Making Stories Talk

Have you been testing this week? It's a pretty straight-forward format - teachers read directions, students are quiet, read the questions silently and mark their responses. When they are finished for the day, both teachers and students are looking for exciting ways to express their ideas and things they are learning and have learned throughout the year. So why not put some sound in the mix and make your stories talk!

Below are a few of the tools I like to help the teachers incorporate into their lessons and students request them as a favorite and fun way to share their ideas (and even do a homework assignment).

Blabberize is a fun way to take a photo and make it look like it's talking. Your creation can be done in just a few minutes by uploading a photo, mark the moving points for the "mouth", and record your voice/message. It can then be shared on a blog or website.

Voki allows you to add your voice to a talking avatar that you've created or use one provided. It is a great way to present an idea and can be shared on a website or blog. The Voki website has free lesson plans for all grade levels and subject areas.

Voicethread is a easy way to create an audio presentation and allow others to comment through phone, text, microphone, webcam, or upload a file. You can even draw on the page while recording your comment.

Here are some of the ideas we used for our "talking stories."

• "All About Me" story
• Events from a field trip
• Book Talk
• Movie Trailer
• Demonstrate a Concept, Rule, etc.
• Explain a topic (Cyberbullying)
• Present an "Oral Test"
• Recreate an historical event

Whenever you get ready to have the students create a story, demonstrate a mathematical process, review for a test (and the list could go on forever), maybe one of these tools will bring a little "vocalization" into your classroom. Feel free to share your ideas for a talking story. I'll help spread the word.

A Different Way of Looking at the World

While looking for some 4th quarter Social Studies resources to share with the teachers I noticed some interesting sites that were shown at the NCTIES conference earlier this month. The show.mappingworlds site in particular caught my attention. It has a new and different way of looking at data for our states and the world. All the collected data allowed numerous possibilities for projects in more subject areas than just Social Studies.

It is easy to get started – choose from USA, World or Japan, then select a subject and topic. The states or countries or prefectures change shape according to the data collected. Being able to watch the states change size and shape helps to make the information more meaningful. Who would have thought that the top two states, Iowa and Illinois, produce the most corn and would have the shape of a man’s face?

What a great way to help students remember facts. Included with the visual changing of the states are sections for maps, rankings, books, and interesting facts. The animated maps can be embedded or downloaded as an image. The data can be downloaded as an Excel file to use for graphs and charts.

This is a site with endless possibilities for making collected data come alive visually. Where would your fact-finding adventure take you?

Listening is Powerful

This past week I have been attending PLC and LTM meetings in my elementary schools and talking about how I could help them with technology activities that would go along with their lessons ( Yeah, TPACK). I learned so much as I sat and listened to each grade level break down an objective into What to Teach and How to Teach.

It was very interesting to "see" their thought processes as I listened to the teachers pull out key words, discuss what basic skills were needed and how they could teach the students. Individual teaching methods and comfort levels with technology were evident. Listening to the ways they were going to teach the skills made me think of numerous ways to use technology to produce the same results.  The availability of technology in the classrooms produced some concerns, but we were able to work with what they had and everyone could see the possibilities. The teachers were very appreciative as I shared resources they could use to develop an activity. Offering my time and services to help them with it made them realize more possibilities were within their reach.

I found that providing a listening ear was very powerful - we listened, we heard, we learned and the students are going to be major winners.

More Than Bookmarking with Diigo!

There are so many resources available to us now through the internet that I am having a hard time keeping up with all of them or remembering where to find the information. Sure, I can use the Favorites menu to mark a site, blog, wiki or whatever catches my eye; but I've noticed my list and folders going completely out of control and it takes me longer to find what I was looking for than necessary.

Others have mentioned using Diigo as their social bookmarking choice and I wanted to share how I've been taking advantage of its features. Some of my favorites are

• building my Library of favorites,
• organizing by tags, lists and groups,
• networking with other users with the same interests.

When I need to pull information together, I can go to Diigo.com, login and type in a tag name that will instantly bring up all my bookmarks for that search. I didn't have to remember where they all were on the web. Albert Einstein said it the best when a reporter asked him (during an interview) why he had to look up his own phone number. "Einstein replies, “Why should I memorize something when I know where to find it?”

While I'm "bookmarking" sites or articles I want to go back to later, Diigo gives me the ability to annotate a link, highlight a portion of the page, take a snapshot of the page, create lists, and even generate reports. This video from Diigo talks about each of these features.

Diigo V4: Research ~ annotate, archive, organize from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

Since I was able to import my Delicious bookmarks, I'm still working on organizing everything into a complete Archive and Lists. I love being able to access my bookmarks from anywhere that has internet access. Having my own personal database to reference and share with others are great benefits. Adding others to my network is as easy as searching for their name, choosing Follow and adding them to a Friend's List. So many resources, so much to share!

The regular Diigo account is free and being an educator, our account has some special priviledges that will allow us to create and manage student accounts and class groups. I see more collaboration in the making. My next task is to work with a teacher and her class on a collaboration project. Want to be in my network or part of a project?

Maybe you would like to try social bookmarking as a way to keep in touch and share information and resources. Give it a chance by setting up your Diigo account and adding my Diigo profile to your network by following me as a friend.

Web Tools for Brainstorming

Brainstorming can take all shapes while developing an idea. Students used to get excited when you asked for ideas about a topic and they saw those ideas written on a piece of paper or on the board and how they were all connected. Some still brainstorm that way. Computer programs like Kidspiration and Inspiration have made brainstorming on curriculum topics even easier - visually and connecting to ideas on the web. More resources have been made available through the internet and as our District has increased the numbers of SMARTBoards and ActivBoards in the classrooms, more student interactivity accompanies each developing idea.

While preparing to present at conferences and helping teachers find more resources to help develop 21st Century skills, I've found several tools worth checking out. Some of my favorites are:

Bubbl.us

Corkboard.me

Mindmeister

Wallwisher

Most all of the online, brainstorming tools now are free. Some do ask you to register, but it isn't required. I like being able to work with others and see the changes and additions as they happen.

Here are links to a blog post of the Top 5 Web 2.0 Brainstorming Tools and take a look at the Brainstorming page in our Student Online Collaboration livebinder. Have fun brainstorming on one of your favorite topics and let me know which program you liked the best or share one of your own.

Need Videos for Your Curriculum?

It seems that most of the time when we think about using a video to go along with our lesson, YouTube pops into our minds. I know it is probably the most popular website for videos, but it really causes concern for teachers and school districts because of the inappropriate content available to anyone and everyone. WS/FCS blocks YouTube in our district like so many other school districts.

WS/FCS has two fantastic, educational paid solutions, Learn360 and netTrekker, for teachers to find video. They are correlated with the NCSCOS and many examples have already been linked inside the lessons in Learning Village. The videos within both applications have been checked out by educators and are approved by our District because they follow CIPA guidelines.  Along with these two wonderful resources, maybe you would like to check out a few additions and/or alternatives that have been approved by our Software Clearinghouse:

 
Great educational site with videos, images, and other Teacher Resources

        Wonderful site where you can browse categories, find Educator Resources, watch and upload videos, and much more.


Kid's video site, filtered and has two rules - be kind, positive, and encouraging with comments and NO profanity



Although there are many choices out on the web, why not try using one of these to compliment your next lesson?

March Resources

Even though there isn't a National Holiday during the month of March; many more events are happening. You can find events that are celebrated for the whole month, for a week, or for each day of the month.

About.com has a "Long List of March Holidays and Special Days such as
Women's History Month
Irish-American Heritage Month
Youth Art Month

It was really interesting to see that March 7th was the day that Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone Patent was granted and that the first paper money was issued on the 10th. What a fun way to do trivia questions, journal entries, or a great lead-in for a project.

Check out these other websites and resources for lessons, videos, and activities.
Learning Village:

• The Encyclopedia Britannica in NCWiseOwl spotlights Women's History.
• Thinkfinity for what's happening "Today in History"
• "This Day in History" in Learn360
• "Women in History" in netTrekker

Outside sources:

• Surfing the Calendar at Surfing the Net with Kids website by Barbara J. Feldman
• March Madness activity in SMART Exchange
• Social Studies for Kids
• My Vocabulary - Home of the VocabularyUniversity

Most of these can be subscribed to so you will get updated information monthly, some are weekly.

Here is a website for teachers called The Teacher's Corner with lots more lesson plans, thematic units, and activities. The calendar can be printed to help remind you of what is coming up next.

Image created in Wordle

Last Days of School

Everyone is preparing for the last days of school. Students are studying for exams, catching up on the last few assignments, dreaming of vacations. Teachers are trying to teach and share the last bits of knowledge, review for end-of-year tests, dreaming of some time off to catch their breath. With all the tests, classroom or state, given and taken the last few weeks of school to find out how much has been learned, have you ever wondered how the students really felt about your class and how the year unfolded. A blog post by Vickie Davis, the CoolCatTeacher, reminded me of my days in the classroom and how I could learn more about the students and how to make my teaching better for them and myself. We both used anonymous feedback but with different methods - paper/pencil vs online.

I attended the Scholastic Banquet sponsored by the Kernersville Rotary Club the other night and was amazed at all the accomplishments of the top ten juniors and seniors from East High School and Glenn High School. The seniors were accepted by top-notch universities, all but a couple had declared their majors, and most had secured thousands of dollars in scholarships for the next four years of their lives. One item on the agenda that made this such a special event was when the seniors got together and gave an award and recognition to the teacher they had nominated as "Best Teacher of the Year." The students shared the reasons why and how this teacher influenced them. The number one reason was that the teacher had shown the students they really cared about them and wanted them to be all they could be and achieve their dreams.

When I was teaching in the classroom (let's just say I'm not quite as old as dirt) I used to ask my elementary students to write a paragraph about their year. Yes, it was on paper with a pencil but it had the same effect as when we do surveys with them online now. I did the survey so they didn't have to put their name on the paper. They seemed to feel more powerful and answered honestly because they were anonymous. Using some of their suggestions and ideas helped make me a better teacher with a progressive learning environment in the classroom.

A great way for teachers to do an end-of-the-year survey is to use the custom form page feature on their SchoolCenter website. Create text area boxes for their answers with open-ended questions asking for their honest opinions. The students could take the survey during a lab time or even from home. There will be some silly answers, but since they are anonymous you will probably get their true feelings. Not all the answers will be what you want to hear or read; some may make you really think about the way you've presented the material and hopefully there will be that one special response that makes your day, your year worth every minute of the time you've put into your teaching career.

In these last days of school, why not survey the students to find out what was important or not, how could the year be improved and ask for their HONEST opinion. We'll show them we are listening and they'll feel like they have been heard. All in all the year will end on a positive note.

Boosting Your Memory

May brings in beautiful flowers, but also a heavy testing schedule. Lately there has been a lot of buzz about remembering everything that has been taught so students will do their best on the end-of-year tests. While looking for more ways to review, we found the program called MemoryLifter. It is flashcard freeware and uses all the senses while learning and remembering information through images, audio and video.

MemoryLifter has free downloads in subject areas such as Languages, Arts, and Social, Applied and Natural Sciences. This free flashcard program is PC-based. The cards can be downloaded and printed out for use or they are a great way to practice using an interactive whiteboard. A couple of my favorites were the US States and Capitals and Musical Intervals.

Once you've installed the free program and downloaded a set of flashcards, you will be able to edit the cards to fit your needs. A card collector feature and an audiobook generator are included. The card collector allows you to generate cards using drag and drop or copy and paste. Many more modules can be purchased from $2.95 to $75.95. Sharing your own flashcard set is easy to do with just a few clicks. The LearnLift staff will review the content and then post is so everyone can have free access to it. They will also consider purchasing your module if you would prefer to sell it to them because it is a specialized unit or has a lot of time invested in its creation. Either way, it is a great way to share knowledge.

ePals - Friends From Around the World

Remember the "You've Got Mail" alert on your computer? As an educator, I like to try many different ways to help students learn about the world around them and become more connected. One way to do that is through a free, email application called ePals SchoolMail. I have worked alongside the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce setting up the student email accounts and monitors for three schools on a project involving the communication between students and businesses. They were working on their writing skills while finding out more information about different careers.

ePals SchoolMail is a student-only email service that was founded in 1996. It is free to the users and free of advertising as well. Tim DiScipio, epals' co-founder stated "We're looking for educationally relevant sponsors and foundations." They develop partnerships with these businesses and organizations so SchoolMail is ad free. Students can then focus on the email. Although it is a free service, guidelines and educator controls are in place. While ePals maintains the overall filtering system of content and language, the teacher/monitor for the classroom can monitor all incoming and outgoing email, adjust the level of protections, establish settings determined by student ages and needs, block or regulate attachments and even limit correspondence to certain students or classrooms.

Email is another way of providing cultural exchange for students around the world and preparing them for our global society. With SchoolMail there are no boundaries. It is easy to find another online classroom using the ePals map, which includes 8 regions with 200 countries using 136 languages. Educational projects with classrooms in the global community and virtual field trips allow students to be more connected and aware of the world around them. The email exchange with groups give them firsthand knowledge of each other's culture, help them develop a personal connection and see a lot of value in the other cultures.

Teachers monitor emails for appropriateness and being coherent; looking for correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, no texting slang, and providing more insight to different terms used in different cutures such as "football vs soccer." These guidelines have shown a positive effect and writing to students with limited English helped improved students' writing skills. They were more careful with sentence structure and helped each other with grammar and spelling.

Younger students can use email to help them learn about other local schools, counties and states, cyber etiquette, and various parts of an email as part of the Standard Course of Study. Some teachers have expanded the one-to-one email features by creating a SchoolBlog to communicate as a group. They post questions, answer others' questions, and share ideas. The enthusiasm to participate and learn more on a subject increases dramatically when the students start receiving responses. They start asking more questions, learn new terms, and will login at home if have access.

Email is another way students can live in the "now" with their global community and become stronger in their education. Let's think how we can put them in touch with the world around them and how it can make a difference.

Traditional Textbooks

What do you think of when someone mentions a textbook? Does a big, thick book with lots of information that was written for a specific grade and course come to mind? As I work with the Software Clearinghouse committee, I see more challenges arising in ways to meet educational needs of the students.

The times are "a changing." Information is out there for anyone to claim and use. Events are current, posted online almost to the minute of them happening. Several school systems are taking a look at the way information is given to students. They are making allowances for all the newer technologies - internet resources, interactive media, data devices. Districts are looking for ways to incorporate these technologies into their existing textbook curriculum to help with budget concerns and to help make the curriculum more interesting.

Our textbooks come up for adoption renewal every five years and the decisions are made for the next term based on information that has already happened and organized to fit our standard course of study. Some of the facts are already "wrong" before we start using the new texts because of the fast-paced changes in our world and society. Publishers have begun to use CDs with their textbooks, but even that is static information. They almost have their hands tied when it comes to textbooks because of having to prepare for all the different states' requirements, standards, and budgets.

Indiana has taken the initiative to ask publishers to provide better and more interesting materials that incorporate the newer technologies. Virginia is using a nonprofit organization to help them develop their own content and has textbooks in physics, math, and biology online. Chapters and lab experiments have been developed by teachers and are posted for other teachers to use. Textbooks haven't been replaced, only supplemented with online instructional materials. Florida is trying to provide more flexibility in their budget by allowing the school districts to use instructional material funds for texts or anything else. Once the teachers and students have gotten a taste for materials that are online, interactive, or otherwise digital, I think it would be much easier to bring the textbooks to life.

I believe we need textbooks, whether they are paper or a digital resource. As our world changes minute by minute, hopefully publishers will try to keep up (or ahead) and provide us with more possibilities for teaching materials. Learning styles, as well as ways to find and receive information, have changed. Let's try to keep improving the quality of the educational materials we provide for the students.

Excel Tips

I've been working in Excel with several teachers lately. They have found the program as a great resource tool for all subject areas. Sometimes we needed basic tips and then that information led to more advanced features. We built spreadsheets for K-5 students that displayed as labeling games, pictographs, questionaires, and much more. The help menu in Excel is great, but it always helps to have more backup.

While searching for more tips and suggestions for them, I found a really great resource website called ExcelTips. It is one piece of the Tips.net publication which is a division of Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.. Allen L. Wyatt, writer and editor, started it ten years ago and has over 39,000 subscribers. He freely shares all the tips, tricks, and tutorials online or in a newsletter.

The free subscription to his site must be confirmed through your provided email link. Your email is not made public and they don't sell their mailing list. Watch for the latest publication every Saturday and it covers all the versions from Excel97 through 2007. The tips are noted with the version when it calls for different information. The site is searchable with links or keywords and information from past issues can be accessed online. If you want to have all the information available when you aren't online, a CD is available for purchase. He does have a version that provides more that the free version called ExcelTips Premium and has a nominal annual charge.

Using the Helpful Links and Newest Tips sections on the website, we were able to learn more ways to make Excel become an integral part of our curriculum. All we had to do was think of an activity to be used in a lesson and the tips, tricks, and tutorials were there waiting for us. If you want to find out what is happening at the moment, just follow him on his twitter account or sign up for the RSS feed that will give you an ExcelTip daily or weekly.

Telling a Story

We start at a very early age "telling stories" to family members and friends. The stories could be about what happened while playing in the backyard, going on a trip with the family, or a big event such as a wedding, graduation, birth of your first child. Many people document their lives in stories and publish them in books or magazines. A free web tool to publish your story is Story of My Life.

The site has the largest collection of stories from a wide variety of writers. The topics are limitless. There are featured stories, blogs, Top 10 list, videos and pictures available - all without registering for an account. Once you have setup your free account, you can begin writing your story, decide whether to let everyone read it or share it with a special group. The Timeline feature is very interesting in that you can set a time and date of when your story, pictures, or videos can be viewed. Some are going to go public in a few hours and others are not going to be ready for months or years. Can you imagine the changes in our lives from now till then?

I got to thinking of ways my sisters and I could capture the events in my parents' lives that would help us hold onto them a little longer. We have the pictures and taped conversations. There are some stories written down on paper. Maybe this would be a good way for us to keep the story alive.

Learn Your Vocabulary

Many of the teachers I've been working with recently have been discussing ways to help the students with vocabulary words, especially to prepare for end-of-year testing. They have been using the free Hot Potatoes application to create online activities in several formats: multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching, flashcards, and even crossword puzzles.

Another online solution to help you learn vocabulary and similar material is a fairly new website (only four years old) called Quizlet. It was developed by a 15-year old in 2005 to help himself learn a big assignment of French terms. The main idea behind the site is to make learning vocabulary fun. By making it fun, the learning is more effective and retained longer.

Vocabulary words from almost any subject can be found and used on the site without a login. Scoring is done on the spot, term lists can be printed out, and flashcard templates are available. Teachers and students are creating and sharing the quizzes. Thousands of new flashcard sets are created daily and hundreds are online, either creating more flashcards or using the site.

This site is a great way to test your knowledge and makes you want to get the answers right. It is another fun resource to introduce, practice, or test your vocabulary.

Telling Stories with Timelines

Years ago I used paper, pencil and a ruler to document the events of a story. Yes, I'm older than dirt or feel that way sometimes. Tools advanced and I helped the students draw out their timeline events in a word processing program. Drawing the pictures to go along with each event spiced it up a bit. Finally, we got a computer program that let us type in the event dates and descriptions and it would create a timeline for us to scroll through history. We were on top of the world but still wanted more. The program was updated and now we could include some clipart. Creating timelines are like everything else; the more you have, the more you want.

Time flies by and new technologies are developed even faster. If you think about it, someone is usually already working on it. Now we don't have to install a program on one computer to create timelines and print them out to share with others in the class. I've been working with two web-based timeline programs: Timeglider (used to be Mnemograph) and Timeline Builder.

Although you need to sign up for an account, Timeglider is free and there is an educational account. They only ask for feedback as payment. Some of the timelines featured on the front page represent historical events such as "The Wright Brothers" and "World War I". Dates appear when you hover the mouse over an event title and annotations show in pop-up windows when you click on the title. It is very easy to create your own timeline by giving it a title and start entering your own events or importing them. This collection of events becomes your timeline. Images and links can be added to the events or imported through RSS feeds, Flickr, Wikipedia and Facebook. Timeglider is working on "how to" videos and has an easy to use set of instructions.

Timeline Builder is web based and provided by The Center for History and New Media. Their collection of historical timelines are called projects with three sections: Teaching & Learning, Research & Tools, and Collecting & Exhibiting. Some of the timelines use images, essays, and discussions to tell the story and others have video that walk you through the time period of events. The collections are made available from digital records, archived documents, and historical exhibits. Again you will need to create your free account to start building a timeline. The program is in Beta format - a work in progress. Although you will be able to share your timeline with others through a URL generated as you add events, Timeline Builder doesn't have as many features available through the free account. It comes with five categories for your events but you can't change the colors for the categories or change the default names. When you enter an event, it only accepts the month and year. This gets a little confusing as you add events for the same month. Adding pictures is not an option at this point in time. As they update the Builder, I look forward to being able to create a timeline as detailed as their collections.

Creating and sharing stories and events on a timeline have definitely changed since my first years of teaching. Using all the different types of media available now allow the students to use their creativity to the fullest. As mentioned before, the more we have, the more we want. Just think how we will be able to share a timeline of events six months from now - touch a screen and drag the information from another source into the timeline calendar or speak to the computer and tell it where to look for the information and pull it into your timeline.

Wait - we are thinking about it. I wonder who is already developing the way to do it!

280 Slides - Easy Way to Make Presentations

Any time I've needed to put information into a presentation, it usually started with Powerpoint - until lately. MovieMaker, PhotoStory, Voicethread, and Google Docs are some of the choices I've used to present information to others, help with training methods, and share findings. In this ever-changing world we are always looking for new and better ways to share.

While at the NCTIES 2009 conference, I went to the Web2.0 Digital Tools for Digital Kids session with Dr. Howie DiBlasi. One of the free tools he shared from his top 53 web 2.0 sites was 280slides. Basically, it is free powerpoint that is web 2.0 based. The learning curve is minimal and it is very easy to use. The first time you use the program it will ask you for an email address. Then just click on the Launch button, choose what kind of presentation you would like to do - create new, open a saved file, or import an existing file - and begin working. All the familiar tools are right there for you.

As you work on your presentation, 280slides autosaves every few minutes so you don't have to worry about losing your work and it will always be the latest version. Since everything is saved to their server, you can get to your presentation anywhere, anytime as long as you have an Internet connection.

Already have some presentations you would like to use at a distant location and not carry them on a thumbdrive? 280slides will import existing Powerpoint presentations so you can make changes and/or additions, or use them as they are. The reverse works as well - create your 280slides presentation and then download it as a PowerPoint file (even 2007), an open document, or a PDF. When you feel the need to share it with others, just click on the Share button and email it to someone (2007 format only), publish it to the web through SlideShare, or embed a link to it on your website.

The toolbar has everything at your fingertips so you can start fresh, import, or publish. It was easy to upload photos and movies from my own sources or from a website, even YouTube, and Flickr. Changing themes and layouts was a breeze. One click on the yellow note icon and you have a place for presenter notes. All in all, this is a fun and easy to use web-based program.

Need to create or work on a presentation? Let's think about meeting at a Starbuck's or Panera Bread, get comfy in a chair, logon and put the web to work. See you there!

Gizmos - Gadgets for Math and Science

One of my favorite benefits from attending conferences is learning new ways to help students learn. I attended a session at NCTIES 2009 that used an interactive whiteboard and an online program called Gizmos from ExploreLearning.

Gizmos is an online simulation program for science and math. It has multimedia activities for grades 3-5, 6-8. and 9-12. The activities target higher order thinking skills. Because they are visual and interactive, students seem to enjoy practicing the skills. ExploreLearning follows the research findings of Robert Marzano's teaching strategies that show positive effects when students use computer-based manipulatives.

The 380+ multimedia activities are correlated to state standards and textbook adoptions. When you go to the site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose "Gizmo correlations (to states and textbooks)" to go to their catalog listing. There you can browse through Math, Science, state correlations, textbook correlations, or a full list of their collection - by grade level or topic. Each of the NC standards had one or more activities linked to it. Included for the activity was Teacher Materials and Student Lesson Materials with guides, objectives, vocabulary and assessments.

Gizmos will let you work on any of the activities, but if you stay on one for longer than five minutes, it will kick you back to the main screen and ask you to login or register to try a free, 30-day trial version. Once you're registered, you can copy graphs that have been created during the activity and paste them into a document. There is a screenshot feature and you can design your own worksheets from the pictures and documents.

I saw lots of possibilities with the computer-based manipulatives and especially using them with an interactive whiteboard. Think of all the fun you could have "seeing" your problem "come to life."

Need to Calculate?

One of the NCTIES presentations included information for free calculators and supplies through a group called RentCalculators. Their mission is to support education by supplying calculators and supplies at a much lower purchase cost, renting them cheaply, or even free. Students can calculate online, rent the calculators for as low $4 per month or purchase one for $9.00. The RentCalculators.org site is designed for students to be able to use the technology even if they can't afford to buy it.

Students can use RentCalculators' Free Online Graphing Calculator with ease. It is online and accessible anytime they need to use a calculator for their homework. Once the link is clicked, the window can be resized to full-screen. Just type in the problem to be solved through one of the tabs - Equations, Settings, Intersection, and Plot Points - and see the immediate results.

This organization uses donations to help make technology affordable for students. Their goal for 2009 is to make the first month's rental free. Check out their site and share the wealth!

Play Music By Ear

I've always marvelled at anyone who could play a musical instrument, especially those who play without sheet music. My youngest neice can hear a piece of music and then play it on the piano or her clarinet. Amazing. I used to have one of those electric organs that you could punch in a number and it would play the song or you could program some background tones and then you play the song. I did finally learn how to play several songs but it was only because the keys were numbered/lettered to match the songbook. Sad, I know.

I read an article by Nick Yingling about how to improve your musical knowledge at TrainEar.com. This is the web home for a Free Online Ear Training program. Numerous resources are made available to help you learn how to play music by ear - starting out at a beginner level with simple melodies. The program teaches intervals and the basic concept is learning the distance between notes. Watching the beginning tutorial on how to use the program is a must to learn how to use it. Then with practice, it became easier and made sense.

The Pictorial Guide is very helpful; explaining how to move through the 12 intervals. Some of the options are:

1. Limiting the number of questions.
2. Playing the notes in a different order
3. Creating your own songs

There is an option to use keystrokes for those who feel a bit slowed-down by the mouse and you can use game controller software to connect the keys to a gamepad or joystick.

Music teachers and their students would enjoy this program. It would be another way for them to practice and learn music when not in class. For more options, check out the 10+ sites and programs listed on their site for more online ear training.

Wireless Reading

While looking at one of my favorite sites to buy books, I found an advertisement for Amazon's Wireless Reading Device. Curiosity got the best of me and I clicked on the link to take a tour of their new device called the Kindle 2.

It is about the size of a small paperback book but thin as a credit card and only weighs in at 10.2 ounces. Most of the books I read are a lot heavier than that. Unfortunately for my pocketbook, the cost is just over $35 per ounce. All the controls to turn the pages, go Home or Back, or pull up menus are easily accessible. The full keyboard and 3G wireless access makes it a breeze to order more books, magazines, newspapers or visit blogs. It will hold up to 1500 titles.

Downloads are $9.99 or less and can be done in 60 seconds or less. This is much cheaper than most of the books I buy. One of my favorite authors is Stephen King and most of his books are hundreds of pages long and several inches thick. He has written a book just for Kindle called UR. If you turn the wireless off, the battery could last up to two weeks. Its text-to-speech feature is a big selling point for me because I check out a lot of books on tape from the library so I can "read" while I drive. The Kindle will let you switch back and forth from it "reading to you" or you sitting somewhere and reading from its display with 16 shades of grey and adjustable text size. For those of us that are getting older and may not carry our glasses all the time, this is a great feature. Now most cars don't have a cassette player in them and it's not that easy to find all the books on CD.

Connect the Kindle to your computer and you can download MP3 files to it so you can listen to your favorite music while reading. Since it has wireless, you can even email Word or PDF files. Amazon tries to have every book title available on their site and they have over 230,000 titles available for the Kindle. Whether you like to read books, magazines, newspapers, or blogs, the Kindle will be an asset. I just hope the price for this new and exciting technology comes down soon.