Technology Tools to Try

This week, I attended a workshop on practical ways to incorporate my school’s new net books into our Title 1 classes.  Besides training on the net books, my colleagues conducting this shared some great online tools they use in the classroom.  Here are the new tools I’d like to try in all of my classes – Title 1, accelerated, and college-bound.   ⇒

To my followers who are not educators, these sites offer great resources for you as well.  Create a Photostory with your family photos, utilize BrainFlips to help your child memorize terms, turn to Diigo if you’re taking college courses and want to bookmark and organize your online research, peruse TedTalks when you’re looking for videos from credible speakers, etc.

Diigo – a great way for students (and teachers) to organize, store and share research.  This can be a convenient method to move toward paperless research that can be available on-the-go.   I would like to try this with my senior expository writing class.

Photostory – I’ve heard so much about how much the most reluctant reader enjoys this.  I watched some powerful examples from students who normally never turn in homework (I was told).  I’m definitely using this VERY SOON with my reading students!   It’s a user-friendly way for students to create slide shows that go beyond the average PowerPoint with voice narration, fun effects, etc.

Brain Flips – I may try these with both my reading students and my accelerated freshmen.  Another method for internalizing vocabulary is always welcome.

Voice Thread – This could be an interesting motivator as a personable way to comment on blogs, videos, artwork, etc.  Besides the usual typed comments, one can leave voice messages. Perhaps I’ll use this with online book talks.

Ted Talks – Use these video resources here to supplement discussions and units of study.  More organized and less commercial than YouTube, these credible, educational speakers and presentations are categorized by theme.

TeacherTube – I’ve already been using this, but I felt the need to add it here.  You will find videos specifically recorded for classroom use.    (Search for “Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration” for a ‘rocking’ take on the Declaration of Independence.  I never thought I’d see Ben Franklin play the electric guitar! )

Edmodo – this social network for teachers & students looks like Facebook once you log in.  I’m not sure what I’ll use this for.  I’m having my students each create their own blogs (via WordPress) and the discussion threads on those blogs should be sufficient for sharing comments.  We’ll see . . . there’s so much great stuff out there!!

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In the Mood for a Debate?

It seems there are social networking sites for everyone these days . . . Facebook, Twitter,  and MySpace pioneered the way for numerous specialized sites such as The English Companion Ning where English teachers connect, BroadwaySpace for theater enthusiasts,  and CafeMom where moms exchange ideas.

There’s a new face on the networking block that looks quite different from its predessors - CreateDebate is a new social networking site built around “ideas, discussion and democracy.”  It’s a community for creating debates that scratch your brain and existing arguments that currently rile others up.

Bryan Orme invited me to try out this site.  I dabbled with it a little myself and then had my senior expository students explore it to precurse their argumentative paper research.  The goal of Orme’s team is to build a useful learning tool that will help “people sort through issues, viewpoints and opinions so that consensus and understanding can be reached and better decisions can be made.”  I believe the site does this.

My favorite aspect of the site is the CreateDebate communities tailored just for classroom use.  This is a great technological tool easily allowing students to discuss and debate thoughts with others outside of their classroom or even possibly outside school building walls.  I like that CreateDebate allows teachers to have complete control regarding public accessibility.  If you choose, you can create a site that only your students can access – students can access this from home, but only their classmates will see their reactions.  Pretty nifty – a tool that makes research motivating and fun.  Additionally, CreateDebate makes it simple to keep track of who’s online and what sort of activity is taking place on your site. The administrative panel allows you to manage and customize your community from a central location. Complete control!

Grading Girl gives CreateDebate an A for effort in creating a manageable, motivating debate community that brings current, relevant events literally at students’ fingertips to participate in.  Give it a try!

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Savvy Sites 1

Whether or not you are an educator, many of these sites may be of interest to you.  The following are links to helpful tools, interesting reads, and practical advice I’ve happily discovered or revisited within the past couple of weeks as I plan for the new school year.  For those I stumbled upon via my invaluable Twitter friends, Grading Girl thanks you!  Here goes . . . GG’s first savvy site faves:

Sites that will help classroom organization and incorporation of technology

• Twitter in the Classroom: (yes, yes . . . must try!)

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcf23zfg_27fdcsg9gs

• Twitter for Teachers: (need I say more!  I’d like to require my students to open a Twitter account and use it for interactive quizzes )

http://www.diigo.com/list/cedpaine/twitter-guides-for-teachers

• Links to School Bloggers: (click on these when you have some time to read . . . great advice and ways to incorporate blogging, technology)

http://supportblogging.com/page/diff/Links+to+School+Bloggers/83381337#htmldiff2

• Teaching with Technology: (so, so, so many tools and links here – bookmark this!)

http://ipt286.pbworks.com/Index

• Teaching English with Tech:  (many excellent links here for those wanting to know where to begin to incorporate blogging into the classroom)

http://tewt.org/englishteachersites.html

• A  simple management tool: (I looove this stopwatch tool!!)

http://viigo.im/0rep

• Top 5 Citation Applications: (very good cites for students to use when writing analysis and research papers)

http://instructify.com/2009/07/16/top-5-citation-applications

• Interactive Graphic Organizer: (very cool for teachers and/or students)

http://my.hrw.com/nsmedia/intgos/html/igo.htm

• My Backpack – Online Applications (many tools here!)

http://www.goodhue.k12.mn.us/school242/genie224/images/files/backpack2009d2.html

Sites I will use with my Speech Communication classes:

• How Obama could eliminate his ums: (very interesting and practical)

http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/obama-eliminate-ums/

• Ad Views: (this is excellent for my persuasion unit)

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adviews/

American Rhetoric:  The Power of Oratory in the United States (wow, what a plethora of famous speeches at one’s fingertips)

http://www.americanrhetoric.com

Sites I will use with my Reading classes:

• Three-Minute Fiction: NPR (an excellent way to open a class . . . can also serve as supplements to units)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=105660765

• Kelly Gallagher – Building Deeper Readers and Writers (I continually refer to Gallagher when planning reading and writing workshops)

http://www.kellygallagher.org/index.html

• Story Quotations (excellent motivators and class openings)

http://www.storycon.org/quotations.htm

• Skype other Classrooms: (a few years ago at a conference, I presented a way to connect students to other classrooms via online journals . . . this brings it to a whole new level)

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/want-to-connect-with-other-classrooms/

• ReadWriteThink:  Student Materials (a classic site I always turn to!)

http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

Sites I will use for my Senior Expository Comp classes:

• Beloit College Mindset List (this is eye-opening!!  I’ll use it as a reflective essay opener)

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

• Brainstormer Applications (a cool little tool when you students say they have nothing to write about)

http://www.distractionbeast.com/brainstormer.swf

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