ShowMe and Educreations: IPad Lesson Creation Tools

I have been using Educreations just for fun for some time now and I know of a few schools and educators who use Educreations for their students and parents. I just learned about ShowMe as an alternative to Educreations. I think both are pretty cool sites with tons of use and possibilities for educators. If you have an IPad (you don't necessarily need one), you can create quick visual lessons and post them to the site, email them, or provide a link for others to click on and then they can view your lessons. So, you could show how to do a few different math problems and explain it out loud while you draw on the "board" and record the whole process. Then, students and families could view your lesson over and over at home, especially while they are doing their nightly homework. So, the lessons you do during the day can now be viewed at home. And students would not need an IPad to view, just access to the Internet. Selfishly, I also love having my own kids draw and talk while they draw and then email them to other family members. But you could have your own students do problems or homework as a "lesson" and you could hear what they are thinking. They could even record their own lessons for other students and become the teacher. Lots of uses. And lots of fun!

ShowMe website click here!

Educreations site click here!

ShowMe Story Video:

First Day of School Ideas!!!

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day, I can again post some great "First Day of School" resources with many ideas coming from teachers commenting on the posts. I read several of these last year before the first day of school and had some great ideas. I plan to read them again and try some new things as well. I hope you find some things that are helpful to you and share with your colleagues. Happy First Day of School!!

First Day of School Blogpost with several resources and ideas