The Tech Ninja Blog is Expanding

CC Image courtesy of Openclips on Pixbay.com

Besides writing this blog, both Jay and I are full time technology facilitators.  While we use technology all day, we don't always have a chance to try out some of the new websites and apps with a class full of students.  Because of this, if we have a new resource we will explain it to a teacher and have them try it out with their class.  Now we have a working knowledge of the site or app, but we can't always explain it as fully or know the ins and outs of how it works.  We know that this is the information that you need, so we will be having some guest bloggers write post about technologies that they are using in their classrooms.  We hope that we will be able to share the details that you need to know to make sure that you are successful in integrating these technologies in your classroom.  Rebecca started us off today talking about some wonderful Educational Game Templates.  We hope you like this and if you think you have something you want to share, leave a comment or contact us through twitter or Facebook and we will see what we can do.

Ed Games

CC Image courtesy of sacolin99.deviantart.com

My name is Rebecca Thomas. I have been teaching for 5 years. I had a wonderful opportunity to attend the NCTIES Technology Conference and Jay and Matt asked me to share  with you….

      Okay, let’s face it. Educators of any kind are extremely busy wearing many different hats and completing various tasks. One hat is to create a fun, engaging classroom that involves technology!  Well, to create this type of atmosphere, educators need great resources/ tools!  I have a great resource tool just for you! This resource tool comes from an amazing professor, Dr. Jeff Ertzberger from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. 

Located at uncw.edu/edgames you will find numerous, simple but sophisticated game templates. All the game templates are created using PowerPoint, Excel, or Word. The website states that the templates save time, are of high quality, there is no copyright, and we all love games! Some templates you have to “pre-create” while other templates you can use “on the go.” 

The game templates range from “Big Board Facts” (Jeopardy) to “Sunken Treasure” (Battleship). The BINGO cards really caught my attention because it is set up in Excel, you type in one card the terms/numbers you would like to use, and then hit the Shuffle button to generate an entire set of BINGO cards! Ta-Da! I also liked “What’s Behind the Box?” because you would not have to create a game. The questions would be right in your hand and if a student gets the answer correct then they can click on a piece of the box until a picture is revealed. There are so many different templates you will not have a problem finding something to meet the needs of your students! I can “see” them right now being very engaged in your lesson because you chose to utilize a game template! Try it out!

FOAP

CC Image courtesy of Simon Yeo on Flickr

Two questions for you, How many of you would like an extra $5. How many of you have pictures that you have taken on your phone or ipad?  Foap offers smartphone users a chance to earn money from the photos that they have taken.  The creates of Foap were disappointed at the quantity and quality of stock photos that are available so they created a marketplace that would incorporate the millions of photos that are taken everyday.  Best of all, the photographer can sell the same photo over and over again.  Which means you don’t lose your copyright when your photos are sold on Foap. Buyers get non-exclusive rights to your photos, which essentially means that after the sale you can keep using them in any way you want. 

Here’s how it works: Download Foap for free. After the signup you start uploading photos from your phone you would like to sell, tagging them (the better you tag them the more likey that they will be discovered in the marketplace), Foap will first have to approve your photos. Those that make it through are put on the market, which is viewable through your own Foap profile page on the Web or via the app. All photos are priced at $10; Foap gets $5, you get $5.

Right now Foap does not have the quickest upload process, so don't go thinking you are going to flood the market with your pictures.  Also your photos need to be reviewed by 5 Foap users and average at least a 2 star (out of 50 rating to be put into the market place.  There is a catch to get five people to rate your photos, you must rate five photos for each photo that you upload.  

Interesting concepts, I am not much a photographer (ask my wife), but it seems like a pretty easy way to earn a little extra cash, especially if you hit it big with a really money maker.  I have also heard of companies paying more for photos if they are using them in a variety of ways.  So check out Foap, you might just be very glad that you did.  

Attitude Not Aptitude

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” ― Zig Ziglar

Original quote image:personalexcellence.co/quotes/70

 I have always enjoyed this particular quote. I liked it so much, a started a blog based on it. That blog has long since vanished from the internet, but I still am drawn to the quote. One of the reasons “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” resonates with me so much is that it is one of the few things that we have control over, either in our lives or our classrooms. We can not control what others will do and we can not change what we have done in the past, but we can change our attitude. As Yogi Berra would have said, life is twenty five percent of what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it.

 When I work with teachers, I see this happen all the time. many have the attitude that the technology will not work and any little hiccup will send them in a tailspin of failure. Why does the technology just seem to work when I walk into the room? It has to do with my attitude, I believe that the technology will work and even if it doesn't I believe that I can make it. I don't have a magic tech ninja touch, but I do have a positive attitude. I believe that technology can enhance your teaching and student learning. I know it can lead to distractions, but the good out weighs the bad by a lot. So when you are working with other or even working by yourself, make sure you keep a positive attitude, it will do you more good than you might think.

TechNinja Quick Tips

Symbaloo

I remember seeing Symbaloo at a conference and thinking to myself that it was just another bookmarking solution.  After revisiting the site several months later I realized that it was much more.  I really like the visual appeal of Symbaloo because I am a very visual person.  Symbaloo lets the user arrange and organize not only bookmarks but links as well. It does this with a TILE system which makes it incredibly easy to locate what you are looking for. You can create multiple pages of what Symbaloo call web mixes. A web mix can be customized and shared within a public gallery or shared privately. I created a web mix of the most frequented sites by the Teachers at my school and made it available to them.  Check out the screen shot.

 I also like that you can determine what application goes in the middle box of the web mix. There are Teachers at my school who create unit specific web mixes and share then with the students. This helps to insure that time on the computer is more focused. You can also put links to quizzes made from google forms as well as links to videos. The interface is very user friendly and clean (not a bunch of blinky things).  So give Symbaloo a try if you haven't already it really is a great way to organize the places you visit most.

Don’t forget that besides from just following the blog you can like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thetechninjablog/111528315703424, follow us on Twitter @Tech_Ninja_Blog  and now subscribe to our YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYzFJ-VbCBBNKqu5sWH8KDg.

Happy Numbers

How do you guys feel about sponsored posts on Twitter?  Most times I find them very annoying or irrelevant to what I am interested in, but a couple of nights ago, they really hit the mark.  What was the post?  Happy Numbers, and what got me hooked was the base ten number blocks.  Before I get too far ahead of myself, happy numbers is free to sign up for.  I saw on some pages that it said trial, and on others it didn't, so I don't know if they will charge in the future, but for right now you are good.  You then create a class and add students.  When adding students you only have to add their first names.  They you will be assigned a class number, which students will need to type in when logging in, they then have a password (which in my case was a two digit number.  Simple log in process.  There are number sense activities that need to be completed for you to go on to the next step.
     You are able to preview each of the activities as a student before you assign it to the class.  Now this works great on a laptop, it also works on the Ipad, and if you have a whiteboard it would be a wonderful activity.  However, it is skewed towards younger aged children, I would say maybe to the beginning of third grade, and that would be pushing it.  They say on the site that multiplication is coming soon, and I hope that they continue to update the site.  Overall it worth a look at and would be a great center activity in the classroom.

Don’t forget that besides from just following the blog you can like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thetechninjablog/111528315703424, follow us on Twitter @Tech_Ninja_Blog  and now subscribe to our YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYzFJ-VbCBBNKqu5sWH8KDg. 

Croak.it

30 seconds, it's a short amount of time that can feel like forever.  Croak.it is a online application that allows you to record your voice or any other sound in thirty second clips.  It then posts them online.  You can create a free account or just use it as a guest.  You can have students read a story they wrote, read a story and check for fluency later on.  Now you may have to be careful with what you just pull up in your classroom, because the homepage has lots of random goodness.  Sometimes you get stuff like So you never know what might show up.  But its quick, easy and can be anonymous, so it would be fine for students to use.  It's avvailable for the computer, IOS, or android. Check it out.  http://croak.it/

Don’t forget that besides from just following the blog you can like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thetechninjablog/111528315703424, follow us on Twitter @Tech_Ninja_Blog  and now subscribe to our YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYzFJ-VbCBBNKqu5sWH8KDg. 

Well it is about time!

Hello folks sorry I have not posted in such a long time but I have been busy busy.  My favorite time of the year is almost upon us and that is the NCTIES conference. I really like this conference because it gives the opportunity for geeks like myself to see whats new in educational technology and to collaborate with others who share the same passion for technology. I am really looking forward to see what is new.  I feel like technology has reached a saturation point and it will be interesting to see the new as well as remixes of current and old applications. In any case I am pumped up and ready to go! OH YEAH Matt and I along with some of our friends will be sporting some killer Tech Ninja Tshirts! So if you happen to be at the NCTIES and you see us give us a thumbs up!

Don’t forget that besides from just following the blog you can like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thetechninjablog/111528315703424, follow us on Twitter @Tech_Ninja_Blog  and now subscribe to our YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYzFJ-VbCBBNKqu5sWH8KDg. 

Down and Out Swivel Mount

So when the wife and I moved into our new house this past September we finally had a fireplace to enjoy, the only problem was that  with the fireplace there wasn't a good place to put the TV other than hanging above it.  The wife didn't want the TV over the fire place because it was too high and it hurt her neck.   We couldn't find another location in the room that worked better (we spend months looking at all different setups.  She told me what she wanted and she wanted me to make it, looking to save myself some time and energy, I went looking online.  Hoping the internet would have a solution, I found Dynamic Mounting http://www.dynamicmounting.com. It's the perfect solution, it looks great and the wife's neck doesn't hurt.  Now they have two different versions, and we decided to go with the swivel version and it was a great choice as I can clearly see the TV when working in the kitchen.  

Now check out the photos below to see how the mount works and I have also posted a video on YouTube that you can check out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R8ezthLpTc&feature=youtu.be

I know I still have to do a better job of hiding the wires, but I am going to run them through the wall, I just haven't had the time to set that up yet.  This has to be one of the most innovative TV mounts out there.  It seems like such a simple concept, but there was nothing else that I could find that was like it.  Add in the top notch construction and you have a very happy tech ninja with a very happy wife. 

Don’t forget that besides from just following the blog you can like us on Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Thetechninjablog/111528315703424, follow us on Twitter @Tech_Ninja_Blog  and now subscribe to our YouTube channel  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYzFJ-VbCBBNKqu5sWH8KDg. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R8ezthLpTc&feature=youtu.be