Vocabulary Quiz Builder

If you are reviewing Words of the Day or creating vocabulary quizzes, I may have found the NEXT BEST THING. Scholastic has created a free program that will create vocabulary quizzes for you. The Scholastic Word Wizard Vocab Quiz Maker does everything for you except select the words for your quiz. To use the word wizard simply enter into the quiz maker a list of up to twenty-five words. The quiz maker will then, if necessary, ask you to specify the form of the word(s) you've entered as well as the grade that the quiz is for.  After that the quiz maker generates a vocabulary quiz for you complete with a word bank on one side of the page and questions on the other side. Just print and pass out to your students.(Please note- you may want to use the PRINT PREVIEW, SHRINK TO FIT option in printing)

It is worth taking a look at this!!
(Thanks to Richard Byrne)

Tetris and the Periodic Table

E*chalk is an online resource site for teachers. They create games, simulations, activities and puzzles designed with a "focus on learning through fun." Some of their materials are free and others are subscription only.
One of their free online educational games that I learned about thru Woodchurch Science blog is Periodic Table Tetris. Periodic Table Tetris uses the style of the classic video game Tetris to help students memorize the periodic table of elements. To play the game, simply use the keyboard's arrow keys to move element blocks into the proper place. The game has three levels. Students can progress based on ability.
This would be a great game on a SMARTboard! I wish that I had access to something like this as I struggled with high school chemistry!

Presidential Speeches

Here's a great resource for US History teachers. Speech teachers may also enjoy taking a look -This is a very cool representation of US Presidential inauguration speeches.

Governing Dynamo has built a gallery containing the text of every US President's inaugural address(es). In addition to the text, the gallery includes a Wordle(yipee!!) of every address and an image of the President who delivered that address. Finally, Governing Dynamo hosts a video overview of the Wordles in the gallery. The video contains audio clips of the addresses.


What a perfect piece of information this is for US History and or speech teachers. You could have students evaluate the text , and/or evauate the Wordles for a reflection of the issues facing the United States when each President took office.





Thanks to Richard Byrne for this great information!

The Week In Rap Part II

I wrote about this site, last year, but feels it necessitates an update:


The Week in Rap(weekinrap.com) may be my favorite and is certainly the most entertaining news summary that I have seen. As the name implies, every week a new rap music video summarizes the week's news. (It is produced by Flocabulary. Flocabulary is the publisher of multimedia educational tools. They create original hip-hop music and standards-based curricular materials to teach academic content for grades 3-12.) It is fast paced entertaining review. For those who are leary of hip-hop--The lyrics are published as well-All very appropriately done and presented.
The update is this:
In many buildings the video is blocked- I guess Vimeo.com is the new YouTube BUT
Channel One(the leading television news network for teens nationwide) now has picked up the video and published it on their site- I will try to remember to post the link each Friday when it comes out - It is worth your time
The Week In Rap - ChannelOne

Shift happens-Did You Know?- the 2009 version

Last year, at a start of the year in-service, we watched "Shift Happens"(Did You Know?), a stylization of a slideshow originally created by Colorado educator Karl Fisch, examining globalization and America’s future in the 21st century. It challenged us to ponder the changes that are taking place in our world that will affect the way we live and work in the future.(If you have trouble playing it-move the scroll bar beneath the video and it will play)


Full Screen version

Now, presenting the latest and greatest version - From the original creators.

Full Screen Version

What does it all mean? It means that we live in a fundamentally different world than the one I grew up in. It begs us to ask the question: Have schools transformed from when we grew up? If your answer is no, and if you see a problem with that, then what should we do? What is our responsibility, for making the changes we believe are necessary? What are you willing to step up and do? We find our hands tied by firewalls, budgets and policies-but let's not look for excuses. We have our future and the next generation's in our hands. It is time to step up! (That's about as philosophical as I get!)
FOR THOSE OF YOU AT PSHS WHO MIGHT BE HAVING TROUBLE--THESE VIDEOS ARE ON THE S:Share drive.

Let's Start with MATH

Time and time again, I hear how difficult it is to find GOOD resources for HIGH SCHOOL math. Today, thanks to one of my new blog friends, Jane Hart, who is a British learning consultant, I give you BRIGHTSTORM. Originally a math site, Brightstorm offers instruction in Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, Trigonometry, Precalculus,SAT Math . In addition there is SAT Critical Reading , SAT Writing , AP Biology AP Calculus, AP U.S. Government, AP U.S. History, Literature, Writing, and U.S. History all via video lessons. Even to my non-mathmatical mind, the videos seem excellent in quality and content.

With an on-demand format, students can go at their own pace, choose their own order, and easily jump to any section in the video to parallel their own class and to tailor to their own learning needs. Each course includes interactive quizzes, facts as well as bonus materials like practice problems and study guides that they use with the videos to gain a deeper understanding of the subject.

Users need to create an account to see the videos--but it is a simple form, with content available immediately upon "joining" .

Good resourse- Enjoy!

The President's Speech

OK, I admit it, I am obsessed with wordle! Actually, I am obsessed with the written word. You have likely taken a look at our new "Its all about WORDs" site-hope you enjoy what we have created. Here is my favorite(and the original use of WORDLE)-the creation of word clouds using various kinds of text. I copied and pasted the President's Back to School Speech to children into WORDLE and came up with the attached-Wordle takes all of the words, puts them into a "cloud" - The more that a word is used, the bigger it is in the cloud. Hmmm-Does look subversive to me.

(Please note-clicking on the WORDLE will show it full screen, if you have any use for that!)


Have a great day!

It's all about WORDS

Rather than waiting for someone else to create, we decided go it alone!
A new site has now been created for our literacy initiative:
Please check out: http://pshswordplay.blogspot.com


A new WORD and WORDLE every day- cross curricular-suggesstions accepted!