The Best of Portable Apps!

Makeuseof.com has an amazing article they just published on The Best of Portable Apps... This site in general is an amazing site, but they really brought a wide variety of apps to look at.

They sectioned it off by category.  They include:

• Audio
• Productivity
• System Tools
• Communication
• Security and Privacy
• Video
• Image Editors and Viewers
• Suites
• Web and FTP

Some of my favorite apps are included like:

Audacity, Skype, Gimp, TeamViewer, VLC Player, InkScape, and Stickies. just to name a few.

When you get a chance check it out!  The link can be found here.

Wondermind not Wonderland

Ever wonder about your mind?  How things work, why things happen, why you think the way you do?  Well Wondermind will help you figure it out.  Here's a quick explanation from their website:

Welcome to your Wondermind

Wondermind is about a few things. It’s about the brilliant, amazing and truly mind-boggling stuff that’s going on inside your brain as you grow. It’s about the art ofAlice in Wonderland, the exhibition at Tate Liverpool. And it’s about putting together both of those things: mixing art with science. Being good at one doesn’t mean you can’t be good at the other (in fact, it’s often the opposite).

You might wonder, “What links all of those things together?”
You’ll soon find out. Follow us down the rabbit hole into the wonderful world of your brain…

Not sure where to start? Here are five blogs which will get you thinking:

Their site has a few blogs to explore to help you with where to being.  Click below to start exploring the Wondermind!

Wait.. Say what?

Have you ever wondered where some of our figures of speech come from?  Do you know what it means to really call someone a sight for sore eyes? 

This website, The Phrase Finder has many of the answers you might be looking for!  The site is a searchable collection of proverbs, American phrases, phrases coined by Shakespeare, nautical phrases, and phrases from the Bible.  Search or browse for any idiom or expression and find the historical origins of the common saying.

FYI, the term sight for sore eyes, means a welcome visitor or someone you are happy to see.  It's origin Jonathan Swift, in A complete collection of genteel and ingenious conversation, 1738.  The actual quote was "A Sight of you, is good for sore eyes".  

Welcome back

Hi gang! Sorry I have been away this school yeah has been a bumpy one. I recently took over co-advisor for the senior class, so I've been busy!


Check back in a few days for an all new entry!

Hello

Hello to my friends up North at the "Free Tools for Instruction with a Focus on Assessment"!  I hope you enjoy my blog.  This past year has been a challenge for me taking over the Middle and High school yearbook, so you will notice in the lack of postings this year.  Please don't be discouraged, I plan to make up for it this summer.

Also check out my Twitter account @mrplace21

Happy Tech Camp!

~Tom

Glossary of Instructional Strategies

Do you know what 10 + 2 is?  Or perhaps what Applied Imagination is?  Well this wonderful sight breaks down from A-Z Instructional Strategies that you can use in your classroom.  Each strategy comes with a full detailed example on how it works.

Check out the site here.  Try some of these next year in your classroom!

History Pin

Here's a cool web 2.0 tool that helps you compare the past with the present.  It's called History Pin.  Subjects include History, Modern Art, Science, and Technology.  It's really interesting.  Take a view of the video below and check out this awesome site.  You do not need a log in to be able to view it.

You also get the chance to view pictures of old times with up to date real time images using Google Earth.  Imagine starting a debate in your classroom of what Germany looked like in WWII versus what it looks like now, or maybe what it looked like before the Western United States was settled.  You can control the time period in your search as well.  Check out History pin here!