Tool #5

I have used Delicious before and have my bookmarks loaded. I love the fact that you can find your favorites from any computer you use. I searched for word family poems in delicious, and found a website with games, poems, and lots of other things. It was from a link from a site called Live Binder. I signed up for it, and it seems to be a place to share resources with other educators. On it I found giggle poetry- has lots of games-word searches, hangman, etc. It will be a great site for my students to "play" on in a literacy center. Here is the link http://www.gigglepoetry.com/
I also searched on Delicious for some new recipes for July 4th. I wanted something different and fruity. I found this recipe,-A fruitful crisp .http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/07/nectarine-raspberry-crisp-with-spiced-oatmeal-crumb-topping.htmlI am going to try it this weekend. I searched for july 4th recipes and found this site. It looks like they have all kinds of recipes and ideas.
I could see how students could use Delicious in the classroom. They could create their favorites on their delicious account, and which ever computer they are using they would be able to bring up their favorite sites. I like Delicious alot!

Tool #4

I love google reader. It is such an easy place to go to and catch up on the blogs you follow. It is all there in one place. I added some new subscriptions, and realized that anytime I added a blog to my blogger, it was added in google reader. I can definetley see how a student can use this, a place to find all the sites they frequent. In google docs I created our schedule for next year and sent it to my team. I am familiar with google docs, but never thought to use it when making and sending documents to my team to approve and check over. How easy it is to use. I WILL use this tool during the school year, and with my personal documents.

Tool #3

Word cloud made with WordItOut

I think Kindergartners would love using wordle or worditout. They could use it with science vocabulary or their word wall words. Glogster could be used for pictures students take through out the year. We had our kindergartners take pictures of different kinds of rocks and then describe them according to their attributes. They could make a glogster with their pictures.

TOOL #2

I love the idea of participating in an online education community. What better way to learn new things but through colleagues and people in your same profession. There is always a new way to teach something, and participating in a PLN you can learn so many different ways to do it. Most educators are continuously learning and doing new things-atleast the good ones are. I think what stands out to me as being very important when commenting on other blogs, is the simplicity of it. I understand the reason why some of us require others to sign in before commenting, but when wanting to comment quickly, this is a hassle. It my keep people from commenting just because they have to register, enter info, etc. I think being humble in your posts too is important. Nobody is perfect and many people tend to shy away when a post or blog comes across as "knowing it all", or sounding unrealistic. People like to know that they are in the same boat as others..atleast I do.
I follow many different blogs, here are some:
http://libby-looloves.blogspot.com/
http://johnsonsjourneyatmwe.blogspot.com/
http://kindermwe.blogspot.com
http://meyermuse.blogspot.com
http://mwepurplemartins.blogspot.com
http://hillskindergartenkickoff.blogspot.com
http://mweprek.blogspot.com
http://iteachilearnigive.blogspot.com

 

Just playing around with picassa, it was so easy to create this collage. I like Picasa...:)

11 Tools for 21st Century--TOOL #1

I was so excited when I knew this was going to be available for summer staff development. Creating an avatar with Voki was so simple. Last summer, I had trouble uploading my avatar. Voki was an easy site to navigate. I LOVED doing 23 things last summer. After completing 23 things, I was able to create a kindergarten blog for my team. We posted and blogged about all the happenings in Kinder at MWE. It was a great tool used to keep our parents informed and gave them a peek of what was going on in their child's classrooms. In the fall, I hope to create a classroom blog for my class. I am going to help my 3rd grader make her own blog this summer. Hopefully, by the end of the school year 2010, I might be able to have kindergartners creating their own blogs. Blogging is such a great tool to share information.