Classroom 2.0

If you haven't checked out Classroom 2.0 yet, you should definitely put it on your list of resources to investigate.  Classroom 2.0 is a free, community-supported network hosted on Ning for educators interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in their classrooms, created by Steve Hardagon.  They also host Live and Interactive Webinars almost daily on Blackboard Eluminate to expand your learning even more.

Each time I log in to Classroom 2.0 and check the forum questions and answers I always find something  relevant and useful.  When I have posted a question in the past, I have answers within minutes.  I have also participated in one of the webinars and found it to be incredibly useful.  I hope you check it out and let me know what you think.

Did You Know 4.0?

Have you seen this yet?  What do you think?

Try Something New This Summer?

My favorite blogger has been at it again, putting together another information-filled document for you to check out and try some new tools.  Take a look, check out some of the links, and maybe try a new tool to use in your classroom this year. If you see something that catches your eye, let me know, maybe we can work on it together!

Biographies, Poems, Journals Oh Joy!

I am so proud of the hard work that has been going on in the lab this spring.  Our new favorite tool has definitely been Glogster.  I was lucky enough to sign up for Glogster and was offered 200 student accounts, all on the free account. Students have their own username and password all under one teacher, myself.  They love the creativity aspect of creating a glog and are always teaching me something new!

Check out the work of our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders on Runkle Technology.

Check it out - Khan Academy

If you haven't checked out Khan Academy yet, it is definitely worth a look.

Khan Academy includes a library of videos that covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even finance and history. Each video is about 10 minutes long and meant to be viewed on a computer.

This is an extremely informative blog post written by Dolores Gende about Khan Academy and how it could be used with small or large  groups in an educational setting. 

Sign-Up Genius

Sign-Up Genius is tool I learned about through my network of Technology Specialists. We learned about teachers using this tool to set up their parent/teacher conferences and wanted to share with you!

From what I can see, it is pretty easy to use. A few teachers have used it already and said it took minutes to figure out and enter all of their conference dates and times. Within minutes of setting up their "Sign-Up," parents were signing up for times. Easy and efficient. Every teacher loves a tool like that.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Have you seen our Structures?

Our third grade students have successfully completed another hugely successful collaborative project - Structures of the World. This is a science unit in thrid grade, but it really is so much more... Science, Literacy, Library, Technology, and Art. Students love researching about their famous structures in the library and in the classroom. Then they re-create the strutures out of all kind of materials.  Congratulations to all students and teachers involved!

See some of their work here:

Structures of the World 2010

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