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Welcome to The Innovative Educator! I'm glad you've come to visit the space I've created to share my ideas for making the learning environment a more exciting and meaningful place.I created this site as a companion to my blog The Innovative Educator. If you are an educator or someone interested in education I hope you find some of what I share valuable and that you are inspired to put some of my ideas into action or use some resources and recommendations I've shared in meaningful ways. As you navigate through this site you will find I invite you to the conversation on every page. I want to hear your feedback and recommendations, so use the discussion boards on the pages if you have something to share. Come on in. Look around. Share your thoughts and ideas and if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please email me at lnielsen.professional@gmail.com. Lisa Michelle Nielsen The Innovative Educator "

"TCEA - Recommended iPad Apps"

In April of 2011, the USD No. 448 Board of Education, based upon a recommendation supported by the administration and staff, voted to approve iPads for all staff and all students in grades 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 beginning in August 2011. We have been "pioneers" in the iPad one to one arena. The journey has been challenging, interesting, frustrating, enlightening, but most of all rewarding. Our staff has done an incredible job of embracing change and integrating iPads into our curriculum. They are providing an extremely important service to other educators--being a model school. What I have observed is that because this is such a new concept, other educators are much more inclined to get excited about the concept if they are able to see it in action. Thank you USD No. 448 staff members for providing a working model for other educators.

In April of 2011, the USD No. 448 Board of Education, based upon a recommendation supported by the administration and staff, voted to approve iPads for all staff and all students in grades 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 beginning in August 2011. We have been "pioneers" in the iPad one to one arena. The journey has been challenging, interesting, frustrating, enlightening, but most of all rewarding. Our staff has done an incredible job of embracing change and integrating iPads into our curriculum. They are providing an extremely important service to other educators--being a model school. What I have observed is that because this is such a new concept, other educators are much more inclined to get excited about the concept if they are able to see it in action. Thank you USD No. 448 staff members for providing a working model for other educators.

Your place for software recommendations for educators. See a piece of software that you use and love not listed?

Your place for software recommendations for educators. See a piece of software that you use and love not listed?

This site comes highly recommended by some of the great minds in education. 

"Ten Bloggers I Read First Yesterday, I was asked for a list of the blogs that I recommend reading other than my own. I published a similar list two years ago, but some of those blogs have become less active in the last year. Here is my updated list of the ten blogs that I go to first when my Google Reader account indicates "1000+ unread items.""

"Presenter: Dana Watts Location: New Delhi, India Twitter: @teachwatts Presentation Title: Creating ePortfolios with WordPress Presentation Description: Imagine a world where students are no longer judged by a lone essay, an individual transcript, or single letter of recommendation. ePortfolios allow students the ability to showcase their life-long learning and potential for growth well beyond the confine of the classroom walls. ePortfolios have the potential to transform the way educators access student readiness for future courses, advancement and college admissions."

"Top iPad Apps for School Administrators Any technology device is only as good as the software installed on it. Combined with desktop access and Android phone access, I am able to use these applications just about anywhere. These are my iPad application recommendations to administrators."

Ana Maria Menezes has just published a 53 page free ebook titled 20 WEBTOOLS Applied to Teaching. In addition to some well-known services like Animoto, Ana Maria has included some lesser-known tools that could be particulary useful for ESL/ELL instruction. You can download the ebook from Issuu. I also recommend browsing through Ana Maria's blog, Life Feast, if you've never visited it. http://lifefeast.blogspot.com/2010/06/20-webtools-applied-to-teaching.html

HTML Gear makes it easy to add and manage multiple widgets, including guestbooks, polls, feedback forms and more. Best of all it's FREE! Guest Gear Get comments from your visitors with our highly customizable guest book. Poll Gear Find out what your visitors think! Create colorful polls on the topics of your choice. Link Gear Manage links, count clicks, and let your visitors recommend sites. Feedback Gear Get feedback from your visitors without having to reveal your e-mail address. Event Gear Share dates and coordinate group events. Text Gear Put different words of wisdom, tips, factoids, or quotes on your page each time your page loads. Headline Gear Place current headlines from a variety of hot news categories on your site.

Coming of Age is an introduction to Web 2.0 which has been downloaded at least 60,000 times (I stopped keeping track after a while, and it's available from other websites too, so I didn't have a complete picture anyway.) At last! The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book! * 87 projects. * 10 further resources. * 52 applications. * 94 contributors. * The benefits of using Web 2.0 applications. * The challenges of using Web 2.0 applications. * How the folk who ran these projects handled the issues... * ... And what they recommend you do if you run them. * What were the learning outcomes? * And did I mention that this is free?!

You should download this FREE eBook on Web 2.o Projects. Really GOOD and FREE

Great FREE tool recommended by Ed TechTalk Weekly

Best of History Web Sites is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more. BOHWS has been recommended by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The National Council for the Social Studies, The British Library Net, The New York Public Library, the BBC, Princeton University, -- and many others.

You can see a list of recommended resources in different categories ranging from photo editing to audio editing to video editing and more. 

Blog post writting by a school administrator provides several recommendations to capturing and engaging those non-involved students.

"Flatclassroom09-3 - Sounding Boards Every fall a global project takes place led by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. This year over 220 students from 5 countries will research trends in information technology and globalization, write a collaborative research report on a wiki, and produce digital videos about their topics. Sound impressive? Well it is! These students are not graduate level university students. They are in high school. As part of this project, there is a peer reviewing process that takes place later this month. These Sounding Boards are simply a 1 -> 2 -> 3 review done by middle school students. I have my 7th graders do this. My students think they are reviewing college student work. When I show them pictures of the students involved, they are often incredulous. The global project has won ISTE's Online Learning Award (2007) and is included in Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat. Each team produces 5 videos to go with the research report. The wikis and the videos need you to peer review. Each Sounding Board classroom only has to review one team wiki. Sign up on the Flatclassroom page (scroll down) or if you prefer contact me and I will sign you up. I have found my kids love watching the videos. I like to make a wikisite for my classroom and have them do the 1 -> 2 -> 3 reviews that Kim Cofino recommends. So come volunteer! Let's overwhelm the project with our middle school enthusiasm! Navigate to the FlatClassroom09-3 Sounding Boards page and read over the description. Sign up or contact me to do it. Thanks in advance!! "

This site is loaded with articles, resources and book recommendations geared toward the 4-8 grade educator. Topics are wide and varying.