YouTube

YouTube-Google Docs in Plain English




This is a great video showing reasons why you should use Google Docs. The other TTL at my school shared this with me and I used it when I presented an after school tech session on using Google Docs. I also have it posted on my teacher website now.
There are quite a few other videos (some made by students) on reasons we as teachers should use technology in the classroom.

PhotoStory 3

I created a Photostory 3 movie using pictures that my students had created in their art class.  The art teacher had them posted on her teacher website, so I saved them to my flash drive and created a Photostory I could share with them.

Photostory is a great way to share student work on a website, or even just in the classroom.  All of  my students love to see themselves and their work up on the screen.  I need to do more of these and share them!

Voki

*Ations by Shel Silverstein

I have really enjoyed creating different Vokis.  I have made a few of them that all look as close to myself as possible, but I think it would be fun to create one using some of the other character options that are there.
I currently have one on my teacher website that introduces myself and welcomes the students and their families to a new school year.
The one above I created tonight and had it read a poem by Shel Silverstein, one of my favorite authors.

The possibilities for using this site with students are endless.  I like the idea of having students create them to present projects or talk about what they have been learning.  You could have the Voki do the presentation instead of a real, live person.  This would also be a great "getting to know you" tool to use within the first couple of weeks of school.  You could create an assignment for your students that have them answering questions you have provided using the Voki, then either present them to the class, or send them to you, the teacher, so you can get to know them better.

Images with Tagxedo

                                

The two images above were created using Tagxedo. 
The one on top was created by first uploading a jpeg (picture file) of the Olympic rings.  Then I copied and pasted a lot of the text from the state and national Special Olympics website.  The words that are bigger are words that were repeated several times.  
The one on the bottom was created by first uploading a jpeg of the District 5 logo, then copying and pasting the text from my school's PBIS website along with some text from the national PBIS website.  Since Irmo Middle's motto for PBIS is I-Integrity, R-Respect, M-Motivation and O-Ownership, I typed those words in several times, along with Irmo, in order to make them bigger. 


I have used both of these tagxedo's on my teacher website.  They are eye catching, so they cause the person who is viewing the pages to stop and read what I have written instead of just skipping over it.   Students could use them in presentations and projects to highlight the vocabulary they are learning or the main points/characters in a story. 

Google Maps

View Larger Map

This is my google map of the State House.  So many of my students have trouble with distances and knowing how far something is from where they are.  But most of the are familiar with the State House downtown.  I could use this to talk about not only our state government for social studies, but also distances and how things are placed in relation to others for math, and have the students read and write about the state house for language arts.  By adding in the Google Earth portion of Google maps, we could take a virtual field trip there as well.

Collaboration Tools

I am not a "twitter-er" but I can see how it could be useful for teachers and other professionals to share information and ideas. I am constantly looking for more websites and resources to use with my students and to use with the other teachers in my school regarding technology. I would love to know the site that the person who Karen follows was talking about in the tweet about new websites for education. Do any of y'all have any good sites you would like to share?

I like CoverItNow but I would have a hard time using that in my classroom, esp. with the level of the students that I teach. I can see how it could be used in the classroom with students,esp. if they are in a lab setting with computers right in front of them. BUT, you would need to have a rubric and make sure that there are ground rules to the postings.

I am excited about going out and finding some of the Nings that we were shown tonight, esp. on the interactive ones, like the Smartboard Revolution and the Interactive Whiteboard Revolution. Those will be great to use for new ideas and new ways to use the Smartboard in my classroom.

Forms in the Classroom

One of the links on the wiki was a technology site called 70+ Google forms for the Classroom.  One of my favorite ideas on the site was a getting to know you exercise.  The teacher posted a form with various questions in order to get to know his students better (see his form). I always try to do some game on the first few days of school to have the students get to know each other and for me to get to know them. You could even use the responses to certain questions to create collaborative groups in your class (Everyone who put English as their favorite subject will be team 1).


We also use forms a lot through school.  This year our data team minutes are being submitted through a form.  This makes it a lot easier for people to submit and for my principal/assistant principal to read. All the minutes for every group will be located in the same place.


How would you use a form in your classroom/job?

Diigo

My favorite thing I have learned about so far in the Web 2.0 class is Diigo.  I have used bookmarking pages before (mostly Delicious) but wasn't impressed with the format.  Diigo is much simpler to use, work with and share. I have already downloaded the tool bar onto my laptop and desktop at school and I have shared this tool with others.  Right now, I have 17 sites saved to my library but I am finding more and more each day.  I do have personal and professional sites all in my Diigo, but will probably changing that to all professional.  If you would like to check out the sites I have saved to my library, here is my url:


http://www.diigo.com/user/aprilmgarrett


Also, if you have any sites you know of that I could add to mine, please share!!