If you are a techno addict, check out our class webpages for some great tools to use with kids of all ages! If you have any questions, email me at dermadyd@1000islandsschools.org. SMART Board links, too!
Livescribe (reviewed positively in NY Times 8-19-10) allows the writer to take notes that are translated to computer; can also record and play back. Lots of potential, though a bit pricey (around $200--probably will come down, if we are patient!).
I searching through our old posts and found this one. The pens have come down in price, I bought one last fall ($100). My principal also bought a dozen or so with multiple paper packs (an educator bundle). I am using them in the fourth grade tier 2 intervention group for fluency. The students use them to record their reading, then they can listen to them selves to determine expression, monitor their time, and answer comprehension questions (again listening if they need to). I use them in 6th grade for literature circles. The students initial when they talk, so I can go back and tap their initials and evaluate their questioning/discussion. Some of my teachers use them for running records to share with other teachers and parents too.
I just used this site/download with an iPod project in my classroom. It is probably the most important site I have found in years. The primes is simple and there are probably pleanty of other sites like it but.... WOW.
You can drop your files into the dropbox and they are saved to the "cloud". Then amazingly they are on every computer ( or iPod) you have linked to the account. I entered my account info on the student iPods and made a folder for each student, when they were done with a project, they saved it to the folder. The great thing about this was i could access their assigment from anywhere, my home computer, my iPhone, another iPod in the class, the smart board...it was limitless, I could share it with anyone, no matter where I was...how powerful. I also made a folder of "mrs. Kondrick's resources" where I put videos, audios, assignments, rubrics etc, and then they could watch them/use them at their own pace ( so ethnic that works well with our individualized daily 5 reading block.