Tool 5

I finally feel comfortable about a tool. Both of these things I have done before but with the other tools I find it very difficult to actually post into my blog. Here's to hoping that I will get both of them uploaded correctly :) I think these are great tools that could be used as sets to grab the students attention as well as a great end of unit assessment that the students could create on their own or in small group. Hope the students enjoy these as much as me :)

Below is hopefully a Animoto about Lewis and Clark....wish me luck!!!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Now I am going to hopefully create a Wordle about the Scientific Method...Another bump in my long road to success. I had to create on a mac then save as a PDF to upload onto this :(

Tool 5 is done and so am I for today :)

Tool 4

I think that Google Apps is a great tool that will help eliminate the use of paper. My teammates and I already have a Google Doc created for our class schedule for next year and have been able to use and share it with others. I have used Gmail for years so I am already comfortable with the format which has been a nice relief after the day I have had. I think my students could use Google Apps to keep up with extra credit type assignments, flashcards and spelling activities. I think as a team we can use it to look at data to better prepare our students for success. However, I know that the "cloud" is always there but it scares me a little what if there is a thunderstorm one day when I am using Google Apps. I think the students will most like using Google Docs to monitor their success and Picasa to find pictures to use.

Tool 3

I love using videos and songs in my daily teaching. It is so nice to have something visual for the students to see or a song for the students to remember. The sight I use the most is discovery education and teacher tube. There are so many great resources at the touch of a hand. One video I would like to share is a song about plants needs. I have spent 45 minutes trying to upload a video using 2 different search engines and 3 different websites. Each time has been unsuccessful and I am becoming very frustrated. I use videos everyday in my classroom and never have trouble getting them into my flipchart, onto my desktop or projected on the big screen. Therefore I am going to hotlink them to my blog because I am unable to embed them. The two videos that will hopefully be on this blog are about plants. Plant Need Song and Plant Life Cycle. Hopefully these works. I learned that it is very important to follow copyright and fair use laws so that others are not taking credit for something you created. I always tell my students where videos came from in the classroom. Here is an image of a plant I found on Picasa:

Frustrated to the MAX!!!! I am not looking forward to the next step even though I thought I was tech savvy!

Tool 2

OMG....this was a lot harder than I thought. I am having trouble getting everything that I need to get done in a timely fashion. I have enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and learn about many new ideas out there to use in my classroom. I am apprehensive about using an online community because I am not as comfortable using this as other things. However, I do enjoy sharing ideas with others but I prefer more face to face time. I found a great blog called Mrs. Thorp's 3rd grade blog. It looks like she has some great ideas to share that I can learn from. Let the excitement begin.