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K12 Timed Reading Practice Lite

2/28/2012

Here is a great app offered by iTunes. Known as the K12 Timed Reading Practice Test, students from K - 4 are offered 25 short, engaging stories to enhance comprehension. Stories feature a variety of fiction and non fiction. It enables fluency and the ability to comprehend and read quickly.

With so many great apps out there, you can now get a little extra tutoring done on the road and boost comprehension at the same time. The possibilities are endless with apps such as these.

50 Sites in 60 Minutes Volume 3

2/24/2012

David Kapuler, well-known educational consultant, offers a collection of sites in his one-hour professional development programs. He updates this program at least twice a year offering other volumes on Slide Share. The first two versions were such a success that he has been prompted to continue his venture in the future. The last volume received 21, 000 views alone!

Feel free to click above and check out the latest websites offering free enrichment and resource programs. These resources span from the early learner to the professional and will add keen insight to projects, technology, or other aspects of educational learning and even blogging! It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be subjected to sites you weren't aware of because Mr. Kapuler does all the work!

10 Fun Ways to Learn From Animals

2/23/2012

I've found this wonderful article from Text and Learning magazine that I leave for your review. I had forgotten about the wonderful friendship that developed between our animals and my son who was at home learning online. If it wasn't for these loving fur creatures, I think he may have spent many a lonely high school day without much interaction. These pets took my place as I was unable to be at home during the day due to work related activities. God Bless pets! If you don't have one, I'd suggest going to your local animal shelter and bring home some love and companionship for your online learner.

While learning is often associated with textbooks, tests, and teachers, there is an
another source from which children can learn some fantastic life lessons. One of
the best learning resources are the creatures that live among us. Animals! There
are so many great ways to learn with and from animals. Here are ten fun and
innovative ways that young people, and the adults in their lives, can get in
touch with their warm and wild side and learn a lot in the process.

Get a pet - Pet’s are a great way to help children develop responsible behavior, provide aconnection to nature and teach respect for other living things.

Watch a pet - There are a number of reasons that a family may not be able to get a pet. When this is the case, another option might be to offer to watch a pet for busy neighbors. This provides several of the benefits of getting a pet and can also
turn into a part time job for the pet-loving child.

Walk a pet - What better way to engage in physical fitness than with a pet. Go for a run in the park or around the block. This too can turn into a part-time job for the child who has a way with animals and wants to become the neighborhood dog
walker.

Learn about endangered species with UStream -
UStream is doing some amazing work with capturing endangered
species live on film. Children can watch animals catch prey, mate, reproduce,
and much more. Another great feature is viewers can chat with experts and others
who are interested while watching the animal in the wild. Additionally, there is
a lot of educational information on many of these pages. Start on the general
Pets / Animals page at http://www.ustream.tv/pets-animals. The following are some wonderful pages that are educationally sound and terrific starting places.

Visit or volunteer at a local zoo, farm, ranch or stable - Zoos
and farms are a great way to get to know animals. While a visit to a farm or zoo
can be a terrific learning experience, for young ones who are big animal lovers,
there may also be volunteer opportunities. What a wonderful way to learn about,
and with animals from the professionals who care for them.

Read or start a blog - For children who love or want to learn about a
particular animal, a blog is a great resource. Go to Technorati.com and type in
the animal you want to learn more about. There you’ll find blogs ranked by
authority. For example for those who love pugs you’ll find blogs like The Curious Pug and Pug Possessed. Reading and commenting on the blog helps develop literacy and communication skills. Children that enjoy writing, can start their own blog to document the adventures of their favorite creature.

View YouTube videos - There is so much to learn from watching animal videos. From tolerance and love to survival and protection of the young. I recommend starting with this one about tolerance and love and this one about survival and protection of young.

Search Twitter - Let children do a search on Twitter for the animal they love. There they’ll find Tweets from others interested in this animal. You can put those who share similar interests into a list and / or begin following their Tweets. If there's something you want to know or might be of interest to one of your Tweeps
(Twitter peeps)? Tag them and see what they have to say. This teaches young
people not only about what they are trying to learn, but they also develop the
ability to learn from Twitter as well as develop a personal learning network.

Bird Watch - Bird watching is fun and with the advent of cell phone
cameras/video, capturing these winged creatures is easier than ever. Have your
child set up a Flickr account to collect the photos and videos and email them to
your Flickr email for an automatic slideshow collection. The subject becomes the
caption and message the description. This can also be updated. Visit this linkfor directions. The slideshow might look something like the one below. - Lisa Nielson, Tech and Learning magazine.

Select a Painting and Write a Story

2/22/2012

If you have a child who loves to write, or one that needs a bit more practice, then Tate Tales is a site that must be introduced. Children are able to let their imaginations run wild when they select a painting from the Tate gallery's collection. Once the selection is made, kids can tell their own tale of what is happening in the artwork. There is nothing like inspiration that touches the soul to make a student produce a product of love. Isn't that the most important passion a writing teacher instills is that enjoyment of writing?

Students can interrupt the painting by making up a story about it. Students then may keep writings in their own gallery to share with others. What fun it is to read other stories from children about your same age level! Best of all, all content on My Gallery and the entire Tate Kids site is pre-moderated and checked before it goes live. This is to ensure that it suitable for all ages. So what are you waiting for? Get writing!

Top 10 Sites for Creating Graphs or Charts

2/21/2012

If you have an upcoming online project, and do not have Excel loaded, there are other sites available to graph and publically display your data. Better yet, these sites offer some excellent graphics to make your project stand out from the others. Peruse the below list and book mark your favorite.

Rich chart Live - An excellent site for created
animated flash based charts that can be embedded into a site. Also, a user
has the ability to add links to a chart.

iCharts     - A wonderful site/network for creating charts that you can
embed into a     site. Also, a user can share charts on social networking sites
and     browse/save other iCharts from the
web.

Chartle     - A great site for creating online interactive charts. What
makes Chartle     so unique and impressive is the ability to create more than
your standard     graphs such as: venn diagrams, maps, gauges, and
more.

Hohli -     A very user-friendly site, similar to Chartle. Users can
create a variety     of charts, such as pie, scatter plots, and radar, then
embed them into a     site.

Lucid
Chart     - A nice site for creating a variety
of different charts and diagrams.     Also, it is a very easy site to use with a
drag-n-drop interface. Best of     all, Lucid Chart has an educational portal
which allows chart creation     free for
education.

ChartGo     - ChartGo is a neat site for creating charts that's very
easy to use. All     a user has to do is fill out the pre-determined sets of
data and select     the type of chart they want to
create.

Pretty
Graph     - A simple site to use to make a wide
variety of graphs, such as: line     charts, histograms , and more. Also, a user
can embed into a site, share     with others users via email, or save as
template.

Diagramly - A cool site for creating     diagrams, flow charts, and more
that is similar to Lucid Chart. Users of     Inspiration should feel right at
home w/ this online tool as there are     plenty of shapes and clip art to
choose from.

Cacoo - A great site for creating online charts and diagrams. A
great feature is the ability to collaborate with others in real-time while
creating a chart via a chat.

Lovely
Charts - A easy site to use to make very
polished charts. While not free, there are three paid versions to choose
from, such as: iPad, online, or desktop.

Home Tutoring Using a White Board

2/17/2012

I was home tutoring my son the other night on my personal white
board. We were in the middle of a geometry problem when I realized what an
invaluable too this is, and I haven't even shared it with my readers. I began to
reminisce about the days I had to help each of my children with good ol' paper.
What a waste of paper that was through the years.

A white board is interactive, and allows the learner the flexibility of making a mistake, which can be easily erased. Somehow, the whole concept of putting it on paper, and crossing out each wrong answer, just doesn't build self-confidence well. But, wiping the mistake with an eraser, gives a whole new clean slate.

I found you can purchase one of these at Discount School Supply for around $5. Just type in "White Boards" in the search engine and you see 9" by 12" Coloration Reversible white board pop up on the first page. Don't forget to add the dry erase markers to your order too.

I've used this white board for math tutoring, vocabulary
testing, and how to quickly organize a writing paper. You'll find this an
invaluable method for any home tutoring you do. Aura

Puppet Animation Lite App

2/15/2012

Do you have an artist in your house? Need to something fun to add as an app to their personal phone? Then you must check out Puppet Animation which allows kids to animate uploaded images or sample puppets. Kids can then choose Swing, Elastic, or Scaling to animate their figure. Once saved, children can send via email or twitter to family and friends.

This is a great diversity to add the simple art of creation and allow our online learners some "down time". Being at the computer for long period of time can attribute to emotional stress if not well channeled. Be sure your online learner has lots of tools for diversion! Studies show student achieve more when offered alternate areas of creativity.

Valentine's Day Coloring Online for Early Learning

2/14/2012

This has got to be the cutest site for young folks. If you have a little one at home that is in the early learning division, load The Color for them this evening. No need to search the site, I've got the Valentine's Day page preloaded for you. All they'll need help with is bringing up the picture. But then again, you know those little ones, show them once, and they'll have five pages colored before you return! They are just too keen to this computer thing. This page allows the student to click and place color easily bringing immediate self-esteem. So go ahead, get dinner started, or finish that last task while your little one enjoys this.

The History of Valentine's Day

2/14/2012

When the day is done, kick back and enjoy the Many Faces of Valentine at the virtual museum in Canada. This has to be the most comprehensive site offering tidbits of Greek Mythology, original Valentine's Day cards, and a brief glimpse of how this day of love evolved to its pinnacle platform of today.

"On February 14, tokens of love and affection are exchanged
throughout North America and parts of Europe. Children give
Valentines to their classmates and couples express their affection
for each other with cards, candies, flowers and other gifts. Valentine's
Day celebrates friendship, romantic love and marriage. The origin
of this feast leads us back to the life of a Christian saint and
an ancient Roman festival. Exploring the meaning of this feast leads
us into a landscape of story and a world of delight in the love
and affection human beings have for each other." - Virtual Museum of Canada.

Enjoy! And, while you're there, send an ecard!

Share Your Story with StoryCorps

2/10/2012

Do you have a story to tell? StoryCorps is a website that allows you or family members to share, record, and perserve your roots. Listen to the weekly interview, or share life stories via email, Facebook, and Twitter.

StoryCorps has over 40,000 interviews archived to date, and over 70,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to their weekly broadcasts.