One MORE Cyber Monday Sale! Save 30% with Code

Check it out... Activities to Teach is participating in the Teachers Pay Teachers CYBER Monday sale. Everything in our store is 20% off AND with special TpT Code TPTCYBER you can save an additional 10% to make it an even 30% OFF.

Visit and Shop Dec 1st and 2nd to SAVE 30% off our already great pricing!

Back on Line - Spam blocked our site but were are BACK!

Welcome back to Cyber World... and just in time for the big cyber sale. I have been swamped between work and my dissertation that I haven't had time to blog lately...and apparently my blog got hit with tons of spam comments that Blogger "froze" or "disabled" my account. Without any notice. So here I am working and keeping busy with school and work to have no clue that my blog is offline until I confirm the activity.

Frustrating... but all is good now... It's Thanksgiving Day weekend...Independence from Spain weekend where I live.. and 4 days of no school... Thursday night in the good USA was turkey madness... all over Facebook were turkey dinners, pies, and so much food, I was full just looking at it... Here our Turkey is getting cooked today! Saturday! A little late but still delicious... had to work on Thursday and spend Friday with earns, dogs to groomers, and family time with my son. So Saturday morning it Turkey prep and 3 hours of roasting.. smallest bird I have ever cooked (8 lbs),,, But for the 2 of us that is plenty big,

It is amazing how time flies... heading stateside for Hanukkah-Christmas season for a 3 week visit "home" - been nearly 3 years since I made the voyage to my parents home for the holidays and a visit from them here in Panama 2 Decembers ago. It will be nice to be "home" and COLD for December. I am loving our Central American experience but Nov - Dec just doesn't seem right at 85-90 every day and even nights in the low 80s. I am sure I will be layers up and seriously cold but looking forward to it - only 14 more school days and we are Pacific Northwest Bound!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all... And thank you for following us, supporting Activities to Teach, and shopping at our TpT store....

Nicole and Crew

Happy 100th Birthday Grandma!!!

Tonight I decided it's time to celebrate and on the eve of what would have been my Gma's 100th birthday I thought why not have a great blow out price on a Back to School Super Bundle. 

Widowed in her early 30s (just like me) raising 3 young children (only 1 for me) on her own, she moved form SC to NY to teacher a women's prison and later NY public schools. Educated in an age of one room schools, born at a time without indoor plumbing and electricity. She lived to see humans walk on the moon, women in space, cures for childhood diseases and the invention of the computer. She missed experiencing cell phones, laptops, the internet, and ipads but had she been around, she surely would have loved the concepts and educational opportunity. 

So for 1 day only - to celebrate Constance B. Jones - an awesome Grammie AND one heck of a Great Teacher - on this day that would be her 100th Birthday! I have decided to offer for 24 hours only my Science Starter Kit (regularly $7.50) for just $1. This packet has 47 pages including ice breakers, classroom bingo, all about me pages, science themed activities, graphic organizers, science measuring worksheets, and more. Grab yours today! At midnight Sunday Aug 14th the price returns to $7.50. Your feedback on this item would be greatly appreciated too!

Science Starter Kit for the New School Year

Back to School.... 3 Little words that make teachers shiver!

Most of us will immediately read negativity into the title of this blog post.. but shiver doesn't always mean cold or scary! For many we can shiver in "EXCITEMENT" and for many teachers we are very excited and energized with the start of each new school year...

New school years bring with them... new goals, refreshed lesson plans, a new look to our classrooms, and many many more things... Don't get me wrong, we love our breaks and summer is one of the longer ones... but teachers do love the start of a new school year...

This summer, one of my shortest (5 weeks), have been one of my best... I actually unplugged and disconnected from school, took a trip to Roster Teeth Convention with my 17 yr old son, and binged on Netflix getting caught up on a variety of shows... and managed to even submit my doctoral dissertation (phase 1) to my university's URR...

Most exciting... I managed to find time to create some new great products for my store and set up my Teacher's Notebook site in addition to my TpT site. If you have a chance to check it out, I would love some feedback. Thanks for your support.

Hoping the kindness of strangers will happen!

We have all heard the sayings... Pay it forward! Give a little back! Do unto others! Kindness of Strangers... and so many more... and I have tried to live by those philosophies. I have bought many cups of coffee for strangers behind me in line, I have given money to homeless, bought meals for the hungry, donated clothing and time to charities... and many other acts of kindness. I have never done any of it for acknowledgement or recognition or with the expectation of getting something more in return than their smile and knowing in my heart I did the right thing... the human thing...

But now, I am struggling at completing my academic career goal of completing my doctorate of education. I am not struggling to complete the courses (those are done), I am not struggling to complete my dissertation proposal (that is done and with the university for approval), I have my project study ready and will complete everything by December 2014. Where I am struggling as a single parent (widowed 9 years ago this June) and full-time working teacher, is to pay my tuition balance.

I have read all the "how to fund your education sites" and been told "there is money for your education out there" but I seem to always miss the mark, be unable to qualify, or be too educated. I have maxed out my student loan allowance in the spring of 2013 and for the past year been paying out of pocket for my tuition. Now with 6 months to go, if I don't pay off my tuition, I won't be able to graduate even once my dissertation is approved and confirmed.

A friend recommended I set up a crowd sourcing campaign. Though nervous and a bit uncomfortable asking strangers for help, I decided I needed to take the bold step and give it a go! So here it is with Indiegogo ... Any help you can give with sharing the link and asking others to be kind enough to contribute even $5 would help... it all adds up as they say!

Alternatively if they rather "receive a tangible product for their money", I am using all funds from my Activities To Teacher Teachers Pay Teacher e-store to fund my doctoral tuition... Thanks for any help you can provide!

Help Me Become Dr. Y

Celebrate Good Times.... 50 TpT Followers & 250 Facebook Likes... Flash Freebie!

What a great start to the summer... I love the numbers... With 3 days to go hit our 5 month anniversary on Teachers Pay Teacher... we are proud to have 122 products for 3rd grade and up covering mostly math and science with some great foldables and tangram products... and tonight we hit our 6th Month Goal... a month early... 

250 Facebook Likes... and 50 TpT Followers... 

Come celebrate with us and grab our latest Math Path - Order of Operations 14 page worksheet packet with answer key.... for FREE until 2pm EST on Thursday, June 26th...

Our NEXT Milestone Goal? 350 FaceBook Likes AND 100 TpT Followers... We would love your support... Can we reach it before October (my birthday month!)????

Creative Hands-On Learning Activity

It's summer time for a majority of teachers, my school included even though I live in a country that's national education system runs March to December... and what I am seeing around the blog-o-sphere is a ton my TpT creators working hard on updating their stores and adding innovative and creative new products.

Recently, TpT has been posting Facebook announcements about some TpT Milestone sellers... I was so excited today to see Kim Miller as one of their highlights... They showed off (and I have included the link here too) for a great student creation project of a math tool to help with learning and practicing metric conversion.

Check it out... neat idea! I can see my students likings it like they enjoy my 3-D Earth, Volcano, and Animal Cell model makers....

Great Job Kim... keep the awesome ideas coming....

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Virtual Grocery Lists

The other day, I asked my 16 year old to please get a piece of paper so we could make a grocery list. What did he show up in the living room with? Yep that’s right his iPad. “No, I need paper to make a list we can take the store,” I replied. His response of course was “you can take your iPad”. Of course he was right. That’s exactly how their digital brains think. As if the was a thirds hand, that iPad goes just about everywhere he does.

Although a foreign concept to me, being a supportive mother, I of course gave it a try. Oddly enough the use of the iPad wasn't an issues. The Notes APP works like a steno pad but with endless pages. Easy to use, simply touch and type your list. The only dislike for the idea was my preference of being able to dog ear the list or mark off the things I got. Granted I could simply delete the item of the list on the iPad, it was just different.  Funny thing was that what actually made using the iPad at the grocery store an issues was that Security was worried someone might steal it. The guard was very polite and reminded me to be extra careful with it then proceeded to follow us around the store with extra vigilance.

Notes is an APP that come pre-installed on your iPad and is great for anything. It’s like never running out of a sticky notes again. As I have become more comfortable with my iPad, I have found myself frequently popping over to the Notes APP to jot a note, paste some text I need to keep for later, and make lists when I need to just brainstorm. I even found myself using it for tracking three UPS packages I was expecting while state-side  An interesting feature of the iPad is the seamless integration between APPs, URLs, and internet connection. When I pasted the tracking codes into my Note, the iPad immediately recognized the letters and numbers as a UPS shipping code. When I later returned to the Note to “copy” the code to paste on the UPS site, the iPad saved me the work and asked me if I wanted to track the package when I had merely touched the code in an attempt to copy it.

There are many other “NOTES” APPs available in the iTunes APP store, some free and others at a nominal charge. There are also numerous “papers” and “pages” APPs. Each with similar features and of course their “unique features” that are suppose to make them worth their 99c or $1.99 cost. While I do have EverNote, Pages, and Memo on my iPad, I find myself more frequently simply using the good old trusty Notes APP that came with my iPad.  Not to say that the other APPs don’t have “special features” of value, but for your basic list making, a place to hold a temporary blurb of text, and note taking needs, NOTES is just fine with me.

Now there is a Notes Plus for the iPad and it is rumoured to be a culmination of all the great features of other note APPs in one but with it cost of $7.99 it will have to wait for a review from me.  When it comes to Annotation Note programs… that’s a topic for another Blog Posting… 

Advice from a Parent Teacher to Parents

I took today off from "all the worries" of the world today and spent it in the garden. It felt so good to be playing in the dirt, seeing the front of the house transform from overgrown and dying greenery to colorful floral plants and cleaned up walkway. Down here in Panama, the dry season is coming to an end and the rainy season is about to begin so its the ideal time to "replant" and lay grass. As I settled in for evening and popped onto Facebook, I came across a great post by a friend's friend and felt it was definitely worth sharing.

Her post titled "Advice from your Child's Future Teacher" resounded with me a both a teacher and a parent. Having taught for 8 years including 2 years with my son at the same school, her comments are very true. So if you have 5 to 10 minutes, use it read the post - especially if you have young kids getting ready to go to school. (Click on title above to access the blog.)

Random Picker - Awesome Tool

As a teacher we have all been in the classroom looking for volunteers or answers to questions and either everyone's hand is up or no ones hand it up. Even harder can been assigning groups "randomly" when the kids think we have some secret agenda to keep them from working with their best friend. Which brings us to a great FREE website for "random selection" based on perimeters set by the "drawing rules". Originally designed and regularly used for drawings and raffles, Random Picker can be "adjusted" to work in multiple other settings. Education being one of them. During the iPad Summit they used the program for a door prize raffle and it was great. Not only did we know the winners were truly randomly selected but was also got to watch it happen on the giant presentation screen live before 300 people. Really cool!! 

Last year during the ISP hosted Knowledge Bowl, I was able to use Random Picker for the team order selection. Depending on how the parameters are set in the "drawing rules" and the "prizes" are identified it works for all sort so school occasions. 

Remember to set up your account as personal or non-profit so the drawing remain free. Also important is if you want to use the same list of participants or candidates again and again to say randomly select a student to be called on, just keep running TESTS and do NOT use the FINAL Draw option. But when wanting  to "lock" the results or have them printable such as I did for the team assignments, you can run the true and final draw as the FINAL draw.

As I shared this link the Knowledge Bowl Coaches from 4 countries and 9 schools, the options of how they could use Random Picker started to multiple. Ideas included:

• assigning students to practice teams
• assigning teams to event dates 
• the organization of teams in a sequence of play
• picking the order schools would present or play

In sharing with other classroom teachers more ideas come up on how Random Picker could work. A few of their ideas were:

• Group project assignments
• Lab partners match ups
• Project or Paper topic assignment 
• Reward assignments
• Classroom Job assignments
• and the list goes on.

Check out this great site: www.randompicker.com and try it today!

Shorten those LLLLOOOONNNGGGG URLS into a "TINY" URL

A great new resource I recently learned about is TINY URL. A wonderful FREE site that helps you shorten AND customize those annoying, confusing, llloooonnnngggg URLs you want to share with friends, family, students, and colleagues. 

Check it out. Go to www.tinyurl.com and simply paste your long URL in the requested field, enter the short name your want it to have and click make my tiny URL - pretty cool.... No more sending links that break and long URLs that don't work.

Using FLIP Cameras and iPads in the Classroom

A fellow TpT creator and collaborator of mine just released this great activity to engage student with learning math concepts while integrating technology of FLIP cameras and iPads. Although she explains using with math concept, I can see how it would work any curriculum.

Its a great way to put the students in "front" explaining and demonstrating their learning without making them stand in front of the class. When everyone is done, a fun Friday idea would be to have pop corn, juice and watch each other's videos as a class. Through watching each others videos they kids are reviewing the learning concepts one more time while showing off what they have learned and made.  Even better, with email as a teacher you can send copies to parents for them to see how great their child is learning the concept or unit! What a great way for parents to connect with their child when not able to be in the classroom volunteering.

Cheryl's Blog is: techieturtleteacher.blogspot.com
Her TpT Store where you can find this great FREE activity is: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Flip-Camera-or-iPad-Activity-How-To-Use-a-Paper-Slide-in-the-Classroom-1143005

A little morning educational humor!

I thought I would share a few of the "educational" minded comments a few of my Facebook associates shared between last night and this morning. Sorry for the lack of credit on image sources. There was no link back on their Facebook pages but I am sure the author appreciates the sharing of their work with other readers. Enjoy the giggle and if you get the "math one" pat yourself on the back for being math clever! If you have one to share, please add as a comment!

Week Long Breaks from School - How does one "handle it"?

While a good portion of USA teachers are either sitting home due to snow again or trudging to school while buckets of rain fall, I sit here in Panama on the first day of Carnival trying to figure out how to tackle the week. It's an odd feeling of "uncertainty" when I use to "go go going" from 5:30 to 17:00 at work then another 4 to 6 hours at home as a single mom and doctoral student before crawling into bed.

Carnival is a national holiday week around here with 3 days of nearly "everything" being closed. More is open during Christmas than during Carnival. The nation is in "party mode", late nights, and quiet mornings (the neighborhood sounds dead - which is very abnormal). Many of my associates are off exploring another country or part of Panama. Which is great - we did some of that our first 2 years here. But this year we have chosen to stay home (we have a comfortable home and not a small apartment so we don't get cabin fever too easily). Happy to stay home, I have a looooonnngggg list of things to do from my TpT site, create new products, finishing up edits on my dissertation, yearbook pages to finish proofing, the winter village to put away, and many other things... now I find myself just wanting to veg out and watch movies, head to the beach, and just work on the TpT store. Thankfully my teenage son can "take care" of himself for the most part and is content with a quiet week at home.

My quandary of what to do and what to make a priority vs what "everyone else" is doing during break made
me start wondering - am I in the majority or minority when it come to teachers and week long breaks from school? Why do I feel like the rest of the world is off partying and vacationing while I am home trying to figure out my "to do list". I know its not because I haven't taken a vacation in a while. This past January I took 9 days and ran away to Florida with my son for a fabulous mother son explorations including The Orange Bowl Game, 3 days at Universal Studios, visiting NASA, and driving 600+ miles exploring Florida.

Last month many of my stateside friends were facebooking all about their 4 days to week long President's day break and multiple long weekends due to snow. Every few posted about "staying home" while many posted about "hiking, skiing, snowboarding" and "running away to somewhere". I remember when I was stateside those snowdays were like stolen days and regarded as special treasures that we usually turned into popcorn movie days or family game afternoon (wii, xbox, or traditional board games). But now that those "treasured days off" do not exist (we don't have "snow days" in the tropics) why do I feel "guilty" for taking days off to relax? Is it because my plate is so full? or my to do list is too long? or is it that if I don't do it no-one else will? or is it cause I fear, if I sit down and stop, I might not get up again?

Not sure if I will find the answer - but onward and forward I shall go... Maybe I will get a "big thing" done today (my dissertation is nagging at me) that will give me that sense of "accomplishment" that I can find a balance of work and play during this week of "break"? Who knows - I certainly don't

Celebrating 100+ LIKES on Facebook

YOU did it... and hto say THANK YOU we are celebrating with a 3 hr freebie of our popular 4 Panel Foldable... Grab it while you can!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/4-Panel-Foldable-Graphic-Organizer-Horizontal-Layout-1093343 

Guest Bloggers Wanted! Topic: In what creative ways are your using Technology in your Classroom?

It's no surprise that we all have great wonderful activities and classic pen and paper projects that we love to share with fellow teachers, on our blogs, and through our TpT stores. But in today's world, technology is in the hands our kids from a very young age. We have 2nd graders that can use an iPhone better than their parents, 5th graders writing APPs for sale, and teens recording then selling their songs without a recording company signing them.

As a technology integration coordinator, I spend about half of my week working with teachers and how they integrate technology into their existing curriculum. On Friday, one of my HS PE teachers blew my away with her impressive use of tech in the 9th grade fitness class. She has the using SmartPhones, iPads, Laptops, and music to create fitness video about how they are "active" in life and class. The kids were completely engaged, collaborating and supporting each other, sharing ideas and tech skills, and the PE Coach was able to circulate around the class monitoring and answering questions about fitness. In a few months she shared with me that when they hit the track they will be borrowing the science department's motion and speed probes to integrate the tech and math into their running unit.

This impressive use of technology in what many would consider "a skate by class" of high school PE, got me thinking... how are YOUR STUDENTS using technology in creative ways - projects? cross curriculum? presentations? So I am looking for YOU and your Tech Users to share a project or activity that connected technology and your students to their curriculum!  If you are interested in being a Guest Blogger, please visit our Guest Blogger Page, review the guidelines, and email us with details of your ideas.

I've been nominated for the New Blogger Liebster Award

Wow oh Wow - what a nice news to receive this afternoon... Abc123is4Me has nominated our new blog Activities to Teach for a Liebster Award for new upcoming blogs! The Liebster award is a way to recognize new bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Activities to Teach's blog has been up for a month and is just getting going, so Abc123is4me's recognition of us is greatly appreciated and gives up energy to keep blogging!

An extra special thank you to Abc123is4Me for nominating me! It you get a chance, please visit their blog and check out their great posts!

The instructions from Abc123is4Me shared are as follows:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me.
2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers.
3. Answer the questions posted to me by my nominator.
4. Share 11 random facts about me 

My 11 Random Facts:

1. I was born in Rhode Island, USA but only lived there from 6 months before moving to the West Coast.
2. I have lived 4 countries and 6 states.
3. I have had a part time to full time just since I was 15 years old. 
4. I am allergic to milk chocolate, coffee citrus fruits, wheat, soy, and chicken... makes for interesting meal combos!
5. I dropped out of college at 21 to get married (big mistake)... ended up putting myself back through college part time to full time since 1997.
6. I love animals - from iguanas to dogs (except cats).
7. We have 6 kids only 1 has 2 legs and only 1 gets to go to college! 
8. Two of my favorite actors are Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman.
9. One of the things I love about teaching is being able to be a life long learner.
10. My son is planning to go to college to become a teacher (HS Math and Music).
11. I still have 8 countries I want to go visit and possible live in before I move to Montana to build my school.

Answers to Abc123is4Me Questions of Me: 

1. I work in an international in Central America as a Technology Integration Coordinator. Which means I teacher teachers!
2. Yes, Activities to Teach has a TpT. We have been open for 6 weeks.
3. My favorite product is our 3D Model Maker Series. I like how the students great to create a model and show their understanding. 
4. We have a Facebook page and Pinterest Account.
5. What I love about teaching is how students discover new things and become engaged in a topic. 
6. For me, my greatest challenge is helping teachers finding time to try new technology concepts in their busy schedule. 
7. If I wasn't a teacher, I would be still be an ambulance medic and in the US Army.
8. My hobbies are cooking/baking, gardening, photography, and SCUBA diving.
9. If I had one wish, it would be to have a solution to my funding needs to build my dream school for foster girls.
10. My current short-term goal is to finish my dissertation to earn my Doctorate in Education.
11. My life-time (long-term) goal is to build a school (and home) for foster girls who have not been adopted by age 11 on  150 acres in Montana. 

My nominations are:

1. Create.Educate.Inspire
2. Mrs. Plemon's Kindergarten
3. Diary of a 5th Grade Teacher
4. Teaching HS Math
5. Teachers are Terriffic
6. Rachel's Tutoring
7. Kinder My Way

The questions for my nominees are: 

**Thanks Abc123is4me for such great questions I am gonna use them too!

1. Do you work at a school?  If so, tell me about your position there.
2. Do you have a TpT store?  If so, how long have you had one?
3. If you have a TpT store, tell me about your favorite product you have and why you believe in it so much.Do you have a Facebook page, a Pinterest account, Instagram?
4. What is your favorite thing about teaching?
5. What is your greatest challenge when it comes to teaching?
6. If you weren't a teacher, what would you be?
7. What are your hobbies? 
8. If you had one wish, what would it be?
9. What are your short-term goals?
10. What are you long-term goals?

Picking a technology site based on Outcome Goals

While trial and error certainly has its positives and benefits to the learning process, when trying to select a technology site or technology tool right for your classroom, this can is NOT often the best route to take. As educators, we usually have our learning standards and outcomes leading our focus and lesson planning. Many of us use the UBD (Understanding by Design) approach of working "backwards" from ultimate goal or big picture to a day's lesson. This same UBD thinking is ideal for selecting a technology programs or tools to integrate in a lesson. 

Once again the leaders at Ed Teach Teacher have compiled a site with over 50 recommended sites and technology tools based on 17 questions focused on learning outcomes and goals. Starting with a question "what are your learning goals", Ed Tech Teacher provides 17 answers that with a simply click link you to 4 or more sites, programs, and APPs that will aid you in selecting the best practice technology route in order to facilitate student centric learning, promote critical-thinking, enhance collaboration and creativity in your students. The goal is  not to simply provide a list of "sites" or "solutions" but lead you do a selection of options that allows you as an intelligent educator professional you question how this works for my lesson and students, evaluate the choices, and ultimately decide what will be best for your classroom. You may even decide to provide your students with a menu and allow them to self-select the route they prefer. Remember, technology have the ability to empower student to take charge and be responsible for their own learning. 

Check out this great resource: 

Ed Tech Teacher Tech Tool Box

Flash Freebie - 6 Sided Dice Foldable

Our Facebook Page - is only 6 LIKES away from reaching 100 Likes in our first month online... We decided to celebrate and say Thank You to all our visitors with a 6 Hour Flash Freebie of our 6 Sided Dice Foldable... 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/6-Sided-Dice-Foldable-Graphic-Organizer-1093245 

History Pin – Interacting with History on a global scale.

During the iPad Summit in Boston sponsored by Ed Tech Teacher last year, one of the workshops I attended focused on Mobile Learning Devices, including devices beyond that of the iPad such as tablets, iphones, and laptops. One particular APP that we explored was History Pin. The APP is not a thick content APP like that of a e-textbook, rather it is a collaborative interactive program. History Pin is a digital genealogical approach to history where students and citizens from around the world collaborate to create a digital history for free.  From an educational approach History Pin allows students the opportunity to write narratives to real life experiences interlinked with digital photos. Blending together geography, timeline, and comparisons, History Pin shows students then compared to now when images are available.

History Pin is also available for PCs and laptops through their website: http://www.historypin.com/ 

Immediately upon using the APP even for 15 minutes, I could identify a variety of ideas or ways History and Geography teacher could the APP. But being an old science teacher, I could also see possible application of the program for units about environmental change, human impact, erosions and weathering, and landforms. It also seemed like a great APP for elementary homeroom teachers to use for kids to share about their past.

History Pin is a FREE interactive global scrap books of photos dating back 100+ years that others around the world have posted for sharing. Literally the APP is a massive collection of “PINS” in a virtual world map. Users can search for “pins in history” by date, location, topics, addresses, and more.  In a matter of minutes, APP users can also add their own photos of places, people, and add to this amazing global geographical historical virtual scapebook.

While exploring the APP, I was able to in less than 15 minutes create a FREE account, add a photo to my profile, link this blog, AND post a photo of the Bridge of Americas that I took last month from a ferry in the middle of the Panama Canal. When I posted my picture I was able to add a historical biography of the photo, list the date, and location photo was taken. I was also invited to confirm that accuracy of the date and place the “PIN” on the map myself. Now when other users search Panama Canal or Bridge of Americas, my photo will come up along with 5 other Panama Canal related photos dating back to the 1930s and the building of the lock. At a future point while exploring Panama, I could take a photo of the Miraflora locks as they are today and PIN it on the MAP to provide a then and now comparison for visitors to see.

Our students today are all about collaboration and being a contributing member of the world around them both locally and globally. History Pin APP provides today’s students with that opportunity to engage socially, collaborate on a global scale, and add to the recording of history. The posting of photos also provides them an opportunity to use their writing skills on descriptive contents and factual writing. Searching the global for PINs of interest on the map, provide students with research skills, technology integration, and student centric work.

A cool feature of History Pin, is the “comparison” feature. Called “street maps”, users can view photos from the same location that possible span over 100 years. How often do our students have the opportunity to view digital images of say the Golden Gate bridge in 1930, 1964, and 2010 at the click of a few buttons through one search of something as simple as “golden gate bridge”. Twenty plus years ago when I was a high schooler, this kind of activity would have taken visits to the library, hope that the encyclopaedia had photos, or there were books that showed timeline photos.

In exploring History Pin, I did notice there was a rather extensive volume of “pins” all over Europe and Asia. However on the America Continents there were substantially less pins. This is not to say there isn’t value in using the APP, just that there is a good deal of history pins to explore on half the globe, while the other half is in need of our contributions and “pinnings”. A perfect “need” for our students to fill, especially given the inner desire of today’s generations to contribute to the digital world and make their mark. How else better to do make that mark than to pin a photo on the History map of the world.

To see a short overview of the History Pin APP (website) check out this 1:30 min You Tube Video:

Check out this great FREE App at the APP Store: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/historypin/id455228207?mt=8 

Just some initial applications or ideas for using History Pin in your classroom:

•          Science – Famous scientists, locations, events, landforms (then and now)
•          History – Exploring Places, Events, and Geography (then and now)
•          English / LA – Viewing places and areas of book and authors read
•          Writing – The creation of thick descriptions that place the view in the time, location, and surrounding of the photo.
•          Foreign Language – Exploring places and cultures related to the language being studied
•          Photography Courses – Taking of photos based on scenery, location, geography and writing descriptive informative details to record and share the essence of the photos.
•          Technology Skills – using digital media, searching skills, uploading images, possible scanning old non-digital media to create digital media, keywords and tags, global collaboration

3 Million Strong Sale at TpT - Save 28% off everything

Check out the sale at www.activitiestoteach.com 

Easy print directly to PDF from a website w/ editing ability.

You no longer need to have a PDF writer or creator program to print a Web page or Web Article as a PDF. Another great FREE web resource for everyone is Print Friendly. Once the article is printed you have access to it offline as well as the ability to take it into programs like MS OneNote and add notes or a PDF annotation program. Printing the articles as PDFs verses traditional paper copies also helps the environment. 


Distribution is also easier since you email the PDF or upload to a learning management software (such as Moodle or Canvas), social educational networking programs like EdModo, or even blogs and websites.

Check it out: Print Friendly (www.printfriendly.com)

At their website simply copy and paste the URL of the article or webpage and it will create you a PDF of that page/article. There is also an option to use Print Friendly's quick bookmark option on your iPads. Unique to the iPad once you have an PDF you can work with the PDF in a variety of annotation APPs. Through the annotation APPs, you and your students can write, take notes, highlight, insert additional info, and more.

To Share is to Care - 200+ FREE Websites and Tech Resources

 While sorting files I stumbled across this great tech resource document with over 200 FREE websites and technology resources I created last fall for my fellow teachers. 

If any of the links do not work or you find an issue with a resource such as a free sight is no longer free, please let me know so I can keep the resource list current. If you know of a site that isn't listed (which I am sure there are many) like please share the site info with us.

http://tinyurl.com/TechResources200