Would you like to be able to zoom in on a url to show your students?

Would you like to be able to write over top of your worksheets?  Or annotate over anything on your screen?

Then try ZoomIt!

Click here to download the zip file.  Then extract it to your desktop for ease in running the file.

The following is a nice description of the tool from its creator:

ZoomIt is a screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image. I wrote ZoomIt to fit my specific needs and use it in all my presentations.

ZoomIt works on all versions of Windows and you can use pen input for ZoomIt drawing on tablet PCs.

The first time you run ZoomIt it presents a configuration dialog that describes ZoomIt's behavior, let's you specify alternate hotkeys for zooming and for entering drawing mode without zooming, and customize the drawing pen color and size. I use the draw-without-zoom option to annotate the screen at its native resolution, for example. ZoomIt also includes a break timer feature that remains active even when you tab away from the timer window and allows you to return to the timer window by clicking on the ZoomIt tray icon.

Bibliography and Citation Tools

Listed below are some of the best tools available for bibliography and citation help for students.   Most sites cover MLA, APA, Turabian and Chicago formats.   Most are free – but some require a subscription.

Bibme

http://www.bibme.org

The fully automatic bibliography maker that auto-fills. It's the easiest way to build a works cited page. And it's free.  Search for a book, article, website, or film, or enter the information yourself. Download your bibliography in any of the following formats (MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian). It's that easy!

Easy Bib

http://www.easybib.com/

EasyBib is an intuitive information literacy platform that provides citation, note taking, and research tools that are easy-to-use and educational. EasyBib is not only accurate, fast, and comprehensive, but helps educators teach and students learn how to become effective and organized researchers.   This is a pay site.  However there is a free 3 day trial if interested.

Citation Creation

http://www.citationcreation.com/

Citation Creation is a free to use online citation tool to create and format MLA, APA and Chicago styles easily, with helpful examples.

Oregon Public Education Citation Maker for MLA

http://www.openc.k12.or.us/citeintro/citeintro.php?Grd=Sec

This is a fantastic tool for students. It gives them the freedom to cite different kinds of sources including anthologies, story collection, and web pages.

Son of Citation Machine

http://citationmachine.net/index2.php

Citation machine helps students and professional researchers to properly credit the information that they use.  Its primary goal is to make it so easy for student researchers to cite their information sources.

… and one really great subscription site…

NoodleTools

http://noodletools.com/index.php

The Web's most comprehensive platform for the academic research process.  It has integrated tools for note-taking, outlining, citation, document archiving/annotation, and collaborative research and writing.   Differentiated, intelligent software and expert personal support for upper-elementary through university students.

In less than two weeks, we will once again be given the opportunity to vote for our next President.

Do you think your students are as well informed as they could be about the process?   Here are some resources for every grade level.

• An excellent video explaining the Electoral College from Khan
• From Project Vote Smart, try VoteEasy to see which candidates align to your beliefs
• Learn about every political leader on every issue, and even watch the debates at OnTheIssues
• Find thirteen great links for the elementary grades at the University of Missouri's eThemes!
  • If you delve into these sites, you can find even more!!!   One that I found while clicking through links was this interactive game called If You Were President.  It's AWSOME!    It even gave me this "newspaper article" when I was done with my choices:   

http://www.problem-attic.com

Problem-Attic gives you instant access to 30 years’ of Regents Exams for Math, Science, Social Studies, and English.  Problem-Attic lets you create beautiful teaching materials in 4 easy steps.  Problem-Attic organizes its questions in two ways: by topic and by released exams. Once you’ve decided what kind of questions you want simply add them. When finished you can drag and drop your questions where you want them.  Add and remove questions with ease.  

Problem-Attic lets you change your document's Template (the overall layout of your document), Headers, Font, and the way Multiple Choice options look. Customize your document by choosing the options you want, then see what your document looks like by clicking the Preview button.

Once you're satisfied with the questions in your document and how they look, print it out and give it to your students! Click the Preview button to bring up a PDF of your document, then use your PDF viewer to print.

The site uses New York Regent Exams as a database for their questions – however – the content appears to be aligned to the Common Core Standards.   This sight would be appropriate for grades 7-12.

Thanks to Paul Hladio and Michelle Hapich for this excellent resource!

Hi everyone!!  Welcome back to the 2012 -2013 school year.  We had a great in-service for our staff on August 23, 2012 and our children started on August 27, 2012.  It was a great first day.  I would personally like to thank all of you for your loyalty to the Ambridge Area School District by remaining with us;  all students in kindergarten through third grade.

Finally, please join us as we host our first football game Saturday night at Shop – N – Save Field (Moe Rubenstein Stadium) at 8:00 against Aliquippa.  Go Bridgers!!!!!

Have a great school year.

Dr. Weischedel