ED 300 and Wheat Thins

My friends from college created this site.  They found a movie they liked and they now have a podcast, a website, and merchandise for sale.  I think it would be a fun thing to challenge my students to do this for some animal or composer.  Have them get creative and make a website about it.  They might find people all over the world interested in the same animal or composer and then start collaborating on different things about the topic.  The website is The Lebowski Podcast down in my blogroll.

I got a call from the people who make the Inspiration software we used in class.  They were talking to me about their product and mentioned this website they recently created.  It is a place to post the things created on the Inspiration 8 software.  He was a nice guy.  It’s good to know they have good, english speaking support for their product.

Chip Webster wrote this piece a while back.  I like how it starts off with the familiar Bolero feel.  As I watched, I was thinking, “This isn’t too hard.”  I kept watching though and I realized that those sticks are really moving fast.  It is a difficult piece to play even though it sounds simple.  I plan on learning the piece someday.

This is not for my subject, but it is pretty cool.  The site is called Larson Math.  It is an online math tutor from grades 3 to 6+.  I have a coworker who’s daughter has used it.  She logs on and does assignments.  Her parents can look how she is doing.  She would then go to school and a tutor would look at her performance and tutor her on the things she was struggling with.  A very cool tool.

Here is a website made by two college students.  They are both going to be secondary biology teachers.  It was made for a class project.  They have some good information on the site.  Even though it’s a biology classroom, they mention teaching students how to find credible websites.  They have links to online quizzes and promote having a classroom website that the students can go to so they can always know what’s going on in class.  They give a good explanation of all the links they provide on the page too.

This is a video that more advanced players could use to work on stick control.

Here a teacher named Mrs. Shier who podcasts her class.  The parents can go to the web and listen to what their kids did in school that day!  I guess parents won’t have to ask their kids anymore, “What did you do in school today?”.  This is great for the kids too since they will be able to hear how much better they have become.

Vic Firth is a percussion company that specializes in making sticks, but is also very active in education.  Their website has tons of video and bios of different performers. Their educational link has play along streaming videos that would be great for practicing.  There are also videos that show the technique of how to hold the sticks and play the drum.  They even have a video on how sticks are made.  It is a great tool that teachers can use to get students engaged in how to play percussion instruments.

This website has slides that enable the student to look at slides and manipulate them from any computer instead of having to be in a lab.  The best part is that the slides are pictures of real slides.  This can let students look at slides and study them at home if the did not get enough time at school.