Great links and resources for teachers

If you want to understand creativity, inspire it in your classroom and increase your own, I highly recommend Ken Robinson's "Out of Our Minds, Learning to Be Creative".  It explains, in a clear way why it is essential to be creative, and what you can do to increase your inclination to be open-minded. He writes with wit, and challenges the complacency that dominates the American Educational system.

The author is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies.  If you, or your classroom needs a jumpstart- read it!

• Strong Arts Strong Schools, by Charles Fowler- excellent fact-based documentation of art and its positive influence in schools
• Of Paint and Poetry: Strengthening Literacy Through Art by Judith Jester, National Writing Project.  After freeing herself of a bias toward print-only learning in English class, Jester found that correlating skills between visual and language arts helped her students generate lively writing and discussion.
• What is Creativity and How Should it Be Taught? Ronald Beghetto’s Educational Leadership article describing ways creativity can be taught
• Activities for Creating Pictures and Poetry by Janis Bunchman and Stephanie Bissell Briggs.  Authors correlated the lives and works of visual artists and poets
• The Potential of Picturebooks by Barbara Z Kiefer, explores the structure, art and layout of picture books and the many applications they have in the classroom
• Dynamic Art Projects for Children by Denise M. Logan, user friendly step-by-step directions for elementary art projects. Many basic materials are used.
• Color and Light by James Gourney, professional art text demonstrating the concept and application of light in art
• Talking, Drawing, Writing, Lessons for Our Youngest Writers by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Giacobbe, integration of storytelling, writing and drawing, all of which inform and support each other.  Detailed lessons-appropriate for elementary teachers- very inspiring!

Here are some links to great museums in the NY area:

• New York Public Library
• Guggenheim Museum
• Museum of Modern Art
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Metropolitan Museum
• Brooklyn Museum of Art
• Museum of the City of New York
• International Center of Photography
• Hope you enjoy- if you'd like to see some of my art you may find it at www.denisemariecassano.com.

Kahoot.it online quizzes, polling, kids can ask each other questions, web based.
Can upload pictures and kids can respond.

Nearpod  interactive mobile presentations that teachers create and customize themselves.

Socrative  is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

Show Me share tutorials and lessons on a white board screen
Explain Everything draw, annotate, record, play, and share presentations
Educreations create and share video presentations with your iPad or browser
Knowmia video presentations and interactive assignments that impact students both in and out of the classroom.
Movenote  make and send online video presentations

Sumopaint very cool graphic app- seems easy to use when you need graphics in a pinch
Lucidchart collaborative diagrams, flow charts, layouts, etc.
Stupeflix make movies using your photos and videos. Tell your story with text, maps.

Tellagami: Tellagami is best used to create animated movies which include user's voice. Looks great for ELLs.  Users can create characters and a scene, add dialogue, save or share.

Pixlr  web based photo editing tool, variety of versions available
Scratch create stories, games, and animations to share

Haiku Deck  simple, fun presentations

Adobe Voice  storytelling that is fun and easy

Story Creator create beautiful storybooks- easy for primary grades

Stop Motion This looks like fun! Paint tools, themes, music, photos- you'll be busy for hours.

Citelighter research, organize, highlight, and save. Organize writing assignments, make templates,  allows for teacher feedback in progress, works with Google Docs

Flowboard: This one is attractive- it' can be made on a Mac or iPad and watched on any device.  Flowboard is presentation software used to make a creative and interactive presentation. Users can use images, videos and text all together to make a presentation. Currently it is $9.99- some of its features include: presentation templates, interactive presentations, image and galleries, streaming video and embedded, PDF documents, social & sharing, imbedding in websites, and posting to Youtube.

Baiboard: Baiboard is a service that allows real-time interaction among users with its feature-rich tools. Users can visualize, collaborate and share multi-page whiteboards. For the classroom teacher this can have many uses, as well as having students make their own presentations based on their research.  Baiboard is also available on Mac, iPad and Android.

Dragon Dictation looks good for ELL, it transcribes what you say- annunciation is the key!

Notability sketch ideas, annotate documents, sign contracts, complete worksheets, keep a journal, record a lecture, jot travel notes, or teach a class

• Education Closet, lessons and inspiration regarding integrating the Arts into your curriculum
• Edutopia.org, all things cutting edge educational, with an arts angle
• NAEA National Art Education Association
• Deductive and Inductive Arguments: What’s the Difference?-Something all teachers should know-  Interesting article on deductive and inductive reasoning from psychologywriting.com

• Murals by Garin Baker
• Jon deMartin Fine Artist
• James Gurney Fine artist
• The Web Gallery of Art  is a virtual museum and searchable database of European fine art,  with a searchable web gallery of art
• Shuan Tan, illustrator
• Scott Waddell, portrait artist I have studied under