A simple, beautiful sign generator

No school like old school...

Here's a sign generator that's a great intro for primary students in typing on an image. Type in a billboard, a movie marquee, a fortune cookie, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, an iPad... many choices! (Just steer them away from the Absolut bottle, of course.)

It's called RedKid, set up by a teacher. Simple, easy to pull up, easy to fill in. Just print the image, or save to your desktop to use in a blog, on your webpage, or add to your SeeSaw page.

A Trifecta of Teaching Tools... with Adobe Spark!

Slick Web Tools for Teachers and Students

Adobe Spark is three tools in one, allowing anyone (including students) to create web stories, animated videos & social graphics with free templates... Yes, it's all free. And to top it off, everything  you create in Spark plays very well with both desktop and portable devices.

To wit, here's what you can create with Spark:

• Spark Page: Create beautiful, flowing web pages with your photos, videos and text, quickly and easily.
• Spark Post: Mix text and photos to make a DIY meme to share on the web or on social media, or piece together a mini-poster to print for your classroom.
• Spark Video: One of my faves: choose a background of a series of photos, add text and smaller photos in the side, choose the timing, and record your voice, commenting or giving directions on a classroom project!

Best of all, the designs you create are easy, look very slick, and are easily shared. UPDATE: There's now Spark for Education... Sign up for a classroom account by clicking here. 

(Thanks to Adelaide at the fall SGVCUE for this one.)

Quizlet Live: Reloaded

Flashcards. Ho hum. Even electronic flashcards. Quizlet made flashcards marginally more exciting with a couple of games, and the ability to print out vocab tests to use in class. Plus, visitors can browse through thousands of sets other have created and copy to their own free accounts.

Enter Quizlet Live... a great way to review vocabulary and terms in a 1:1 classroom. Here's how it works:

1. The teacher chooses a set of 12+ terms or questions to use with the session.
2. On the Quizlet website, choose Quizlet Live. A code pops up for students to use when logging in at quizlet.live. 
3. Students type in their real names. Quizlet then places students in teams, based on animal names. 
4. Then minor chaos ensues while students move about the room, joining their team members, making sure they can see each others' screens. 
5. 3... 2... 1... GO! 
6. Students look for terms to match their definitions, which may (or may not) be on their screen, or the screen next to them. Each correct answer earns a point, working up to 12. A wrong answer bumps the team down to ZERO.

When a team wins, you may:

• Review correct and missed terms with the class.
• Play the same quiz again with the same teams.
• Play the same quiz again with the NEW teams, assigned by Quizlet Live.
• Play a new quiz with new teams.

This site will quickly become a fave with you and your students. Seriously! Click here to find out more and get started.

UPDATE: Quizlet now lets you add study sets to Google Classroom. For more info, check out this link.