a great overview as well
as a video tutorial in his blog post here.

Fake Text Messages

While there are several places you can make these,  Fake Text Messages has got to the easiest to use.  You could use them in Escape Rooms or challenge students to demonstrate their understanding of any topic.  For the complete review in TeachersFirst here.

Images in Google Forms

Would pictures help your Google forms?  Now you can easily add images (with text if you like) to your forms. You will see the image icon to the right of each form choice.

Here are the directions from Google. Here is a post from Alice Keeler.

School Safe photos with caption

I was working today with storyboardthat and tweeted out a photo from the class.  The Storyboardthat folks responded and mentioned their new site Photos for Class.  It is all I could ask for in a photo site.  School safe images (as well as a great variety of high-quality photos), Creative Commons licensed for school use, and they provide the citations!  What else could you want?  Here’s a sample below- note the watermark at the bottom of the image.  Clearly my new favorite image site!

Photo Cat

No, it isn’t really a cat- but rather a free editing site that allows you make collages, change backgrounds or present your images in a strip format.  I uploaded  5 random photos and them tested the features of PhotoCat . Here is a  sample of the collage: Here is the strip: Here is the DIY option: You can also edit, retouch, and add text.  For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

Breaking News

No really, you can have your kids create their own news headlines with this new tool from ClassTools.net.  Go to Breaking News- select an image, add your information and go!

Who is on the cover?

Vickie Kilpatrick (Middle School) used bighugelabs as part an English project.  “The magazine covers were part of a larger writing project in which students were asked to interview a fellow classmate and write a magazine article featuring that person.  The magazine covers were added at the end of the project to give an added visual aspect.  The students enjoyed working on this and having their pictures taken and applied to something they created.” This site presents many options for your digital images.

If I were President

In honor of Presidents’ Day, Michelle Popick’s 2-3 grade students answer that  age old question “What would you do if you were President?”  Michelle used Photofunia to add her students to Mount Rushmore. Listen to their enjoyable LittleBirdTales for their responses.

If I

 

• Click to view my story.
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Michele Popick’s students started with innovative photos (created with photofunia) as writing prompt. And the rest is history- please see their Little Bird Tales book! I have been a guest in their classroom several times and I know they really enjoy feedback.  Please take a few minutes to leave them a note.

If I had $100, I would buy

What would you do with $100?  Miss Jackie and Mrs. C’s morning class share their ideas on this Little Bird Tale.  The images were created using photofunia. Please share your feedback!( The afternoon class will be posted shortly)  

• Click to view my story.
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Word Clouds with Style

Sometimes it takes me a while to get it.  That’s the case with Tagxedo (or as their site says- “Word clouds with Style”).  While I have posted on this in the past (click here for older post), I had really never explored the site until this week. While I was planning to use Wordle with a class, I had some issues (not with Wordle but with student logins), so at the last minute I switched to Tagxedo.  Like Wordle, you enter the text and repetitive words appear larger in the generated word cloud.  Like Wordle, you can change the orientation, font, and color scheme.  But here’s where you will see the difference- you can shape the cloud into a variety of preselected shapes or upload your own image or word.You can also save the image to your files.  How can you use it? Some students created poems and used that text to create a word cloud. I worked with another class to create animal shapes for a digital story.  This sample was made from my blog and used the hand shape.

Putting your words in a cloud

  Last week I had the chance to work with Lori Belotti’s sixth graders.  They had created poems and we used Tagxedo to create word clouds. The students entered the text and then unleashed their imagination!  The results word clouds were then shared with the call via edmodo.  These are just a small sample of their inspiring work!  How could you use Tagxedo in your classroom? Go ahead and make your own!

Fake Tweets or Twister

First there were fake Facebook pages, and now Classtools has a fake twitter- Twister.  Above is my sample. You complete the form and it generates the Twister.  Characters are limited (just like twitter)  and in order to get an accurate photo, you do need to enter a real name. Print, save your work to a pdf, copy the url, or submit it to their gallery.  There are many samples on the site.  There are many options- you could do historical or literary figures. Read the complete post here from TeachersFirst.

What you can do with a wordle

Wordle is one of my favorite sites- here’s a blog post with all you want to know about Wordle.  Please click here to read Kevin Cummins for other Wordle ideas!

How to share a wordle

You can save a Wordle for use in PowerPoint or other application.  Here are my two suggestions: 1.     Make the Wordle and then create a screen shot (Use the Ctrl + Print Scrn keys). 2.    Go to a photo editing program (I use Paint) and paste in the screen shot.  3.    Now you can edit the images. (I usually delete the material on the screen shot I don’t need).  4.    Save the image as a jpeg.  You can now use it in any other application.  Or 1.    Create the Wordle and create a screen shot.2.    Paste the screen shot right into the PowerPoint slide.  You can them play with the size to try and show less of the screen. 3.    Save the PowerPoint as a jpeg file.  If you have another method, please share with me.

What is a wordle?

Wordle is an inventive graphic organizer.  The more times a word appears, the larger it will be.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can create a variety of word clouds (just remember that the gallery is public- I would have the students copy and paste their work to paint or another tool).

 Can you guess the topic of my wordle?

 Jen Wagner has taken wordle one step further- Monday through Friday, she’s posting a wordle for your students to solve. (Please click here to see Guess the Wordle).  Students can submit their responses on her google doc.

Dana Ebbighausen is thinking of using Guess the Wordle as part of her do now in her technology class.  Jen’s project is geared to the PerK-5 grades- but who is stopping you from creating your own wordle