The Art of Relaxation

Once when I was teaching fifth grade, a parent told me that I was ADHD. He told me this in the hallway. I think he was in marketing, but he sure thought he was medical practitioner of some sort. I really took offense to his statement, mostly because it is true. I prefer to say that I "don't relax well".
In about three minutes, or however long it takes me to finish this post, I will officially be on Spring Break. I hope that I can work on relaxing during the next 10 days off work. The sites I am sharing today are two that I find very stress-relieving. Hope you find them to be as well.

Auditorium
Auditorium is a flash game that combines light and sound. Players manipulate the sound waves to make the music play. While listening to soothing music, players can use problem solving skills to advance to new levels. What a unique experience!

Boomshine
Boomshine isn't new, but it is definitely like a favorite blanket for me. I play this game when I am stressed, and the relaxing music always melts my tension away. Click your mouse to hit as many of the floating bubbles as possible with your "boom". The bubbles burst creating a chain reaction. If you burst enough bubbles with one "boom", you advance to the next level. Many websites offer this game. Make sure you have your speakers on when you play.

Fiddlesticks

On this first Monday of Daylight Savings Time, I am sitting at my desk watching the sun rise in a painted sky. Usually DST affects me, but I was able to get out of bed before the crack of dawn this morning. I love to "spring forward" because it means longer days are coming and that Spring is just around the corner. I look forward to the budding leaves, the tulips' pop of color, toad stools, and even the lion's roar of the tornado sirens. Mostly I love Spring because after it slides right into summer!



Phrasr
Phrasr is a Flickr application that pairs words with Flickr photos to create short slideshows. You choose the words, then Phrasr suggests photos for each word. Once you have selected the pictures you want, a slideshow is created. Each show is saved and can also be emailed. Imagery, idioms, rebus stories, oxymoron are just a few ways to incorporate this fun app in your classroom. Check out the one I made here.

Everyone's an Artist

So I suck at art. I always have. When I taught 5th grade, once a week I was supposed to teach art. Ha! Once a week, I taught crafts. There is hope for me though. I might not ever learn about the elements of design and lines, shading and hue, but at least the Internet provides me with a way to create something that is somewhat artistic. Today's site came to me by way of @AaronPotsick, an educator and tech lover, that I follow on Twitter.

SUMO Paint
SUMO Paint is a free online image editing software that is incredibly easy to use. The environment is similar to other image editors and allows for you to create, share, and comment on other's work. This is so cool that even I can make something eye-catching. Check this one out!

Express Yourself

As teachers we often look for ways to make an assignment more appealing to students. We try to get into their world so they will perform well for us. The Jeopardy Labs site I shared in my last post is one such example of making a lesson more appealing to students. A few days ago, I ran across a site that allowed students to create a short newspaper article that generates an authentic looking picture of the article. I thought that would be a way to entice students to complete the task of writing a paragraph or two, which would otherwise seem boring. On further investigation, I found a blog that highlight such sites; so many, in fact, that you could practically make every single lesson of the year more appealing!

The Generator Blog
The Generator Blog is a blog that highlights generator sites. The list is long and distracting! I could spend a few good days looking at all the generators listed. Everything from a dog tag generator to a site that allows you to generate a virtual spatula are listed here. A virtual spatula???? Anyway, I won't spend any time telling you how these generators could be used in your lessons. If you are a teacher, your head will be swimming with ideas once you start looking at the list. Have fun with this one, folks!

Our Love's in Jeopardy

Where were you when I needed you?
Well, you could not be found
What can I do?
Oh, I believed in you
You're running me around

Remember this old song by the Greg Kihn Band? It came out in 1983, the year I graduated from high school. If you only knew the drama surrounding my boyfriend and me then, you would understand what the lyrics of that song meant to me.
Or perhaps you prefer the Weird Al Yankovic parody

Be honest, how many of you sing that version in your head when you catch Jeopardy the game show on TV? Or are you like millions of others who get the famous

Doo doo doo do

Doo doo do,

Doo doo doo do

Do...doo doo doo doo do

stuck in your brain? Either way, most of us have watched the game show hosted by Alex Trebek at least once in our lives. Some of us think we could be the next Ken Jennings, and others of us have miserably failed.

Interestingly enough, the Jeopardy format continues to be popular in classrooms as a way to review material. Today's site has an easy template to create your own Jeopardy game.

Jeopardy Labs

Jeopardy Labs is a super-easy site to play or build an online jeopardy game. No registration is required to create a game that has a game board that looks very much like the TV show. Simply create a password to be able to edit your game at a later date, and fill in the board with categories, answers and questions. Once finished, a unique URL is created for your game. You can go back and edit by going to the edit-version URL and typing in the password. There are over 2000 games already created on the site, but because of the super-simple nature of building, why not just create your own? I created this game for a 6th grade Science teacher in my school. With the science textbook in front of me, it only took about 20 minutes. This will be great for him to use with his classes on the Activboard in his classroom.
My Jeopardy Template