Cheryl Sizemore

March 12, 2011, CUE

Ten Neat Tips to Blow your Mind

and EXPLODE your Teaching!
Creation Tools
Jaycut Online Video Editor: I found this editor to be quite easy to use after a little
exploring. This is very helpful for PC users who use flip video cameras in class. The
sample below was created in about 5 minutes after about 20 minutes of exploring the
site. www.jaycut.com

Picnik: A great free online photo editor. Check out the simple back to school project
your students could do with a picture. www.picnik.com

Tagxedo: If you are familiar with Wordle, you're going to love Tagxedo. This free online
tool lets you take word clouds one step farther and place them into you own pictures.
www.tagxedo.com

Communication Tools
Scribd: I use this site every day to post written documents to my website. It allows my
parents to view and print directly from the site with out having to open a document. I
love Scribd! www.scrbd.com

Screenr: This is one of my favorite tools to use when presenting information to my

students and parents on my website. You need a twitter account for this tool. the
registration is free. Once registered you can create short videos up to five minutes, get
an embed code, and upload it to your website for students and parents alike to view.
Here is the screenr tutorial from their site. See how simple it can be! Below is one of the
many screenrs have have used with my parents. www.screenr.com

Edmodo: This is a tool that lets you, the teacher, set up a safe, monitored "social
network" for your classroom. It is free but you do need to sign up. This is on my to do list
for using in my classroom. It is worth checking out. www.edmodo.com

Tiny URL: Have you ever had a URL that is so long you wonder how you'll ever get it
typed correctly into your search engine? Then you need Tiny URL! This simple tool will
take your long URL and create a new, shorter, URL that you can give out or post as
needed. www.tinyurl.com
 Cheryl Sizemore
March 12, 2011, CUE

Presentation Tools
Animoto: This is a free online tool that allows you to make fabulous slideshow. Free
slideshows are limited to 30 seconds. This is a simple tool to learn for any age. This
would be a great tool for students to use to create short pictorials like what they did on
their summer vacation, or introducing themselves to their classmates at the beginning of
the year.. For $30.00 a year (Animoto Plus) you can make slideshows with no time
limits for your slideshows. The only time it takes to create an Animoto Plus slideshow is
the time it takes to upload your images. I created the long slideshow using 203 photos a
parent took on our last field trip. I used the 2x speed and the resulting show ran about
4:43 min. www.animoto.com

Prezi: Once you make a Prezi you may never go back to PowerPoints again. This is a
tool I'm still learning to use and I can see the potential! They have a wonderful set of
tutorials and Prezi available for you to view and use. www.prezi.com

Education Tools
Kahn Academy: Truly a banquet for math videos on all kind of topics. I assign my
student videos to watch for homework then have them do the problems in class so I can
really see what they do/don't understand. www.kahnacademy.org

Visuwords: After typing in a word into it Visuwords generates a word web that shows
users the definition of the word and its relationship to/between other words. It's a great
way to expand students' vocabulary and their understanding of how their chosen word
can be used. www.visuwords.com

Have Fun Teaching: A great site to find all kind of songs to use in your teaching. My
students love the grammar songs - They like to have them playing in the background
when we are studying parts of speech. www.havefunteaching.com

TED Talks: This is a site that is as much for me as it is for my students. Search this site
for inspiration talks by individuals from all disciplines. These talks can be used to
introduce a teaching topic or inspire you to new heights. A good site to use in High
school www.ted.com

Classroom2.0: This is an enormous sight that educators find very useful. I signed up to
receive notice of webinars on subjects across the curriculum, all free. It is worth your
time. www.classroom20.com