Saturday, July 21, 2012

Space Lab

If you want a fun and exciting boost for your science class, be sure to visit the YouTube Space Lab Channel - not only do they have some really great videos, but they also challenge students (people) to participate in making their channel even better. Its a great channel for anyone, but a super addition to science classes.

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
                                                                                                                         ~ Maria Montessori

James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL


Simple K12

SimpleK12 is a great resource for teachers. They create lots of great training videos that include best practices, how to use certain technologies & some that are designed for student instruction. They also produce some really great ebooks & webinars. If you haven't joined their mailing list, you should!

Check out this great plagiarism video produced by SimpleK12 - there are lots of other great ones on their YouTube channel (to which you should also subscribe!).

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
                                                                                                                         ~ Maria Montessori

James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL


Education Portal - A great resource for teachers!

If you haven't been using Education Portal to help you prepare curriculum, you are missing out. I just received the following message from Education Portal - read it - visit - and use these great available resources!

As you prepare for the upcoming school year, I'd like to share a free instructional supplement that you may find useful. Education Portal Academy's collection of free online lessons has grown a lot over the summer! We now have over 400 lessons in math, science, English, history, business and psychology, and celebrated our highest traffic yet this June with over 200,000 visitors.

We've listened to all of the feedback we've received and have recently published new lessons in some of our most-requested topics, including Shakespeare, DNA, probability mechanics and many more.

Check out our progress:



We'll also launch College Mathematics, Pre-Calculus and American Literature before the school year begins and have many more course topics in the works! You can view all of our free lessons here: http://education-portal.com/academy/course/index.html
I hope you'll share these free resources with your students. Anyone can access our free lessons at any time -no strings- to supplement their classwork or to tackle a new subject on their own. Don't see your discipline? Reply to this email and let me know what lessons and topics you'd like to see!
Best regards,
Stacy Redd
Education Portal Academy

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
                                                                                                                         ~ Maria Montessori

James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

QR Code Crazy!

Got QR Codes? If not you are missing out on a really fun way to add a lot of great content to your PE class. And it's FREE and EASY!!! Here's how:

1. Download an app that scans QR codes - there's lots of them that are free
2. Create the QR codes @ http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
3. Paste the QR codes to the content
4. Students scan and learn!


QRCode           QRCode

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
                                                                                                                         ~ Maria Montessori

James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL


Get your students talking outside of class!

Are you a Google docs user? If not you're missing out on a really great (and FREE) resource for student collaboration. In addition, Google forms is great for creating evaluations.

How to get started? Create a Gmail account and log in. Go to Google Docs and start creating!

Here's a couple of examples of documents I've created - feel free to add to them!


  1. Google Docs Document
  2. Google Docs Slide Presentation 
  3. Google Docs form - embedded below!

Skill Analysis made easy

Got a video camera (your phone probably does)? Got a computer? Then you have the necessary ingredients for preparing videos for analyzing skills. No fancy, high-cost software needed.

1. Video a student performing a skill
2. Upload the video to Windows Live Movie Maker (free product from Windows - download online)
3. Open the movie maker program
4. Import the video
5. Click on "edit"
6. Change speed to .5, .25 or .125 to slow
7. Publish the movie - view and analyze

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
                                                                                                                         ~ Maria Montessori

James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Use Polleverywhere.com to create live class polls that can be published to your website, blog or linked to in an email. People can respond to multiple-choice style and open-ended questions. http://www.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/LTk4ODIzODE5MA



James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL
Use Voicethread to create asynchronous discussions in your classes. Post the voicethread to your website or blog where people can respond via video, text and voice recording. 





If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
                                                                                                                         ~ Maria Montessori

James 1:2-4 ESV 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I humbly thank my wonderful family for their support in all that I do. Robert Robbie Cowan, Robert Drew Andrew Cowan, and Hunter Cowan Hartselle, Decatur, AL