Freebee Friday: Stopping the Dropout Crisis

Need more info about high school kids dropping out in order to keep them in school by aiming your curriculum and class offerings at them. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a new Web site that can give you ideas and ammunition to keep every kid around until graduation day. Called American Graduate, the site has the facts, techniques and some classroom activities.

 

Freebee Friday: MythBusters Live

We all know what happens when you mix diet soda with Mentos, but what about the thoughts, science and people behind the MythBusters? Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, Kari Byron, Tori Belleci and Grant Imahara team up with Discover Education for a Webinar next Thursday. Called “The Explosive Exhibition,” the show will have 15 minutes of demonstrations (probably with an explosion), 15 minutes of student questions (probably about explosions) and 15 minutes of remarks by officials of the host, Chicago public Schools (sorry, no explosions). It’s free, but you need to register.

 

http://www.discoveryeducation.com//Live/mythbusters.cfm

 

Black History Month Ideas

February is Black History Month and Scholastic’s Web site has some really cool classroom ideas, and the materials to turn them into lessons. All told, there’re more than 100,000 pages of free content for February classes on everything from King’s “I have a dream” speech to the life of Rosa Parks.

Freebee Friday: Grammar Checker

Need help to go through a stack of essays or practice sentences? While no computer system can match the subtlety of a good English teacher, Grammarly can make the most of your time by highlighting grammar, punctuation and style problems. Just copy and paste the selection into the window and in a few seconds Grammarly scans it for 150 common (and not so common) problems, suggests vocabulary alternatives and checks for plagiarism.

 

Turkey Teach In

Happy Thanksgiving! Forget about what they ate and everything about Squanto because the holiday can be a good teaching tool. From themed math sheets and reading assignments to innovative ways to teach science, there’s something for every class. Oh, don’t forget the pumpkin pie. If none of those catch your class’s fancy, Scholastic – the parent of Tech Tools – has a slew of Thanksgiving related material, including what it was alike to be on the Mayflower, the daily life of the Pilgrims and a slew of printable assignment sheets. 

 

 

Freebee Friday: Online Classroom

Thinkport may have been made just for Maryland students but anyone can use the excellent materials. From how to figure out averages and the economics of business to a look at Picasso’s blue period and narrated early readers, Thinkport has it all. Most lessons have videos, and there are provisions for broadband as well as slower dial-up connections.

 

 

Freebee Friday: The Little Fourth Estate

Scholastic News Kids Press Corp is looking for a few good kids to ask hard questions and write the news as they see it. The program is recruiting 50 kid reporters from age 10 through 14 who are interested in journalism to report and write the news of the day for Scholastic News and Junior Scholastic magazines. The deadline to apply is October 11, 2011.

 

 

Freebee Friday: Ready, Set, Print

There’s nothing worse than having something important on the screen of a tablet and not being able to print it, to hand out to the class or send home to parents. Epson’s iPrint app means that Android systems as well as iOS ones can now print as well as a PC. Anything on the tablet can now be in paper, from Web pages to photos and projects. You can choose the size and type of paper as well as work with scanned images. It only works with Epson all-in-one printers, including the Artisan 700, 710, 725, 730, 800, 810, 835 and 837; the Stylus NX420, NX510, NX515 and NX625; and the WorkForce 325, 520, 600, 610, 615, 630, 633, 635 and 840.

Freebee Friday: No Bullying Zone

Can it be true that 70 percent of parents say their kids have been bullied at school? It is and on Friday, September 9, the results of this school safety survey will be revealed in a free Webinar. The speakers include: Alison Rhodes (Safety Mom), Patrick Fiel (Public Safety Advisor for ADT Security), Mark Kissel (Chief of Police, Cherokee County School District Police Department, Canton, GA) and Bill Sebring (Woodstock High School Principal, Woodstock, GA). They will discuss the state of America’s schools along with video about the most dangerous parts of the campus. It all starts on Friday, September 9 at 1:00 pm. 

 

 

Freebee Friday: Key to the Future

Mastering the computer keyboard isn’t an option anymore. It is the one key skill that leads students to educational success. Tipp 10 can train a classroom of fingers to touch type with 20 discrete lessons. It works with PCs, Macs and Linux computers, includes a slew of typing games for lots of practice and can track each student’s progress. Best of all, it’s totally free.