PicMonkey ... My Favorite Online Photo Editor!

I love Photoshop. I use Photoshop almost every day at home. I am willing to pay for Photoshop because I believe it's THAT GOOD.

That being said, I recently stumbled across PicMonkey, which has now become my #1 choice for quick photo editing. To play, just click on any of the sample pictures on their homepage, or click the "Edit your photo" button to browse for your own image. (You can also drag it over to begin editing, but I really find that only helpful to me when I'm using dual screens.)

You will immediately see your tools on the left. "Basic Edits" include tools to crop, rotate, change exposure, adjust colors, sharpen, or resize your image. Don't stop there, click the cutesy little icons on the left to see tons of additional effects and editing tools. They seem to be adding more all the time!

I actually used this totally-embarrassing-departmental-picture of us in PicMonkey to play with many of these tools. If you think it looks odd, imagine what it looked like before all the editing! LOL

When you are finished, hit Save at the bottom and you're done!

Don't get me wrong. I still love Photoshop and will still use it for my crafty-adventures, but I've actually found that I can do simple editing (including adding text) to a picture in PicMonkey in less time that it takes to even open Photoshop. (And it's a WHOLE LOT cheaper since it's FREE!)

Improve Keyboarding Skills with Letter Bubbles

Letter Bubbles is a fun and simple keyboarding game that will help students (and adults!) improve their keyboarding skills. The game is simple - pop the bubbles by typing the characters before they hit the wall. Users choose from Beginner Mode, Classic Mode, and Insane Mode. You do not have to have an account to play or even see your name on the Leaderboards, but if you set one up (and join the Bubble Club), you can keep track of your progress.

Check out Letter Bubbles today!

ClassDojo

ClassDojo looks like a promising tool for teachers to help manage and track student behavior (positive and negative) and participation.

• Teachers can use the classroom computer or any other internet-connected device (smartphone, table, i-device, etc.) 
• The initial setup looks to be quite easy and there seems to be several ways you can customize it to work for your students in your classroom. 
• There are some awfully cute little monster and critter icons that can be used for students or you can even upload actual student pictures, which would be a real help to substitute teachers! 
• You even get to decide which types of behaviors you will track with ClassDojo.
• Easily print or email behavior reports with a click of a button!
• Want to get your students excited about participating in class? ClassDojo can be used with your data projector to show instant visual notifications for your students ("Well done Josh! +1 for teamwork!").

This video review shows some of the most helpful features of ClassDojo.


Want to learn more? Head over to ClassDojo and check it out. According to their site, you can sign up now for a FREE account. (I'm not sure how much longer it will be free, so you might want to grab an account now even if you don't want to use it right away.)

Don't forget to check with your campus principal before making significant changes to any behavior plans in your classroom or grade level!

Keep Getting 25GB Free Storage Space in Skydrive now!

When our district transitioned to Windows Live last year for email, calendars, web apps, etc., we were excited about having 25GB of free storage in SkyDrive.

Microsoft has been making some pretty significant changes (including mobile apps and SkyDrive for Windows.) Recently, Microsoft reduced the size of most SkyDrives from 25GB to 7GB. Chances are, you were NOWHERE near reaching capacity, but if you act now, you can keep getting the 25GB free space by manually upgrading it. (If you already had more than 4GB of data in your SkyDrive, Microsoft already upgraded you to the 25GB plan.)

Upgrade from 7GB to 25GB Free Storage

1. Log in to SkyDrive (You can also get there by going to live.com, More > SkyDrive)
2. Click the link that says SkyDrive's free storage is changing - claim your free 25 GB
   If you do not see this link, look for the Manage storage link on the left
   
       OR
   
   
3. Click the Free upgrade! button for the SkyDrive Free option.