thing 20

I visited Prezi, the scholastic classroom organizer, and comic creator at Read Write Think.  These will all e be very valuable to me.  The one chose to spend a little more time with was Domo.  Powered by goAnimate, it says that it is the school version of goAnimate which is one of my favorite activities to use with kids. Domo is visually kid friendly.  I really like go animate so I am a hard sell.  While the kids would probably like Domo better because of the types of characters, I think that maybe I will go back to goAnimate.

Week 6 Play Week

I know that I skipped around a bit but I am glad that I came back to do my play week.  As I looked at the 3 book sites, I chose good reads to set up an account.  I can see the benefit of looking up books for your class to get some honest opinions on the book.  For giggles and grins, I looked up Divergent.  That was pretty comical all the negative reviews for such a popular book.

My 8 year old and I played with Flickr.  I think there are some times when it could be used in the classroom and have some end of year projects in mind.  I am very intrigued by jing.  I have it and other software used and I like the format.  I likely won't learn the nuts and bolts of it until I have a real purpose to use it.

Field Trip to Dogwood Canyon

Field Trip to Dogwood Canyon

Diigo (my new Pinterest)

I LOVE Pinterest!  It is one of the best resources as a teacher I have.  It fills my weaknesses (like anchor charts) and now I am ACTUALLY using what I pin.  I know crazy!.  I think I am going to feel that way about Diigo.  I am constantly looking for resources online.   Why make it myself if it is already done?   I have often said I don't have original ideas I just change up someone else's.    Diigo seems like a really great way to help keep links organized.   AND be able to access them often so you can ACTUALLY use them.

Blog

Blogs  for education.  

Well, first let me say that I did use a blog with my class last year primarily for reading responses. It worked pretty well but it wasn't a level I was really happy with.   I do agree that blogs are great tools of reflection.   They are also a great way to convey information to a diverse group such as parents.  I started the year thinking that I would replace my weekly newsletter with a blog but have found that several of the parents either do not have or do not use the internet.

I love to follow a good blog.  Teachers seem to share the love everywhere.  I get math foldables, lesson plans, reading strategies, and anchor chart ideas all from blogs.   One blog I love is a teacher blog called Runde's Room. http://www.rundesroom.com/  She shares lots of ideas for math and literacy.  I stumble across many other blogs but I find a useful post and don't consistently follow it.