Monday, January 31, 2011

Fakewall.com

What a great site! I have stumbled across fakewall.com. It allows students to create a fake facebook page for anyone. I could see this working as a great book report alternative. Students can upload pictures, ad posts and even insert the dates. I have already talked with a social studies teacher and we are going to pilot this program. This is an excellent way to integrate technology, with social media and learning.

I have added the link to Fakewall here as well

Web based application

So for our project Denise and I have chosen to use Animoto. The website offers a free teachers account to give you unlimited access to creating videos. You can also set up student accounts for up to 50 kids. Animoto is great for elementary students as it is one of the easiest movie creators I have seen. We will be showing you how to use Animoto and giving you a task to create a story with pictures about a hobby you enjoy.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

As technology teachers/integrators one of the most important things we can do is to attend professional development conferences. The best ideas come from these conferences. When you attend these conferences, you can not only learn from the nations best, you can also speak with colleagues from all over the world. In my opinion, any educator that does not attend professional development classes is losing out!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

My Wordle activity



You can create a Wordle like the one below by clicking here

What do I want to learn in class?

I received my certificate in Computer Technology Education in 2004. As we tech junkies know, a lot can change in a matter of 6 months never mind 6 years. I am really just looking for some new ideas, some different classroom practices that I may not be aware of. We a re a room full of teachers, experience has taught me that some of the best lessons come from colleagues. I am looking forward to some very exciting thoughts and ideas from some great educators.

January 8, 2011

Believe me when I tell you, I love my job. This is the first week back after Christmas Vacation and let me just say it has been a LONG week! Funny, you give the kids a week off and they come back as if they are still on vacation. Running around like they are outside playing in the snow. Bouncing in their chairs, chatting about what Santa brought them or what they got on the sixth night of Hanukkah Looking at you like a monkey with six heads when you mention the dreaded "W' word, that's right, no word is is quite as shocking as WORK to a middle school child fresh off of vacation.