Sunday, February 5, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
More Skype in the Classroom "How to"
If you are considering trying some Skype in your Classroom, there are classrooms all around the country and world waiting to talk and collaborate on projects with you. But how do you even start? This is a quick post that may help give you some ideas and even a little step by step guide on how to get everything going. I really believe the next revolution in education is taking education of our students and moving it out to the community, around our country, and across the world. Their are experiences all over the place outside our school that Skype can reach. Would be neat to start reaching these.
Another Quick and Easy Screen Recording Site
PasteVid is another pretty good Screen Capture and recording site. I like sites like this because you can record what you are doing on your screen and then let others see it by posting it to Youtube, sending a link, or just sending an email of your video to that person. I usually use these sites to send a video to a large group of people. Showing someone how to use a certain internet site, how to navigate our district homepage, etc. Most of these sites, including this one, turn your video into a weblink that you can easily send to whoever. And the best part? It is FREE! Give this site a try.
Fact Sheets on Endangered Animals
For any science teachers who have students do projects on animals, especially endangered animals, this site is for you: KidsPlanet! This site has a link that contains great fact sheets for 50 endangered animals around the world. Might be a place to start the "animal picking" process by students or a link to give to students for research. Either way, pretty good site!
SmarTots: Education App Reviews for Kids
Just a quick post for any preschool and lower elementary teachers who read this blog and may use IPods or IPads in their Centers or teaching. This site has teachers who submit reviews on educational apps for tablet and IPod devices. Might be something you check out before you invest in any educational apps for these devices that you might use in class.
Have Your Students Publish Book Reviews at Scholastic.com
Another quick way for students to put the work they do in your class online and get feedback. Scholastic has a quick and easy way for kids to publish their work online. Whether it be a class assignment or just encouraging students who like to read to write their thoughts and feelings online and help others get more interested in books. And maybe, just maybe, even get some feedback from others around the country and world. Many students in our school are already writing book reports, this might be a way to do something different and let them get some public feedback while helping others learn more about the book they just read. Consider giving this idea a try!
Pinterest: All the Rage and Good for Educators Too?
I must admit, I have not joined Pinterest and have not yet figured out why everyone loves it, but I started to become interested last week when a school counseling blog I follow started hyping it as a place where she can post her counseling ideas visually and link other information to these pictures. Then I realized the power of Pinterest and how it really could be a good social network for educators. No friending, no 3rd party apps, no games....just posting images and information and following the educators who have great ideas. Sort of a visual twitter. If you need more reason to start thinking about Pinterest as a site for educators, take a look at Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teacher blogpost this week about it. Great post and I love the comments even more. Check the comments for a few Pinterest boards to get you started!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)