Be Funky

My newest favorite photo editing tool is called "Be Funky".   It is a free photo editing software for students and of course it comes with all the goodies they love.  You can change color saturation, you can add fonts, clip art etc......you can distort features and "Cartoonize" yourself.   You can add custom frames, change border thickness and edit vignettes also!  This would be great to have students create their own story book or fairy tale characters based on themselves.  I could really see this tool being tied into literacy lessons but if you think of another way to use it please comment so other teachers can hear what you are thinking!  Here is an example of some Pop Art I made with Be Funky:

I love also that you can save it to your computer, Flickr, and even mail it and that only names a few of the options available!  Best of all it's FREE and no registration is required.  So try it out and let me know what you think!

Be Funky!

Mrs. T.

Smart Response Systems A Powerful Tool In The Classroom

Our school is really getting into using the Smart Response Systems more this school year which is so exciting to me because I think it is a powerful tool for teachers and students a like.  If you don't know what a Smart Response System is its basically just that a response device created by Smart the same company that created the Smart Board.   The reason I think its so powerful is that a teacher can teach a lesson on any subject at all.  And at the end of the lesson simply run a quiz which can even be created in a basic power point and then  imported into the Smart response program and have the students take that quiz.  Once a teacher includes this as part of his or her lesson planning this all happens very quickly and is seamless.  Often the students are more engaged because they know they can very quickly push a few buttons but here comes the powerful part the teacher knows instantly who is getting and who is not getting the lesson which means they know which students may need more help on that particular lesson. 

So what is so exciting?  Well teachers have been individualizing and differentiating their lesson plans for years but what makes it so powerful is that they get the information so much faster which means a student can get help faster then ever before if they need it.  Oh and their are tons of activities and lessons that can be used with the Smart Response Systems too........don't worry I am enamored with them right now so there will be more to come on these tools that can be pulled out of your teacher tool box. 

Stay Techie!

Mrs. Thompson
Digital Maven

Are You Using PBS Learning Media In Your Classroom?

If your not....you should really think about adding it as another "go to " resource!  This is what PBS has to say about their new Learning Media program:

 PBS LearningMedia offers thousands of curriculum and professional development resources from the best of public media and its partners...for free! The service offers educators a wide variety of resource types - videos, interactives, audio and more - all curriculum-targeted for classroom use.

I signed up for an account today took me about 3 seconds it helps if you already have a gmail account set up for work anyway.  Here is the link for PBS Learning Media to sign up!

I was amazed at the variety of FREE resources available so I peeked and this is what I found just this morning:

For K-2 - A video about Curious George and 100's day! 
To Celebration Hispanic Heritage Month - We are The Music - For Grades 3-4
Fabulous resources for Literacy.http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/content/ea5f56db-1f09-47c3-a659-2414c3212ad1/

There is a huge amount of information that ties in global information, diversity, art, and culture.

I hope you take a look and see what PBS Learning Media has to offer just one of the many resources PBS Offers. 
Thanks for stopping by Trackin' Tech Trends!

Your Digital Maven -
Karen Thompson