Interactive PBIS Tutorial

If you are looking for a way to learn more about PBIS (Posititve Behavior Intervention & Support) then try this online interactive tutorial created by the University of Kentucky.

Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be able to:

1. Understand "behavior" from a behavioral model.

2. Identify and apply the elements of a behavioral model to students with challenging behavior

3. Communicate professionally about positive and negative behavior

4. Identify what behaviors require intervention and when intervention is necessary

Below is a list of some additional links to sites about PBIS:

• OSEP Technical Assistance Center on PBIS
• PBIS Videos
• Coach and Trainer Resources
  

Quizlett

While memorizing vocabulary does not involve higher order thinking skills, nor is it very 21st Century, there are times when we ask students to do memorization. Whether it is Spanish, biology, history, English vocabulary, Quizlet is a great tool that can take the boring out of memorizing. This is one tool that I use with my own two boys when they need to study for quizzes and test that involve vocabulary, people, or events. My oldest will even create his own flash card sets, (which little does he know, helps him study) studies them, then will use the terms in his set and create a test for himself. Some of the cool features of Quizlet that go beyond mere flashcards include:

• the ability to search for sets already created by other users and export them to use as your own.
  
• the auto fill option (type in a term, click auto fill, choose a definition already used by someone else who included the term in one of their sets).
  
• There are a couple of games users can play to help them memorize their terms.

Voice Thread

With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install.

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Click this link to view an introductory video on how to use ed.voicethread.

Moodle Video Tutorials

Here is a link to a series of video tutorials for teachers who use Moodle. These videos were created by Shawn Brandt, a technology integrator in New Prague, MN, who publishes a blog called Technology Tip. They are very well done and go from the very basic to the more advanced functions of Moodle. If you are looking at using Moodle to hold your entire course, or if you merely want to put a unit of study on it, then you may want to take a look at these videos.
http://www.np.k12.mn.us/TechIntegration/?page_id=181

Below is a link to the Moodle Features Demo Course that is on our own (MSAD#61) Moodle Server. Here you will find just about anything you'll need to set up your own course including video tutorials helpful documents and links to resources.
http://msad61.npv.com/course/view.php?id=9

Behold: Visual Image Search

Behold is a search engine for images. It searches through the million+ images on Flickr, but has a different twist to it. It can search for images based on what is in them, rather than the words used to tag them. For example: you can type in the term baseball, and you will get results that usually have green or grass in them.

Here is a link for a couple of videos that show how to use this impressive Image Search Engine.

100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time In School

A fellow educator that I follow on Twitter just tweeted a link to this great site that offers over 100 tips for using Google. Check it out if you get a chance. There are some great tips covering:
Searching
Specific tips for education
Google Docs, Books, Gmail & Calendar
Handy Google Services and Apps

http://www.eternalcode.com/100-google-tricks-that-will-save-you-time-in-school

I would not necessarily share these tips and tricks with students because there are some tips there for what to do to get around a site that is blocked.

WorksheetWorks

In this day and age, with all the technology that is being used and how more and more schools are trying to go paperless, you wouldn't think that there would be a whole lot of demand for a worksheet website. Guess what, there still is. Worksheetworks.com provides teachers and homeschoolers educational materials that can be modified to meet their specifications. Once modified, they can be downloaded as .pdf files. As the teacher, you can print them or you can upload them to your webpage, blog, or moodle course for students to download.

Tip: If you truly want to go paperless, students can open the .pdf files in Preview and then use the Annotate tools to complete them. Once filled in, students can save the completed sheet and then email to the teacher as an attachment, or upload to a Moodle course or other digital "Pass In" method.

Free Screencasting at Screenr

Have you ever wanted to teach students about something or how to do something through a video tutorial but didn't have the software or the money to purchase the software? Now there is a free web-based screencasting application that makes sharing short screencasts painless; Screenr.
I found this great tool when I found a site listing video tutorials for Moodle. I wondered how the teacher who produced the videos made them (what tool did he use?) and eventually found out that he used Screenr.

Screenr was basically made to use with Twitter (microblogging tool), allowing users to automatically "Tweet" their videos to their followers. You can still use Screenr even if you don't actively use Twitter. If you decide to not publish the screencast on Twitter you can download it as an MP4 (to be viewed in iTunes), upload it to YouTube, embed the screencast on to a blog or web page, or simply share the URL via email or IM.

I used Screenr to produce the video in my previous blog post "Showing YouTube Videos Without the Distractions." It was very easy to use and does a great job, which is not always the case when dealing with "Free" online tools.

Take a look at this 1-minute tour of Screenr.

Showing YouTube Videos Without the Distractions

There are a lot of useful and educationally appropriate videos to be found at YouTube. Teachers often are wary of using them because they run the risk of losing their students' attention by being able to view links to other videos, advertisements, and comments about the video you are showing. Fortunately, there is a tool you can put on your browser toolbar which will allow you to view the video without the distractions. http://quietube.com displays the video you want on a plain white background while removing everything else.