Links You’ll Love
Just in time for Pesach – here’s that fun Rube Goldberg-esqe 10 Plagues video from The Technion:
The Smithsonian Institution’s Tween Tribune is a great news site. You can create a class and have your students join, create assignments, and quiz your students. This also includes a nice “Photo of the Day” section designed to stimulate your students’ imagination.
AnswerGarden is a really fun website that has your students (or anyone) providing instant feedback that you can see! Simply post your question and invite anyone to answer via a weblink. As their answers are recorded, you grow a word cloud. It’s really simple, requires no signup, and is free. No watering required! Check it out.
SoundTrap is basically an online, collaborative version of GarageBand. You can drag in loops, edit multiple tracks and download your creations as .mp3 files. What’s very cool, though, is that you can invite friends to collaborate with you and multiple people can work on the same file at the same time.
Links You’ll Love
If you have a little time on your hands, check out GoogleFeud. It’s a really interesting exploration about how society thinks. And a huge time suck, so buyer beware.
Want to find (or have your students find) articles at their reading level? This is cool – you can use Google’s search tools to help. Just put in your search terms, and on the results page, click on Search tools. Reading level should appear at the top of your screen. Clicking on Reading level will sort the results into Basic, Intermediate or Advanced – just click on the desired level and that’ll filter your results. For a step-by-step, check out this blog post.
If you want to easily create flash cards from a Google sheet (or, even better – have your students do it!), Flippity is a great place to start. Upload your sheet and automatically generate cards.
Hey! You know that Passover will be pretty soon, right? There are some terrific free resources online that you might want to check out. If you’re looking for some fun activities to do with toddlers and preschoolers, TCJewfolk have a very nice Seder kit that you can download for free. JewishBoston.com is also offering their free “The Wandering is Over” Haggadah.
If you have an iPad or a Macintosh computer with the iBooks app, take a moment to check out the amazing array of educational iBooks that you can download (most for free). The breadth of topics is simply mindboggling, and many books take advantage of the iPad’s multimedia capability to integrate video and audio besides text. You can browse the education collection using a computer here. Some of the books that caught my eye are:
To access iBooks on the iPad, open the iBooks app and visit the store. On a computer, go to the iTunes store.
Looking for templates to use with Google Slides? Check out Slide Carnival.
Here’s a terrific resource for your students (or you) to find copyright free photos to use with school projects. Even better – they come complete with an attribution caption. I love it!
NowComment is a cool website where you can create a document and then invite others to discuss it. Students and teachers can use their GAFE account to log in. Here’s a nice overview of it.
About
Debbie Harris is the director of educational technology at the Sager Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook, IL. Involved in Jewish education for over thirty years, she has an education degree from Northwestern University with a concentration in instructional media and a master’s degree in professional Jewish studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is skilled in using and teaching desktop publishing, video editing, presentation and animation software; and consults and presents regularly on integrating technology into Judaic studies. Her students podcast, blog, edit video and create claymations. She co-chaired the technology track for CAJE 33 in Vermont, is a SMART Certified Trainer for SMART Notebook, and a 2011 recipient of the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
When not learning, teaching or writing about technology, Debbie likes to sketchnote and craft. She likes to knit, do calligraphy, sew, watercolor, paint fabric and just generally play with fun toys like scrapbooking supplies and anything with texture. Debbie travels to California every summer to paint tallitot with high school aged campers. Finally, she is incredibly proud of her two daughters; Lori, who teaches English at a community college; and Allie, who is the director of the URJ’s Camp Newman in California.
Look for her at:
Debbie Does Desktop
Flickr
Twitter
Diigo
YouTube
Ravelry
Email Debbie here
MuseForJews 