Web Site

Yahoooooo! My website is finished! Once I got the hang of Dreamweaver, it was fairly easy to get it put together. Being that my blog has been such a useful tool for me, I'm not sure how much more my website will have to offer, especially since I don't have regular access to Dreamweaver. But I am glad that I've had the experience of building it from the ground up.

Also, today is the last day of class- or at least of sitting in the building for class. After this, we'll have one last big project, the webquest. I am looking forward to getting some guidance on putting it together. I've already got my ideas layed out and am excited to get going!

I heart PREZI!

In the spirit of a true techno geek, I have a new love- Prezi.com. In search of a creative way to present on Wikis for class tomorrow, I came accross this fabulous new presentation program a few weeks back. It makes Power Point seem like "death by bullet point" as the creators of Prezi like to joke. Now I would have mentioned this site sooner, but then my creativity points might have shot right out the window! ;) Nonetheless, check it out and make sure you don't have anything pressing to do for a few hours if you're anything like me!

Free Rice

Is it possible that introducing your kids to more educational technology could feed the hungry? YES. Using the website, http://freerice.com/, your students can practice vocabulary, art history and more. Every question they answer correctly adds a virtual grain of rice to a bowl. These grains eventually manifest into REAL food for REAL people. Its true! Try it! Even better, get your KIDS to try it!

Cool Site

Teaching geometry on every level can be a challenge, and the more tools you have to assist in your teaching, the better! Graph paper is often too small for my second graders and I found this site helpful in creating homemade templates. But traditional graph paper is only the beginning- on this site you can create triangular, octagonal and any other repeated geo-shape paper you can imagine. To learn more, visit http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Have you ever "Wordled?"

I was introduced to the most fun web tool recently! It is not only fun and interactive, it is pretty to look at, too. It generates neat word splashes like the one I've used for the above banner. I have found a few ways for the kids to use it and they love it as well. If you have never wordled before, get to it! http://www.wordle.net/

Survey Monkey

I was pretty excited about doing the survey monkey assignment as this is a tool I have been meaning to use for a long time. And what better reason to finally do it than a grad school grade??? Anyway, I had planned to do a trading post in my classroom this week as an introduction to some tough economic concepts for 2nd graders- scarcity and opportunity cost. Then it came to me! How about doing a preliminary survey to see what the children desired to trade, let the trading post happen and use the information gathered in the survey to help explain what occurred? So far I have given the pre-trading post survey for homework Monday and tomorrow is the big day. For homework tomorrow night, the kids will complete the post-trading post survey. Already they have mentioned "how cool" it was doing the survey for homework, so thus far it's been a big success!