Online Art Activities at the National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art has created seven interactive art activities for students in elementary school through high school. Using these activities students can explore elements of digital photograph editing, elements of color, and experiment with different styles of painting. Three of the featured activities are Brushster, Dutch Doll House, and Collage Machines. In Brushster, students mix and match colors to create abstract art. The Dutch Doll House is an interactive exhibit in which students explore the 17th century home and studio of a Dutch artist. The Collage Machines, of which there are two, give students a platform for creating collages of art samples.

The National Gallery of Art's website has other resources that art teachers and students may want to explore. The National Gallery of Art's videos and podcasts take viewers and listeners behind the scenes of the gallery's exhibits. The videos and podcasts also give access to lectures and talks with scholars and artists. The National Gallery of Art has dozens of online tours of the gallery's collections. Each tour includes the images accompanied by descriptions of the works and brief biographical information about the artists.

Applications for Education
The National Gallery of Art's online galleries could be useful for anyone teaching or studying art history. The interactive activities could be a fun way to introduce reluctant students to an art class or a topic in an art class.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Blogs for Art Teachers
The Forward Thinking Museum - Virtual Museum
7 Resources for Creating Cartoons and Comics

iGive - Fundraising Through Shopping

Fundraising activities for PTAs, sports teams, and extracurricular clubs come in many forms. One of the most common fundraising activities in my area is selling things like gift wrap, snacks, and various trinketts. Unfortunately, if your school has a lot of clubs trying to raise money, the market for gift wrap gets saturated quickly. Fundraising through iGive is different, you're not required to sell anything that your local community wouldn't normally purchase.

To raise money through iGive register your non-profit group. Then tell people to do their online shopping through iGive. A percentage of everything your referrals purchase through iGive is given to your organization. There are more than 700 online merchants in the iGive network. The list of merchants includes well-known retailers like Cabela's, Gap, and Barnes & Noble.

Applications for Education
iGive could be a good fundraising source for your PTA or extracurricular club. Fundraising through iGive explands your market because you can reach friends and relatives around the world without having to sell or ship products yourself.

Make the Most of Your Netbook's Screen

As I've shared a few times, I'm very pleased with the netbook that I purchased last month. That said, there have been a few times while browsing the web that I wish my display was just a little bit bigger. Today, on Tekzilla they shared a tip for maximizing your viewing area in Firefox using an add-on. Check it out in the short video embedded below.


Applications for Education
If your school is considering getting netbooks for student use or it already has netbooks, display size is important for some applications. This Firefox add-on could expand your viewing area just enough to make a difference.

Here are some related links that may be of interest to you:
Netbook vs. Cheap Notebook Decision
10 Things Teachers Should Know Before 1:1
Acer Netbook After Two Weeks

Math eBook - Math Lessons for K-12

Math eBook is an excellent collection of mathematics tutorials and worksheets. There are tutorials available in print and video form for all grade levels. The worksheets are available as PDF downloads or your students can use the worksheets in their online interactive form. To use a worksheet online, simply click the "virtual" link next to the tutorial. To use the PDF of a worksheet click on the "eWorkbook" link next to your desired tutorial. In addition to the video tutorials and worksheets, Math eBook offers a mathematics dictionary for student use.

Applications for Education
Math eBook could be a good general mathematics resource for teachers, students, and parents. The worksheets in PDF can be edited and used for classroom practice or homework assignments. In the virtual form, the worksheets could be a good review tool for students preparing for a quiz or test.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Interactivate - Interactive Math Assessments
200+ Free Mathematics Books
Math Links You Might Have Missed

Video Timeline of Apollo 11 Moon Landing

I posted this link last night in the Friend Feed room for Free Technology for Teachers, but I don't think it got as much attention as it should have so I'm posting it here too. Mashable put together a list of eleven videos documenting the Apollo 11 mission. I encourage you to visit Mashable to see all of the videos, but I have embedded the "keynote" video below.


Applications for Education
This video timeline is a great example of how videos can tell story to your students. The video timeline also gave me another idea for a student project. Students in a history class could use a video creation service like Remix America or Animoto to create a series of videos about an event. The students could then arrange those videos to tell a story on a timeline.