trialing photosnack.. the replacement for slidemypics :(

pros/cons

• the music is either automatic, as in it starts playing as so as you go onto you blog... so if you have 3 slide shows with music, they will all play at once... AHHH!!!! MASSIVE CON!!!
• you can't get the music from youtube like from slidemypics but you can upload your own... so 50/50
• way more style options - PRO!
• YOU CAN'T HAVE MORE THAN 15 PICTURES FOR FREE!!!!! CCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so massive BBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you have more than 15 kids in your class!!!!

UPDATE: Appears to be able to handle more than 15 now,... YAY!!!

Chrome Add Ons

These are the Chrome Add ons that i love!!!

Symbaloo... bookmark your tiles/webPAGES with ease.

Pinterest.... bookmark your IMAGES with ease.

AdBlock - blocks majority of ads!

ImprovedTube - for youtube, helps control screensize, annotations, auto place, comments, descriptions etc.

Embedding a google doc into a blog post/page

Here is a tutorial on how to do that.

The reason this is so cool is because when you change things on your google doc, it automatically changes on your post... remember this! It can be a working document, if you wish it to be so!

Linoit

Like padlet but i recon it is much easier to use... let know what you think.

http://linoit.com/

Here is a tutorial on how to embed it onto your blog.

How to center your header

http://www.freeprettythingsforyou.com/2012/11/how-to-center-your-blog-header-on-blogger/

Google Forms

Check out the writing page. I've added a google form. Now after using the acapela app to write and listen to their stories, the kids can copy and paste their stories into the form located below the app and submit it, along with their name into a spreadsheet under the teacher's email. That way there is a record and hopefully this will show progress over time of their improvement in writing using computer as a medium. Also, it can be used by the teacher to create their publishing, depending on the child's typing ablities.

Here are some links (as i find them) to tutorials you could use to create your own:

Google form tutorial from infomgtaiesec

Poll Ideas

Polling ideas for discovery. A way for children to share their favourite discovery activities.

From pollcode.com

Which activity was your favourite?
	Painting
	Gardening
	PMP
	Book Making
	Construction
	Making Toast
	Paper Dolls
pollcode.com free polls

From polldaddy.com

From blogger:

What was your favourite Discovery Time activity?

Pinterest

I'm a big fan of pinterest as a book marking tool as it is very visual, and I, myself, am a visual person. I remember visual information better than any other forms. Today, I found that we can now embed our pinterest boards into our blogs... yayness!!! Here goes...

Follow Raveena's board Education - ict/Websites on Pinterest.

Looks like its more of a side bar thingy rather than an interactive page app but still... short cut to your favourite here i come! Links to ICT/Website's that relate mainly to education. Check it out.

Where I Get My Some Of My Ideas From...

Well, to be honest its from here and there and everywhere... bits and pieces really but some places have more than others and this pinboards has some of those links...

Google Tutorial

Found this tutorial on this site called 'www.freetech4teachers.com' where this guy, Richard Byrnele has lots of tutorials and ideas about how to use tech in the class room and I found this particular doc he wrote useful as I am currently learning how to use google forms...(working on it...

Google Docs for Teachers 2012

Blabberize

A fun way to share ideas and messages.  This allows you to upload a picture of an animal or human face, animate the mouth to move and record a message.

Ideas of use could include

• Fun facts of a particular animal... Did you know....
• All about me facts... I can... I like.... I am...
• Share special news/messages (like me below)
• Using it to be a 30sec reporter/ oral language tool 

It can be a little fiddly, site is not very happy with a lot of clicking and when you position the mouth you need to be precise. Also you need an account, suggest you just create a class account for all student to use and the teacher to moderate.

Vocaroo

Found this very simple site today that can record your voice. Use it to record kids ideas, have them record their own reading and listen to it, share their writing/stories etc. The website allows you this free widget =D to embed into your blog, so you don't go looking for it online when you need it.

Powered by Vocaroo

All you have to do is click record, wait for it to connect, talk, stop talking, count to 5 in our head, click stop and then 'Click here to save'

There are lots of different options for saving it... you save it a link on your blog or as an mp3 or wav file and add it to a video/presentation your making, you can email it to yourself for later use, or even embed it directly on to your blog.

Online recording software >>

The only problem is once you leave the site, even by clicking out of it by accident, you can't go back.. its gone... even if you click the back button desperately!!!... But still, patience and careful clicking is a small price to pay when your in jam and the battery is flat on other devices!

Symbaloo

A cool widget which you create on another website called Symbaloo. More or less, it's a pinboard of websites of a particular topic, in my case 'blogging tools' that I want to check out/am checking out. I've simply added all the links to the pinboard and am now embedding it to my blog, so that when i have time, all i need to do is click on a link and off i go... all in one place.

A symbaloo con is... if you have it as a blog post, your blog will jump down to symbaloo every single time... a big pain the bottom. So have it at the top of the page or it will just annoy you and anyone you regularly uses  your site!

In class application possibilities... Inquiry - all those website links - one place, same with maths & reading games for older student (who can READ), youtube clips.... sooooo going to try it out with youtube clips especially.

You could even make and at home symbaloo with helpful links for parents which are different from those in the classroom...like "Teach Your Monster To Read" A very fun site that maybe a bit too absorbing for class time, and distracting for other kids but great learning at home.

Scroll to the top buttons (The superkid, bottom right)

Easier version

just copy and paste :) - layout, add gadget - html/javascript - paste.

http://www.scrolltotop.com/

set options, can't choose your own button.


Still easy, same princpal as above but you get to choose your own graphic... only problem is you need to find a teeny tiny graphic

http://www.mybloggertricks.com/2011/09/smooth-scrolling-to-top-button-for.html?showComment=1399453954488#c7307147447842003626

just copy and paste :) - layout, add gadget - html/javascript - paste.

Find you graphic - image search google, search tools, size - icon ... that helps.

find the grapic you like, right click, copy image url ... and paste it in where specified in the tutorial above...  IMAGE LINK?

Image I used:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKf4w9GG9Jp3D7IFKavJ8hEO5mSjp9QFEbyLvdOCNBiOJLGs7EeSC7ncbj_uMIO-rzcxiQfNvdpMSl6XLWDqdhRiaew635TGXrtJA8phMAtoTiPOP030XKfqqhojBXrRXYs9rpZm47aC0/s400/th_SuperKid.gif

png image files have no background
gif files are animations...

I find the animation distraction but couldn't find a png file yet that fits what I am look for just yet...

Wonderopolis

An amazing site that is full of answers to real kids wonderings.

You can send in your own wondering and there is even a widget you can add to your blog which share a wondering a day. Great for inquiry.

Each wondering also has a listen button, so curious self motivated children who aren't readers just yet can still become learn tons from this site with a little guidance.

Check out the side bar for the widget or the inquiry page for a bigger, easier to read version.

Its easy to embed (just like an YouTube video i.e. copy and paste the html into your post, make sure its under HTML not compose, and play with the numbers next to the width and height until it fits... there are two places to change it, so make sure they are the same in both places. For the inquiry page it was width="900" height="1306" . For my side bar it was width="230" height="506" .

Here is a video from their site... it makes you wonder...

 

Padlet

Exploring padlet - a way to share ideas.

padlet.com

Created with Padlet

The jpeg of the padlet.

Add graphics before post titles (my little suns)

Using code from

 http://www.codeitpretty.com/2013/04/add-icon-to-blog-post-titles-with-css.html 

& sun graphic from 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJZiJYaDMWp3T0LDVCafdaG0f32B-ydl1OChgte3YIxoOaP0VaXc62OLlS5Gyk33SXrG_T6T2GNUqQTbJ4QSqv_X4VN1E8QEhnnEDNC8xEIVG-H6FFDvpyAWroOwsRBBmEtM-KdPDQeUkw/s45/sun.jpg