If you regularly use flashcards to build your brainpower but find it too easy to cheat or just inadvertently see through the cards, reader Honda Wang uses QR codes for an inventive solution.

I finally found an applicable use of QR codes in education! Before I started using them for foreign language flashcards, it annoyed me that I could see the English word behind the card when I was studying. Now I can’t see the English word since it’s a QR code!

When he’s ready for the answer, he just scans the code with his phone. Not bad!

Looking for a place to make your own QR codes? Try previously mentioned QR Stuff or QR Code Generator.

Use QR Codes for Better Flashcards [via #tips]

To read more posts on this site about tag clouds, click here.

Here are some resources on the new generation of wordle-like website.  The difference is that many of these allow you to pick the shape (a person’s face, a heart, etc).

This list came from WhiteBoardBlog.com:

• http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm
• http://tagul.com/
• http://tagcrowd.com/
• http://worditout.com/
• http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/
• http://wordsift.com/

The following  info came from ClassroomNext

Tagxedo allows you to create custom pictures from words. The picture to the left is an image of Che Guevara and was created from the text of the Wikipedia article about him.

Go Check out the Tagxedo Gallery

Wordle is not affiliated with Tagxedo

THIS information came from Free4Teachers.com

Tagul is a free word cloud generator that offers one clear difference compared to other word cloud generators like Wordle. The difference between Wordle and Tagul is when you create a word cloud with Tagul, every word in your word cloud is linked to a Google search. Click on any word in your word cloud to be taken directly to a Google search results page for that word. Tagul creates a word cloud from text you copy into your Tagul account. Tagul will also generate a word cloud from any url you specify. Just as you can with other word cloud generators, Tagul allows you to specify words to ignore in creating your word clouds. Once your word cloud is created Tagul provides you with an embed code to put your cloud on your blog or website.

The conference was AMAZING!  We had just under 200 people. (Read below to learn why that is impressive.)  We have already discussed changes for next year’s conference.  We hope you will consider joining us.  Check RMWP.ORG for updates.

This conference schedule is a thing of great beauty.  You can now also download the conference program.

When I first started planning for this conference, I was told to expect around 30 people to show up.  As of today we have about 152 registered.  I am amazed at the support.  I have never done this before.  It has been eye-opening.If you are interested in hearing Kylene Beers and Bob Probst along with 12 other presenters speak, I would encourage you to come on down, over, or up to Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday (27 February 2010).Here is a link to the page where you can register: 21st Century Literacies Conference(I will remove the option to register at 11:59 p.m. the night before the conference.)

Google Fast Flip has been released. I will be using it in my classes tomorrow.  When you type in a topic, Fast Flip will find it major publications.  Click on each thumbnail to read the story.  This is a fast way to digest a large quantity of information.

Here are some plans I have for it over the next few weeks:

1. current event discussions
2. looking for examples of grammatical constructions
3. examining visual rhetoric
4. searching for logical fallacies
5. looking for vocabulary words in context

I would LOVE to know some of your ideas.  Please leave any you have in the comments.

I purchased a copy of Janet Allen’s Inside Words this summer at a workshop. Among the AMAZING activities in the book I discovered the Frayer Method. (Click HERE to see a demonstration of the Frayer method with vocabulary).

When I saw it, I immediately thought of how useful it would be to use this to teach voice/style within your students’ writing. If you had them fill out a graphic organizer like the one used with vocabulary above, you could really get them thinking about their own writing.

Then I started thinking about how useful it would be in teaching the differences between the literary periods I teach (everything from romanticism to modernism). Because the influence of these period is often subtle and lacking a strict definition, this will certainly be useful for me next year.

Anyway…this post was more for me than my readers. Just thought I’d share, though.

Here are some PDF worksheets that feature the Frayer methods:

What is the Frayer method?

Frayer Vocabluary PDF

The highly anticipated wolframalpha.com search engine has gone live. Since Lifehacker did such an awesome job posting about it, you can just read about it below. This is sure to change the web. I think it will best serve math and social studies, but it is also a great vocabulary and research tool.

How many football fields would fit between the Earth and the sun? What’s the likelihood of getting 2 heads in 10 coin flips? One search engine calculates all that on the fly and more.

Mathematician Stephen Wolfram’s much-hyped “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha just went public, and it’s got more than a few data nerds tickled absolutely pink (myself included). Walpha (as I affectionately call it) finds and visualizes real-world data points from natural language queries.

I’ve just spent the last couple of hours throwing every kind of data query I could think of at Walpha. Some of the results were incredibly useful, others baffling, and others just missing. Here are some of the fun facts I learned using Walpha’s calculations.

[Remember, these statistics do not apply to me (Ben). These are from lifehacker.com’s author.]

• I’m over 12,000 days old today. As a 33-year-old American female, my life expectancy is 81.54 years, which means I’ve got till April of 2057 to go, a mere 48 years from now.
• My 70-year-old mother has a longer life expectancy than I do, at 86.17 years. (This makes me wonder what’s wrong: Walpha or my search terms. Update: Actually, it’s neither. Several folks explain that because Mom has survived to see her 70th year, she has a higher likelihood of living longer. Following that, at 94 today, Grandpa’s expected to live till 97. Good news!)
• The oldest person in the world clocked in at 122 years old, though, so we all may have more time.
• It will take readers about three minutes to silently read the 450-word magazine article I spent all day today writing. (And yes, it was exactly a one-page, single-spaced document).
• One in almost 6,000 people have my first name; about 144,000 people alive today are named Gina. Compared to Jennifer and Mary, though, my name’s positively uncommon.
• San Diego county has a higher income per capita than Kings county (Brooklyn). Its unemployment rate is also higher.
• There have been more earthquakes near San Diego in the last five years than I actually felt.
• A Snickers bar has 14 grams of fat, more than a bag of milk chocolate M&M’s or a Twix bar (not combined).
• If a five-foot, seven-inch, 160-pound woman went running at 4MPH for 30 minutes, she’d burn 272 calories.
• The average 12-year-old girl today is around five feet tall.
• Both caffeine and aspirin have beautiful molecular structures.
• 55 mph is about 0.62 x speed at which Marty McFly needed to drive the Delorean DMC-12 in order to time travel (88 mph).
• Turns out she was right when I asked during an episode of The Deadliest Catch: On average, the Bering Sea is less than a mile deep.
• Apple’s bringing in more than half of Microsoft’s yearly revenue.
• As of yesterday, there are a total of 65 recorded deaths due to swine flu.
• Of my three favorite bridges, the Golden Gate is the longest.
• A woodchuck would chuck all the wood a woodchuck could chuck (if that woodchuck could chuck wood, of course).
• So that’s where a second cousin twice removed fits on the family tree.
• A flight from Palermo to Rome is about 30 minutes. The GDP of the US is 6.75 times that of Italy.
• At $25/hour, you make $200 per working day, and $50,000 per working year.
• Pi has a lot of digits. (Go ahead. Click the “more digits” link.)

from lifehacker.com

I showed you Brainyflix before, but I think I have switched my vote over to a new site called WordAhead.com.

I like Wordahead because it is more professional. Brainyflix has videos made by students, which can be a little distracting when the video is way out there.

Having said that, I am about to contradict myself: they do accept student videos. However, because most of the videos are made by the individuals in control of the site (at this point), it seems more professional. So, for those out there who want students to have the opportunity to create the videos (as with brainyflix.com) but also want the more serious vibe, Wordahead is the place for you.

HERE ARE SOME FEATURES I HOPE THEY ADD:
The ability to make lists of words you might need for a vocabulary unit
The ability to post these lists at another site (which they told me they are working on)
The ability to download them to smart phones, iphones and/or ipods
The ability to create accounts from which teachers can invite students to join their study page
Words that cater to the younger grades (I know it is for SAT prep, but a waterfall starts with the first drop)

As I have already stated, this site is very promising. The fact that they are in the beta stages of testing means that there will be a lot more cool features in the future. I would encourage you (and your students) to check it out.

Here is their widget: (If you want the code for your website, click here.)

This might interest your students. Brianyflix.com a site that features videos that explain the meaning of vocabulary words that appear in most vocabulary secondary vocabulary books and on the SAT.

The site is also having a contest, which you can read about below. The information below is directly from the site. Notice the incentives* below as well. Even if you don’t want to use the videos, or if youtube is blocked at your school, you can use the WORD LIST to see how the words are used in context.

Brainyflix.com is a site that features We’re trying to help kids prepare for the SAT by offering fun and free videos about SAT vocabulary, made by YOU!

We’re offering $600 in prize money to the video that receives the most number of votes. $200 of the payout will go to the maker(s) of the video and $400 to the class or school club of his/her choice.

And to make this viral, we’ll give out 1 free iTunes download for every 5 videos you submit or referrals you provide.*

Submit entries by March 16th, 2009. Brainyflix if you have questions.

*iTunes downloads available for first 1000 videos only.

Okay.  I almost hesitate to tell you about this, but because my students responded to it so well, I will anyway.

During an AP conference I attended last week a fellow teacher discussed a book she had called The Yo Mama Vocabulary Builder.  She said her students enjoyed the book to the point that it was eventually stolen from her room.

While I was listening to this I thought that a book wouldn’t be all that necessary.  Our students make fun of each others’ mothers all the time, right?  Anyway.  I decided I would try it out the next day in my class.

I was surprised to find that my students were pretty interested in it.  They found it challenging to come up with yo mama jokes for the whole list of vocabulary words (20), but in the end they did fairly well.  I had them work in groups and they received bonus points for each yo mama joke that contained each word while also conveying the true meaning of the word.  If your students need a break from your typical lesson on vocabulary, I would suggest it.

***Be sure to tell them to be school appropriate.

This morning I stumbled across an interesting site that showcased a fun little study guide that anyone can build in about an hour. The plus side to this is that you get to teach/learn a little about circuitry in the process. For students who are a little more interested in science, this might be a way to get them to become interested in vocabulary, math or history.

You could even do this with:
grammar rules
vocabulary
chronology in stories
character traits
chemistry: elements
formulas
science vocabulary
science facts
math equations
math formulas
history time lines
history definitions
historic figures

Check it out:

This week’s project combines some rudimentary circuitry and any subject your child needs a little extra practice in. I would file this with my “Better Than Worksheets” instructional series on drill and practice had I ever created such a series.

The word circuit is obviously historically related to the word circle. Webster’s 1828 defines it thus:

The act of moving or passing round; as the periodical circuit of the earth round the sun, or of the moon round the earth.

Modern technology may have brought some more specific application to the world, but the meaning has not changed much. Circuitry allows electricity to travel around in a circle to do work. Here, we are going to make a simple circuit board that can serve to allow your child to practice any skill that can be answered in a yes/no or multiple choice format. In this case, it will be multiplying by four.

Materials:

file folder (with the open edge trimmed so both sides are th same size and shape)
hole punch
marker
masking tape
aluminum foil
circuit tester

1. Punch holes. You will need two rows of holes. One for each question and one for each answer.

2. Write the problems along one side and the possible answers on the other.

3. Open the folder. On the back side of the side you wrote the problems and solutions, lay a strip of foil between a problem and the correct answer. This is the basis of your circuit board. Fold the ends over the hole and make sure the hole is completely covered by the foil. Insulate with masking tape. Make sure none of the foil is showing on the back side.

4. Continue until all the answers are connected to their problems by a strip of aluminum foil insulated by masking tape. The back will look kind of messy, but that is ok. No one will see it, anyway.

5. Close the file folder. We do a set of problems on each flap, make the circuit board and then tape the folder closed. This helps protect the work.

6. Use the circuit tester to work the problems:

Oops. The circuit was not completed, so the tester did not light up. Try again!

Yeah! She got the problem right, the circuit was completed and the tester lit up.

Caution: When you look for a circuit tester, some contain lead. These are not intended as children’s toys. We searched and found one without lead, but still require our daughter to wash her hands after using it.

THIS POST WAS TAKEN FROM PRINCIPLEDDISCOVERY.COM, A SITE ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING.

In an effort to raise the bar on my tests, I have sought to make my questions more like those found on AP tests.  I want my students to learn in preparation for the tests, but I also want them to learn FROM the tests.  However, the problem I am experiencing is a lack of knowledge of academic vocabulary.

ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
By academic vocabulary I do not mean words you would likely encounter at each grade level (which is mostly what I get when I google “academic vocabulary”). Rather, I mean the vocabulary test-makers use to craft the questions. Those verbs are what often trip students on such assessments. Since they were difficult to find, I decided to add some of the good stuff I found here on this page.

This list comes from the English Companion (by Jim Burke). It is a list of 350+/- words that one might encounter on an assessment. (Even teachers looking for new words to use in objectives on their lesson plans should check these out.) I don’t think it would be a problem to start off 1st graders on many of these words. What a great list! Thanks Jim Burke!

Test Practice sites (worth your time and for all content areas):
The College Board, which created the AP curriculum, I think, provides some well written free response questions that could easily be adapted for the lower level grades.

Here is a GREAT site for teaching students how to preform at the AP and Pre-AP levels. It has a lot of great links. I will definitely be putting this on my bookmark toolbar!

Of course, I cannot leave out WebEnglishTeacher.com out of the mix. At this link you will find ALL things English. This particular link just deals with AP, but just check out their home page for more great materials on just about anything.

For those looking for practice tests on a variety of subjects, you should check out THIS site. By looking at it, it was created a long time ago, but if you click enough times, you will find some really useful test practice materials. Again, I will say that half of the 100 or so sites do not work, but those that do seem pretty good.
This is for the writing assessment used in Florida called the FCAT (Otownteacher, this might interest you). Click on the drop down menu at the BOTTOM of the page to get a curriculum teaching elementary students how to break down the prompts. The test practice is broken down into weeks. After looking at them, I have found that they would be applicable to all states.

BEFORE YOU READ THIS:

If you do not know what a digital pen is, you can simply scroll down to the bullet points below (or click HERE to read about the Logitech Digital Pen). It writes just like a real pen, but it stores what you wrote so you can plug the pen into your computer  and upload it to a document.

MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL

I have recently considered investing in a new piece of technology that would help with digital portfolios.  If you wanted to keep a catalog of a students’ mistakes, but did not want to double your workload, you could purchase one of these pens.  Once you finish writing in the margins you could save that data to add it to your digital portfolio (a word document for that student).

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

As you grade assessments that require a progression of improvement (i.e. spelling tests, etc.), you can make corrections in the margins that will later be uploaded to your computer from the pen.

IEP/SPECIAL ED. SUGGESTIONS:

You could also have students who have IEPs get notes from other students.  I guess this would be an expensive version of the carbon copy paper.

TIP (though I haven’t used one yet): I guess you would have to keep a pad  next to your stack of papers to write to jot down the name of each student as you begin grading their papers.  The reason is because when you upload the list of notations made by your digital pen, you wouldn’t know where one students paper began and another ended.  By reaching over and jotting down the name of the student each time (and drawing a line across the page, perhaps, you would be telling the pen to do the same on the document when you upload the data.

MORE INFO

For more information about this pen (there are many different versions out there), read the information below:

• What is it? You write with the pen in the notebook.  The pen has ink.  The notebook is real paper.  What’s new?  The pen uses an optical sensor to store everything you write.  Even once the pen is separated from the paper, it stores the pages you have written.  When you are ready to upload, you place the pen in it’s USB-linked cradle and it uploads in one click of the mouse.  Now everything that was written down is on your computer.
• Cost?  Retail is $149.95 for a pen and notebook.  Of course, you can find it for a little cheaper if you look around on the Internet.  You can get several sizes of notebooks.  I was able to purchase six standard-paper sized notebooks for under $25 after some digging.
• Technical Requirements?  Pen, cradle, notebook, io software.  This all comes packaged together.  To my knowledge, this product does not work on Macs.  The pen “package” does come with many ink cartridge refills.  I used the pen for four months in six hours per week of class before it needed a refill.
• How could we use this technology in the hybrid or traditional classroom?  Every day that we meet for my hybrid (part Internet, part classroom) Intermediate Algebra class, a different student takes notes using the digital pen and notebook.  They take the notes with them, I take the pen with me and upload that day’s notes to the web site.  Very quickly, we established the rule that those students that have been absent are the ones that should step forward to be note-takers, since they get the greatest benefit.
• How could we use this technology in the online classroom?  If the technology gets cheaper, or the student could get many semesters of use out of the pen, we could use this technology to have students “show their work” for problems requiring sophisticated use of notation or graphs.
• How could we use this technology in our professional lives?  The obvious use of this setup is for those folks who are not trained to create graphs or equations using a computer, but need to be able to communicate such figures using a computer.  You can attach the jpg file to an email and send your response to a question quite quickly.
• Wish list for this technology?   I would like an easier way to convert from the proprietary .pen files to pdf files.  Right now the conversion is .pen to .jpg (using the pen software) to .pdf using Adobe Acrobat Standard.  A cheaper setup cost would also be great to get mass use for students in online math classes.  Also pen software that works with Macs would be a plus.

(The bottom half of this article was taken from THIS site.  To read more click HERE, which is where the picture above was found.)