Written on 10:38 PM by Ur English Teacher

Students have a BLAST practicing Math Facts at http://www.worldmathday.com
(From urenglishteacher who never enjoyed math much . . . )


See them on the EDGES of their seats?



This student is waiting to see which country her next competitor will be from.



Today we had the privilege of visiting Mary Ellen Bryant's 4th grade class at Bush Elementary; however, her students were so enthralled by what they were doing, they didn't even notice we were there. Was it geography? Was it social studies? Was it math? Was it a game? It was ALL of the above! World Math Day allows students to compete with other classes/schools/kids all over the world. Mary Ellen said it was EXTREMELY easy to set up and it is completely free. She anticipated the students would play for 30 minutes and then be ready to move on, but over an hour later, their excitement was still spilling over. The contest is appropriate for students aged 5-18. I saw some students doing difficult multiplication and some doing addition.
From the site:
"The students play against each other in mental arithmetic games. Students are captivated by the fact that they are playing in real time. Each game lasts for 60 seconds, students can play as many games as they wish. The questions are appropriately leveled for different ages and abilities. . . ."

Check out the "Newseum"

Written on 8:59 PM by Ur English Teacher

The Newseum: Today's Front Pages


Thanks Mr. Tooke from Wilkerson Intermediate for sharing this great find: An
interactive map with the front pages of newspapers from around the world. See how it works here:
http://screencast.com/t/aMBc446Q It's a fast and interactive way to get a cultural view on what makes news where.

Cooliris is REALLY Cool . . .

Written on 7:53 PM by Ur English Teacher

Credit for this find must go to Dustin Hornsby who told me about this MONTHS
ago. I looked at it and thought "yeah, that is cool," but it wasn't until today when I
used it on the big screen with a
Mimio* that I FULLY appreciated exactly how COOL
Cooliris is. Check out the search engine that "Transforms your browser into a lightning
fast, cinematic way to discover the Web."

See a preview of it and/or download it here: http://www.cooliris.com/

*What's a Mimio? It's a device that turns any surface into an interactive area when used with a computer and LCD projector. It eliminates the need for bulky, expensive interactive boards like Smart, Numonics, or Promethean (all great products, but who has the $ or space?)

How to use Photo Story on Vista

Written on 9:50 AM by Ur English Teacher

I've spent a lot of time trying to find a program/web 2.0 tool like Photo Story that will work on my Vista OS computer. There are hundreds of great web 2.0 slideshow tools out there, but none of them I've found so far have ALL the elements I love so much about Photo Story 3 for some purposes. So, here's how you can make it work. Enjoy!