http://www.epals.com/

I reciently came accross the ePals learning community website, and I was impressed. This site is an education comminity that is free to join, and has a wide reange of resources to help you teach at all levels.

A few of the things that can help on this site are covered in their top ten activities.

I have used several different grade book solutions in my many years of teaching. In the past my favorite have been applications that are directly installed on my computer, but the one that I use now and don’t foresee ever leaving is web based. I have used very expensive online solutions adopted by our district such as PowerSchool, but the interface seems to be an after thought. In my opinion the best option out there at any price is Snap Grade. It is very well designed and easy to use, but it also has many powerful features that make it perfect for about any situation.

Snap Grade’s interface is probably one of the best thought out of any grade book I have seen out there. You enter the information about the assignments on the same page you enter the scores. It took me about 20 minutes to set up all of my students and classes and have the first scores entered. It was intuitive enough that I didn’t even need to look at any of the help documents. I did have to look a little to find a way to do a missing assignment report, but everything else was pretty easy to figure out. Being web based, it is available from any computer, but they wen a step further and built a Mobile interface so it can also easily be used from an iphone, ipod touch, or android based phone. The mobile interface is not quite as easy due to limited screen real estate, but it is well designed. It is great to be able to wonder around the room and checkoff journals or spelling on my iPod. If you want a few more advanced features and the ability for parents to log on and view their child’s progress, you pay a relatively low price of $49.95 per year. They also have options for group discounts the allow for school wide administration, and reports. If you don’t need these additional features the application is free. It is free to sign up and try it out and it is well worth the time to try it out.

There are many great educational out there that can make learning science a lot more interesting. Also, although it is probably not as much fun as live labs, educational science software, can be far more affordable than lab materials. I wouldn’t suggest that we eliminate labs, but I think we could expand the lab experience by mixing live labs and virtual lab environments. Here is my list of a few of the best Educational Science Software:
Model ChemLab

Model ChemLab is a unique product incorporating both an interactive simulation and a lab notebook workspace with separate areas for theory, procedures and student observations. Commonly used lab equipment and procedures are used to simulate the steps involved in performing an experiment. Users step-through the actual lab procedure while interacting with animated equipment in a way that is similar to the real lab experience.
Phet Interactive Simulations
Phet Interactive Simulations provides several research based sims that covers topics from glaciers to pH Scale. It is provided by the University of Colorado, is web based, and best of all is free.
NASA Rocketmodeler III
Nasa Rocket Modler III allows you to adjust different variables in a model rocket to gain optimal hight and flight time. This tool is also free.
Interactive Physics

Interactive Physics allows you to model, simulate, and explore a wide variety of physical phenomena, and create nearly any experiment imaginable. If you can use a mouse, you can use Interactive Physics.

• Create objects by drawing circles, blocks, and polygons


• Measure velocity, acceleration, force, energy, etc., in metric or English units


• Create ropes, springs, dampers, pulleys, slots, actuators, and motors


• Simulate contact, collisions, and friction


• Vary air resistance, gravity, or material properties


• View results as numbers, graphs, and animated vectors


• Hear and measure sound volumes, sound frequencies, and


• Doppler effectsCreate visually appealing presentations by attaching graphics to objects

Interactive Physics allows you to model, simulate, and explore a wide variety of physical phenomena, and create nearly any experiment imaginable. If you can use a mouse, you can use Interactive Physics.
LAB Tutor 4
Lab Tutor 4 is an amazing life science laboratory software that provides Many activities to make learning life science easy. Click on the link above for a video overview of what it has to offer.

This is just a quick note to let readers know about MyInboxBlog.com

MyInboxBlog is simply a collection of the best and most interesting things that find there way into my inbox. From funny videos to inspirational thoughts, it’s sure to have something you will enjoy.

With the announcement of Apples new iPad devise there is a lot of skepticism among the tech analysts on whether or not this devise really has a market. I personally am glad to see Apple’s judgment get questioned by the fan-boy media, however in this case I thing Apple has the potential to hit a home run. For me personally it answers a big need. I currently have an iPod Touch with a fair amount of money and time invested in apps for it. I am also in the market for a phone. So I should just get an iPhone and transfer all of that over, right? Wrong, AT&T has no coverage for my area. Besides that I no longer believe that the iPhone is the toughest kid on the block in the cell phone arena. Android based systems will quickly overtake the iPhones momentum, because they are open for developers, and open to all carriers. The iPad is the perfect answer for my problem, because the apps I use the most will still be available and even more useful on the iPad, and can easily switch to an android based mobile phone without giving up my Apps, or having to carry two pocket sized devises.

The implications on schools could be tremendous, if Apple can refocus it’s efforts on in the education market, and get a little more competitive pricing. This is a perfect student device because students can type, communicate, and have textbooks all in one relatively affordable device. There would be a need to disable some options such as itunes store, appstore, and there would need to be an easy method to image devices for a whole classroom. Whether Apple will work with these things and make it possible remains a question. If Apple doesn’t there will likely be a similar device that will soon. Either way Apple has created a class of devise that will eventually revolutionize our classrooms. The days of each student having a computer devise are not too far away.

Jing Website

Jing is a product that can capture either a still image of anything on your screen or a recording of up to 5 minutes of your screen.  Wouldn’t it be handy to show the students how to do something, rather than just trying to explain the steps.  Once you start using screen capture you wonder what you did without it.  It is great for taking a picture of a website, Google earth images, or application instructions.

Jing is made by Techsmith  who makes the best and most widely used professional screen capture applications.  This free version is easier to use and has most of the features that you would need as a teacher.  Jing is also Mac or Windows compatible.

ZOHO Writer Website

ZOHO Writer is a word processing application in the cloud.  There is no software to install, and documents are all saved in the cloud making it easy for students to work on projects from home, the classroom or the lab without the need to transfer files with a USB Drive or disk.  Of the online Word Processors on the internet ZOHO Writer seems to be the most feature rich.  In addition to everything you would expect in a word processing application. It has great collaboration tools that are perfect for group projects.  It also has a great equation editor for High school Math and science Projects.

ZOHO Writer tightly integrates with Microsoft Office. It has a plug-in available for Office that allows you to open, edit and save ZOHO docs.  With tight integration, robust features, and and a great price (free) ZOHO Office is the best online word processor I have found yet.

In a recent post I talked about Microsoft Live Writer on a PC. Needless to say I was pretty impressed. Prior to using Live Writer I always took the time to go to the admin and type it on the website. Because my primary computer is a Mac so after using Live Writer I started my search for a Mac Blogging client. I must say first that although I settled on a winner, it was settling. The Mac Clients don’t even come close to design, functionality, and ease of use to Live Writer. Although, there are a few outliers the two applications that stand out from the crowd are MarsEdit and Ecto. While my first inclination was to go with MarsEdit, and that is what I’m typing this on, Ecto has a little but more capability when it comes to formatting and adding things to the entry like keywords or ads. The media management however is not as strong. It’s not that MarsEdit doesn’t have some of the formatting features but they are buried and difficult to use.

Ecto is not as pretty as the rest, but it does what you need it to do. I would like to see a single window interface, and easier media management, but it is very easy to format your articles and text like you want. One feature that is either not there or difficult to find is the ability to add columns. It is not important for this blog, but it is a feature I use all the time on my classroom blog for spelling and vocabulary lists. Inserting ads, and links is very easy, and it is possible to create your own scripts to make repetitive tasks a breeze.

It’s not often that Mac software is blown out of the water by PC apps, but in the case of Blogging clients Mac software doesn’t even come close. But if you are on a Mac, your best option is Ecto.

Windows Live Writer is a part of the Windows live tools available at http://download.live.com/ .  The download also includes a variety of other applications for managing photos, making movies, email application, and IM.  As a side note if you are using outlook express, you should immediately download the new Live mail app.  it is a huge step up.

The live writer application is a blogging application that lets you blog right from your desktop.  It was very easy to set up.  I simply typed in the name of my blog, the user name, and password, and waited a few seconds as it configured everything.

View Full Album

Adding Photos seems to work good, and is far easier than adding them from the web interface.  It ads the picture to your windows live photo albums and links up so you are not using space on your server.

I think that the real value in this application is that it makes it very easy for both teachers and students to blog.  Because the interface is clean and far easier to understand than many of the web interfaces, it eliminates the barriers of entry into the blogging world.  Windows Live Writer is definitely worth a look and for the price of free why not?

iLife ‘09 is out and has some amazing new features.  iPhoto particularly has some great enhancements including face recognition and improved editing abilities.  iMovie has also added significant editing capabilities.  It is now possible to edit audio length seperate from the video length.  The interface is also far more usable, and capability is a huge leap from prvious versions.  With all of these great features it makes you want to upgrade quickly.  So should we all go out and make the leap to ‘09.  If iLife 09 is the only thing you wan’t to purchase then go right ahead, but if you are considering iWork ‘09 also there may be reason to wait.  Apple is bundling OS X Leapord, iLife, and iWork in what is called the Mac Boxed Set for $169.  This is a great deal, but it will be an even better deal when the new Version of OS X is released later this year.  We are only a few months away from an upgrade and the new opperating system will likely be included in this Bundle.  If you are patient enough to wait for the new operating system this will be a great deal.