Sharing Tips and Tricks of Using Technology in the Classroom Part 2

[Carrie Albin]

In your courses you have been asked to share your tips and tricks of using technology in the classroom. 

[Joshua Vander Meulen]

One tool that I have used when creating projects is http://rubistar.4teachers.org/. This website is loaded with rubric templates that can be customized to fit the demands of any class project. In addition, the website stores the rubrics that are created. These rubrics can also be shared. This allows teachers to view what expectations other educators aligned with their project. Overall, the website is a great tool for rubric design and most importantly, it is free.

[Emily Stone]

Rubistar - great tip! I have seen this used from lower elementary through higher ed -- it seems everyone can use a little help creating rubrics.

[Angela Engardio]

I know what I am about to say is highly frowned upon by many - especially where I teach, but here it goes: I love having my students use their ipods and phones during class. Computer labs and/or library time for computer use provides only limited time for students to be online. Given the world the students live, in I love having them jump online when classmates have questions or they want to learn more about a topic. The internet is in their pocket - not left at home or turned off like many would prefer. For example, after talking about the White House Twitter and Facebook pages many students pulled out their devises and started adding these links in class. Many would say I needed to enforce putting the cell phones away - but for a bunch 16 year-olds to add the White House to their friends and following I wouldn't have felt like much of a teacher if I told them "No! Put that away!" So I guess my tip is trying to be flexible (and a little daring depending on your district) in allowing students to remain connected to the Web 2.0 when at school, not expecting them to pretend like it only exists in certain rooms during the school day.

[Antonio Aguillon]

Angelica I agree with you in that we should not tell students they can't use their personal mobile devises during class-- instead, we should give them educational materials they can look at on their devises.

[Dawn R. Harris]

Hi Everyone!
Thanks for all the terrific tips & tricks. They give me some great ideas for my classroom! I’d like to share a website from Indiana that I think is terrific: http://www.driveofyourlife.org/.
Drive of Your Life is a career exploration game that helps students learn more about themselves and more about careers. Students learn more about themselves by answering a series of questions about their abilities and preferences and discover what careers could interest them. Throughout the process, students get to customize their own car which they then take on a drive. On the way, they explore careers that match their style and view details about the careers like what a typical day on the job is like. At the end of their drive, students print a customized license plate that details their personal style and list of careers of interest.
Enjoy!
Dawn Harris

[Michelle Fairley]

I have found that the more I think I know about technology the kids know more, or at least they think they do. When teaching lessons that contain technology I always make sure that all of my links work because if there is any down time they become lost and are hard to get back on-task.

[Kristina Badgley]

3 Great Websites For Teachers:

(1) http://www.dropbox.com
This website is what I call a FREE “virtual flash drive.” It allows you to store up to 2 GB! You have to download the application to your desktop and from there, you can access your documents, pictures, presentations, etc from any computer wherever you are. We have also used it as a department shared source at school; we have the shared math folder that can be found on the desktops at school- but this is something that everyone can have access to outside of school. If you use a shared account, the more people that add, the more space you get for FREE!

(2) http://photopeach.com/
Probably the most visual slideshow option that you can add to a blog or website. It’s FREE and it’s a neat way to display photos or your class’s work (you can choose a variety of ways to have the slides rotate- here’s an example of my favorite that I found: http://photopeach.com/album/9xx3xi?ref=esp#spiral) to a post that you make! You can narrate the show and add music as well!

(3) http://www.43things.com/
As a teacher (and adult!) and I BIG on goal setting. I found this website to be an awesome place to list your goals- both short and long term. After registering for FREE, you are able to add 43 things to your list… and from there you are able to see how many others share the goal with you, set reminder emails for yourself, “check” the item off of your list, and more! It’s a neat tool and I want to incorporate it into my teaching sometime soon! (Have students set a few realistic goals for my class, and they can fill the rest of it with other goals if they’d like as well)… maybe at the start of the new semester in January I’ll try it out…

Try these out sometime!
~Kristina

[Emily Stone]

That is a great idea to use Dropbox as a shared storage space among colleagues. So far I have used something similar (box.net) as a backup file storage area for myself, just in case something happened to my laptop, and so I can access certain files from my work computer or someone else's computer. I will think about using Dropbox for future projects where I need to file share with others.

[Eric Ray]

2 GB of free memory space?  What a great idea.  I am going to look into this as a place to backup important files on my computer.  I have 5 different computers in my household right now.  If I have all five sign up that will give us 10 GB's.  Very cool.  Also, I want to share this with our tech department at school.  Our students have laptops, but will have to turn them in at the end of the year.  This could be a solution for students who want to save files and reload them if the computer is returned with a new image.  Thanks for the tip.

 

Eric Ray

[Dionna Harvell]

43 Things

I just reviewed the 43 Things website and think this would be a great ice breaker to start off the school year at any age. This give students goals to focus on and it also give the teachers ideals on what the students want to learn, what they may expect out of the class, themselves, school (if they are new to the school), and the teacher. This is something I am definitely going to add to my must use technologies for teaching!

[Andrell D. Williams]

What is my tips & tricks for using technology in the classroom.

I teach computers so i have to incorporate technology in every one of my lesson. One tip & trick is using the smart board b.k.a. the Promethean board. This is a great way to use technology in the classroom. The Kids love it. It excited them. They think it is touch screen and they see it as a digital chalk board, they love when i write on it. I use it to teach several lessons on different subjects and it always grab and keep there attention.

Another tip is using a ELMO

so SWEET! I love it. I was teaching my second graders about typing. I used the Elmo they watch me type on the Promethean board. BOY! were they excited, but i think it helped them a lot.

[Liat Rothfeld]

Blabberize.com lets you and your students create pictures that actually talk, using your own voices! It’s a great tool to use with any area of the curriculum. It's very easy, guides you through each step, and you can be done in as little as 5 minutes. No tutorials or help menus needed! I've used it with 3rd graders, but it's also great for older kids and adults.

Here's what you do: (I've included the approximate time each step took my students.)

1. Upload a picture (a photo, graphic, drawing, something famous/historical like Mount Rushmore, a world leader, atoms...) (1 minute)

2. Outline the mouth and choose how far the mouth should open. (10 seconds-2 minutes)

3. Record something for the picture to say, sing, etc. It gives you 3 options for recording:

A) Use a headset
B) Use a CELL phone (they simply give you a number to call and a pin number to punch in, and within 10 seconds you're recording through your cell phone!) or
C) Upload a sound clip...for example, a famous speech, a song, or if you just don't have enough headsets for the class, have students record ahead of time, and then they can just upload the sound later. This is also useful if you don't have enough time to do all the steps at once, or for all students at once. (10 seconds to several minutes, depending on if you're recording or uploading, and on the level of student independence)

The result: a picture which actually talks, with a mouth that opens and closes at the exact times as the words are heard. Some things my kids made talk were presidents on paper money, a sandwich, and regular people. If there is more than one person/animal/item in the picture, you can make them all talk at once.

I think you can imbed the talking picture (called a "blabber") in a blog or wiki, but I haven't tried it.