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Listing and links to tools for classroom use

The website artbabble.org is a great example of the alternatives to youtube that the freetech4teachers article discusses.  It is a video sharing site devoted to inspiring creativity through art. I navigated to an abstract expressionism page and watched a pretty cool video on how different artists came to find their passion for the style and medium that they employ.  I understand the need to have alternatives to youtube available as classroom resources. The school that I currently work at has a block on youtube at all school computers. You can temporarily bypass the block as a teacher, but the process never fully works when you need it to during a class. In addition to firewall issues, sights like artbabble provide a more focused and efficient search than youtube. The search options are specifically designed for finding art related media, so you don't have to scan through tons of irrelevant information.

I love this website! I think this is a great way for students and teachers to see a variety of educationally appropriate videos that also show the classroom discussions as well.  This site along with many of the other sites in the blog are great ways to incorporate technology into any class.  One of the videos that I found fascinating (Because i'm an art major) is the video about Michelangelo.  The great part about the site is that you can search by subject therefore making it easier for teachers to find what they are looking for.  

I saw this video the other day on Google Reader. It sparked my interest because it is a very interesting idea and could be a great resource for teachers and students alike. I think on-demand video learning is going to be a huge part of the future of the classroom, and it is a great way for students to get a fuller understanding of something that maybe wasn't discussed in as much detail in the classroom.

Khan Academy is AWESOME! I had bookmarked it last year, and then I forgot about it. I could use it now to help my daughter in Math! Thanks!

This article is a great resource for IWBs because it is inspirational and provides the reader with a variety of ways to make full use of IWBs in the classroom (even more ideas are included in the comments section!). This would be a great resource for teachers who are looking for new and interesting ways to put their IWBs to full use.

This is an interactive activity called the Weather Maker from the Scholastic online activities page. It allows you to manipulate the temperature at the equator and at the Earth's poles as well as to control the humidity. Based on the selected inputs, an animation of your home is exposed to the resulting weather conditions.  This could be a fantastic tool for the elementary science classroom as the students explore weather change. Various weather and precipitation outcomes can be inquired about and the students could control the weather maker and adjust the various elements to create the desired climate. Based on exploring the weather maker students can make observations and draw conclusions on seasonal climates, temperature change, and weather patterns. 

Summary of available materials - resources for active whiteboard use, activity suggestions, and useful links Use in classroom: Can be utilized in the classroom by involving students in the utilization of the whiteboard to present materials to class based on a review of assigned materials related to specific topics. Student learn to utilize technology and take an active and interactive part in the teaching and learning process

This article focuses on the misuse of technology, mainly smart boards, in the classroom. In the article the author states that some teachers may find their teaching to be gimmicky or that the students will only pay attention to the technology. In turn, those teachers will only use the smartboards for power point presentations or as a glorified chalkboard. That does not have to be the case, as those previous examples are probably the worst uses for a smartboard. The article quickly points out that these boards are interactive and should be used that way. In the classroom, the last way that I intend on using a smartboard, if I am lucky enough to have one, will be as a chalkboard. There are so many great ways to use it and the technology is ever evolving. I intend on making use of this device to the fullest extent.

This is a website that has a ton of ridiculously cool interactive activities for teachers to use in the classroom. This company, Lakeshore, has interactive boards for Math, Language, Science and Social studies that would be a really cool way to keep kids active in the classroom while incorporating technology. I would personally use this to try and keep math interesting and interactive. Allowing students to feel like they are an active participant in their learning is a great way to empower them.

When I was little, I had a book called How Stuff Works. I used to reference it all the time because I was curious about everything. Conversion to a website format makes it that much easier to find what you need and to add additional videos as technology advances. I think that this would be a fantastic reference website for any classroom.

I found this an interesting article seeing as I have taken other career paths prior to education and I know many of you have as well. With the state of the economy, many older Americans are looking to the field of teaching for a new chance to start a career. This influx of teachers from the baby boomer generation must adapt to a new era of educating students for a tech savvy future. Are the 50+ additions to the teaching pool more valuable with their real world experiences than the grad student half their age with the latest methodology and research.

I know a handful of teachers who came to Education after years in the corporate world. They bring a lot to the classroom as, I'm sure, you will. Thanks for sharing this article.

I think this is a fantastic resource for English teachers because it connects students with actual authors through author-planned workshops, which serves as a motivational tool and keeps the class interesting. Also, it provides teaching plans that comply with national standards and student activities based around each type of writing. These workshops would be perfect for display on an IWB because of the IWB's interactivity.

This resource has a number of whiteboard activities for different areas of study. I focused on the English (Literacy) section. It seems somewhat limited in some respects, as it only has a few activities for certain books/plays, but the ones that were there were pretty cool. I really liked the Romeo and Juliet activities. I thought the intro scale about love at first sight would be a great way to get kids hooked, and the activities in which the kids put the things that happened in order were good as well. I liked some of the middle grades activities more. There was one in which you have to look at different newspapers coverage of the same event and make a Venn diagram of how the stories overlap. I think this really makes learning more interactive and meaningful to the students and utilizes the technology well.