MUST HAVE Posters for your classroom or lab!

Oh my goodness ... how great are these??? These free printables from We Are Teachers and Troxell are great reminders for any classroom or lab. Did you catch that??? They're FREE!

Read more about them and download them here. 

Using YouTube Safely

Anyone who's spent any time on YouTube knows that there's some really valuable material out there that can be used effectively in our classrooms.

Anyone who's spent any time on YouTube knows that there's some pretty inappropriate stuff (ads, comments, suggested videos, etc.) out there that should not be a part of our classrooms.

Several tools are available to help clean up all of that "clutter" that is a party of YouTube and allows you use the  videos without fear of what might be coming next. Check out some of these options:

SafeShareTV - Copy/Paste a YouTube link into the field and click "Generate Safe Link". When you click the "Take me to the Safe View" link, your video will open into a new window without any of the extra "stuff" you usually see in YouTube.

ViewPure - Copy/Paste the YouTube link and hit "Create" to open the video into a new, cleaner screen. You can also drag the "Purify" button into your bookmarks toolbar and easily and instantly view a YouTube video in a cleaner environment without having to copy/paste the URL

Want an even simpler option? Simply type the word quiet in front of the "youtube" in the address, and you will see a much cleaner, clutter-free screen.

As always, check with your campus principal before using videos in the classroom. =)

Kid Friendly Search Engines

I will admit that Google is my go-to search engine about 99% of the time, but it's good to remember that there are other search engines out there that have some really great features. As educators, we need to show our students options rather than just limiting them to what we are most comfortable with or what we know. That being said, it is our responsibility to protect the students from obscene or harmful images or materials. (Read more about CIPA here.) One way to help protect students from inappropriate content is to use kid-friendly search engines. Here are a few options I like:

KidRex is powered by Google, but uses a combination of tools to make internet searches safe for students. Since NO filters are 100% foolproof, they do have a site removal request form for parents or teachers who see inappropriate material. 

Ask Kids is a search engine designed exclusively for 6-12 year old kids. According to their note to parents, each web site in the Ask Kids search index was hand selected as a good site for kids. Ask Kids also adds some fun and games in their searching, which makes learning more fun!

In all honesty, WolframAlpha deserves its own blog post (and will get one soon!) but I really think it needs to be included on this list as well. This is a "computational knowledge engine," rather than a run-of-the-mill searching tool. Check out the video to see how it all works!

Do you have favorite kid-friendly search engines that should be included on this list?

A Parents' Guide to Facebook

If you are a parent, you will definitely want to check out ConnectSafely.org. You will find safety tips and advice, current news stories related to children and social media sites, and lots of other great resources. There is even a forum where you can post questions and get answers from other parents and Social Media "experts". 

The section that really caught my eye was A Parents' Guide to Facebook. This 34 page PDF document will help you understand what Facebook is and how to use it safely. 

Be sure to take a look at the Recommended Facebook Privacy Settings for Teens. It gives specific suggestions on profile settings, contact information, how to block or invite other users, as well as other information. Although I'm well past the teenage years myself, I'm going to be updating my Facebook settings tonight using these guidelines! 

You will also want to check out the Safety Tips and Advice - they offer topics about how to keep kids safe while playing online videogames, using cellphones, using devices with GPS Location-Sharing, as well as many others.

I hope these resources can be helpful to you at home as well as in the classroom. What other online safety sites do you like? Be sure to leave them in a comment.