Cyndi Danner-Kuhn's posterous

Chicago-area schools are using cell phones as academic tools

More Chicago-area schools are allowing cell phones in school, and some are using them in the classroom. One high-school teacher had his students researching political candidates in government class using only their cell phones, with students working in groups to include those who did not have a phone. "It's one of those things -- if you can't beat them, join them," one principal said. Chicago Tribune 

The Spooky Classroom: Halloween Activities for Any Grade

from TEACHhub.com

Believe it or not, Halloween is just around the corner. Maybe you’re already bracing for the costumes and the sugar rush, but what if Halloween could serve a useful educational purpose?  To prepare for Halloween in your classroom, check out these activities for fun new ways to sneak in some spooky lessons and ghoulish learning!

Use Halloween to Teach Literary Concepts:  Take advantage of the season to teach foreshadowing, plot, or other literary analysis concepts. Concepts like foreshadowing and plot structure are important, but so boring to learn (or to teach!). Liven it up by using scary stories or movies. 

Read the full story, CLICK HERE

Using PowerPoint, Word and Excel to teach with games

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By Kevin Jarrett of NCS-Tech

Using PowerPoint, Word and Excel to teach with games

Today’s featured resource comes to us by way of Jan Dunlap from Olathe, Kansas. She recently shared this EdGames resource site, designed by Dr. Jeff Ertzberger (University of North Carolina). Dr. Ertzberger wrote a book called “Everybody Wins: A teachers guide to customizing games for any curriculum.” This quote on his site sums up his site and the focus of the book:

“Are you interested in using games in your classroom but just cant find ones that match your curriculum? Have you tried to create video or board games for your classroom only to be overwhelmed by the amount of time and effort required just to produce them? If you answered yes to these questions, this web site is for you. This site contains downloadable games, game templates, and utilities that teachers and trainers can use to enhance any lesson.”

While his book is for sale on lulu and it includes access to a “premium” version of his site, there is a vast collection of free completed games and templates posted on his completely FREE EdGames site.

Read the full story, 

How-To-Guide to Resizing Images for your Blog

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from Langwitchs blog
"I order to save time and space when uploading images to your blog, it is
necessary to “RESIZE” your images.
You can download the How-To-Guide to Resizing Images for your Blog 
(you can download the PDF file at the website link below)
Like other digital files, images are being measured in bytes

The higher the number of pixels, the sharper the image and the larger you
“could” [...]
You may view the latest post at" http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/10/11/image-resolution-and-resizing/