Teachers+Toolbox

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Cool Tools For Schools http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/ Lenva Shearings collation of web2 tools and resources

Ten Terrificic Tools http://timesavers.wikispaces.com/ And some time Saving Tips and Tricks

[] There are so many outstanding websites for use by educators in the classroom, sometimes it's hard to know where to start. This website lists some web 2.0 favorites.
 * Cool websites - 21st Century School Teacher **

[] A place where kids can enter their own spelling lists which are used to create a variety of fun drill activities from the words. Useful homework tool.
 * Spelling City **

**Captain Curiosity Teacher Lab** [] This is technically a blog but I've put it here as it is set up as a resource for busy teachers around the topic of science. Lots of great stuff here that you could use in your own classrooms.

[] Upload images to this tool to create a range of slideshows from the images. I like the quiz slideshow where kids can build quiz questions that overlay the images and people can guess their answer while watching the slideshow. You can see the joke quiz I had a go at making at [] The other kind of slideshow options are good as well. Can be embedded into blogs or wikis afterwards. media type="custom" key="4246119"
 * PhotoPeach **

** Tricks, Tips and Web 2.0 Tools **
[|Wallwisher] is an online application which acts as an online post-it stickies maker. You can make announcements, keep notes, start a conversation in a noticeboard using text, images, sound and video. Just click-write-post it. If you're a person who like using Stickies or Post-its, then this is a web tool for you. [] > */ > height:0px; > visibility:hidden; > display:none > }
 * Getting rid of the Nav bar on Blogger**
 * Go into customise
 * Click the Edit HTML tag
 * After this part of the code: * Updated by Blogger Team
 * Add: #navbar-iframe {
 * Preview to check it looks right

Photo Manipulating Programmes
[|Pop Art Studio] Pop Art Studio 4.1 is a very easy to use graphics editing software. It supports BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and PSD (Photoshop) formatted images. Pop Art Studio contains many Andy Warhol effects and the famous Roy Lichtenstein effect. The program provides an endless selection of text and drawing tools, filters and color adjustment capabilities.

[|Paint.NET] is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP. You need to install the .NET Framework. There are links and easy instructions from the site for [|Pop Art Studio] for this. There are also free [|Paint.NET] plugins. Unpack the zip files and place the .dll into the Paint.NET 'Effects' directory.

[|The GIMP] The GIMP is a photo manipulation tool. It is suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.

Avatars
Do you want to create your own online Avatar? There are many examples to choose from take a look...... http://thetoolbox.wikispaces.com/Avatars

Quikmaps
Lets you mark satellite, terrain or map images from Google with lines, markers and comments- and save it for use later. [|www.quikmaps.com]

YouTube Starting Place
YouTube allows you to start the video at a specific time/place by adding a piece of code to the URL (i.e., “Check out 1:50 of the way in!”) will create a link that will take any reader to the corresponding place within the clip.
 * Simply add ‘#t 1m50s’ to the end of a URL on YouTube** (without the apostrophes included), and with any numbers of your choosing to replace the counts for minutes and seconds. For example, if it’s a spot three minutes and fifteen seconds into a video that you want to focus on, #t3m15s would be the appropriate tag to affix to the URL. Here is the link to the site where this information came from. [|YouTube Lets You Get Picky with Video Playback Timestamp - Mashable]


 * Blog links **
 * Royalty Free Music and Images - Mathew Needleman**http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/?p=405This blog is from an elementary teacher in the US who also trained in video production before becoming a teacher. His blog is packed with useful link lists and ideas for the classroom. This list of places to get music to use for movie soundtracks and free images is VERY comprehensive and very useful.

** Digital Story Telling Useful Links** 50 Ways to Tell A Story : CooDogRoo [|Educational Uses of Digital Story Telling] [|Window Movie Maker Tutorials] Links from Suzie Vesper
 * Resources**

** Simple Box **
A way to visually organise web content. [|http://simplybox.com/index/video]

Exploratree
This free tool from FutureLab allows you to choose from the library of ready-made thinking guides, or to make your own. You can change and customise them, using text, shapes, and images, then send, print or work collaboratively with others. It pays to register so that you have the saving option and can build your own set of templates or plans. http://www.exploratree.org.uk/

Online Tutorials
The Google Tutor is packed with tips on how to use most Google tools[|http://www.googletutor.com]/

Blogging Safely
Follow these step-by-step instructions to remove the 'nav-bar/next blog' bar from your class blog. This will prevent your students from accessing blogs that may not be appropriate. Thanks [|Rachel Boyd] for these user-friendly instructions.

[|Keepvid]
I found this link for downloading videos on Rocky's [|Top Tools For Educators] This PDF gives instructions for using Keepvid and downloading videos from YouTube etc, then it gives a link to download a FLV Player so that you can view them easily just from your computer.


 * __ Moving a Google Site out of an Educational Domain __**

They have added a new copy feature to Google Sites that allows a site to be moved from an educational domain into a personal account. This is a vital feature if you were going to try to use Google Sites to facilitate e-portfolios. Instructions below. (Thankyou to Heather Stafford - google groups)

Note: The following set of instructions assume that the user has two Google accounts which include an account from within the ed domain as well as a personal Google account. __Steps to take place under the Educational Domain:__ 1. To begin, open the site from within the educational domain. 2. Go to More Actions à Manage Site. 3. Select the “Sharing” option under site settings. 4. In the section titled “Invite people to join site as owner” type in the email address of the personal account. This will be the new owner. 5. Make selections under Advanced Permissions as needed. 6. Click Invite these people. This will send an email to the account listed above which will include a link to the sites current location under the ed domain. __Steps to take place in the personal Google account:__ 1. Open Google account and Gmail to view the link to the account we just shared. 2. This will take you to the Ed Domain log in page. At the bottom of the sign in section there is an option to “Sign in with a different account”. Enter the personal account log in and password here. 3. Once you are logged in, open the site and click the More Actions --> Manage Site options. 4. Select the General option. 5. At the bottom of the screen in the Site Actions Section there is now an option to Copy this Site. Select this. 6. Type in the site name and take note of the new URL which should read: 7. [] site name here) 8. Click the button to Copy Site. __To remove the school account as an owner of the site:__ Go to More Actions --> Sharing and remove the school account as an owner of the site. At any point the school site can now be deleted.

SlideShare Tip
- removing link to random slideshares when you have embedded in your wiki or blog. Thanks to the Virtual North Cluster (and Dorothy Burt) for sharing this tip about Slideshare and combating the recent link to other random presentations and advertising. I know some of you in our cluster have mentioned using slideshare to embed presentations in your class blog and have been worried about the implications.

** Blabberize **
[|http://www.blabberize.com] simple, fun and effective! Just upload a picture of a face, mark the keypoints of the mouth, and record the audio. It creates a simple animation of the mouth moving to the sound of the voice. media type="custom" key="661565" width="74" height="77"

[|**Glogster**]
Use 'Glogster for Educators' to ensure appropriate content: http://www.glogster.com/edu This very funky application allows users to express themselves by creating a multi-media poster. Your own media as well as that contained in the globster library can be used. Very user-friendly application with heaps of tools available. Students could use globster to express their understanding of a concept such as well-being or sustainability. Well worth a play.

[|Kerpoof]
This free programme was produced by scholastic and is ideal for primary students to create original artwork, animated movies, greeting cards … The Kerpoof library contains heaps of ready-to-use objects and characters. It also provides tools for students to create new content from scratch. The Kerpoof Teacher’s Page: [|http://www.kerpoof.com/teach has lots of ideas for curriculum integration. Voice Threads [|http://voicethread.com] imported images into a media presentation. Record audio/add text annotations. Others can add voice and comments as well. See also [|VoiceThreads in the Classroom] and [|Allanah's instructions for use]. Click the right arrow to scroll through the VoiceThread. Click the thumbnails to view all slides. Click a slide to zoom in. To listen to each voice click the 'Play" button. If you would like to add a comment or ask a question click the record button. You will be asked to register or login to VoiceThread first.

Sketchcast http://sketchcast.com/Record a series of drawings with or without audio, and play back as video in your web site or blog

Recording with a Webcam http://www.flixn.com/ Record directly from your Webcam- easy to upoad to Blogs and Wikis. Just don't leave the camera running!

Creating Virtual characters with voice http://www.voki.com/ **Voki** is a website that lets you create an animated avatar that you can customize and supply your own voice to or use one on their list.

Have you checked out the **new video loader on Blogger**? This feature allows you to upload videos and create a video podcast with the same ease that is currently provided with photo uploading.

[|Mathletics] the next generation in learning, helping students enjoy maths and improve their results.
 * Mathletics** covers Kindergarten to Year 12.

[|Big Huge Labs] New Flicker tools to try!

[|Oscope] - A great visual search tool for sites like ebay, You Tube, flicker etc.


 * Comic Life** -- free trial version. This is a cool little document publishing program. http://plasq.com/downloads/

Educational Software Online Applications and Web2 tools