The Future of this Site

I can't afford to renew my Squarespace subscription to Metzilla. More than likely I will be canceling my subscription and taking my site down within the next few days unless I get a donation that will cover my expenses of $194 a year. I have been proud of the site and the number of people it has reached over the two years it has been up. I have been regularly getting 1000 unique visitors a month which is quite exciting.

Thank you all for your support.  

Lissa

Books for Point of View

Hi all!

I know I haven't blogged in awhile but I'm going to try to occasionally. I've been spending most of my time working on my online selling business. You can read more about that at my Celestial Sofa blog if you are interested. 

I have a 2 year old son and he loves insects.  From the library we found a great book called Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. This book shows the world from the point of view of two ants. Lot's of opportunities for discussing how point of view is very different depending on your size. Another book on this topic is the chapter in Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster where Milo meets Alec who keeps the same point of view throughout his life. 

Updates to this blog

I want to let all of you know that I won't be updating this blog as much. The heart and soul of this site is the links so please check them out on the left hand side of this page. I would like to recommend some excellent education resource blogs to check out.

• Free Technology for Teachers is updated almost daily. Blogger Richard Byrne scours the web for the best free resources out there. Byrne is the author of many ebooks for teachers that are available for free on his website. He's also on Facebook and Twitter.
• Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day has everything education related. Where Ferlazzo shines best is pulling together resources on current events. He posts wonderful resources constantly and is often updating previous posts. He's also on Twitter.
• Langwitches has lots of links about students using technology in the classroom. She shares a lot of ideas for elementary age students that also work well with any age. I primarily follow Silivia Toisano on Facebook and Twitter and I love her links.

Maths Mansion: Amazing 10 minute videos

Maths Mansion series of videos from England are concise gems of mathematical fun. They are all less than ten minutes long and easily fit into a lesson. The premise of the show is that these kids are trapped in a mansion and the only way they can get out is by participating in a game show to answer math questions. There are the game show elements, songs, and lots of visuals for to help kids understand math. I've had students tell me after a test that they remembered how to do a problem because of what they saw on Maths Mansion. I pause the video when there are questions on the screen that I can have the students answer. This works quite well on an interactive whiteboard.

The two place these videos can be watch are using YouTube or Discovery Education. Discovery Education does require a password but as a teacher in Las Vegas I have free access. Check and see if your district does too. 

The episode below is a personal favorite called "All the Way Around" about perimeter. 

National Geographic Magazine for iPad

I absolutely love National Geographic Magazine for iPad.  Added videos, interactive elements, and audio enhance the experience.  Zooming through a cave was an added feature to an article about a newly discovered cave in Vietnam.  The size of the magazine lends itself to the the iPad so formatting isn't a problem as it can be with other magazines. One page of the magazine often fits on one page of the iPad. Many of the longer articles show part of the text and there will be a button on the bottom of the screen to click to see the full text. So far this is the best magazine I've read yet on the iPad and hope others follow suit. The magazine is available through the Zinio app. The articles are also available on the National Geographic Magazine website.