Teacher appreciation!

Teacher appreciation week: May, 5-9

Teacher appreciation day: May, 6

To celebrate this Teacher Appreciation week I chose a digital tool. 

Padlet is a digital notice-board. Double-clicking anywhere on the board you can leave a message, a link, a picture, a poem... (If you drag-and-drop your text-box you can move it wherever you want).

I'm going to ask my students to write something (positive or negative) for/about me. They can use their real name or remain anonymous.

This will be very useful to

• get a quick feedback
• become aware (or have further confirmation) of my strenghts
• become aware of any problems
• make the students feel important by telling them I really need and consider their opinion

I've just created my students' board, click on the image below...

If you clik on this other image, instead, you will open a blank Teachers' Board I've just created for all the teachers who want to tell their opinion about teaching! Leave your comments (you don't need to log in)!!

For teachers - Infographics and interactive posters

Posters can easily draw student's attention but they should not be just wall decoration. They should be used to study in deep some topics or to visually organize concepts.
Posters should easily be seen, so you need colours and images. Now you can create you own poster in a few minutes or you can even make it interactive!

This time I tried Piktochart. 
http://piktochart.com/ 

It is very useful to create interactive posters. I already tried Thinglink and Glogster. 

(An example with Thinglink at http://thetravellingteachers.blogspot.it/2014/02/welcome-activities-this-is-our-school.html

An example with Glogster at http://thetravellingteachers.blogspot.it/2014/01/for-teachers-some-digital-tools.html)

You can save your work as an image (.png or .jpeg) or copy the url if you want to use it as an interactive poster. In this case you have to add links, videos, etc. to your project!

The following is an example of a project saved as an image. I've created it to advertise the study tour I am organizing for my students:

This one, instead, is an interactive poster showing our English class activities, with videos and links:

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1198513-journey-of-love

Have fun with your posters! 

For teachers - a different kind of lesson

Don't know how to make your lesson more interesting?

If you want to take a more "digital" and interactive lesson you can use Blendspace or Thinglink.

I've tried both. They're really easy to use.


Blendspace
blendspace.com 

With Blendspace you can create  lessons with digital contents very quickly. You have a grid and you choose an interactive link for each box. You can also upload material from your pc.

this is my example:
http://blnds.co/1cII4wL

Thinglink
thinglink.com

With this tool you choose an image and then add many links (videos, music, images, etc.) to it to make it interactive.

My example:
http://www.thinglink.com/scene/481523444043743233

Bye for now!

I'll keep on surfing the Net 
through digital tools...

For teachers - free tools for mindmapping

This time I tried some free tools for  

schemes and mindmapping  

(sometimes you can use just a given number of free maps, then you are asked to upgrade).

As usual I've created some simple examples for you, just to give you the idea and make your choice easier.

Why should a teacher use mindmapping?

• A visual map gets students attention and focus
• Mind mapping enables teachers to organize, summarize and  manipulate ideas and concepts very easily
• It allows to present information in a visually attracting and comprehensive way
• Its organizational structure helps students understand effectively
• It promotes inquiry and problem solving
• It promotes active note taking

The first tool I tried is Popplet.

It combines presentations , mindmapping and online bulletins. You can  integrate text, images, video, and Google maps.

http://popplet.com/
My example: http://popplet.com/app/#/1559358

Then I tried Spiderscribe. 

It allows you to  easily visualize your ideas by connecting various pieces of information together. It also combines elements like text, images, files, calendar events and geographic locations.

http://www.spiderscribe.net/
My example: http://www.spiderscribe.net/app/?ac420a5aeab2f33f7cb411eeebec5938

This is Spicynodes.

It allows you to create visually attractive nodes for your blog or websites. Nodes are visually displayed pieces of information that helps visitors easily navigate the content of your site so that they find what they are looking for.You have to click on the nodes to open them.

http://www.spicynodes.org/
My example: http://www.spicynodes.org/a/199c482ed6e8fe4de02ad4db20039e4c

I also tried Text2mindmap.
It converts texts into mind maps.

https://www.text2mindmap.com/ 
My example:
https://www.text2mindmap.com/k7XZDE?controller=frontpage&method=index&map=k7XZDE


This is Slatebox.

It allows you the freedom to create as many nodes and maps as possible. You can upload  images from the app itself. 

Slatebox:
http://slatebox.com/
Actually I didn't manage to save a link so I uploaded the .png file of my example for you.

The last tool I tried for you is Mindomo.

It has several features such as including a clipart library, importing images from Google images or Flickr , and using video straight from YouTube. If you want to use the free version you can just import images from the library.

http://www.mindomo.com/
My example: http://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/0c71d1cf14034f07aaff536e11b2d5ab

I hope to be helpful! BFN and have fun with your mindmaps!