Picture the Recipe - Great recipes with lots of pictures

It has been awhile since I shared a cooking site so I figured I was overdue. Picture the Recipe is a food site that is visually appealing and informative. The site's author, Noreen, describes herself as the "ultimate foodie" who loves experimenting with recipes and takes pictures of the food at restaurants. She turned her food passion into this great website that shares well photographed recipes as well as other tips and information. If cooking is your passion or you simply want great ideas, you should definitely head over to Picture the Recipe to see the great things Noreen has for you.

Photo Pin - Free photos for your blog

Photo Pin is a site where you can search and find millions of Creative Commons photographs from Flickr and add them to your website of blog. Once you have decided on a picture you choose the size and then download it to you computer be sure you copy the attribution to your post. I love photography and I got caught up in looking at all the amazing pictures. Below is a picture I grabbed from Photo Pin and I found the experience to be both easy and fun. 

photo credit: fatboyke (Luc) via photopin cc

Curate.us - Clip and share anything from the web

Curate.us is a new online tool that allows you to share your favorite web content. When you find something you want to share you can paste the URL into their website or you can add their clipping tool onto your tool bar and clip whenever you'd like. When you first clip, an image of a large dog will appear (called the Big Shmoo) for about 20 seconds, which means the clip is being processed. When your webpage image appears you can add your own note and then share it via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, email. or embed it into a blog or webpage. The image includes a link to the original web page so anyone who has an interest can go to the original source for more information. Curate.us is a much more useful way of sharing websites because it allows you to share more than just a link. Thanks to Make Use Of for the information regarding this site.

Picovico - An Easy Way to Create and Share Videos

With Picovico, you can turn simple photographs into cool videos. Once you sign up (it's free) you begin by choosing a video template and then adding your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, or your computer. You can set the order of your pictures, add captions to them and add text slides if you wish. Next you add music, either from their library or add your own from your computer. Your last step is to add a video title and any additional text and you're done. Completed videos can be uploaded to You Tube or Facebook and can even be embedded into a website or blog. The site does have a 30 picture maximum but that is long enough for most people. If you like making great videos and sharing them with friends and family then give Picovico a try.

Sketching, Infographics, and Google

Sketch Toy is a website that allows you to draw a picture on their website and share it on your Facebook page. One advantage to Sketch Toy is their "graph paper" background to help you keep your art centered and symmetrical. They also have a feature that makes your art vibrate much like an old cartoon. If drawing is your thing, why not give Sketch Toy a try.

Daily Infographic is a website that features the best and most dynamic infographics found on the world wide web. If you are searching for an infographic about a specific topic then this website can help you as well. You can use their search bar or just select the category that interests you and they will more than likely have the infographic you were looking for. If you really enjoy their site then you can subscribe to their site and have daily infographics emailed to you.

Seems as though just about everyone uses some type of Google product these days. Google Tutor is a site that wants to be your resource for all things Google. They are one of the leading websites for news, tips, and tutorials for Google and their products and services They are not affiliated with Google, but are just huge fans of Google who want to share their passion with the world. If you have any Google related questions, go to Google Tutor and they should have the answer.

Math, Daring Librarians, and "How to" Videos

I certainly have been paying a lot of attention to history sites lately but I'm a history teacher. Today I am giving the history sites a vacation and will give some attention to some other neglected areas.

Math was always a struggle for me in school and it still gives me nightmares. If only there was a site that could help me with difficult problems and show me the step by step process afterwards. It would be awesome if this site could help struggling math students with basic math, algebra, trigonometry, and even calculus. To top it off, it would be fantastic if this site had a worksheet generator for teachers. Well such a site does exist and it is called Mathway. This site is just what math students and math teachers need. My long nightmare has ended.

It is always exciting to discover cool websites and blogs. I recently stumbled upon the award winning blog the Daring Librarian, an education technology blog written by a middle school librarian named Gwyneth Jones. Her blog posts are as entertaining as they are informative like this one about called 10 Super Geeky tips for 2013. She creates her own cartoons and by my count, manages eight other websites. The cartoon character she created about herself is that of a super-hero, and based on all she does, I'd say that's pretty accurate.

Last on today's agenda is Monkeysee, a "how to" website for just about everyone. It features videos produced by experts on just about any topic you can imagine. Their list of categories and subcategories is quite extensive. There are videos about cooking, safety, parenting, sports, and even education just to name five. Take a few minutes to browse their collection and you will be sure to find something interesting.

Internet Resources, Civil War, and Gizmos

Lately I have been coming across many excellent U.S. Civil War resources but among all the resources I have found the Civil War Daily Gazette stands out. It is blog that gives a day by day account of the bloodiest war in America's history. The Gazette was started on November 4, 2010 to commemorate the War's sesquicentennial and will continue until the year 2015. History teachers, students, and Civil War buffs should definitely bookmark this site .

This next site, Internet4classrooms, has been around since 2000 so it is not new but it is new to me. I am really not sure how this site has gone undiscovered (by me) for so long. It has a fantastic array of resources for teachers of all levels and subject areas. It has a section dedicated to common core, online tutorials, internet links, and more. If you've never seen Internet4classrooms, or you haven't been there in awhile, then do yourself a favor and see what it has to offer.

Today's final site is a fun blog called Oh Gizmo. This blog likes to share or poke fun of gadgets, products, stories and things they discover online. Some things they blog about are cool while others are simply bizarre. Either way this blog is always entertaining.

Twisted History?

Today's focus is on my favorite topic, American history. It should come as no surprise that I love the history of America since I am a social studies teacher and that is what I teach. History is so often seen as boring and meaningless to students who can't grasp why they need to learn about events and people from the past. The following web based resources will hopefully make learning history a little more interesting.

First up are two music videos from Soomo Publishing with American history themes. They have high production value and utilize current pop music songs with a historical twist on the lyrics. The first one is about the Declaration of Independence and uses One Republic's Too Late to Apologize. The focus of the second video is women's suffrage and it uses Lady Gaga's Bad Romance to tell this important story. When my 15 year old daughter showed me these videos I was instantly mesmerized. These videos are "must sees" for all history teachers and enthusiasts.

Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration

Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage

Take the time to check out a blog I discovered called Twisted Sifter. It features amazing pictures and photography which are sorted by topics such as nature, art, science, and history. There are more categories than the four I have listed and my personal favorite is the history section. The history posts are very diverse in their subject matter but each is interesting in its own way. For example, this post shows the pictures that inspired Norman Rockwell's art. This blog is worth a look for teachers, photography buffs, and anyone with a curious mind.

Pinterest Battle of the Decades - the 1990's

We are up to the 1990's in our trip down memory lane via Pinterest. The 90's were my first decade as an adult and are marked with many of life's big milestones. I graduated from college, got married, had my first child, and starting teaching all in the 1990's. That's a lot of big events so this decade certainly has a lot of meaning to me. Take a look at these Pinterest boards to see what you remember.

The first Pin board is from Megan Cronk and has over 180 pins. The overall theme of this board is related to childhood memories of the 90's so if you grew up during this decade you will enjoy reminiscing.

This board from Kate has a balanced representation of 1990's culture. Television, movies, music, fashion, and the news are all pinned to this board.

Next is this board by Joanne Styers which contains over 290 pins about life in the 90's. It offers a nice variety of memories from the decade including pagers, Beavis and Butthead, and the Animaniacs.

Last is this impressive board by Brittany Hayes that boasts of over 740 Nineties themed pins. If you were alive during this decade then this board is the one to lead you down memory lane.

The 1990's, the decade of Bill Clinton, the end of the Cold War, the Gulf War, and the beginning of the internet. A decade between 9/11 and  Cold War fears. Was this the best decade of the past six or were others better in your opinion? Comments and votes are appreciated.

Pinterest in Education

Pinterest is a social bookmarking site where users collect and share photos of their interests, hobbies, favorite websites, and videos. It is one of the fastest growing social networks and is the third largest network behind only Facebook and Twitter. I am relatively new to Pinterest but I have found it very helpful in finding teaching resources. I thought I'd share a few my favorite Pinterest boards. Please feel free to share your favorite boards or Pinterest users with me.

First is my Pinterest history board which currently has 115 pins and is growing daily. It is comprised of mostly American history since that is my content area. 

Here are some of the Pinterest users and boards that I have discovered and follow that could be useful to other teachers out there.

1) The Teaching Bug has over 100 boards that would appeal to elementary level teachers. It is well organized with boards for content areas, projects, classroom stations, behavior, and even by time of year.

2) We Are Teachers 81 boards have a wealth of pins full of information that would interest just about all teachers. Their boards cover topics such as common core standards, professional development, content areas, and they even have a board for teacher humor. Special education teachers will be happy to know that We Are Teachers has a pin board full of helpful information for them as well.

3) As a social studies teacher I was thrilled to come across this board by Pearson which has 48 boards full   of great information. There are boards for U.S. history, world history, geography, and even art history. A must see for social studies teachers.

4) For those interested in technology in education there is this blog post from Avatar Generation, titled The 25 best Pinterest Boards for Education Technology.

5) Finally, for iPad users there is this board, Free iPad apps for teachers. This board is useful to any teacher, parent or student with an iPad.

Did You Stumble Upon Book RX?

I begin today with a very cool web tool from Northwestern University called Book RX. This website will generate a list of book recommendations by analyzing your Twitter activity. It could be good way to come up with book ideas for yourself or you could use it to find gift ideas for friends and family who love to read.

If you would like to impress your friends and colleagues with endless facts and trivia then why not check out Did You Know. This site offers pages upon pages of informative tidbits to read and enjoy. While you won't find the answers to life's big questions, this site does offer a great deal of interesting information.

Stumble Upon is one of my absolute favorite sites. I mentioned in an earlier post that it is one of the ways I discover the websites that I share in this blog. Whether or not you use Stumble Upon, why not check out the Best of Stumble Upon, a blog dedicated to the interesting things found on the Stumble Upon site.

Graphing Manly Words?

Graphing Stories is a series of "real world" videos by Dan Meyer and Buzz Math that have a graphing measurements theme. It sounds boring but the videos and accompanying graphing worksheet are an engaging way to demonstrate concepts. The videos are free to download and as mentioned before, they come with a generic graphing worksheet.

Next up is a site called Man Crates which offers gift "crates" (no baskets) that appeal to men. The crates have masculine themes such as "survivalist, beer, sports, and carnivores. Each manly gift is delivered to your door and even comes with its own crow bar to open the crate.

22 Words is a blog by Abraham Piper that features 10 to 12 "curious, cute, comical or "crazy" posts a day. Each post is essentially a picture, a video, or cartoon that is funny, amazing, or disturbing. 22 words is a good site to check out if you want be entertained or have a good laugh.

Check out these great blogs

Teacher blogs are one of the best sources of information on the web. While there are hundreds of excellent teacher blogs out there, I can't possibly read them all. Yesterday, I chose to share Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers blog so today I am sharing posts from three more of my favorite teacher created blogs.

First up is Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day. Mr. Ferlazzo is an ESL teacher from California who writes about a wide variety of education topics. He not only shares great web resources, he posts articles and videos from a wide range of topics including common core standards, education policy, and even the tragdy in Newtown, Connecticut. In this post, Mr. Ferlazzo shares articles that supports the great things being done in American schools.

The second blog is the Ed Tech Toolbox by Greg Swanson of  Eastwood, Australia. Mr. Swanson shares useful technology tips that anyone can use. This post is extremely handy because it identifies a large collection of useful resources and lists them by task.

Finally, there is the Cool Cat Teacher blog by Vicki Davis, a teacher from Georgia. Her blog is swimming with useful information for anyone in the education business. In this post, Ms. Davis shares how to implement QR codes into the classroom. If you aren't sure what a QR code is, read her post and you'll wonder no more.

Back in the saddle

I have quite a back log of sites, blogs, and fun things to share so I can't slack anymore.

First up for today is Cooking Comically, a fun cooking site that shares its recipes in a comic strip style. This site's creator is just a regular guy who likes to draw and cook and decided to combine his passions. If you appreciate comic style art, humor, and of course cooking, then head over to this site as join the fun.

Today's second site is a collection of 22 Google forms that should prove useful to both teachers and administrators. This useful collection was created by Kern Kelley and I learned about it from the Free Technology for Teachers blog which is written by Richard Byrne.

Speaking of Richard Byrne's blog, the final discovery for today is from his Free Technology for Teachers blog. In this post he explains 10 ways to create videos without installing software. If you aren't a regular reader of Mr. Byrne's blog, I highly recommend you become one. He not only shares great websites, he gives explanations on how each resource could be used in the classroom.

Cool Web Finds

As the teachers in my building can attest, I have been regularly sharing many of the websites that I have recently discovered. In order to simplify matters for anyone who has enjoyed the sites I have shared, I have decided to start using this blog as the new and permanent way to share my discoveries. So without further delay, here is my latest edition of "cool web finds."

We have all had moments where we feel down on humanity or even worse, down on ourselves. Reading the stories at Helpingothers.org will help restore your faith in humanity and perhaps inspire you to "pay it forward."

If you are looking for a website to make you smile go to Waveatthebus and see a real life dad wave goodbye to his son's bus while wearing a different costume each day. 

At Retronaut you can view  memories, pictures, advertisements, and videos from your life or even your grandparents childhood. This site is a great place to reminisce and social studies teachers could  certainly use this site in their instruction at some point.

Speaking of memories, Moment.Me is a place where people can share their pictures and videos from weddings, parties, concerts, or other special days. 

At a site called tackk, users can make amazing online posters using pictures, text and video. Check out their samples page to see some of the possibilities. This site could be used for invitations, advertisements, or school projects.

Finally, I am a sucker for strange and unusual gifts. With the holidays just around the corner why not check out Greenhead. This is a site that offers the latest in unusual gift possibilities with items for just about any taste.

Website hoarding

I have a confession. I am a website hoarder. I am addicted to finding new and useful websites but the problem is that I don't have time to explore them all so I store them in my Evernote account to view at a future date. As of this post, I have 659 "notes", which includes some infographics and blog posts but the majority are websites that I intend to use someday. The purpose of this post isn't for therapy reason but to explain how easy it is to find great websites.

I began my website hoarding addiction with Delicious. I would search the "favorited" websites of other users and was amazed at how easy it was to locate websites that interested me. The next tool I discovered was Stumble Upon. I would spend hours "stumbling" the web and I came across many amazing pictures, blogs, and websites. One site I "stumbled on" was Make Use Of which features a "Daily Cool websites" section. I subscribed to this feature and began to get  recommendation sent to my email. Later, a coworker of mine introduced me to Diigo Education which I have subscribed to and I get excellent resources shared by other educators.

Along the way I have discovered a wide array of blogs such as Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers, and Larry Ferlazzo's Website of the Day to name just two. Occasionally, I will get time to seriously browse some web sites but for the most part my collections keeps growing. My latest source for website collecting has been Twitter. Now all the websites I used to visit are sending their discoveries to me  via Twitter. It makes being a website hoarder so much easier.

I don't recommend anyone become a website collector like me but if you are interested in finding new resources on the web don't bother with Google. Try one of the sites I recommended above and you be amazed at how much great stuff is out there.