Google Apps webinar series for February

Are you interested in Learning how Google Docs can work for you?
• Communication – Enhance your school's/classroom's dialogue with shared calendars and integrated video chat.
• Collaboration – Google Docs and Google Sites enable students and teachers to share documents online, at any time and from any location.
In Google Docs , you can create word documents, (PowerPoint)presentations, (excel) type documents, forms, and quizzes.
Get Professional Development Credit for watching the webinars.
Learn how to use Google Apps in the classroom with a new bi-weekly webinar series lead by Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers.
Webinars will be held weekly on Tuesdays, 7:30PM ET and will also be recorded and archived.

Future webinar topics for this series include:
- Jan 25: Introduction to Forms in Google Docs -
https://google.webex.com/google/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=969555359
- Feb 1: Advanced forms in Google Docs -
https://google.webex.com/google/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=968743187
- Feb 8: Embrace your inner Einstein: Using Google Apps for the Google Science Fair Online - https://google.webex.com/google/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=961203885
- Feb 15: Managing Google Docs with your classroom -
https://google.webex.com/google/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=961914912
- Feb 22: Building a class site with Google Sites - https://google.webex.com/google/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=962684060

For more resources, check out the Google Apps for Education Online Training center at edutraining.googleapps.com. View recorded webinars in the Google Apps for Education Resource Center:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/resource_center.html

www.makeuseof.com has found seven websites that can help inspire your collaborate writing experiences. If you are looking to try something new and on line with your students, you might find one of the recommended websites. If you have used one of the sites before, maybe you could let your fellow teachers know what you thought.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-collaborative-storytelling-websites-weave-digital-stories/


How about ten interactive learning websites that feature fun and games with music.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-interactive-learning-websites-fun-games-music/

p2pu | Learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything

p2pu | Learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything
Some great "free" professional development courses. Worth taking a look at.

Peer 2 Peer University 2010 from P2P University on Vimeo.

Google Docs Adds Video Player | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Google Docs Adds Video Player | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Websites of Interest for World Language Teachers

Teaching Foreign language k-12 Workshop
http://www.learner.org/workshops/tfl/avel


Using the Destinos Series for teaching Spanish
Destinos
Travel the world with lawyer Raquel Rodríguez as she solves a mystery for a dying man. Watch the complete Destinos series, practice your Spanish, and find new resources for learning and teaching Spanish
http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/

Uploading and exporting - Play your video files in Google Docs

Uploading and exporting - Play your video files in Google Docs

khan Academy

Khan Academy was created so that students around the world would be able to acquire an education even if they could not get to a school. SAl Khan is the inovator of this project he states, "I teach the way that I wish I was taught. The lectures are coming from me, an actual human being who is fascinated by the world around him. The concepts are conveyed as they are understood by me, not as they are written in a textbook developed by an educational bureaucracy. Viewers know that it is the labor of love of one somewhat quirky and determined man who has a passion for learning and teaching. I don't think any corporate or governmental effort--regardless of how much money is thrown at the problem--can reproduce this.

A lot of my own educational experience was spent frustrated with how information was conveyed in textbooks and lectures. There would be connections in the subject matter that standard curricula would ignore despite the fact that they make the content easier to understand, enjoy, and RETAIN. I felt like fascinating and INTUITIVE concepts were almost intentionally being butchered into pages and pages of sleep-inducing text and monotonic, scripted lectures. I saw otherwise intelligent peers memorizing steps and formulas for the next exam without any sense of the intuition or big picture, only to forget everything within a matter of weeks. These videos are my expression of how the concepts should have been expressed in the first place, all while not compromising rigor or comprehensiveness.

Recently, I have been approached by teachers that have students that are not able to get to school because of medical reasons. I think that the Khan Academy video lessons can help students that can not get to classes and might need to practice at home. The website is http://khanacademy.org/.

Helping Reluctant Readers with Makebeliefscomix.com

Welcome to 2011. Here is a website for helping your reluctant writers.

Interested in using on line comic makers with your students? Read the following from the author of the website:

MakeBeliefsComix.com Adds 100-Plus Free Printables to Help Literacy Students Write, Read and Tell Stories

Posted by: "bill" williamezimmerman@yahoo.com williamezimmerman

Sun Jan 2, 2011 6:47 pm (PST)

Dear colleague,

As an author of interactive books to help young people find their writers' voices, I often am asked by educators and parents for help in reaching reluctant writers; With this goal in mind, I have added more than 100 free PRINTABLES on my online comic strip site, MakeBeliefsComix.com. Now you can print out, at no cost, interactive pages from my comic books to use for writing, reading, drawing and telling stories.

This enhanced MakeBeliefs PRINTABLES feature is the latest addition to the four year-old online educational comics site where educators and students from 180 countries come to build their own comic strips and practice language, writing and reading skills. The new printable pages are taken from my popular Make Beliefs books and drawn by cartoonist Tom Bloom, who illustrated the best-selling Children's Letters to God.

Now, a teacher or parent using the web site will be able to distribute graphic handouts to students in English-as-a-Second Language or literacy programs that ask for written or drawn responses to such imaginative questions as:

.Make believe you possessed a magic flying carpet. Where would your travels take you?

.Make believe you had a net to catch a favorite moment in your life. Which would it be?

.Imagine you could talk to your favorite book character. Who would that be? What would you say?

.Make believe that with the snap of your fingers you could change yourself. How or what would you become?

.Make believe you could create your own set of holidays. What would they celebrate?
For copies of these printables and more go to http://www.makebeliefscomix.com

The feature also offers comix templates using characters from the web site along with blank talk and thought balloons that students can fill with text to create their own comic strips.

Google and UNESCO selected MakeBeliefsComix.com as one of the world's most innovative web sites fostering literacy and reading --http://www.google.com/literacy/projects.html.

Users of MakeBeliefsComix.com make comics strips by selecting from 20 fun characters with different moods -- happy, sad, angry, worried -- and write words for blank talk and thought balloons to make characters talk and think. This site is used by educators to teach language, reading and writing skills, and also for students in ESL programs to facilitate self-expression and storytelling, as well as computer literacy. Some educational therapists use the online comics with deaf and autistic people to help them understand concepts and communicate. Parents and children can create stories together, print them to create comic books or email them to friends.

Please share MakeBeliefsComix.com with your colleagues, students, friends or readers of your publications and favorite listserv groups. We need your help -- it takes a community to build and nature a rich educational resource.

Sincerely

Bill Zimmerman
Creator, MakeBeliefsComix, and author, `'Your Life in Comics''

Welcome to Timberlane Tech Talk and welcome to 2011.

This new year I am going to start a weekly blog and send you websites and ideas that I think it will be worthwhile for helping to make your 21st century classes more collaborative and innovative.
Many people received technology devices for Christmas and Hanukkah. There are many apps available for your iPods, iPads, and Droids. Here is a website where you can get started with some free educational apps. http://www.appstoreapps.com/top-50-free-education-apps/

Many people also got laptops and Netbooks. If you have friends or family that live a distance from you, maybe you could Skype them. If you both have webcams, then you can do a video call for free from computer to computer. Now, you can even do conference calls while looking at who you are talking to.Wouldn't it be neat talk to and see your group of friends all at once. Go to Skype.com to try Video conferencing for free.
I will be glad to help you set it up and show you how to use it.

Enjoy your new technology.