Animal Flash Drives

Sure, you can buy the normal looking flash drive, but Staples has animal shaped flash drives available. They have a cow, Nemo clown fish, monkey, mouse, panda bear, pink pig, hippo, sea turtle, and penguin shaped flash drives. They are all 4GB USB 2.0 flash drives and they cost $9.99 except for the penquin and the hippo which costs $19.99. I’m not sure why there is such a difference in price. Just for the record, I did not buy one of these for myself. It would be cool if your school mascot was one of these animals. Of course I really don’t see a mouse as a formidable opponent as a sports team, but to each their own. They do have some thickness so if your USB port is recessed in the computer, you may have some difficulty pushing it in. However, if you do have problems, you can use a short USB cord. I just thought I would pass this information on.

Adding a PowerPoint File In a CPS Test

A lot of teachers use PowerPoint. For those PowerPoint users that also use CPS, I just wanted to let you know that you can create a test in CPS (CPS calls them lessons). It’s very simple. Click on the “prepare” tab and the “lessons & assessments” sub-tab. Click the new button and choose “lesson”. Name the test and click “ok”. Click on the name of the test and choose “PowerPoint File” from the “add file(s)” drop down.

Navigate to and open the PowerPoint presentation you want to add to the test. Now click the “engage” tab and the “lessons & assessments” sub-tab. Place a check in the box to the left of the PowerPoint test you just created and click “engage”. Your PowerPoint file will open and the CPS program will scan for your receiver. The type of test will look very much like a “verbal engage”. You will be able to advance the slides or for that matter right click and go to a previous slide or any slide. Click the verbal button to choose the type of question you want. Remember, a verbal engage starts right away. I hope that helps.

Create a Comic Strip or a Comic Book

Comic strips are a good activity for students. They allow teachers to see if students understand the concepts taught in class. They also allow the students to show their creative side while having fun at the same time. The sites allow you to drag and drop characters, backgrounds, dialog boxes and add your text. They are very easy to manipulate. Here are 4 comic strip sites that are free and school friendly.

http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic

http://www.pikikids.com/

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

http://www.pixton.com/

Superherosquad.marvel.com allows you to drag and drop super heroes (as the site name implies). This site also gives you the option to create a comic book. Pikikids.com gives you the option to upload your own photographs. The students could use their phones to take the pictures. The photography teacher in me advises you to teach your students about composition and lighting before you send your students out on their photo excursion. Makebeliefscomix.com allows the user to write the comic strip in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Latin. Pixton.com has a link for schools.

No matter what subject you teach, these comic strip sites give you the opportunity to assign a fun activity to your students.

Shodor.org\Interactivate is a Great Resource for Math and Science

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/ is a great resource for Math and Science. It is a java based Math & Science courseware that includes lessons, discussions and standards for the teachers and activities, tools and a dictionary for the students. Shodor contains over 70 lessons based on the activities for grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. The discussions will help the students understand math and science concepts. There are over 100 interactive activities that allow students to explore the many areas of math and science. The dictionary lists the terms the students encounter in the website. The tools are a subset of the activities index page and can be used as stand alone applications in analyzing numbers and data.

Polar Coordinates Activity