APPS!! we love Apps!

Here is a list of Apps for the iPad with a brief description that I like :)
 Happy Downloading :)

• Little Monkeys Apps Number Lines - counting, sequence, addition and subtraction - Little Monkeys - FREEEEEE!!!

Downloading YouTube video clips to mp4

Easy Peasy, just go to one of many websites available such as Computer Hope. This website links you to another website (once info is filled in) that actually downloads it, but I like this link because it gives me instructions.

DONE!!!

Now I can save the mp4 onto my computer or USB stick and I have it available for the classroom without needing the internet or being blocked off from YouTube in the first place.

There is some great educational videos from YouTube and they can be really useful to introduce a new topic or encourage students who need to be re-focused.

My Subscriptions

Here are my subscriptions...

• Lesson Zone - $39.90 12 months - http://lessonzone.com.au/ - expires 20/02/15
• Teachers Pay Teachers (signed up free) - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com

Subscribed to LessonZone.com.au

Today for $39.90, I signed up for a 12 month subscription to Lesson Zone. I'll let you know if it is useful and user friendly. I hope so! I find it so painful to design my own layouts and lesson tools. Not that I don't have a creative flair, it's just finding the time to make engaging and colourful activities frustrating... So far I have had a look around, and seems to look like I will get my monies worth. What attracted me is that it is an Australian website, with Australia content. Always a bonus!

http://lessonzone.com.au/

 

 

** Update ** 21/02/14
I have just been playing around with the website and so far I'm impressed. My son has year 1 spelling words and struggles with literacy, so I feel it is really important to have his words available to him in Victorian Cursive (as he goes to a Victorian school) and well my writing is just too messing to copy so I was able to create a Pdf typing is spelling words and onto dotted thirds to assist his hand writing skills. What a great tool!! I just had a look at the other tools and they look fantastic :)

Here I have designed Aaron's worksheet so he can trace the words and repeat on the lines below. Once he has had a go and feels confident in writing his words, I can then cover all the words for him to practise spelling his words... Basically Look, Cover, Write, Check but with the bonus of having Victorian cursive examples and line to write on :)

I have also just discovered they have great decorative borders and display ideas for the classroom. So much better than what Microsoft word can offer...

My purpose for this BLOG - Feels good to be organised... lets hope it lasts unlike my pile of washing I need to attend too!

Hi my name is Miss Macdonald and I teach Primary Education.

As many teachers know, resources are our life line. We rely on good quality resources to create and produce engaging and useful lessons to optimise learning in the classroom. However, today with so many resources available especially on the net; it just gets mind boggling!! I can't keep up with which website I visited and thought that would 'come in handy one day'.

So I started to write websites in a book and even this was mind bending because I had no visual or possibility to either update the info on the website or ability to organise the website's info into categories or subject matter which made finding the website I have in mind easy to find. I just don't have that great of memory to recall all the great websites that had specific uses or best resources for particular subject matter.

Then one day, I thought, 'what about a blog'? I knew that I could write info about a website linking it then and there. I also knew I would have the ability to tag each blog to that it become an 'index' to find content I am after such as graphic organisers, templates or more specific information such as subject content ie. Bodmas or Haiku Poems.

It also allows me to post pictures of website layouts or images that either will be useful or just simply to jog my memory of what the website looks like. I find there is nothing worst than a website that has an awful design layout and it's an image overload which puts you off regardless of whether it has great content or not...

Another benefit would be that I could edit a particular blog (if I re-visited the website) and add more detail about the website (it's pros and cons) as well as adding to the tagging list to create a more comprehensive index list.

Oh and one more thing, I can access this info anywhere I can access the internet!!! How great is that!!
As my blog develops and becomes (I hope) a great resource for myself, I hope that others will benefit from it as well.

(any spelling and grammar boo boo - i'll get back onto it :p )