Looking for Writing Prompts?

Can you ever get enough good writing prompts?  Writing Prompts is a very original site that uses visuals to help encourage creativity for a quick brainstorm.  It seems to me that the pictures give students a place for their thoughts to get started, as sometimes that is the most difficult part.  I know how many times I've seen students lost as to where to start with a short creative writing assignment.  I think that this approach gives their brains the little push that they may need.  Unfortunately, this site is currently blocked by the district web filter because it is a tumblr blog, but these images can always be saved on a flash drive and opened on your school computer.  If you use creative writing in your classroom - I really urge you to check this out.  An example is shown below.

Solving Word Problems with Thinking Blocks

Word problems are always more of a challenge than just mere computation.  Thinking Blocks is a website that specializes in presenting word problems in a format that allows students to easily model and compute the information in a step by step format.  You can choose from addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and ratio problems.  The great thing about this site is that you can do a problem yourself or you can watch a problem solved correctly by the computer.  It also makes for a great interactive whiteboard activity since you can easily make it full screen.  This would be recommended for intermediate grade levels, but could always be used as a quick review activity in a jr. high setting.  Did someone say math extended response practice?

 

Looking for Appropriate Games?

Last week, Richard Byrne published a list of 77 Educational Games and Game Builders.  If you are looking for review games, center activities, or early-finisher activities - this is a great place to start.  This list covers many different subjects and skill levels, so take some time and add some good educational games to your class list.  If you have any other games that you think are great for what we do - let me know.  Share, share, share!

Downloading YouTube Videos Easily

Many teachers would like to use content from YouTube, but just because it is blocked by the web filter does not mean it is a lost cause.  KeepVid is a great site that allows you to quickly download a YouTube video onto your computer.  All you have to do is throw the video onto a flash drive, and you can show it whenever you want.  To get started, copy the url address from the YouTube video that you would like to download and paste it into the text box at the top of the site and click on the download button.

Once you click on "Download", you will have a few choices of what type of video file you would like to save it as.

The best option would be to select the "Download MP4" link.  Once you do this, it will begin downloading to your computer. *Note - you will notice that you can buy a version of KeepVid to install on your computer.  The online version using the steps mentioned here is free and will not cost a thing.*