Brainly

Brainly

Brainly.com is using a new trend in education and the world wide web,

called social learning or school crowdsourcing. Students use the internet to 

make solutions to their homework by co-operation.  

This is really great.  Once you have registered, quick and free, you can then

either help other students by answering their questions, or you can put in your

own question and what for someone to answer it.

I am really amazed at how quickly the questions get answered.

Absolutely brilliant!!

Picture Maker for FP

Picture Maker for FP

Here is a great online drawing program especially for Foundation Phase.

Use the different 2D shapes and create a picture or create you own 

picture.

2D Shapes for Foundation Phase

2D Shapes

TES iBoard have created a basic shape game where 

you have to create the picture using the shapes. 

This would be good on an interactice whiteboard 

and the students can move the shapes around.

Perfect for Foundation Phase!!

Microsoft Photo Story

Microsoft Photo Story

Here is another great program from Microsoft.  It is 

Microsoft Photo Story 3.  It is a free Windows program 

that lets you create audiovisual presentations out of 

your photos and images. You can quickly crop, rotate and 

edit your pictures; personalize them with captions and 

titles and add sound effects, narration, and background 

music. Photo Story saves your presentations as WMV files 

so you can play it on your PC.  

Click below to download the program (5.1 MB)

Journey to the Edge of the universe

Journey to the Edge of the universe

I watched this movie last night all about space and the universe.  It is really brilliant!!

It is a documentary made by National Geographic.  It presents a non-stop voyage 

from Earth to the edge of the Universe using a single, unbroken shot through the 

use of spectacular CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) technology.  Building on 

images taken from the Hubble telescope, Journey to the Edge of the Universe 

explores the science and history behind the distant celestial bodies in the solar system.

This spectacular, epic voyage across the cosmos, takes us from the Earth, 

past the Moon and our neighboring planets, out of our Solar System, to the nearest stars, 

nebulae and galaxies and beyond - right to the edge of the Universe itself.

Brilliant!!

Hooda Math

Hooda Math

This is really awesome!

Hooda Math is a website that has a number of different 

mathematics games that you can play with your students.

You can select the type of game and based on the topic

you select the grade that you are looking for.

I played the Snow Sprint Multiplying Fractions and 

it was really good.  If you have a class you can play 

against other students in the class and make a 

competition out of it or you can play against the computer.

Brilliant!!

Microsoft Auto Collage

Microsoft Auto Collage

Although this piece of software has been released many years ago,

I still use it on a regular basis.  It is really fantastic and easy to use.

Run the software, decide which photos you want and then click create.

If you are not happy with the outcome, just run it again.

Fantastic!!

Click to download the software below.  (7.2 MB)
Free for school to use!

Little, Middle, and Big

Little, Middle, and Big

Here is a great program for younger learners.

They need to give shoes to various size people.

Click on the cat to shuffle the shoes around.

Very nice.  My kids love playing this.

Jellybean Hunt

Jellybean Hunt

Here is a great piece of software for Foundation Phase.

You are an ant and you need to eat all the jellybeans.

Use either left, forward and right to start with or 

use the four compass points to get around.

Brilliant for starting maps and compass directions.

The History of the printing press

The History of the printing press

This is a really great infographic!!

Look at the history of printing from both the Chinese version and Gutenberg.

Very good!!

Galactic Multiplication & Division

Galactic Multiplication & Division

This is a great piece of software for mathematics,

Especially from Grade 2 – 7.  The great thing about

This piece of software is that you can change the level

And topics of what you are doing.  There is introduction

to multiplying, division, facts of 5 and 9 up to division by 2 

digit numbers with remainders.

Excellent piece of software!

Kinetics Lab

Kinetics Lab

This is perfect for Grade 2 - 7 science.

Using the kinetics lab, the learners can first build their own space, 

then they can use different options like change the gravity, use various 

balls with different weight, change friction, etc.

Excellent!

Download the software below (5.6 MB)

Symbol Sandbox

Symbol Sandbox

This is a great program for Foundation Phase learners.

The software is a sandbox and the learners can either create

their own map, or they can solve the picture.

The learners are given the map in the sandbox and they are

then required to use the symbols to complete the map.

This is great for introduction to geography map work!

Download the software below.  (5.1 MB)

Bill Gates 11 rules you will never learn in school

Bill Gates 11 rules you will never learn in school

This is really good.

It is just over 4 minutes long and has great real life rules.

Excellent!

VideoLan Player VLC

VideoLan Player VLC

This is a great video player that seems to be able to play just about any video format.

It has all the codecs already built in and is just fantastic.

I always find that you need various different video players to be able to watch

the different formats.

This one plays them all!!

Tangram Software

Tangram Software

This is a awesome piece of software that allows the learners

to create tangrams.  There are four different levels that you can choose from.

From easy to very difficult.

Great for mathematics classes.

PS  If you right click your mouse you can rotate the objects.

7 Zip

7 Zip

This is a great piece of software for zipping and unzipping files.

It also does zip, rar and .7s files as well.

The great thing is that it is free and it can deal with multiple
formats!

Brilliant!!

Snail countdown Timer

Snail countdown Timer

Although their are great countdown timers that you can use in your class.

I really love this one.  While writing exams the learners are always asking 

how long they have left. This is really great!

There are also other great countdown timers that can be found from

the same site.  Click below to view the site.

Who wants to be a Millionaire

Who wants to be a Millionaire

This is one of my projects for Grade 7.

The learners created a board game about entrepreneurs.

You can find the whole thing on my website at

http://www.wsparrow.co.za/entrep/index.html

Here you can find all the lesson plans, templates, etc

Click below to get the project plan

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

This is a great infographic that you can print and use as a poster

for your class.

Really a great poster!

What Your Body Does In 30 Seconds

What Your Body Does In 30 Seconds

This is really brilliant!!

Have a look, it is only 30 seconds ...

Amazing!! 

Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover

Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover

This is a 16 minute video clip by Dan Meyer.

This is a great video and how he looks at real life situations.

Excellent!

20 000 visitors

20 000 visitors

I have just had over 20 000 hits on my site!!

Thank you all for being part of this!!

Teaching in the 21st Century

Teaching in the 21st Century

This is a great 9 and a half minute video about

you as a teacher and what things you could be doing in your class

to enrich both yourself as well as your students.

Really worthwhile to watch and to think about how you are teaching.

SEO Company South Africa

SEO Company South Africa

This is not one of my normal posts that I would usually post, but ..

Michael Kaplan has a SEO company that can be found at

http://www.best-weboptimizers.com/

He was one of my students last year!

Go and have a look at the site!

He is also on twitter

https://twitter.com/mkbwo

Good luck with this venture Michael!!

Critical Thinking Skills

Critical Thinking Skills

This is a fantastic poster that you can have in your class.

It covers the 6 Critical Thinking Skills and gives

both words and examples of each skill.

Brilliant!

Bill Gates How do you make a teacher great?

Bill Gates How do you make a teacher great?

Part 1

Part 2

This is a great 12 minute video about how to make a great teacher 

by Bill Gates as part of a Ted Talk..

He raises some excellent points.

This is really excellent!!

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

A great infographic that you can print and use as a poster in your class.

Great resource!

Longitude and Latitude

Longitude and Latitude

Here is a great infographic that you can print and use in your class

all about ,longitude and latitude.

Very cool!

Electric Circuits

Electric Circuits 

Here is a great PowerPoint presentation about electric circuits.

Perfect for Senior Primary.

It covers cells, currents, simple circuits, types of circuits, 

measuring current and voltage.

Excellent!!

Africa the Continent

Africa the Continent

Here is a great PowerPoint presentation about Africa.

This is awesome for geography.

It covers: satellite views, size, bodies of water, hydroelectric power, mountains and peaks, 

deserts, valleys, trade winds, vegetation zones and natural resources.

Click to download the PowerPoint presentation (1.6 MB)

HIV Busters

HIV Busters

This is something I have been working on with my learners.

My Grade 7 classes have created various videos with their own devices

all about different aspects of HIV and Aids.

We have uploaded the project and you can use this as a resource or you 

can do this as a project with your own class.

The link is http://www.wsparrow.co.za/AIDS/

You can download the entire project plan, all templates that you will need as well.

Click to download the teachers lesson plans below