Visual.ly is a search engine for looking up infographics across various websites. With a quick search for "government" yielded about twenty results. According to their site they are working on a feature to let you create your own infographics, but you can currently upload yours to add to their collection.

While doesn't make my top list of resources yet, it is definitely one worth checking out and keeping an eye on.

I've added it

Beautiful Curves is an HTML5 web based drawing app that lives up to its name.  Tim Holman created the site which is simply too fun to stop playing! 

This would be an interesting site to let students create an artwork of their feelings. More curls may represent feelings of more chaos, maybe change the thickness to represent emotional intensity, and of course color choice.

I've added this site to my Art Resources page and my Stress Relief page.

I received a Nook Tablet for Christmas from my loving husband who so generously indulges my fervent reader mood. Of course on a teacher's budget I can't afford to purchase ebooks all the time, so I'm taking advantage of our library's subscription service to mymediamall. I couldn't figure out how to make the books work on my tablet however so I had to poke around the nook boards on B&N's website. A very helpful post on how to do this was here. I also thought the video explanation here was incredibly useful. 

Now if only I can figure out how to get android games on here....

At #ice12 (Illinois Computing Educators Conference) in March I will be presenting two sessions, and with the conference just a few months away it's time to start prepping which tools I'll be showcasing. In the past I've used Delicious to bookmark the sites, however I'm not using  Delicious (or any social bookmarking feature at present) so this year's prep is going to be different. 

This year I'm using pinterest to bookmark sites, articles, and images while I brainstorm. When all is said and done I'll have digital handouts available on this website, but I may also have the pineterest board refined as well. So far it seems to be similar to livebinders. The first time I tried the "pin it" bookmarklet button it didn't work...but we'll see how it works the next time.

I do not have an iPad...yet (ohh...when money flows 'aplenty...) however I stumbled upon http://www.educreations.com/ this morning and was really impressed with its possibilities.

This find inspired me to create a new list for Educational iPad apps.

Where in the World?! is a great game for students to identify places around the world. Each picture gives you three choices which can spure discussion. Do you notice a lot of green boxes in the picture? What could it be? Cities? Farms? Which country do you suppose has lots of open farming areas? 

As neat as this project is it would be very cool to create your own game using your local community. Taking simple screen shots and posting them to a class website or community would be relatively simple Have students guess the location based off your previous discussions! This would even be a great quick activity when students come to class or a daily blog post. Students could even make up their own game using photos of their favorite places. 

Five more days of school remain before we break for the holidays, and this teacher is definitely feeling the crunch of semester's end! Students and teachers alike are more than a little frazzled these days!

If you're looking for a few minutes of mindless stress relief try http://thisissand.com/ to create virtual sand art- complete with the relaxing sound of pouring sand.

The only problem is that you can't save your creation . When it's time to get back to work your art work must go. You can save it to a gallary collection but I do NOT recommend you do this (there are innapropriate images on the gallary- don't let students on the gallary page). 

I've added this to my growing collection of sites for Stress Relief. Please leave comments below with your favorites!

I'm thrilled that my poster session was just accepted for the 2012 Illinois Computing Educator's Conference. I will be presenting "Edmodo in the Special Needs Behavior Classroom" on either Thursday or Friday (details to follow).

This is a great opportunity for our school to showcase how we are using student safe social networking with our junior high and high school students. I plan to have handouts with tips & tricks. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!