How 2 have a private teacher phone line

This wonderful, FREE, web-based service is intended to help people consolidate lots of phone numbers into one that always stays the same.

That is nice, but that is not what I think makes Google Voice an absolute must-have for a teacher.

I just signed up for my google voice phone number. With a little bit of trying, I managed to find a local-area code number available that spells out "mrs. w" after the prefix - SCORE!!!

Within a few minutes, I had:

1. added my school email to my google account as an alternate email
2. linked the google voice phone number to my school email
3. set the settings so that my mobile phone will NOT ring when incoming calls happen unless I click to activate the ring-through and so that any voice mails will be transcribed and sent to my school email.

I'm not at home now, but I'll add my home land-line number to the account when I am (also without ring-through).

WHAT THIS MEANS:

1. I have a phone number that I can freely give to students, parents, etc. I can even generate a clickable badge for my website that will allow someone to type me a text message if they do happen to be on a computer.
2. Parents who don't have a computer or easy access can still send me an email by calling and leaving a voice mail message that will be transcribed and sent to my school account.
3. I can choose to receive calls from school during hours I choose. For now, I'm going to decide as I go, but I can forsee establishing "office hours" at key times when I will be availble to answer calls (like the night before a big test or on prom night).
4. I can make a phone call to a parent without sending my personal phone number to anyone using caller ID. What I do instead is I sign in to my google voice account, type in the phone number and google calls me and then the number. The person I'm calling sees my google number on caller ID.
5. I will finally feel comfortable making as many phone calls as I know I should be making.

I haven't even started using this (other than a few test calls) and it is already one of my very favorite things for the new school year.

Go - right now - and sign up for GOOGLE VOICE

How 2 be techy when you're not

This is a great shared google-docs presentation intended for teachers who want to start using techy stuff but don't know where to begin.

How 2 start your first web 2.0 class project

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the variety of web 2.0 tools out there, and even easier to become terrified by what looks like a very complicated and potentially hazardous frontier undertaking.

So why not stand on the shoulders of pioneers?




This is a FREE e-book with dozens and dozens of classroom-tested ideas. Pick one! Try it tomorrow!

How 2 Pick your next book

It's not all about work - and a common passtime for teachers is leisure reading. But how do you pick your next book, or how can you break yourself out of your comfort zone?

WhichBook is the website for you!



The default option gives you a number of characteristics - you can choose up to five by clicking on them and then moving the slider that will appear before clicking GO! and you'll get a list of books and audiobooks that match your settings.

The character, plot and setting choices are even cooler! Look at your choices:

You can filter for a character with a number of characteristics:


Common plot device:


Setting gives you an interactive globe that includes the location "Imaginary":

Once your list of suggestions is generated, there are "borrow" links next to them - but if you click on one, you'll see that they are intended for users in England only. That doesn't mean the rest of us can't use the list function anyway!

How 2 Memorize Things

HeadMagnet

I just came across this site. Haven't played with it much, but it has way better features than any other computer-based flashcard game I've ever seen.

• lots of customization possibilities
• uses pictures and words
• saves lists for later
• ANALYZES YOUR PERFORMANCE (wow)
• keeps track of things you miss and makes you practice them more often (wow)
  
• share lists with others (wow)
• free (always good)
  

Clearly there are a lot of opportunities for teachers. Personally, I think I'll make use of the names-and-faces template the next time I start a new activity....maybe I will finally rid myself of the embarrasing hole in my head where names fall out!

how 2 be inspired...

two videos - both express a lot of what gets me out of bed and to work every day.

How 2 create customized graphic organizers

Educational research involving multiple intelligences and many accommodations requirements for students with disabilities suggest using graphic organizers to help students organize terms visually.

The problem comes when the students get so caught up in the mechanics of constructing the things that the lesson gets lost.

Meanwhile, the word processor that you probably use to create most of your handouts just isn't set up to create all of those diagrams in a useful way.

Fear not, gentle reader..........www.worksheetworks.com is a free website that contains, among other things, a plethora of customizable graphic organizer worksheets.

You just click on the style you want to use, enter the terms the students need to use and/or tell the site how many spaces you need and the site will generate a pdf file of your completed worksheet. You can print it, post it to your class website, and share it with your colleagues. Remember that pdf files are readable on literally any computer.

How 2 make your brain explode with possibilities

Ramussen College in Minnesota recently published a list of

100 Apps for Tech-Savvy Teachers

and I thought I knew a few things about educational tech........oh my

How 2 create a self-playing webquest

Teachers often create lists of websites they want their students to use for a project - but the challenge becomes: how do you get the students to go to those sites, not wander all over the internet, and not get frustrated by the challenges of typing in a bunch of addresses when the internet is very unforgiving of type-o's?

Enter "Furly", which can be found at www.fur.ly


You can enter any number of addresses - each time you click on the field to enter one, the next empty field appears. When you're done, click GO.

The website will give you a very short url like this one --> http://fur.ly/e63

When a student enters this short url, they will see your first site with a navigation controls bar across the top that allows them to click back and forth among the list of sites in your list.

Go ahead and try the one I created to see what it's like. The address is permanent, at least it is as permanent as anything on the internet is...

It would be a very easy thing to require students to only work in your list of pre-approved sites, and very easy to monitor by looking for the orange navigation bar across the top.