Extra Life 2015

Extra Life 2015 is here!

I have participated in this event over the last few years and it continues to grow every year. Thousands of gamers participate in this event ever year raising money for their local branch of the Children's Miracle Network.  All the donations my team and I collect goes to the Don Harrington Cancer Center in Amarillo, TX, a local division of CMN.

If you are able and willing to donate anything at all, please consider helping me reach my goal of $500.00.

You can simply go to the widget that is located on the right of this blog or click here to be directed to my donation page.

In case you are wondering how all this started, please watch this video:

FlipQuiz - a classroom review tool

FlipQuiz gives you the power to turn classroom reviews into a game that you can present in class, share via Twitter or Facebook or embed on your own website...all for free.   

You can create a Jeopardy-like game where you can create up to 6 categories and 5 questions per category.  Here's an example of a review board over World War II:

FlipQuiz Presentation Mode

Each question is worth a different amount of points, from 100 points to 500 points:

Battles Category: 100 point question 

Battle Category: 100 point answer

The website is also mobile friendly in that the website and the boards as well will adjust to your particular screen size.  This allows students to study wherever they are and not required to be in front of their computer.  

With the provided embed code whenever you create a new board, you can place the review on the classroom website or blog.  

There is also a "Pro" option available that gives you more features like creating teams, bigger image and audio uploads, and the ability to turn the game board into flashcards.  

3 Educational Resources for New Horizons mission

July 14th, 2015 marks the first ever flyby by Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft.  If you want to learn more about the mission or Pluto or are teaching about the subject, you may find these resources useful:

1.  John Hopkins Applied Science Laboratory

John Hopkins has a website that is dedicated to the New Horizons spacecraft mission.  The website has multiple resources to teach and learn about the mission and Pluto itself.  

2.  NASA

NASA's website also has several resources to choose from to learn about the mission, including images and videos.  

3.  Space.com

Space.com has several articles, videos and info-graphics over the New Horizons mission.   

How to watch and follow

NASA TV -you can view the live stream of the New Horizon's mission here at NASA's website.  The live stream will start on 7/14/15 at 7:30 AM EST.   

Twitter - you can follow the mission on Twitter by following NASA New Horizons and by following #Plutoflyby.  

Shark Week 2015 Resources

Looking for Shark Week resources to learn or teach about sharks?

Websites:

Discovery Channel:  http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week/

Sea World: http://seaworld.org/en/just-for-teachers/classroom-resources/teachers-guides/

NOAA: http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/stories/a/species/sharks/

National Geographic: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/sharks/

Lesson Plans:

Discovery Education: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/sharks.cfm

PBS: http://www.pbs.org/oceanrealm/intheschool/school6.html

NEA (National Education Association): https://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/59269.htm

Shark Week Livebinder:

Shark Week

Be sure to follow @sharkweek on Twitter this week for updates and additional facts and resources!

Shark Week 2015 starts today!

3 Awesome Education & Edtech Online Talk Shows

1.  Every Classroom Matters

Every Classroom Matters is a online show hosted by Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher).  There are multiple episodes on this site where Vicki has interviewed people such as Todd Nelsoney (@techninjatodd) and Peggy George (@pgeorge).  The most recent episode was over Minecraft in the education world with special guest Joel Levin (@minecraftteachr).

2.  Classroom 2.0 Live

Classroom 2.0 Live is what started it all for me when I dove into the Edtech world.  Every Saturday a live show is hosted by Peggy George, Lorie Moffat (@ldmoffat) & Tammy Moore with a different special guest each week.  Each special guest discusses topics such as Evernote, Chromebooks, E-portfolios and Ipads.  You can also check out their Youtube channel here.

3.  Teachercast

Teachercast has a plethora of resources for educators.  Created and hosted by Jeff Bradbury (@teachercast), the site provides multiple podcasts with some of the biggest names in the education and technology world. Podcasts are updated constantly and you can also navigate through the archive to see previous videos as well.  There is also live interviews from ISTE 2015 archived on the site.    

Cool Classroom Halloween Resources

Looking for some cool classroom resources for Halloween?

Writing Prompts:

Teach Hub: 7 Halloween writing prompts

Wrentham Public Schools: Halloween Writing Activities and Ideas

Pinterest Boards:

Halloween Language Arts Ideas

Halloween Classroom Ideas

Halloween - School Ideas

General:

Larry Ferlazzo's blog (ton of resources here)

The Teacher's Corner (crosswords, word search, etc.)

Education.com (a lot of classroom activities here)

Scholastic (includes Math and Science activities)

Cybraryman's website (pretty much everything you can think of here)

LiveBinders:

By Wisermar:

Halloween

By KB...Konnected:

Halloween 1

Extra Life 2014

Extra Life 2014 is going to be one of the biggest and best years on record.

What is Extra Life?

Extra Life is a annual event where gamers come together and play video games for 24 hours to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network.

Here's a video about the story that started it all:

My goal this year is $500.  All the funds I raise goes to the Don and Sybil Harrington Cancer Foundation, our local Children's Miracle Network participant. 

If you can even donate $1, that will go towards helping helping kids.  Feel free to donate via the widget on the right side of this blog or you can click here to visit my donation page.