Thing 18

I love you tube! You can find videos about anything. You were wise to warn students to set up a timer because you can spend hours looking up random junk. You pull up one video and then there are all these related videos and before you know it an hour is gone!!!

I was overwhelmed when I typed in English as a second language but I did find Genki English. There are several videos that has some really good ideas that could help all students. In looking at the related video I also see that there are multiplication songs by the same teacher. I then decided to look up something I might cover in class so I typed in Washington D.C. since we teach some of the landmarks in Washington D.C. to our third graders. I was able to find a couple of good videos that gave information without being too dull but also not too flashy.

On my how to video I decided to see if I could find a kid friendly how to tie your shoes since my daughter is in need of a lesson on this skill. I was able to find some that had simple directions and even some that mentioned bunny ears. However my favorite was Sponge Bob and the Loop de loop song. 

Teachertube was fun. I found some educational stuff but I also found some fun stuff as well. There was  a video that was a spoof of Baywatch that was silly but funny. Also I found a Hannah Montana bones song that I thought some kids would like to watch. In case you didn't search there are some videos from MISD. Who knows, you may be on teachertube and not even know it!

For my random video I picked a youtube that I came across a few weeks ago. It may cause a tear or two to be shed.....



And then I found a video that one of my schools made about a year ago.....

Thing 15

I can see the advantages of using a delicious account. I teach at two different campuses and I have had a few experiences in which I have bookmarked a site at my computer at Rugel but not at Moss. If I had saved it to my delicious account then I could access the bookmarks wherever I might be. That would be nice to have except for the fact that it is a blocked site on MISD. 

I could see how this could be helpful for  a teacher. You could use the list to create bookmark lists for you students. Especially with the tag bundles the students could know what sites you would want them to research.  Even if you can make collections for your own use so that you can access your chosen sites year to year from various computers would be helpful. My delicious account is very random so when you check out http://delicious.com/cdawson71 just remember that this is still a work in progress.

Things 17

I have watched podcasts before but I have never made one of my own. I checked out he podcast Webster's Word of the Day. I thought that was pretty cool because it takes no effort but you can enjoy it. I also went to Just One More Book which I already found things that I could use in class. For example, there is information on Gary Soto and any teacher who uses his works could benefit. Geek! Ed! was interesting as well. you can learn a lot from this site. 

I have already used podcasts. On Itunes I sometimes get the free podcasts they have available. For example, a few weeks ago they had one about the making of "The Breakfast Club" and it was fun to watch about one my favorite teen movies.

Also, you can download Sesame Street podcasts. They have a "Word on The Street" that is great for the little students. I show the video to my first/second graders and after we discuss the word they draw a picture for me. I have been surprised at how well my kids remember the word and its meaning. 

Maybe one of these days I will make a podcast.

Thing 7a

I really like my History is Elementary reader. She does a great job of finding interesting links about history. If you check out this link about the Great Depression be sure and have your sound on. While her comments are okay the music with the pictures are incredible....

Thing 16

Okay, Library Thing is really cool. I went ahead and created an account and found a couple of books. If you are interested her is my library. 

My favorite thing was the groups. For all you Twilight fans there is a group for you. They even had parodies for the phenomenon. 

Students could use this site to find out other works by authors, look for books on a topic. Teachers could also make lists of books that would be okay for a book report project. Also, check out the 50 book challenge.

Personally, you can make libraries of the books you read, your favorites, or just keep a list of books you want to read. 

My mother-in-law loves to read and I am going to tell her about this site!

Thing 14

I really liked wordle. I have always used wordsplashes in my class. This is where you have a student read a passage and then have them right words all over a paper that have to do with the topic. I could definitely use this in a classroom by having them do what they have always done, just this time on the computer. 

I also liked the tadalist. I made a list of places I would like to go visit for fun. This has a ton of possibilities. You could have students make list of writing topics, steps in a procedure, make a list of words they don't know in a reading passage, and so on. 

What I like most about these sites is that they are free!!!

Thing 13

This was a lot of fun!! I went to most, if not all, of these sites and it was interesting to learn all of the tools that are available out there! 

My favorite was probably Trading card maker . I made one for both my kids. With trading cards I was thinking that in the classroom I could make cards for parts of speech. I could also make trading cards for characters in the story or historical figures and have the kids complete details. 

I also loved the Spell with Flickr. I have seen where people have created those with photographs so it was really cool to quickly put in a whole bunch of words, which I did! I don't really know the academic implications but it was cool!!

Another site that I thought was neat was Flickr Color Pickr. The only way I can think of using this academically is when I help my ESL kids with color words maybe they can pick something out to review colors. 

Custom sign generator had a ton of options. I did have problems getting some of my pictures to work.  I would need to reduce the size of my pictures. 

Finally, I had a lot of fun with Imagechef.com. You could do a lot of encouraging things for students. This could be a great way to create fun notes for kids!

Honestly, I have spent way too much time on this thing!!!