Larry Ferlazzo's Best of 2012 Blog Post Has Arrived!

Many educators and online blog readers anxiously await Larry's Best of 2012 blog post at the end of the year so they can bookmark it and take advantage of the many resources he has posted in one place. Well, the blog post is out and I have linked it to this blog post. I would suggest clicking on it and bookmarking it on your computer as you will find yourself looking at it throughout 2013 even as Larry starts his 2013 lists. Thank you Larry for this great list of resources, I know it helps many!

Best of 2012 resource list from Larry Ferlazzo click here!

Got an IPad? Have IPads in the Classroom? You Need This Resource!

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog Websites of the Day, this blog post may be short but it is FULL of IPad apps that you may want on your personal IPad or your student/class IPads. Each link has tons of good apps, many of which I either have on my IPad or have tried on student IPads. If you have a moment and are wondering what apps would be good for you or your classroom, this is the place to start!

IPad resources click here!

Two Great "Best Of" Lists from Larry Ferlazzo

  I have shared one of these lists before, but it is always good this time of the year. The 2nd list is a new list based on our current on-going drought, something that is talked about daily here in Iowa. If you are looking for a current event that will get the kids talking, learning, and sharing outside of our school, the drought might be a good topic to start the year with. As for the other list, the Best Resources for Planning The First Day of School, I get something new from that list almost every year. The one caution I would suggest is to talk with your team about the idea you might use so that you are not all using the same idea. And they don't all have to occur on the first day I have learned as well. Lots of great ideas to try at some point. Enjoy the lists and thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day blog

Best Resources to learn about our current Drought

Best resources to plan for the first day of school

If you are an Educator, You NEED to be on Twitter!

I know, I know....Twitter is for kids and people with way more time than a teacher. I thought the same thing once. But wait, can Twitter be more? It definitely can! I am starting to believe my brother and many other teachers and administrators that have been telling me Twitter is the best "professional" social networks out there. They say this because they now get all sorts of great information, articles, and information sent their way through Twitter. And they do this by "following" "hashtags". But until now, I have always wondered how to find all of these hashtags and know which ones are good ones to follow. Well, here is my answer.....the A-Z dictionary of educational hashtags! So, sign up for Twitter and start following a few of these hashtags and start harnessing the power of Twitter!!

A-Z Dictionary of Educational Hashtags click here!!

Why Should Educators at Least Try Web 2.0? Here You Go....

Pretty short and simple powerpoint presentation from Sacha Chua made 2 years ago, but very good and powerful. Makes a great point towards the end and seems to be geared for the educators who just aren't sure if they should try Web 2.0 tools like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Learning Communities, Skype, email, chat, etc. Or maybe they are not sure if these things are just fads or would even help. I think taking a minute or two to view these slides that I have embedded below might make us all rethink our stance on Web 2.0 and see some value in it. Thanks to Sacha Chua for the presentation!

link for presentation click here!

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

View more presentations from Sacha Chua

As 9-11 Anniversary Approaches, Here are Some Teaching Resources

Again, credit and thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day for grouping several great teaching resources about 9-11 in one blogpost. If you are going to teach or reference anything about 9-11 to students in the coming weeks, this might be a great place to review and research or even use in class. I still highly recommend the archived videos as they are a very powerful reminder of how everything unfolded that terrible day. For our middle school students, we have to remember that they were not even in school yet and likely have no memory of the event except what has been told to them. To their minds, it truly is a history topic. Some of the resources in this blogpost by Larry might help 9-11 come to life for them and show them that although it is history, so much of what life is like today can be traced back to that day. Hope some of these ideas and resources help.

Larry Ferlazzo's 9-11 resources click here!

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

Google Resources and Student Resources

Again, thanks to Dave at The Educational Technology Guy blog for these resources. I'm a big fan of Google and the resources they provide all of us. The scary thing is they provide way more than we likely even have time to test and research. Dave has created a list of 10 key Google resources that education can benefit from. We are familiar with Google docs and I plan to convert all of my documents to google docs this summer, but there are plenty of other things Google can do for you in this list. I highly recommend the Google Reader (this is where I get all of my blogs to read, including this one. You could also use Google Reader to get this blog sent directly to you!). I also recommend Google Chrome as your browser. If you are using Internet Explorer, our default, give Chrome a try. It is quicker and has more capabilities. Give the list a read and try some out....

Top 10 Google Resources

And if you liked that list, here is another from Dave's blog. This one is for students and resources they can use to help the learning process. Google is mentioned again, but I like "teachers" being listed as #10. The Dweeber site is an interesting concept and I plan to look at the digital literacy sites more later this weekend. Give this list a look-see too and see if you can use it with students at all.

Top 10 Resources for Students