Buzz Years - Websites, Gradebooks, and More for Schools

Buzz Years is a new set of digital services for schools that I learned about this week. Buzz Years offers tools for creating class websites, lesson planning, record keeping, and communicating with parents. When teachers create accounts on Buzz Years they can create and use one or all of the services available. From your profile page you can branch out to develop your class website, use your digital storage locker, use the gradebook, or post messages to the members of your community.

Applications for Education
I'm not exactly sure how Buzz Years plans to support itself as I didn't see any advertising or subscription options on the site. If it can support itself, Buzz Years could be a great service to build your online hub of educational activities for you and your students.

A Fun Calendar App for Your Blog

This is more of a "fun" post than a serious ed tech post, but I know some readers will like it. Yesterday, I noticed a neat calendar app on Steven Anderson's blog. The app is called the Human Calendar. The Human Calendar is a widget that you can place in your blog or website to display the date using images of people holding up signs displaying the day of the week, the month, and the year.

Installing the Human Calendar is a simple matter of copying the embed code provided and placing it where you want in your blog or website. You can also add the Human Calendar to your Google Homepage. Check it out below.

Applications for Education

There are not many (any?) specific uses for the Human Calendar in education other than providing a neat way to display the date to visitors to your course blog or website.

Posterous - A Simple Way for Students to Blog

When Posterous launched I didn't give it much attention. I just took another look at it and think that it could be a good, easy way for students to blog. To get started using Posterous all you have to do is send an email to post@posterous.com and your Posterous blog is started. After you send your first email, Posterous will email you back with the url for your new Posterous blog. If you don't like the url you're given, you can change it by creating a Posterous account. For example the url I was initially assigned was richard?45398.posterours.com, I changed it to richardbyrne.posterous.com.

Posting to your Posterous blog can be done through email by email post@posterous.com, through the Posterous bookmarklet, or through a direct post using your Posterous account.

Applications for Education
Posterous locks you into one template and one format, but the simplicity and ease of posting makes it an interesting option for student blogging. The Posterous bookmarklet tool could be handy for having students blog about current events stories. To do this have students find and read an article online, click the Posterous bookmarklet, when the dialogue box opens they can then write a response to the article and post it directly to their Posterous blogs.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How-to Week, Day 2 - Setting Up a Blog
Grading Student Blogging
8 Ways to Build Websites (Not Blogs) for Free

Free Summer Bowling for Kids

Here's something to pass along to students and parents who are looking for something to do when school ends this spring, free bowling. Kids Bowl Free is a program being run in bowling alleys across the United States. Use the map on the Kids Bowl Free homepage to find a participating bowling alley near you.

Thanks to Fred Delventhal's blog for the link.

Applications for Education
Kids Bowl Free is the type of non-academic information that I like to pass along to parents at parent-teacher conferences. It's also worth linking to your class blog or class website.

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Create a Homepage With Scholastic Homepage Builder

Every time that I explore the Scholastic website I find something that I hadn't noticed on my previous visit. On my most recent visit to the Scholastic website I discovered that they offer a free website builder for teachers. The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder has a simple and intuitive user interface with very clear step-by-step set up directions. While you can embed videos and some other media, the Class Homepage Builder is really designed for teachers making their first attempts at creating an online resource for their classrooms. The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder allows teachers to include Scholastic News headlines, assignments, post announcements, and pre-made online activities for students.

Applications for Education
The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder provides teachers who have never made a blog or website with an easy-to-use tool to get started creating an online presence for students and parents to visit. The themes, layouts, and pre-made activities that can be included in the homepage are designed for students in grades K-8.

Here are some other free resources for creating a class homepage:
Free Webs
Sauropol
Synthasite
On Sugar