Tool # 8 Video Resources

I have used video resources several times before in my class. I find them very useful in reinforcing students' learning of concepts in many subject areas, particularly Science and Social Studies. There is a higher rate of retaining information acquired by the students. In my experience, it can generate lots of discussions and questions among students.

I Have A Dream - Martin Luther King

Inauguration Speeches

Tool # 7 Digital Storytelling

This digital story telling is great except for the fact that I had quite a lot of difficulties completing it. Because I am somewhat computer challenged, I had to enlist my husband's help in creating one. I chose to create a story about a ministry that we've been involved in for several years now.

I thought that this would be a great tool for my students to create a class project such as retelling of their favorite stories or even summarizing what they learned about a unit/concept(e.g. dinosaurs, magnets, etc.). As a teacher, this would be useful for introducing a concept, brainstorming about an idea, or creating a response to a story,

Tool # 5 Tagging & Social Bookmarking

I set up an account with Delicious. I find it easier to work with than Diigo, although Diigo has a lot more features I think would be very helpful in organizing information. Again, this tool helps you to be more efficient in collecting and organizing sites by bookmarking them so that you have them all in one place. For the students, the bookmarks and tags would help them make their search a lot easier. This tool is great to help students in all subject areas such as Math, Reading, Writing, Science, etc. The websites I found are;

http://www.rocksforkids.com/
http://www.kidsdinos.com/

The tags I used are the following;

Rocks, Crystals, Dinosaurs, Fossils and Minerals

Tool # 4 Cool Google tools

What I like about Google Doc is that it saves you time and is an efficient collaboration tool, with teachers and among students as well. For my students, it will be a good tool for interactive writing, where they can share and pass ideas around to each other for editing and publishing. I also like the fact that it's not only the teacher who can view the work but the students themselves which I think is pretty powerful because learning is acquired not only from the teacher but students can learn from each other as well.

Here is a document I made on a Garage Sale we had recently. Please feel free to review and comment. Stories are welcome!

My Google Document

As far as google reader goes, I see it as another powerful tool to help me plan my lessons. When planning a lesson, I try to look up websites and other stuff that I might find relevant to the lesson and would also meet students' needs and provide meaningful experiences. This google reader would be efficient and a time saver, having the information all in one place for me to read. For my students, I see it as an additional source for research and obtaining information and current events and ideas for brainstorming, discussion and writing.

I subscribe to a few feeds such as education, music, history, etc.

Tool # 6 Wikis

Wiki would be useful for posting student discussions, Discovery learning, giving information, drawing and writing.

Tool # 3 Image Generators & Mashups

This would be a fun activity for students....imagine students "dinosaur blogging"! We can do activities where students can create pictures, to help them brainstorm ideas for writing, and for research.

Tool # 2 Building Community & Comments

Although I see the advantage of these great new tools, for me, the challenge is getting used to them. I can still remember when a notebook had paper, and a laptop was a part of a leg! Kidding aside, PLN is a great tool for collaboration among teachers to share ideas and meaningful conversations.

I posted comments on the following teachers' blogs;
Carlos Ortiz
Karen Gann
Monique Rice
Karla Urtiz
Alana Raybon