Mapeas- Interactive Current Events Browsing

Mapeas is an interactive way to browse Current Events around the world.  Different types of markings are placed on a world map.  The smaller the marker, the older the news.  The numbers on each marker tell how many stories will open/expand under that particular marker.  If you see a Sports Marker with a number 6 on it on Indianapolis, then 6 sports stories will open up/expand when you click that marker. 

The news is updated from the Assosciated Press, ABC, Fox, NBC & More.  Each news event is normally a video report from a local news station.  This helps make Mapeas a fantastic resource for your visual learners and/or learners with special needs.

There are different types of markers for different topics of news (Business, Entertainment, Science, Sports,etc).  Mapeas would be a great resource to help your students quickly find Current Events stories or direct them to finding news stories in a specific country or region. 




Check out Mapeas Today!
http://mapeas.com/

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Chemistry Games on Sheppard Software!

Sheppard Software is a great site that offers many different learning games covering a plethora of topics and subject matter.  One of my Social Studies Teaching Colleagues uses the sites States and Capitals games to help his classes study for their Geography Tests.  One of the neat sections of their site that would be a great connection to your Chemistry lessons would be their Chemistry Games Page. 

The Sheppard Software Chemistry Games Page features 8+ games covering the Elements and the Periodic Table.  These games vary in levels of difficulty that you can choose.  If you are looking for a resource to help your students study the Elements and the Periodic table, or a simply resource to extend your classroom lessons, check out the Chemistry Games page on Sheppard Software.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Elementsgames.htm

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Grapholite - Create Custom Graphic Organizers and Charts

Grapholite is a very slick online Graphic Organizer and Flow Chart creator.  The site is very simple to use and has a plethoria of shapes, arrows, tools, colors, and more to customize your organizers any way you want.

The site has a demo mode that allows you to use the tools without signing up or signing in.  However, you will need to sign up for an account to save or print your work.

This is a site that is very easy to use, but offers a lot of tools and templates to help you create that perfect graphic organizer for your classroom lesson. 

I would recommend Grapholite more for teachers and instructors than to be used by students since you do need to sign up to save your work.  However, if you are tired of creating your graphic organizers in Word or Open Office, give Grapholite a look.

https://grapholite.com

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Jeopardy Labs - Create Jeopardy Style Review Games that students can access anywhere!

Jeopardy Labs - Jeopardy Labs is an interactive website that allows you to make Jeopardy Style Review Games that students can access online, anywhere.  You and your students do NOT have to have PowerPoint to use Jeopardy Labs. 

You can very easily create a quiz without even signing up for an account and for FREE.  Or you can create an account to get easy access to all of your quizzes and games.  However, to create an account, you need to donate at least $1 via paypal.  I simply chose the free option and have not had any issues.

For the free account, all you have to do is create a password so you can log in later and change/edit your game.  When you play the game, you can have up to 12 different teams duke it out in a game of Jeopardy.  You can even use the built in scoring system to keep the score for each team.

Check out Jeopardy Labs today for a cool way to review and study for your classroom curriculum.  I have even post a Final Review Jeopardy Game that I use with my 6th Graders.  You will find the link below.

Check out Jeopardy Labs - http://jeopardylabs.com/

Check out my 6th Grade Applied Skills Jeopardy Review - http://jeopardylabs.com/play/applied-skills-final-exam

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STOP Cyberbullying - An easy to read, easy to navigate resource for Cyberbullying information.

STOP Cyberbullying is the "free cyberbullying toolkit" created by Wired Safety.  I have taken Cyberbullying very seriously the past few years with my students studying not just what it is and why it happens, but also, how to stop it and prevent it. My students have to create Internet Safety Posters pertaining to Cyberbullying, as well as, create Anti-Cyberbullying Comic Books. 

STOP Cyberbullying is a site that I share with my students who need to know the basics of Cyberbullying.  The site does a nice job of explaining what cyberbullying is, how it is done, why people cyberbully, prevention tips, how to take action, and laws pertaining to cyberbullying.

I am not going to say that Wired Safety's STOP Cyberbullying page is the greatest resource for cyberbullying information you can find.  However, it is a very easy to navigate resource with easy to read information for your students.  I recommend this site to my students researching cyberbullying, in addition to, several other sites I will share on this blog at a later date.

Check out Wired Safety's STOP Cyberbullying Toolkit and see if it can fit into your classroom Cyberbullying discussions. 

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org

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Picnik - Fast Free Browser Based Photo Editing without having to sign up!

Picnik is one of the better browser based photo editing sites that you will find.  Browser based means that Picnik simply runs in your web browser and does not have to be downloaded and installed on your computer.  One of the best featueres of Piknik is you do not have to sign up and use it's photo editing features.

We are currently working on our "Rap It Up" Cummulative Group Project in my class.  One part of the project has my students creating posters for their rap groups to hang around the school.  Picnik has been a huge hit with my 6th Grade Computer Class because of the dozens and dozens of effects you can easily apply to any image you upload.  They can even add multiple effects and filters by layering them over the top of each other for even MORE cool customizations. 

When my students are done, they can very easily save their edited photo back to their computer.  Again, students do not need to sign up or use an email address to use this site. 

There are Premium Features (which include many more filters and photo effects) that you can upgrade to by paying a small fee.  However, we have found the free resources on Picnik to be more than enough for our photo editing needs!

If you ever need a quick resource for your students to crop, resize, flip, re-color, or add cool effects and filters to their photos, check out Picnik:

http://www.picnik.com/


Below are some of the examples a student and I have created with Picnik:

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