Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #18: Photomosaic

Dear Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

Today I have something really special to share with you.  Have you ever seen a photomosaic?  It is a photograph made up of hundreds or thousands of tiny photographs.  There is one in the entryway of Daniel's office that I made of the front of our school from images of one of our retreats.  

This looks like it would be really complicated and cost lots of money to do.  Well, I'm here to share with you an absolutely FREE and SIMPLE way to do this.

The software is a free download it is called MacOsaix and it is incredibly powerful.  

Here are the steps you need to follow in order to make your own, unique mosaic.

For my 'master image' I chose the Apple Logo.  For my 'source' images, I chose Google Image Search.  This, then, searches Google Images to find millions of possible 'tiles' with which to make your mosaic.  You can also use your iPhoto library or a specific folder of images.  For example, you could make a mosaic from all the images you've taken this school year to give to your students.  Or, your students could choose a single image, say of the Mayflower and then make a mosaic of that image using all the photographs you've collected of the Mayflower project.  You can even use a Quick Time Movie. It will literally pull FRAMES from your movie to make individual tiles.  It's only limited by your imagination.  


So, how will you use this FREE and SIMPLE Tool?  I'd love to hear.  

Also, please remember that all of our Todd's Tuesday Tech Tips are available in one convenient place on the web.  You can get to them by clicking on the Teachers tab on our RC Web page, or by clicking HERE.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #17: Spelling City

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!


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Today's tip is for a wonderful resource that some of you have already heard about called Spelling City.  Spelling City is both a free and a paid site.  Most of the activities, including almost everything a regular classroom teacher would use is free.  The premium features allow a teacher to 'track' progress and keep records of the work students have completed online.  

In this program, you can set up weekly spelling lists for as many groups as you have.  Then students are able to practice and 'test' themselves in a multitude of fun ways.  

You can even print out cursive practice sheets for your students to use based on your spelling words.  

Spelling City offers several videos to help teachers get started with using the site.  Those can be found here.

I know several classroom teachers (including myself) have used Spellingcity.com in the past.  How would you use this site?  Please be sure to leave a comment on the T4 website so that everyone can learn from your great ideas!

Thanks,
Todd