Voice Thread

Motion Curriculum Video

Twitter Experiences

Before this class I had never used twitter. I am a member of Facebook and do I do some chatting with my Friends there. After being on Twitter for the last few weeks I have learned so much. It literally allows you to connect and share with people all over the world. You can send small chats that are easy to read and convey ideas quickly. Maybe even a bit too quickly. I see this open communication being very useful to both teachers as well as students. I did find that following chats was difficult at it changes constantly and by the time you respond to one it has been buried under many more. If you take the time to get to know twitter it can be a valuable tool. There were so many that I learned from. The most useful was a #kinderchat that I was able to catch. We started talking about the importance of play. How many kindergarten teacher feel that is lost when student move up to First grade. I was able to share my own experiences and get links to research that would allow me to take these concerns back to my own school and see what is being done to solve this problem, that seems to cross state line and country boarders. There were several teachers on this chat from Canada. I would say I will continue to build my PLN and explore more that twitter has to offer.

"Free Technology for Teachers"

I really enjoyed looking at all Richard Byrne had to offer. I am amazed at how much technology is out there. I guarantee you that my collogues don’t know about half of what is on his blog. I like the way Mr. Byrne has his blog organized, it was very easy to find items that would work in my classroom. One that I really liked was http://www.spellingcity.com. I had actually heard of this website from other teacher but had no idea how to find it or use it. I was so impressed that I instantly signed up and will be using this as an option for my students to practice their weekly spelling words. It has games, handwriting, and audio teaching tools. What a great way for parents to help their children reinforce what you are doing in the classroom. I found another one that would be great unfortunately it is only for IPads and IPhones, since I do not have access to these devices I was unable to preview it. I will make put it on a list for my parents so maybe they can download it. I wish I had more time to sit and sift through all the great stuff that is out there. Pinterest is another great site to find other teacher's blogs. I lose track of time just reading all the teachers blogs that have been created and the great ideas that they have. My goal is to start creating my own blog and sharing my ideas as well. I think that given the time I could also create one that my students could access that would link them to new worlds of learning and understanding. Somehow I will find the time. http://www.freetech4teachers.com.

How to read an Analog Clock screencast.

Comments on Animoto

I enjoyed using Animoto. It was very similar to Photostory 3, that I had used in the past. The major difference I saw had to with the ready-to-use options for backgrounds, videos, and music. I could see using this in a variety of ways in my classroom. I would love to try and incorporate the students work into a slide show we could send to their parents as a Christmas Present. Not to mention so many other ways this program could be applied in an Elementary setting. I could use this to have students create a video time line or show the phases of the moon. The possibilities are endless. Now I just need to find the time to create! Luckily this program takes out a lot of the foot work.

Animoto Video