Wonder Wheel and Timeline Refines Google Searches

If you like to search Google for additional materials or ideas to use in your classroom, you will like this trick!

Go to Google and enter a search term, e.g., reading comprehension, or math facts, or Dr. Seuss, or Magic Tree House Books, and press enter. Then click on “show options” on the top left of the screen. All the links that emerge on the left are hot. Next, scroll down (on the left) to “wonder wheel”.  Look at the new links on the wheel and click on one. Google performs another, more refined search for you.  Now, Google is user friendly for us visual learners!  Further down from the wonder wheel you will find timeline, another useful visual.  (Thanks for sharing this information, Doug.)

Wordle Revisited

Wordle still creates "beautiful word clouds" but does it even better now. Give it another try and you will find many new fonts to pick from and more options when choosing a layout and color combinations. For this Wordle, I performed a Google Search and found the text for Green Eggs and Ham.  I copied the text, pasted it into Wordle and finally did a little adjusting using Wordle's tool bar. Using shift+comand+4 a snapshot of the Wordle was taken.  Using that snapshot I could insert it as a picture into this blog post.  Then, I went to YouTube, found the video for Green Eggs and Ham and copied its HTML code.  To finish, the HTML code got pasted into this blog post causing the video to appear.  Could these ideas and skills be used to enhance student learning?

Time-for-Time

If you teach telling time and would like to use technology to help, try a new site created by a teacher. Navigating through this site takes a couple of minutes of looking around before you realize there are some useful games and tools here. Time-for-Time

Wallwisher

Wallwisher is a fun and easy way to collect and share small responses or bits of information on one interactive visual. Take a look and give it a try for yourself.  Wallwisher

Ghost Blasters Math Game

Ghost Blasters is a different way for students to work on mastering multiplication and division facts. It is fast moving and fun. Clicking like crazy on an unfriendly ghost quickly adds to a players score. I will add this game to Five Lakes Elementary Kids Zone.

Word it Out

If you liked Wordle you'll like Word It Out even more because it is easy to use just like Wordle, but has more options available. Use Word It Out with your students to summarize a unit of study, a book chapter or to write a biography about themselves. Word It Out could be useful at teacher workshops when visualizing data collected is important. Try this: highlight and copy this weather report from Monday afternoon. Go to Word It Out and paste the text in.  You won't be surprised, but it is fun anyway.
Widely scattered snow showers developing by mid evening. Cloudy with temperatures warming into the low to middle teens. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 30%. No significant snow accumulations through 10pm.

Pocket Mod

You and your students might find some good use for this little program.
http://www.pocketmod.com/v2/