I have the Random Fact Screensaver on my computer. I don’t know how it got there. I don’t remember downloading it. (This is where I have come from in my computer savvy) My students LOVE it!! I have found the site from whence it came-Super Teacher Tools!
I teach middle school. Life in Middle school is often crazy. Middle school is a unique time in adolescent development. In order not to lose my mind, I attempt to have as much fun as possible. Super Teacher Tools is a site where lots of fun can be had by both students and teachers.
I found this website to be quite good. Using the Rubric from p. 403 in the text (Shelly, Cashman, Gunter and Gunter) I would give it 31/36 points.
| Authority | 2 |
| Affiliation | 2 |
| Purpose | 4 |
| Objectivity | 3 |
| Content | 4 |
| Audience | 4 |
| Currency | 4 |
| Design | 4 |
It lost points on authority and affiliation because there was no specific author stated. It does, however, have a blog site and it appears that the questions posed on the blog are answered in timely manner by someone.
All the downloads were easy, and the site allows you to view sample games, web pages and other applications, etc. before you download.
REVIEW GAMES:
The games on this site would not only be fun for the students, I would have fun creating and using them. I think that the games would be highly engaging for the students.
The games are easy to create and do not take any more teacher time than creating any other type of review.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TOOLS:
The site allows you to download a Seating Chart Maker, a Group Maker, and a Random Name Generator. Setting up the class list would be the most labor intensive part of these applications. You need only set up the class lists once and you can use the same class lists for all 3 applications. I plan to use the Group Maker and the Random name Generator this coming year. We work in groups almost every day, how fun to just press a button when randomly grouping my students. Middle school students also love to see their name in lights. The Random Name Generator could be used when asking questions, having students do tasks in the room, etc.
The countdown timer and stopwatch are amazing! Both would keep my students and this scatter brained teacher on track!
The Classroom Update is an easy, painless way to set up a website for your class. I managed to set one up in less than 10 minutes!! It is simplistic, but it gets the job done.
There are other fun tools on this site. Take the time to check them out. They are all teacher friendly and all a lot of fun!
Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteSo I took some time to actually try some of these tools you gave input on and I liked two of them (not that the others aren't good, I just didn't want to take the time to play with them too long). I loved the seating chart maker. Every year, I hand draw my classroom and desk on paper. I then make copies so I can use the templet for all my classes so I can arrange student seating. The program on my computer wouldn't allow me to move desk and arrange space. This website let me do all of this. I put in fake names and tried it. Needless to say, I will be using this when I get my class list because it prints or emails info to me. I also liked the random fact screensaver because the fact changes like every ten seconds. This is nice when students are woring on a same assignment but some finish before the others. They will have real random (which they like)factual information to read and keep them occupied.
Thanks,