Technology Gems, Ideas, and Facts

Friday, Oct. 16, 2009

Gem ~ a website or application that might work well for you or your students

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) is a collection of teaching and learning resources from a variety of entities including the National Park Service and PBS. Click on a subject area to explore what’s available. The site also has an RSS feed, so you can subscribe and be informed automatically when new resources are added. (http://www.free.ed.gov/index.cfm)

Idea ~ a way to enhance your LFS lessons with technology

Have you taken a look at Inspiration or Kidspiration lately? This software is available on all our student Macs across the district (Inspiration for 6-12; Kidspiration for K-5). The software allows you to quickly and easily create a wide variety of graphic organizers including lots of graphics for all curricular areas. Print them out or save the file for students to use electronically. Click here for some links to sites that offer ideas for using Inspiration and Kidspiration in the classroom. (http://delicious.com/areardon222/Inspiration_Kidspiration)

Fact ~ just a bit of information

Several teachers have asked me about this lately, so I thought I’d share it here. JourneyEd offers great deals on software for PA educators and students. There are limits on how many copies of a title you can buy and you do have to provide proof that you’re a teacher or student (a copy of your ID, for example), but the prices are usually worth it. We have this site listed on the Technology Department page, but here it is again. Reminder: this service is provided as a courtesy to educators for their own personal use. Software that you purchase may not be installed on District-owned equipment. (http://www.JourneyEd.com/Select)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Anne