Carol Mortensen‘s insight:
This amazing interactive map provides audio examples of dialects through the US! Truly amazing!
See on aschmann.net
“A Grandmother’s Wish” Fundraiser
Carol Mortensen‘s insight:
I love this little boy – maybe it is his twinkling eyes or mischievous grin. Maybe it is because he is my daughter’s son and an extension of my own precious child. My heart breaks that I cannot cure Zak, to make things better, to ease the pain, to make his heart strong. So, I do what I can do which is to love Zak with all of my heart and to help ease the financial burdens that this life-saving heart transplant brings to his family. Mother’s Day is May 12th and my birthday is May 15th. I do not wish for flowers or dinner out. No perfume or candy. Instead, my wish is for Zak to get better. Please help me fill in the hearts for 150 wishes granted.
Please help me help my grandson by donating $1 or more to COTA in Honor of Zak M at www.cotaforzakm.com.
See on www.cotaforzakm.com
Posted in Educational Resources
A New Heart For Zak
If you would like to learn how you can help, please visit http://www.COTAforZakM.com.
Carol Mortensen‘s insight:
Please meet Zak and his family – Quest, Zak’s older brother who also had HCM, his little brothers Sutton and M.J., his Dad, Clarence, who also has HCM and is waiting for his own heart transplant, and his Mom, Marki, an amazing, and strong woman!
See on animoto.com
Posted in Educational Resources
Web Design, Photo Editing and DTP software | Serif – Inspiring Creativity
The leading independent publisher of award-winning, great value software. Download our web design, photo editing, desktop publishing and graphics software now.
Carol Mortensen‘s insight:
I am very impressed with these Serif products. PagePlus x6 makes amazing newsletters, flyers, etc. easily. As a teacher, this is a great way to make and publish parent newsletters, create cute logos, and a varitey of other great options.
Serif DrawPlus x6 is a rival to Fireworks which I’ve used for years. However, I’m excited about the possiblities that DrawPlus offers in terms of things I use the most as an educator publishing educational content to the web, specifically, cutouts, drawings, and banners.
There is a free download so you can check it out yourself and I believe it’s well worth the time! Take a look!
See on www.serif.com
Posted in Educational Resources
49 Firefox Essential Add-Ons For Educators Symbaloo Webmix
Here are 49 of my very favorite add-ons for educators and students! You’ll wonder how you got along with them!!
Symbaloo EDU
Carol Mortensen‘s insight:
Symbaloo has finally done it! They’ve updated their dashboard for folks like me with over 80 webmixes! It’s so much better! If you haven’t tried Symbaloo, please take a look at it. It’s great for your own organization! And, consider using it to help your students get organized, as well. What is great is that their updates to their Symbaloo webmixes will be available for them no matter where they are accessed. The students can easily move back and forth between school and home, even a friend’s house, to access their favorite sites, research materials, videos, and many other items.
Thank you, Symbaloo, for listening and for making it SO much better!
See on www.symbalooedu.com
Posted in Educational Resources
Snapguide
Snapguide is the easiest way to make and share great looking guides. Create your own guides with our mobile platform and discover guides on the go.
Carol Mortensen‘s insight:
Snapguide is a great educational tool for students. Not only can they learn from SnapGuide but they can also create at Snapguide, making instructional lessons or showcasing what they have learned. The process is easy and students are sure to love it!
See on snapguide.com
Tagged with: educational resources, productivity, Snapguide
Posted in Educational Resources, Productivity
Posted in Educational Resources, Productivity
Will Your 3rd Grade Class Adopt Zak? A grandmother’s request…
My grandson, Zak, is 9-years old and in 3rd grade. Zak is waiting for a new heart and is homeschooled. He has Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and has been diagnosed since he was 4. His biggest dream is to run, something he hasn’t been able to do since he was diagnosed.
The other day, I noticed Zak reading about a child who received a heart transplant and his hospital room had letters from his classmates with drawings and get well wishes. He thought it was great. Because Zak is homeschooled, he won’t have this when he has his surgery.
So, my question is: Will your class adopt Zak as a classmate? It would be great for him to receive these kinds of get well wishes from children his own age!
If you are interested in becoming Zak’s adopted classmates, please email me (Carol Mortensen) at zaksheart@gmail.com, sent me a direct message on Twitter (@aheartforzak) or message me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/aheartforzak).
Thank you so much,
Zak’s Grandma
Zak’s site: www.COTAforZak.com
Tagged with: A Heart For Zak, Cota For Zak, HCM, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Posted in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Posted in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
75+ Resources 4 High School English Language Arts Symbaloo Webmix
Here you’ll find a Symbaloo webmix of over 75 online and interactive resources for high school (secondary) English Language Arts (ELA). Please share your favorite sites with us and I’ll add them to the webmix! 
Posted in Educational Resources, Symbaloo Webmixes
Support Technology Integration With a Technology Newsletter
One great way to increase support for technology integration and encourage teachers to think about how technology can improve their lessons is to provide a regularly-published newsletter. The newsletter is an excellent way to share great ideas about new websites, apps, or teaching ideas that can improve the use of technology within classrooms. Here are some additional uses of the technology newsletter:
- Share important tech updates from the Technology Department. Rather than send out a host of emails, I simply add everything to the newsletter.
- Garner support for your newsletter from your principal! They need to set the expectation that the newsletter must be read!
- Include timely topics. For instance, at our campus, we are participating in BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) so we include a section on BYOT ideas in the newsletter.
- Seek out campus teachers to write articles for the newsletter. Teachers enjoy reading articles from their peers. At our school, we have been featuring articles from teachers sharing on Apple apps.
- Use media in your newsletter. Model the kinds of integration teachers can use with students. For instance, create a VOKI and use it as your newsletter header welcoming readers to the newsletter.
- Consider writing a newsletter to be published to several schools with the same grade levels. In our district, we have 4 high school campuses and we are all working to publish the iTech Newsletter to them all.
- Keep an archive of newsletters accessible on a web or through your newsletter publisher to ensure that teachers can find great resources you have in previous issues.
- Include a free “gift” in the newsletter to encourage teachers to read it. For example, give a free flash drive or stylus to the first five people to respond to a hidden challenge in one of the articles. This increases reading motivation and builds positive relationships with your readers.
To see an example of a technology newsletter, please take a look at the iTech News that we publish at Deer Park High School campuses at http://deerparkhighschools.presspublisher.org/. The Campus Technology Integration Specialist (CTIS) publish the newsletter. We use Press Publisher for our newsletter but this can also be created in LiveBinder or a similar program. Microsoft Word can also provide great templates for newsletters!
Do you publish a newsletter? Share it by commenting here!
