Random Group Generator Update

This morning I was able to finish an update for the Random Group Generator. Now you can choose to divide the groups based on the number of groups you want or the maximum size of each group.

First select the mode, then enter the size larger than 1. If you selected max group size then you have the choice between two modes: maximum group size and balanced group size.

The maximum mode makes sure that every group is filed to capacity before filling the next group.  For example if you have 16 students and wanted a maximum of 6 students per group. There would be 2 groups of 6 and 1 groups of 4.

The balanced mode makes sure that the group size fairly equal in size. For example if you have 16 students and wanted a maximum of 6 students per group. There would be 1 group of 6 and 2 groups of 5.

Color wheel in the classroom.

In science class we are studying about light and color. The video clips below demonstrate a simple way for students to experiment with different ways to create color and how they mix together. The first demonstration used Inkscape (www.inkscape.org) and allows the student to mix the colors to create new colors whereas the second video uses Gimp (www.gimp.org) and has the computer mix the colors for you using layer modes of addition and subtraction.

Inkscape Color Wheel:

If students have been introduced to Inkscape and follow the process shown in the video it should take about 10 minutes to finish.

Here is a basic outline of the steps.

1. Create a circle.
2. Change the color to red.
3. Select the circle and duplicate it (ctl-d), then move it to the right so that the two circles overlap.
4. Change the color of the new circle to green.
5. Select the new circle and duplicate it (ctl-d), then move it down so that all three circles overlap.
6. Chance the color of the new circle to blue.
   
   Now you should have the three primary colors red, green, and blue.
   
7. Select all (ctl-a) of the circles and duplicate (ctrl-d) them twice.
8. Select to of the circle the red and green circles, by clicking the first circle red circle and pressing shift to select the green circle, with both circles selected select intersection from the paths menu. Now you should have a new shape similar to that of a football. If you can't see it raise it to the top. 
9. Next change the color mixture to have all red and all green.
10. Repeat the process for both of the other overlaps. 
11. Lower the circles you create to the back if necessary.
12. Now select the three football like shapes in the center and duplicate them. 
13. With the shapes still selected again select intersection from the paths menu. 
14. Now change the color to have red, green, and blue values set to full on.

Now you have a color wheel.

I thought that this exercise was pretty cool but the computer can also do it by itself. Check out the activity using Gimp shown below.

Gimp Color Wheel:

You should be able to duplicate the Inkscape activity using other vector drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator.

You should be able to duplicate the Gimp activity using Adobe Photoshop or any other program that has layers with modes of addition and subtraction.

Note that both Inkscape and Gimp are available for Windows, Mac, & Linux platforms.

Free OpenBiblio Setup

At ASchool.us we are doing an experiment to see how much interest there is in the OpenBiblio library software. Sign up now for your free account. We will start by providing accounts to the first 10 people that Sign up. All others will be setup as resources become available.

Example book entry

Your library patrons will be shown Infolinks, Google, and Amazon ads to help fund this experiment if you would like to guarantee the success of this project please consider making a donation.

Our goal for this project is to provide a web based library solution for small schools based on open source software. This will allow us and you to be able to keep expenses down by using open source software. If this project succeeds we will contribute back into the OpenBiblio project both by contributing code and money to further its development. The ads can be removed for a monthly fee to cover the hosting of your content.

Example search results

Why should you use this?
One of the advantages of Open Source software is that it provides users with the opportunity to enhance, control, and maintain the software. We will provide you with access to the data you enter into your library. This allows you to backup and/or transfer your library to a different system, if you find that this solution does not meet your needs or you would like to move to a different service provide the option is available.

What are the advantage of setting it up with ASchool.us? 
With the default installation of OpenBiblio you have to manually enter all of your circulation information. Our install provides a working Library of Congress lookup and extra reports. Both of which are available from the OpenBiblio website but we have them installed for you already.

Words Your Way Spelling Inventory

I've been working on a spelling learning/practice/testing application over at beta.aschool.us and have just implemented a spelling inventory that I found in the book Words Your Way by Donald R. Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, Francine Johnston, Published by Pearson.

It's setup pretty simple you simply share the links below with your students and when they press enter the results get sent to you via email. One of the benefits of this system over others is that students can not copy and paste the answers from another source. Also you see what each student types in, this includes any corrections that they have made.

You can share the link two different ways. The first format is easier to read but the second integrates better with websites like Moodle. Use the second format if you need a redirect because you can only use the get format such as http://address.com/?variable=value&v2=value2.

Make sure to change username.at.domain to your username and domain. Leave the .at. since the @ symbol will cause an error.

Copy the links below and paste them to where

Add aschool at woehler. dot us to your address book or spam exceptions list.

Option 1:
Primary Inventory:
http://beta.aschool.us/apps/index.php/spelling/start/603/t/Username.at.DomainName/studentname

Elementary Inventory:
http://beta.aschool.us/apps/index.php/spelling/start/605/t/Username.at.DomainName/studentname

Intermediate Inventory:
http://beta.aschool.us/apps/index.php/spelling/start/607/t/Username.at.DomainName/studentname

Upper Level Inventory:
http://beta.aschool.us/apps/index.php/spelling/start/609/t/Username.at.DomainName/studentname

Option 2:
This option should work well if you have a website like Moodle where you can customize links based on the user.
Primary Inventory:
http://beta.aschool.us/apps/redirect?tid=603&mode=t&mailto=username.at.DomainName&un=username&id=number

Elementary Inventory:

http://beta.aschool.us/apps/redirect?tid=605&mode=t&mailto=username.at.DomainName&un=username&id=number

Intermediate Inventory:

http://beta.aschool.us/apps/redirect?tid=607&mode=t&mailto=username.at.DomainName&un=username&id=number

Upper Level Inventory:

http://beta.aschool.us/apps/redirect?tid=609&mode=t&mailto=username.at.DomainName&un=username&id=number

To interpret the result of the inventory you will need the book Words Your Way by Donald R. Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, Francine Johnston, Published by Pearson. 

I hope that this provides a convenient way to administer the test to your students.

Let me know in the comments below if you have any problems. Remember this is currently a beta website and may change in the future. If you have found this useful please consider making a donation.

Below is a short video clip demonstrating the practice mode. The testing mode is very similar except that the saved indicator is blue instead of green or red. This way the student knows that their work is saved but not whether it is right or wrong. The example shown below is integrated with a Moodle installation.

Yet another potentially useful website

www.ixl.com
This looks like a great website to help access students math levels and help with remediation.

Great website.

I was looking for handwriting paper this evening and stumbled upon this great website. It even has some free fonts and many different creative handwriting templates.
http://donnayoung.org/penmanship
http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/make-handwriting-lessons.htm

Periodic Chart Elements Questions for Moodle

I just posted a set of quiz questions for Moodle at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Periodic-Chart-Symbols-MoodleXML. Each questions asks for the symbol for the given element of the periodic table. The questions are grouped by row of the periodic table.

Updated: 11/7/2010
I've added atomic number, groups, and periods to the questions now. Now most of the elements have 6 questions asking about their atomic number, name from symbol, etc... the updated download can be found here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Periodic-Chart-Symbols-Atomic-Numbers-Groups-and-Period-MoodleXML