Teacher Tube - My Site

Teacher Tube has launched MySite. This site is not a free service. However, if found useful to you it may be worth the $99 a year for 20 members. They also have an alternate option that is $5 per user, if you have more than 20 users.
MySite allows you to have your own version of teacher tube that contains content from your school. You can post your class videos, documents, and even audio recordings. Through MySite you have the ability to approve, add and upload.

MySite can be used to create a site for your school or your classroom, in a safe setting. There are many features for you to choose from that will allow customization of your site. Best of all, these sites are AD FREE and contain only your educational media content.

To get started click on the "get started" button. The site will request payment, and then you can begin your customized MySite.

Myebook - Movie Making for Kids

This is a cute Myebook that I discovered about movie making for kids.

This book guides children through tips on how to hold the camera, how to stand when holding a camera, and even encourages children to try different things to make their movies dynamic.

Myebook is a site that allows you to create and share ebooks online for free. Visit their, take a tour page, to learn more.

Print Friendly

Print Friendly is another great resource that I learned about from the Free Technology for Teacher's Site.

Print Friendly allows you to make any page print friendly, by simply copying and pasting the url into print friendly. According to their web site, PrintFriendly makes printing on the web better and you'll save paper and ink, plus get great looking documents.

Print Friendly has a useful about page that includes a short video on how to use the site. In the video, they show how a 16 page document was reduced to only 4 print friendly pages.

BrainPOP Jr.- Kindergarten Registration Time

BrainPOP Jr. is featuring a movie about Kindergarten. This movie helps students learn about how to get ready for Elementary School and what to expect in Kindergarten. This can be a useful movie to show during the first week of school or during Kindergarten registration.

How -To Tuesday - Wordle

Wordle is a fun, and visually appealing, web-based tool that you can use to help your students examine word choice. Wordle generates word clouds from text you provide, a url, or even a del.icio.us username's tags. The word cloud allows writers to see the words that are used most frequently throughout the text.

This tool can help students examine their own writing. Through an evaluation of their writing students can be encouraged to use words that will help in expressing their ideas clearly and help them choose words that will suit their intended audience.

Here are a few examples of how Wordle can be used.

This is the Wordle that I created of Educational Snippets Blog. By evaluating this Wordle, I can clearly see that I use the words "Bingo" and "words" frequently when writing blog posts. Now, I can make a goal for myself to choose alternative words instead of "words". I can also see that perhaps I have written a few too many posts about Bingo. :)


This Wordle below is a word cloud of my del.icio.us tags. You can get a quick glimpse of my interests by examining this Wordle. If my interests match yours you can decide of I am someone that you may want to have in your del.icio.us network.
This is a Wordle of a First Grade student's writing.

Here is the original piece: Let me tell you about persuasion. It is fun. It hard to do. You need to change someone's mind. Now you know more about persuasion.

Here is the Wordle:The student can examine this word cloud to see if there are any words that are used too frequently in this piece of writing.

What other ways could Wordle be used? How are you using Wordle in your classroom? Please leave a commnet!

How -To Tuesday - Find Safe Sites for Children

Little Clickers is a central location that contains sites that are safe for your students to visit. The sites located here are appropriate for students ages 3 to 12 years old.

The topics on the site range from Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bubblegum to Learn About Satellites.

Fun facts are dispersed throughout the site. I learned that the invention of bubble gum was an accident. Also bubble gum was made pink because it was the only color of food coloring in the factory the day Walter Diemer invented bubblegum.

Visit Little Clickers and learn new entertaining facts and valuable information yourself!

Special thanks to Larry Ferlazzo's Website of the Day For teaching ELL, ESL. & EFL, for posting the link to this site.

Sound Effects

This post is another student requested post. Rafael wants to know where to get sound effects from the internet. Below you will find links to sites that have free sound effects.

Podcasting-Tools.com has a selection of royalty free sound effects. If you scroll down the page, you will be able to select from a number of sound effect categories. You are sure to find what you are looking for here.


I Love Wavs has a large collection of sound effects. There is a special section with kid songs. I also enjoyed the section with animal noises.

There are many resources online with sound effects. However, these two sites should be a good starting point for all of the Rafaels out there. :)

How -To Tuesday - Vocabulary Bingo

You can us the traditional Bingo template to help students review vocabulary words.

Follow these steps:

1. Create customized Bingo cards using the teAchnology site. Scroll down towards the bottom of the page to enter your own words. You can enter 25 words different words or repeat a few words several times.


2. After you have entered words in all 25 spaces, click on the Free Bingo Space button. Your card will then be generated. Now you can print your customized Bingo Cards. If you want to move the words around on the Bingo card to make more cards, you can click on shuffle words.


3. To play the game, read off definitions of the vocabulary words to the students. They can cover a spot on their bingo card with the word that corresponds with the correct definition. You can play 5 in-a-row Bingo or blackout bingo if you want the students to hear the definitions a number of times.

Measurment Resources

We have begun to learn about measurement in our classroom. This week we focused on using a ruler and measuring with inches. Next week we will also learn about measuring weight and volume.

Here are a few measurement resources.

Measurement Slide Show
This is a slide show that shows how to measure. There are several slide shows to choose from including, non-standard measurement and measuring weights.

We are using lesson 4, customary measurement. This slide show shows how to use a ruler correctly.

Fun Brain has a few measurement games to choose from. The games are categorized by centimeters and inches. The games are also leveled by easy, medium, hard, and there is even a superbrain game. This will help with differentiation of lessons or allow you to choose a more difficult game as you progress with the lesson.

The Ruler Game
This is a Ruler Game. In this game, the students will click on the given increments.