I often have people ask me where I find my "stuff", and today I will share with you one of my favorite sites for learning about new resources and how other teachers are using them. The site is called "Free Technology for Teachers" and it is hosted by Richard Byrne. Richard always has amazing tidbits and resources to share. He includes links, instructional videos and honest appraisals of sites. As a special bonus to you, dear reader: Richard is going to be the Keynote Speaker at this year's TIC conference in Dubuque, Iowa. I can't wait!
On a quest to join a PLN via Twitter? Well it's your lucky day because here are 50 Hashtags for Connected Educators http://gettingsmart.com/2013/10/update/ via GettingSmart.com. Run by the National Archives, DocsTeach is full of activities for educators. The documents are organized by different periods in American history. There are hundreds of primary source documents as well as activities. Just click on the topic you are studying or researching. DocsTeach provides audio, video, charts, graphs, maps and more.
Besides the already created projects; you can create your own interactive history project. Simply select a template and insert primary source documents of your choice. You will need to sign up for a Free account to use this resource. With Editorially.com students can write a paper, revise as many times as needed, and share with peers for editing. This site makes collaborative writing a breeze. Another great perk is that it keeps track of your draft revisions and you can easily revisit a specific revision with the click of a button.
If you are looking for a collaboration tool that requires no time to set up, think Padlet! You don't even need an account to start a wall of your own to collect information, drag and drop images, insert links, etc. Settings allow the creator of the wall to set a password to keep the wall private.
http://padlet.com/features A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output often containing audio narration. Screencasting is a great way to capture brief demonstrations or tasks and have them available for students to view (via netbooks/tablets if you were doing station learning or providing differentiation for students needing more practice or are ready to move on). With your laptop, you have a built-in mic so adding narration is very simple. There are many more possibilities - students can create screencasts also. Learn more about using screencasting in your classroom and with your students: TechTools4Teaching: Screencasting 101
Screencast-O-Matic: http://screencast-o-matic.com/ *A favorite screencasting tool that is FREE and extremely easy to use! Screenr: http://www.screenr.com/ Consider creating a folder in your bookmarks for blogs to follow. Or tap into your techie side and utilize a social networking site you already use, such as Facebook, Pinterest, to follow blogs. Another option to organize your blogs in one place is Bloglovin. There are many benefits to reading blogs: stay current with trends, learn about new resources, creativity and innovation inspiration, get a new perspective...
iLearn Technology is a blog created Kelly Tenkely, a former teacher. Her blog's purpose is "to give teachers a resource where they could find easy-to-implement ideas for using technology in their own classrooms." Kelly firmly believes "that technology meets students' needs, engages them, and helps them to be the best learner they can be." Through the iLearn Technology blog, I pass on this resource: Mural.ly. Kelly has dubbed Mural.ly "Google Docs for Visual People." Click here to take a look at how Mural.ly works. Mural.ly allows students to drag and drop images, video, etc. from any website (or from their computer) onto their mural.The perk is this all happens with the ability to collaborate with others. As Kelly states, "Mural.ly makes it easy for students to collect, think, imagine, show and discuss learning." Check out her blog post about Mural.ly! QR codes (or quick response codes) are showing up with greater frequency in education. If you’d like to experiment with them, you’ll need a tool to create and manage the codes like Delivr or QRStuff and one to read codes, like QR Scanner or ScanLife on your smart phone or tablet.
Suggestions for using QR codes in classrooms: Ways to Use QR Codes for Educations (Grades 6-8) QR Codes in Education - Livebinder Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything: QR Codes the Classroom Infuse Learning (http://www.infuselearning.com/) is a fantastic (and free) student response system for formative assessments. It addition, it allows teachers to share digital content. Perk #1: It only takes a minute to create a teacher account. Perk #2: Students do not have to create accounts; they simply enter the teacher's assigned 5-digit room ID and their names to logon. Watch the 4-minute video below that demonstrates the capabilities of Infuse Learning. Not convinced? Read this review. |