Copy Paste Character!

Do you use special characters (♫ ✄ ➲)  in your emails, documents for Facebook posts? What about an accent over the e (é) or a tilde over the n (ñ)? I know there's some crazy key combination, but I can never remember what it is! copypastecharacter.com means that you never have to look up those combinations or try to hold down the alt key while entering 4 digits, etc. 

When you need to use a special character, simply head to copypastecharacter.com  find and click on the desired character. It will automatically be copied to your clipboard. Go back to your email or document or wherever ... and paste! 

Yep, it's that easy. ☺

Thank you Tammy Worcester for reminding me of this great tool!

Jeopardy Labs

A few years ago, one of the "big things" was to create a Jeopardy-like PowerPoint to use with your students as a creative and "techy" way to review for any and all curricular areas. I created quite a few. I even conducted professional development sessions on exactly this topic. I loved it. Kids loved it. Teachers {sorta} loved it. Two big complaints about these were the crazy amount of time it took to set one up, and all of the detailed action links from one slide to another slide, etc. Even the most basic of templates could have 50+ slides for one game!

Jeopardy Labs is a site that makes it super-easy to create Jeopardy-like games. Quick Build allows you to create a free Jeopardy-like game. You will need to create a password for each game, and as soon as you create one, it will be available for anyone to use. You can also become a Jeopardy Labs Member, which gives you a fancy template manager, privacy control, and delete control (you can't delete templates you create with the free version). The LIFETIME membership fee is $20. If you really like Jeopardy Labs and think it's something you will use for a while, this might be worth the cost. If you're not sure, then stick with the free Quick Build version for a while.

One of the things I like BEST about Jeopardy Labs is the "browse" feature! I was going to create a game about weathering, erosion, and deposition. I decided to browse for one first, and I found TONS of them already made and ready to use! (Give it a try!) You will want to be sure you've gone through the entire game and checked to make sure that it's accurate information and it supports your curriculum, but I bet you can find some good ones!

Check out Jeopardy Labs today and let me know what you think!

Clean Print

I generally do NOT print things from the internet. I save interesting sites, blog posts, recipes, etc. into my Google bookmarks or I copy the information into OneNote. However, from time to time, I do need to print something. Clean Print is a free browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari that can help you save toner and paper when printing. I learned about this new tool on one of my favorite bloggers, Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers).

This short video explains how to use Clean Print:

What I like the best about Clean Print:

• It's FREE
• It works on any of the internet browsers I typically use (including Safari on my iPad!)
• Instead of printing to actual paper, I can use Clean Print to save the "cleaned up" version as a PDF on my computer or email it to a friend
• I can decrease the font size to save toner and paper OR, I can increase the font size to print something for a student
• I can even add my own text on the document before saving or printing it

Please Explain!

Are you looking for ways to help your students understand basic (or even complex!) concepts? I've recently come across a couple of sites that create and publish animated explanations of all sorts of topics.

C.G.P. Grey is a YouTube video creator. He is known for creating witty and entertaining educational videos. His tagline is "Complex things explained." He has created and shared many videos like Daylight Saving Time Explained, Are Daddy Longlegs Spiders (8 Animal Misconceptions Rundown), and Copyright: Forever Less One Day. Be warned: he's a fast talker, and sometimes his humor might be a little confusing for our younger students. Be sure to watch the video completely first and be sure it's appropriate for your students.

The first video I ever saw from this YouTube channel absolutely fascinated this good ole Texas girl ... check it out!

Explania provides hundreds of animated explanations, interactive tutorials, and instructional videos for a variety of topics including health, money, sports, and even TECHNOLOGY! (Can you guess which subject I've spent the most time exploring?) Some of my favorites are What is Twitter?, How to Choose a Safe Password, and How Does Cloud Computing Work?

What do you think? Do you think some of these explanations would be helpful to you or your students? And seriously, did you know all of that about Texas? Fascinating! =)