Resources


 * We have used, shared and discussed lots of resources for the classroom and they all start running together after awhile. This space will be used to remind us of the name of the resources, what our thoughts are, and problems or aha's that we may have experienced!** Everyone join in! Add comments, thoughts, descriptions or whatever you would like! Don't forget to make the link from the page of the resource!

I used this with 2nd graders- they read their story into it and then I added it to their [|Smarty Pants blog]. (Rachal) || I tried to use Google Docs as a collaborative writing project among classes. They wrote a script for a Johnny Tremain project. It worked well, but there was too much to communication that needed to be done beyond the writing of the script that it was difficult to use it with two different classes. Next time I will keep the groups within the same class. (Beth) I recently used this to create graphs for our science experiments. It was our first time doing this, so it was a bit bumpy at the beginning, but then we had a great time. At one point during the process, I remarked, "This is fun, isn't it?" and the kids looked up at me and said, "Yeah!" The kids and I talked about all of the collaborative opportunities with this program, and we will definitely be using it again. (Angie) || (Rachal) || I used this as an organizational tool for a research project. Students added the steps and rubric to an anything flake, a bookmark flake, notecards for notes, mini-browser etc. (Rachal) This is my homepage option--has all my RSS feeds attached--so I feel up to date on numberous sites that I keep an eye on. (Deb) This year, our teachers created their own Pageflake accounts. By January, technology students in grades 5-8 had their own Pageflake accounts. They love them. So far, they have a school page and a home page. I believe that this tool has sparked their interest in technology. (Daisy) I had my students create pageflakes with certain types of flakes so they could have access to current information concerning genocide and anti-Semitism. It is a continue piece of their Holocaust Unit. They are required to access RSS feeds from the[|United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]. I also have a pageflake that I made into a pagecast. It is now public. You can find it under [|beth's classroom] when you go to the pageflakes site. I like it because I can keep all my feed on there as well as my favorite flakes. (Beth) || A free way to communicate with people globally. It allows links, text, photos, video, polls, and more. (Daisy) || I set up class blogs, a personal blog to document my online classes, and guided my students in setting up their own blogs. (Rachal) Our teachers have blogs linked to our school website. It is so much easier to edit because the teachers can do it rather than having to wait for our technology person to update the website. ||
 * = **Resource** ||= **Description** ||= **Problems or Aha's** ||
 * [|Gabcast] || Web 2.0 tool that allows you to record audio from a phone for podcasts or for a blog! || Very easy to use! I love that it has an 800 number. This allows all students to use the resource from a land line or cell phone!(Diane)
 * [|Gabcast] || Web 2.0 tool that allows you to record audio from a phone for podcasts or for a blog! || Very easy to use! I love that it has an 800 number. This allows all students to use the resource from a land line or cell phone!(Diane)
 * Google Docs || Free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allow you share and collaborate online. || I just started using some of these to keep notes when away from my own computer. It saves the information in a file on the web that I can access anywhere. Google notebook is the easiest way to just jot ideas. (deb)
 * [|Pageflakes] || A place to gather your Internet sites and blogs. Includes tools to make life easier.
 * [|blogs] || An online discussion and reflection tool.
 * [|Slide.com] ||  || I've used Slide.com to create fast and furious mini-research projects for various topics. I like it because it helps kids with visual literacy. I asked them to visually represent the theme of their novels and write captions to represent their slide shows. They then had to present them to the class. This also helps some of my students, whose strength is through visual interpretation, to shine.(Beth) ||
 * Survey Monkey || **SurveyMonkey** is a revolutionary tool to create and publish custom surveys in minutes, and then view results graphically and in real time. (Chris Toivonen) || Because of it's graphical nature, I would like to use Survey Monkey to input class data and then have students practice interpreting the meaning of the subsequent graph. Different types of graphs could be discussed and even modeling equations to graphs could be done here. (Chris Toivonen) ||
 * wikis ||  || I used pbwiki with my 3rd graders to create a "Family of Instruments" wiki. My kids loved this project, although I did not think pbwiki was incredibly user friendly to set up. It took me about an hour to really feel like I knew the ins and outs of navigating through this tool. (Jaime P.) ||
 * [|voicethread] ||  || I used this tool in an art quiz and art critique lesson. (Rachal) I love Voicethread. I think this will be one of the most powerful presentation tools for my students so far. I ran out of the demonstration time so I am asking the district to get it. (Beth) ||
 * flickr || **Flickr** is a photo-sharing community that enables users to upload hundreds of photos and tag each photo with descriptive words. Other users can then search for photos in the data base. (Chris Toivonen) || [|Library of Congress Flickr] site is great for Social Studies. (Rachal)

I really like using flickr to search for photos that I can use in my classroom for student understanding. It is amazing how many photos can be found in science. (Jamie T.) || (Chris Toivonen) ||  ||
 * flantr || **Flantr** is a great place to go to easily edit your photos with 100s of frames and photo accents. || I like this because it gives pictures a whole new look if you get tired of one photo edititing program. There are lots of options! ||
 * tumblr ||  || I set up my own personal blog here as well. Short and Sweet. (Rachal) I'm using Tumblr as a characterization tool for my seventh graders. They created a character and dressed up a lemon. They then had to describe its behavior, speech, looks etc. and put it in as few words as possible to put on tumblr. They referred to it while they were writing their stories. I love the idea of using powerful words and tight sentences to limit the number of words in the description but make the meaning that much more powerful. Tumblr is a great venue for it. (Beth) ||
 * igoogle || **igoogle** is a way to personalize a google home page. It is much like Pageflakes with tabs, themes and gadgets. || I had my students set up an igoogle page to organize their reserach report. It helped the students keep all their information in one place and the starting place for all their research. ||
 * creative commons || **Creative Commons** licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators.
 * Wikipedia ||  || This is a great starting point for students at any level who are working on reports. It also gives you many dependable links, and saves sometime you would have spent Googling. (Lorraine) Oh my gosh! I use it all the time. What would I do without it? (Beth) ||
 * Bubblr ||  ||   ||
 * YouTube ||  || It is such a vast resource of film clips that we wouldn't have had access to years ago. We have used clips on Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith when we read stories about the history of jazz in our third grade reading class. We also saw and listened to the sounds of the digeridoo, when we studied Australia. (Lorraine)

YouTube is great to view chemistry experiments. In my classroom, I do not have a lab. Because of this, experiments with potentially hazrdous chemicals are masde virtually impossible. However, via YouTube, learners are able to see some of these reactions without the danger. You Tube and The Smartboard can go great together. (Chris Toivonen)

I love using very short clips from youtube in my science classroom. I recently did a unit on protozoa and love to have students study pond water so that they can see the various types of protists. THis year I was able to use short clips off of youtube from actual pond water studies going on. Students had a much easier time finding the organisms. You can find almost anything on youtube that you need. (Jamie T) ||
 * [|Voki] || Create your own avatar for your blog, moodle or wiki! || I thought this was a great resource. However, I found the 30 second limitation on length to be a problem for my high school kids. They wanted unlimited length!

The students really like the Voki on our class blog. It is a good way to welcome users or give a short message. (Lorraine) I used Voki along with Slide.com but the amount of time you can talk is so limited that I don't use it as often. || Bloglines has been an invaluable tool for me in keeping up with current science information from around the world. (Jamie T.) || I videotaped (with the Flip) my 2nd graders performing a play out of their reading book and I was just about to upload onto teachertube- and remembered I did not have permission slips- so, unfortunately, you won't be able to watch it. (Rachal) ||
 * [|Bloglines] || A place to have all your RSS feeds sent to. Easy to use keep up with the latest internet buzz that interests you. (Jaime P.) || I love using Bloglines for my various RSS feeds. I find Bloglines to be a valuable tool to help me keep up with what is happening in the world of Young Adult Literature. (Jaime P.)
 * http://answers.yahoo.com/ || This is a great resource for anyone who needs some information on any topic. (Lorraine) || Who's using this resource kids, students, teachers, professionals, virtually people from all walks of life an from all over the world. If you answer other people's questions, you can ask questions. It is an everchanging environment to get input from others. You can ask and answer questions ranging from bizarre to intelligent. Topics are anything from decorating, philosophy, travel, advice, homework, to education. Amazingly whatever you ask, someone is out there ready to answer within usually less than a minute. (Lorraine) ||
 * [|Teachertube] || content appropriate video for the classroom || I love the instructional videos that I have been able to find on this site. I also like that there is not the inappropriate content that exists on youtube! (Diane)
 * RSS Feeds || RSS is an XML-based vocabulary that specifies a means of describing news or other Web content that is available for "feeding" (distribution or syndication) from an online publisher to Web users. RSS is an abbreviation for describing one of three different standards. || A great use for RSS is to recieve updated information such as weather or news without clogging up your e-mail account. RSS is an ideal platform to use when incorporating lessons that need current data. Because of its propensity to provide great descriptions, RSS allows busy educators to make a choice concerning the validity of a story before actually reading the material. (Posted by Diane for Christ T.) (Thanks Diane from Chris) ||
 * [|Sketchcast]

[|Trailfire] || screencasting site.

Set up your own Webtour || I made my first screencast reviewing the characters of a story. This tool is so cool!! I want some more suggestions of ideas on how to use it. (Rachal) Using trailfire, you can mark a trail of websites for different purposes. You can mark of trail of sites for your students to use on a research project. (Rachal) ||
 * [|zamzar] || free online file conversion || I love using [|www.zamzar.com] for my file conversions. I was having huge problems converting youtube files into a form I could use and save on my computer. When Di introduced us to zamzar I can now take the youtube files, convert the files into an avi format, then save them on my computer for later use. I then do not need an Internet connection later on to show the files. (Jamie T.) ||