Free Web Based Software

Office Suites:  I am familiar with Google Docs so I decided to review ThinkFree. 

ThinkFree is a nice free online word processor that works as a place to store your documents online so you can view them from another computer or email them from your phone as attachments.  Creating and editing documents in ThinkFree can be done, as in Google Docs and Word, but some of the tools seem slow at times.  It does give a large amount of space to store documents and works well to combine with documents saved in Word.  I personal don’t use my phone for this kind of application so I am content using Google Docs when I need to confer with my daughter in Chicago or my fellow colleagues at school.

Image Editing:  FotoFlexer is top shelf to me.  I have not done much photo editing besides at Snapfish, Walgreens, Meijer and Costco websites. 

When I saw what FotoFlexer could do, I was quite impressed.  FotoFlexer makes it fun to do photo editing almost in a kid friendly way.  The site costs nothing to use and you do not even have to sign up for an account which is very different.  I enjoy the site because it would be easy for my students or grandchildren to load up their images and apply dozens of effects, crop, resize, mirror, flip, rotate, etc. then save as a jpg file back the computer.  It even has an easy to find UNDO button so you can practice trial and error on their images till you get them exactly right. I need to spend more time on this site with my summer photos!

My Screencast is finally accomplished!

With some help from a few great friends I have successfully created a screencast that I will use with my students in the fall.  I will also use it as part of my Final Synthesis Project.  It's not perfect but I can perfect it when I switch it over to Quick Time Pro which we will be using for the same purpose in the fall.  I will use this screencast as a kick off to the assignment called:  Fast Food? Fat Food?  Before having the student read the directions to the assignment I will have them watch the screencast and then practice the activity it leads them in.  Then they will be prepared to complete the assignment using the website demonstrated in the screencast.

My New Teacher Website

My goal is for my students and their parents to use this website to access the weekly agenda and assignments for the three classes I teach. I could see students using this when they know they are going to be absent for an appointment, vacation or if they are home sick. Parents can access the website anytime to see what their child is doing each day for the week or to see if their child really does have homework afterall.

The two clubs that I sponsor could also access this website so students could look for scheduled meetings and any other information I would like to pass along.

You can check my website out at:   https://sites.google.com/a/jpsonline.org/mrs-mervenne/

Concept Map Activity - Intro to Cooking 101 Class

On the second day of Cooking 101 class I would like to take my students to the computer lab and have them work in pairs to create a concept map surrounding the following question:  What is needed for Success in Cooking?  Through this activity, I am hoping to widen their perspective beyond just opening a package of frozen pizza rolls and popping them in the oven.  I have created an example of what they might come up with below.

I also found a very cool Nutrition Concept Map already made up to help students understand the difference between Nutrients and the Food Groups.

Google Maps & Grocery Shopping

I would like my Cooking 101 students to spend a day in the lab researching the cost of grocery shopping based on:  how far away the store is, the price of gas, and the sales available in that weeks ad.  Students could start by following the link below to the Google Map I have created and find the distance to any 4 main grocery stores that their family prefers to shop, possibly Family Fare, Meijer, Aldi and Target.  They they could find the distance from their house for each and find out what the current price of gas is.  They could ask their parent/guardian what the gas mileage is for the car that mostly drives to the store and figure the cost per trip for each store.  Then I would have them type out some discussion question such as:  Why would it be better to make a shopping list and buy groceries once a week compared to running out whenever you need something?  Why would it be good to look at all store ads before planning grocery shopping list?  Does you parent/guardian drive by these stores on the way to or from work?  How could this make a difference?  Does your family think shopping at Walmart, Costco or GFS is beneficial?  Why or why not?  The next day we would have a discussion concerning the information they gathered.


View Grocery Shops near Jenison

Everywhere I Go - My Delicous Bookmarks Will Follow

As the Delicious website reported, the Web is a big place full of new and interesting things to discover;  the problem is keeping track of what you have found.  Here is where I will be bookmarking my favorites. http://www.delicious.com/Mervenne .  I am experimenting with hooking up my Internet Explorer Favorites with Delicious.  Anyone tried this yet?

Great Podcast for Internet Safety Education

I found a great Education-focused Podcast from a site called Internet Safety Project to keep me up to date on Internet Safety issues.  http://www.internetsafetypodcast.com/   The Internet Safety Project is a non-profit venture at Brigham Young University dedicated to educating parents, teachers, and teens about the benefits and risks of technology. Their goal is to make solutions to technical issues accessible in an educational, entertaining, and useful way.

I lead a club at the junior high called the K.I.K. Club.  (Kids Impacting Kids)  It is very similar to a S.A.D.D. chapter.  The K.I.K. club memebers run a one week long Interenet Safety Campaign each year.  I'm sure I will be able to glean some good information from this Podcast subscription.   To understand the mission of this website check out their Home Page at:  http://www.internetsafetyproject.org/about.