The Vibe January 2012

Shore Regional High School

January 2012 William J. Valenti Educational Media Specialist

Teacher Edition

THE VIBE

The Information Geek

Valenti’s Information Bulletin Essentials

GOT EBOOKS ???-MONOMOUTH COUNTY LIBRARY DOES!!!!

Trend setter, technology hounds, Ellen Minze and Carolyn Egan check out eBooks using their library cards and so can you. Ellen has a Kindle and Carolyn has a Nook and both are able to choose eBooks right online.

Go to : www.monmouthcountylib.org/ and then and place your mouse on the Library Catalog on the left side. Arrow down to the Listen NJ—Audiobooks and e-Books. ** PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR DEVICE’S WIFI MUST BE TURNED ON!!!!!!

JANUARY READER OF THE MONTH– Melissa T. Bahrs Melissa says, "Reading an author who can weave a story, wrapping great language and strong narrative right around a story (folding me into the mix in the bargain) takes me to another place or time, lets me live in another culture for awhile. If I walk in the footsteps of artists and cooks and writers in Tuscany, for example, and hear and taste that place's history and culture --- all due to language and pacing, to nuanced style and subtle tones....I am a transported person!”

Recommends: Everyday in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life - Frances Mayes

GET FREE BOOKS FOR YOUR KINDLE OR OTHER EREADER 1. Open Library http://openlibrary.com 2. Project Gutenberg http://gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page 3. Free EBook Collection on Amazon 4. Many Books http://www.manybooks.net 5. Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/details/texts 6. Google EBook Store http://books.google.com/ebooks 7. Feed Books http://www.feedbooks.com/publilc domain

WEBSITES EMAILED BY WILLIAM J. VALENTI DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION RESOURCES EDUCATIONAL MEDIA SPECIALIST

DECEMBER 2011

Administration

MIT to Offer Certificates to Students Taking Free Courses on the Web

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses Earlier this fall, Stanford launched a highly-publicized series of free courses that offer students something novel: the ability to take tests and receive a “statement of accomplishment” from the instructor — though not the school itself — if they pass the class ~ From Open Culture

Art/Music The Google Art Project http://www.googleartproject.com/ The Google Art Project puts some of the most important art museums, and their collections, online with amazing features, including being able to create your own art collection. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Virtual Keyboard - Play Piano, Organ, Drums, http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/steel_drums.htm

The Virtual Keyboard is an online keyboard that students can use to virtually play piano, organ, saxophone, flute, pan pipes, guitar, bass, and steel drums. Students can play individual notes and or create chords. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

English An Invitation to World Literature http://learner.org/courses/worldlit/

Invitation to World Literature is a thirteen part series of videos about classic works of world literature. Each video guides viewers through the themes and nuances of each work. The videos are accompanied by timelines and maps placing each work in its historical context. A text overview and short slideshow about each work is also provided

by Invitation to World Literature. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Book TV - Authors Talking About Their Works

http://www.booktv.org/ Book TV is a production of C-Span 2. Book TV features non-fiction authors talking about their works and the subjects of their works. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Book Flavor - Find Books to Suit Your Tastes

http://bookflavor.com/ Book Flavor is basically a visual search engine for books. Type into the search box an author's name, a topic, a genre, or a title and Book Flavor will generate a screen full of book recommendations for you. Click on a book's cover to read reviews of the book. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Five Alternatives to Traditional Book Reports

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/five-alternatives-to-traditionalbook.html Literature Map - Find Authors You Might Like

http://www.literature-map.com/ Literature Map provides a web of authors you might like based on authors that you already enjoy reading. To use Literature Map just type an author's name into the search box and webbed list of authors will be displayed. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

High School Student Talks Symbolism with 75 Big Authors (1963) http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/75_authors_talk_symbolism.html In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Who noticed symbols appearing from their subconscious, and who saw them arrive in their text, unbidden, created in the minds of their readers? When this happened, did the authors mind?

Of the 150 authors McAllister solicited, 75 wrote back, and most offered the youngster some substantive thoughts.

Over at The Paris Review, you will find replies by Jack Kerouac, Ayn Rand (above), Ralph Ellison, Ray Bradbury, John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Norman Mailer. Not bad for a kid who sent out a form letter … and never bothered to send a thank-you letter. ~ From Open Culture The Elements of Style - A Strunk and White Rap

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0205313426/ref=as_

http://vimeo.com/33410512 ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Faculty LIFE Photo Timelines and Timeline Builder http://www.life.com/timeline

LIFE has long been known for capturing and hosting some of the most iconic images of the 20th Century. Today, LIFE continues to capture and share outstanding imagery. LIFE Photo Timelines hosts timelines featuring images from the LIFE collections. Visitors to LIFE Photo Timelines can view existing timelines or create their own timelines using images from the LIFE collections.

To create a timeline using LIFE's Timeline Builder you first have to create a LIFE account. You can create an account by logging-in with your Twitter, Facebook, or Google credentials ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

100 Notable Books of 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2011.html When in doubt, give books. Here are the New York Times' recommendations for the year's best adult fiction and nonfiction. (I would add Ken Jennings' fascinating book about the world of geography geeks, Maphead, to the nonfiction list.) ~ From Mary Laine The Year in 60 Seconds - A Video Project Idea

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/12/year-in-60-seconds-video-project-idea.html

The Year in 60 Seconds is a video from Reuters featuring images and some sound bites of the

year's biggest global news stories. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Bookboon - More Than 500 Free eTextbooks http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks

Bookboon is a free service offering free full-length textbooks, travel guides, and business books in digital form. The textbook section of Bookboon offers more than 500 digital textbooks ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Inspire My Kids - Inspiring Videos and Pictures http://inspiremykids.com/

Inspire My Kids is a neat website featuring stories designed to inspire kids to positive actions. Inspire My Kids uses videos, pictures, audio, and text to tell the stories of inspiring people and groups of people. You can find stories on Inspire My Kids by browsing through the list of values and topics. You can refine your story search by age appropriateness. ~ Free Technology for Teachers 2011 in 120 Images & Predictions for 2012 http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/2011-the-year-in-photos-part-1-of-3/100203/ http://www.economist.com/theworldin/2012

The Atlantic recently published a series of 120 images representing some of the highlights and lowlights of 2011.

The Economist's World in 2012 features. The World in 2012 includes articles and videos of predictions on a number of issues like the Republican primaries that are sure to be important in 2012. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

YouTube for Schools - Now More Schools Can Access YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/schools?feature=inp-bl-paq YouTube for Schools is a new network setting that school administrators can enable to grant access only to screened content on YouTube EDU. YouTube for Schools is a setting that must be enabled using your school's Google Account, not your personal Google Account. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Download The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine as a Free, Interactive eBook

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-beatles-yellow-submarine/id479687204?mt=11 It’s not just any ebook. Based on the 1968 film, this ebook features animated illustrations, 14 video clips from the original film, audio functionality that magically turns the book into an audio book, and various interactive elements. You can “read” the book (download it here) on any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Our apologies in advance if you use other devices. ~From Open Culture Rubrics for Assessing Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.cfm University of Wisconsin, Stout has organized a nice collection of rubrics for assessing digital projects. In the collection you will find rubrics for assessing student blogging, student wikis, podcasts, and video projects. Beyond the rubrics for digital projects there are rubrics for activities that aren't necessarily digital in nature. For example, you can find rubrics for writing, research, and oral presentations. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Math Teaching Math Through Culture http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/csdt.html

Dr. Eglash has developed some very interesting materials for teaching mathematics through culture. The program Dr. Eglash has developed is called Culturally Situated Design Tools. It contains fourteen units of study based around instances of mathematics concepts, including fractals, basic Algebra, and Geometry concepts occurring in cultural designs. The units of study can be used with middle school and high school students. The resource page for teachers provides some additional resources and background information. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Math Pickle - Math Videos and Exercises for K-12 http://www.mathpickle.com/K-12/Videos.html

Math Pickle is a nice site for locating videos and exercises appropriate for teaching a variety of mathematics concepts at a variety of grade levels. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Incredible Mental Math Gymnastics on “Countdown” http://

www.openculture.com/2011/12/ incredible_mental_math_gymnastics_on_countdown.html

Countdown is a British TV game show revolving around words and numbers. In the numbers round, contestants select six of twenty-four shuffled tiles with numbers on them. Next, a computer generates a random three-digit target number and the contestants have thirty seconds to get as close to that number as possible by combining the six numbers through addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. ~ From Open Culture

Science eSkeletons - Interactive Mammal Skeleton Models http://www.eskeletons.org/

eSkeletons is a great website produced by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. eSkeletons features interactive models of mammal skeletons. Select a model from the menu on the home page then click on any bone in the model to view it in detail. After select a bone to view you can choose from a menu of viewing angles. In many cases eSkeletons offers a short video display of the bone you've selected from the menu. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers A Great Collection of Science Videos http://www.openculture.com/science_videos

Open Culture has curated a list of 125 science videos. Their list is divided into subcategories.

Each video has a brief description and a link to the video with a more detailed description. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

NOAA - Explore Extreme Weather 2011

http://www.noaa.gov/extreme2011/ Extreme Weather 2011 is a newer feature of NOAA's website. Extreme Weather 2011 takes you through thirteen extreme weather events of 2011. In the files you'll find videos, weather charts, and articles about the each of the storms. After reviewing each weather event you can evaluate your own extreme weather readiness and learn how to prepare yourself for extreme weather. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Isaac Newton's Notebooks Online

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/newton Recently, the University of Cambridge announced that they have put scanned copies of those papers online. There are six scanned collections that you can flip through and read online. If you would like transcripts of some of the works, visit the Project Newton website. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

5 Good Resources for Learning the Periodic Table

Glaxo Smith Kline's Active Science offers fifteen interactive games covering a range of science topics. The Interactive Periodic Table is a game designed to help chemistry students practice identification of the elements.

The Elements is an interactive periodic table on which students can click an element and learn about that element The Periodic Table of Videos is produced by The University of Nottingham. The table features a video demonstration of the characteristics of each element in the table.

The Periodic Table of Comic Books is a project of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky The Dynamic Periodic Table is good resource for science teachers and their students. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Interactive Biology - Videos and More

http://www.interactive-biology.com/

Interactive Biology is a website offering a series of videos, quizzes, and study guides for biology students. The site offers study guides for sale, but there some good free resources available too. The best free resource found on Interactive Biology is the Interactive Biology YouTube channel. There are ten multiple choice quizzes based on information in the videos and study guides. Each quiz offers immediate feedback and provides a hint if you get a question wrong and want to try it again.Interactive Biology is a website offering a series of videos, quizzes, and study guides for biology students. The site offers study guides for sale, but there some good free resources available too. The best free resource found on Interactive Biology is the Interactive Biology YouTube channel. There are ten multiple choice quizzes based on information in the videos and study guides. Each quiz offers immediate feedback and provides a hint if you get a question wrong and want to try it again. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Social Studies Go Social Studies Go - Multimedia Social Studies Books http://www.gosocialstudiesgo.com/

The site is divided into four main sections; World Geography, World Religions, Ancient History, and Colonial America. For high school students, the multimedia booklets could be a good primer or refresher on many topics. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers Building the Panama Canal - Lesson Plans & Video http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/panama/player/

American Experience has some nice resources to support a teacher's use of the Panama Canal documentary in the classroom. The Interactive Panama Canal Map allows viewers to click on different parts of the canal and explore the challenges faced in building the canal and the technology used to construct it ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

First Person American

http://www.firstpersonamerican.org/index.html First Person American is a neat website that has multimedia recounting the travels of modern immigrants to the United States ~ From Free Technology for Teachers “Birth Year Inflation” http://www.billshrink.com/corp/wp-content/uploads/swf/birth_year_inflation.swf “Birth Year Inflation” is a neat interactive from BillShrink that lets you type in the year of your birth (or any year), see what a number of items cost then, and compares it to their cost now. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers “If It Were My Home” http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/ “If It Were My Home” is a neat interactive that compares the standard of living in the United States to any other country of your choice. The site also has some other neat features. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers FDR Day by Day - Lesson Plans and More http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday/

Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day is a timeline of Roosevelt's presidency. The timeline features White House schedules and diaries from each day of Roosevelt's presidency. The timeline isn't just a list of schedules. The timeline also includes short articles and some images about significant events that happened during each month of Roosevelt's presidency. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers NASA Reverb ECHO - Earth Science Data Discovery http://reverb.echo.nasa.gov/reverb/

NASA's Reverb ECHO is a free tool for discovering and exploring more than 2700 Earth Science data sets. Reverb ECHO allows you to search for data sets according to keyword, region, data collection instrument, or date of collection. You can also explore the datasets by highlighting and selecting a region on the map provided. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

Student 10 Sites and Apps for SAT Vocabulary Review http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/10-sites-and-apps-for-sat-vocabulary.html Type It - Type Accents On Any Keyboard http://typeit.org/

Type It is a free online program for typing accent marks and other special characters that are often required for languages other than English. Type It supports twenty-one languages and currency symbols. You can insert accents and characters by selecting them from the menu provided by Type It or by using their suggested keyboard shortcuts. ~ From Free Technology for Teachers

World Language Lyrics Gap http://www.lyricsgaps.com/ This is a site that is fun for learning a foreign language through the use of music. Basically, a user browses through a number of pop culture songs that are set to a certain language and then tries to fill in the missing words in the song. Itʹs kind of like that TV game show that Wayne Brady used to host. What makes this great for teachers as they can create custom exercises and select what words of the songs they want omitted and then share a link w/ students to let them try to fill in the blank. Available languages are: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese.

~ From Technology Tidbits

John Turturro Reads Italo Calvino’s Animated Fairy Tale

http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/ john_turturro_reads_italo_calvinos_animated_fairy_tale.html In 1956, Italo Calvino, one of Italy’s finest postwar writers, published Italian Folktales, a series of 200 fairy tales based sometimes loosely, sometimes more strictly on stories from a great folk tradition. When first published, The New York Times named Italian Folktales one of the ten best books of the year, and, more than a half century later, the stories continue to delight. Case in point: in 2007, John Turturro, the star of numerous Coen brothers and Spike Lee films, began working on Fiabe italiane, a play adapted from Calvino’s collection of fables. Last year, Turturro’s play enjoyed a sold-out run in Turino. ~ From Open Culture