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Visual Synonyms | English Thesaurus How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple By Dolores Gende Apple’s iBooks2 and authoring app has created big waves in education circles. But smart educators don’t necessarily need Apple’s slick devices and software to create their own books. How educators think of content curation in the classroom is enough to change their reliance on print textbooks. As the open education movement continues to grow and become an even more rich trove of resources, teachers can use the content to make their own interactive textbooks. It might seem daunting, but the availability of quality materials online and the power of tapping into personal learning networks should make it easier. Here’s how to create a digital textbook and strategies for involving the students in its development in three steps. 1. Teachers can work with colleagues within their subject area departments and beyond the walls of the classroom to aggregate resources through social bookmarking. 2. One of the most user-friendly tools to post resources for your course is LiveBinders.

Six Wonderful Sites to Help you Write, Speak and Sound Better I’m not a native speaker. Even though I read, write, work and I would almost dare say live and dream in English, I haven’t learned the language from birth and sometimes have moments of self-doubt. These websites I am going to share in this post have been an invaluable help. Blog de Cristina is also on Facebook. ♥Howjsay and Forvo: The world’s largest dictionaries of English Pronunciation How often have you come across a proper name you had no clue how to pronounce and you desperately needed to know the correct standard pronunciation of or perhaps a variant pronunciation of this word? ♥Linguee We all know how difficult it is to write, even more in a foreign language. ♥Phraseup Sometimes we know what we want to write, the sentence is phrased in our mind, but we can’t figure out some of the words we need. Or maybe you want to use the verb+preposition combination “cope with” but you are just not sure which words it collocates with, just type it in PhraseUp and options will be provided.

Curation/Bookmarking Tools | Sqworl educlipper Educlipper - Must request invite as of 9/13/2012 livebinders Live Binders - The knowledge sharing place. mentormob Mentor Mob - Learn what you want. pearltrees A place to collect, organize and share everything you like on the web. sqworl What you are looking at ;-D symbaloo Symbaloo (Digital Citizenship example) blendspace Gather everything in one place bagtheweb Organize links in a cohesive way

Free Visual Dictionary & Thesaurus | Online Dictionary | Associated Words | Synonyms Dictionary at SnappyWords.com Best Free Photoshop Brushes | Syntaxxx Our online creative community has a long history of sharing resources such as Photoshop brushes. Prior to writing this piece, I scanned my massive PS brushes folder. My oldest brushes date back to 2001. All of them were free downloads from generous creatives wanting to share with other users. Best is a buzzword and highly subjective. The brushes must be free for personal and – ideally – commercial use.High resolution (2500 × 2500 pixels) brushes should be free.Screen shots should be large enough to discern brush samples.There must be a one-click download, and it should be in plain sight.You shouldn’t have to register for this or that before you’re able to complete the download.Brushes must be open source, or released under a Creative Commons license. Over the years I’ve bookmarked a few websites that offer quality free resources and I go to them first when I need a certain something for a project. Brusheezy Brusheezy.com Q Brushes Q Brush’s tag cloud search is useful and fast. Brush King

Think-Pair-Share Think-Pair-Share activities pose a question to students that they must consider alone and then discuss with a neighbor before settling on a final answer. This is a great way to motivate students and promote higher-level thinking. Even though the activity is called think-"PAIR"-share, this is the term many instructors use for pairs and small groups (three or four students) alike. Groups may be formed formally or informally. Often this group discussion "sharing" is followed up with a larger classroom discussion. Advantages of think-pair-share Instructors find they can have a format change during lecture that only takes a small amount of class time. Steps and tips for using think-pair-share Click above to watch a video of Greg Hancock, College of William and Mary, demonstrate how to use the Think-Pair-Share method at an On the Cutting Edge workshop.Ask a question. Examples of think-pair-share questions include: Describe and interpret the image. Challenges of the think-pair-share technique

50+ New and Free Photoshop Brush Packs Jan 11 2012 Nearly every designer loves freshly-made, free Photoshop brushes that can be used in your designs as it is one of the most widely used graphics programs on the market. It is what some would call an incontrovertible truth. This is the reason why designers are constantly browsing the web in search of all the latest brushes to add them to their arsenal. We have previously posted many collections of high quality Photoshop brush packs, and today we are bringing our readers another fine collection of over 50 fresh Photoshop brush sets that are sure to delight even the most discerning of designers. This round up includes 50+ packs containing more than 500 brushes of various styles and for a range of effects. Note: Licenses of every brush set varies, so be sure to check that information before using them. Photoshop Brush Packs Glowing Swirl Brushes ( Download )This high quality set contains 8 high resolution brushes to add glowing swirl effects. (rb)

Twelve Active Learning Strategies Example 1 Example 1 Explanation In order for students to learn effectively, they must make connections between what they already know (prior knowledge) and new content to which they're exposed. The opening of a lecture should facilitate these connections by helping students exercise their prior knowledge of the day's subject matter. The following four slides illustrate strategies which stimulate students' thinking and prepare them to learn. One useful strategy is to open the lecture with a question. Example 2 Example 2 Explanation "Think-Pair-Share" is an active learning strategy that engages students with material on an individual level, in pairs, and finally as a large group. When used at the beginning of a lecture, a Think-Pair-Share strategy can help students organize prior knowledge and brainstorm questions. Example 3 Example 3 Explanation Focused listing is a strategy in which students recall what they know about a subject by creating a list of terms or ideas related to it. Example 4

Story Arts | Storytelling in the Classroom Why Storytelling? Educators have long known that the arts can contribute to student academic success and emotional well being. The ancient art of storytelling is especially well-suited for student exploration. As a folk art, storytelling is accessible to all ages and abilities. No special equipment beyond the imagination and the power of listening and speaking is needed to create artistic images. As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner. Retelling Folktales Storytelling Lesson Plans and Activities Using Storytelling To Assess Listening and Speaking Skills Story Library Exploring Cultural Roots Through Storytelling Why Storytelling? Gaining Verbal Skills Becoming verbally proficient can contribute to a student's ability to resolve interpersonal conflict nonviolently. Copyright © 2000 Story Arts

How To Structure A Story: The 8 Point Arc By Ali Hale - 3 minute read One of my favourite “how to write” books is Nigel Watts’ Writing A Novel and Getting Published. My battered, torn and heavily-pencil-marked copy is a testament to how useful I’ve found it over the years. Although the cover appears to be on the verge of falling off altogether, I’ve risked opening the book once more to bring you Watts’ very useful “Eight-Point Story Arc” – a fool-proof, fail-safe and time-honoured way to structure a story. (Even if you’re a short story writer or flash fiction writer rather than a novelist, this structure still applies, so don’t be put off by the title of Watts’ book.) The eight points which Watts lists are, in order: StasisTriggerThe questSurpriseCritical choiceClimaxReversalResolution He explains that every classic plot passes through these stages and that he doesn’t tend to use them to plan a story, but instead uses the points during the writing process: So, what do the eight points mean? Stasis Trigger The quest Surprise Climax Reversal

The Golden Rules for a Good Plot Writing a novel can be a daunting task. Here are some helpful tips to ensure you write a good plot. Is it your dream to become a best-selling author? Plot Rule 1: Create a plot skeleton A plot outline will help you choose a complication and the steps to resolve it. Plot Rule 2: Flesh out your plot Fleshing out your plot with colorful characters and a vivid setting will enhance your novel and grab your readers’ attention. Plot Rule 3: Bring your plot to a powerful resolution Have you used each scene and story event to guide readers to a plot resolution? Plot Rule 4: End your story at a natural stopping place After the climax, wrap up the story as quickly as possible. Plot Rule 5: Make sure your characters resolve conflicts on their own Don't rely on an act of nature or an unknown hero to clean things up at the last minute. A final note on creating a good plot… Creating a good plot isn't as easy as it sounds.

The Best Story Structure Tool We Know By Glen C. Strathy Of the various story structure models or theories that exist, we have chosen to focus mainly on Dramatica, which was developed by Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley. We chose to work with this model because it is the only one that... 1. 2. 3. 4. What's more, Dramatica embodies certain insights into story structure that no other theory does. The aim of this website is to present practical tips and exercises to help writers, while avoiding a lot of theory. Finding A Roadmap For Creating Your Novel The most important thing you need from any story theory is help creating a good roadmap for your novel. Specifically, you want help creating a plot that will keep the reader engaged and bring the story to an emotionally satisfying conclusion. You especially want a clear story structure that will guide you through those times when you get stuck and haven’t the faintest idea which direction to head next. Traditional Story Theory Is Too General 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Genres

Plot Generator