Easy-to-use online scheduling software. Teachers create a customized schedule as well as notice and reporting settings in minutes. I think I might try it for my class next year for meetings, and maybe add Skype conferences.
Flickr Storm is similar to FlickrCC. The kids can search, click on a thumbnail and the photo comes up on the right. If you let the students click on the advanced search feature, it will allow them to limit their searches to Non-Commercial and Share Alike photos. An organization feature of Flickr storm is the "Add to Tray." You can add several photos to your tray and then when you open your tray, all the photos are there in large-sized format. It is like saving the pictures to a file, but instead it stays on the website. Anything like this website is good to begin brainstorming for writing.
StoryJumper: publish your own children's book.Storyjumper allows you to create online books using a variety of characters, scenes, and props. Teachers can create student accounts for them to have as like a file to store their stories. I thought this would be a neat way to provide online writing to support different reading elemnts (setting, characters, etc).
A great resource for teachers. It is a kid friendly and teacher friendly search engine for lesson plans, activities, and interactives. I use this a lot in my classroom, and the search results are great. I have found several reading links as well as social studies and science connection links for reading.
This blog gives the latest updates on the newly found educational apps for teachers and students. I have used this several times to see what is new or what is out there that someone else has tried and has had success with.
TodaysMeet is a good way to have a quick convo in a relatively quiet place. I use it in my classroom for an instant feedback on a whole group or small group question. They use the netbooks or ipad's to respond.
ReadWriteThink has a printing press where students can make a booklet, flyer, brochure, or newspaper. There is a step by step guide to walk the students through with basic editing and graphics- but is great for students trying to learn how to use documents like Microsoft Publisher. My students know how to use Publisher now, but this printing press would have been a great way to teach them how to create some of those documents as a "beginner" type version. Great for younger grades!
ReadWriteThink has a printing press where students can make a booklet, flyer, brochure, or newspaper. There is a step by step guide to walk the students through with basic editing and graphics- but is great for students trying to learn how to use documents like Microsoft Publisher. My students know how to use Publisher now, but this printing press would have been a great way to teach them how to create some of those documents as a "beginner" type version. Great for younger grades!
Probably one of the coolest and easiest story starter sites I have seen for grades k-6!! This is like a slot machine that you see at a casino. It has different sections on the slot machine depending on your grade level. The first slot being the genre, the second slot is a describing word for the subject, the third slot is the subject, and the last slot describes what the subject is doing or does. For example, one that I just got on there was: "Write a postcard from a balding carnival clown who explores a newly discovered planet." From here the kids can change the individual slot if they want to. Once they finish they click next and can pick the type of format (newsletter, letter, postcard, and notebook). Once that is selected they can type their story on the format they selected. If they want to write they can just pick a format and print a blank page. Or, you don't even have to use any format and can do a whole class prompt and they write on paper or just type in a word document. I showed my students the machine today and they were very interested in trying it during their writing station. It is too easy to not try- so I am going to give it a shot next week!! I think it is very creative and can make some very silly stories!
You can use your photos or videos in animoto, add your own music, and change the background theme that all runs automatically. You can register as a teacher and get the paid subscription for free! I use this program in my class for book talk videos, and my students love using it!
TripAdvisor™ TripWow allows you to take your photos and upload them into their program for an excellent slideshow for free! The music, background, and animation is very easy to use and makes excellent videos! Similar to Animoto, but easier to use in my opinion.
Another teacher and I at my old school spend hours typing all the words from the Words their Way books into spelling city. We completed the red, yellow, green, and blue books. This website has several free activities for students to work on to help them with their word patterns. The other teacher that helped me was Allison Eckard and the site link is under her name as she was the computer teacher who helped me set the account up. For now, the site is still up and running- I no longer teach at the school she is at, and I just hope she wont delete everything I had typed in for the patterns. Enjoy while it is still up and running :-)
Raz-Kids is an online and print reading program. All their books you can print, show on the big screen, or read online. Each book comes with activity sheets and other extension activities. The online program allows kids to listen to a book be read to them or they can read it themselves. They are also able to take a comprehension quiz in the end. The program has levels A-Z and the teacher is able to place the student at the appropriate reading level. My students love the program, and they are in 5th grade. The readers for the online book read with such great expression, some of the images move and there is sometimes background noise to help students connect to what they are reading.
If you haven't heard of or used gaggle, look into it. Our whole school system uses gaggle, and it is great for the classroom, especially with the older students. They have an email address, a dropbox to put documents in, they can turn in HW via the dropbox, and I post my HW assignments on the calendar for them to see. It has a wall like facebook or a blog for them to post on as well. The most important and best feature is that at any time I can access any of the students accounts to monitor their emails or documents. This way I know they are having safe and clean conversations.
This link will take you to my class website where I have linked about 200 websites for all subject areas. Several are very interactive, only a few you have to purchase. Great sources, and most teachers always ask for my link- so I am going ahead and posting for your use. Enjoy :-)