Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Symbaloo ... woohoo!

I had the opportunity to attend professional development training on the new platform our district is using for teacher websites.  We used TeacherWeb last year; this year we will use SharpSchool.  The training was fine, and I have a head start on creating my website for the coming year.

But more importantly, the instructor shared a website called Symbaloo with us!  Oh my!  It is a way to organize favorite websites for a topic using visual buttons.  So I played with it ... organizing online interactive games, textbook videos, and more around our introductory unit on functions.  I know it still needs work making the buttons prettier ... but it sure is useful already!  I think my students will appreciate the ease at which they can choose online activities!





 How do you organize approved websites for students?

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5 comments:

  1. Algebra's FriendJune 18, 2013 at 8:37 AM

    I realize this morning that I should color code the activities. All of the tutorial video buttons should be the same color, the games a color, etc. And since I have 6 tutorial videos in this symbaloo, I would put them all on the bottom line.

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  2. Algebra's FriendJune 18, 2013 at 8:56 AM

    Here is the link to the prettier, updated version ...
    http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/functions

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    Replies
    1. Algebra's FriendJune 18, 2013 at 1:55 PM

      Fun ... when I updated online, the updated version published on my blog as well. Yea! I am an "old dog" learning new tricks ... especially with html!

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  3. AnonymousJune 18, 2013 at 10:33 AM

    A couple of years ago our district wanted to unify its look between schools and teachers so it hired American Eagle to create the website. It serves its purpose regarding having one look but it's tremendously difficult to edit and organize anything. For example files or links that have been uploaded must be removed one at a time. When I add a link it "appends" as the most recent so I can't reorder or organize links.

    In a sense it can be stifiling. So I ended up organizing my student resources in wikis. http://grade6geometry.wikispaces.com/ and http://grade6ratiosandproportions.wikispaces.com/home The hope was that other sixth grade teachers in our district would want to contribute, but that hasn't happened yet.

    In the fall I'll be teaching the 7th and 8th grade curriculum so now I have to start over.

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    Replies
    1. Algebra's FriendJune 18, 2013 at 12:58 PM

      Mary - our school will allow us to branch out to create class websites using other tools but they require certain features ... it ends up being easier using the primary tool they chose to purchase. SharpSchool is not particularly friendly to use but it is not difficult. And I can embed Google docs, etc ...

      I just received email today ... looks like I am moving from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2. I don't mind except that yes ... I have to start over. I'll need to spend some summer time thinking/creating to get ready!

      Thanks for stopping by!

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