PowToon for Presentations

I was looking for a fast, simple, and engaging presentation tool when I came across PowToon.  PowToon is an easy tool that allows the user to create animated "slideshows."  It is fantastic to use in the classroom and there is a basic FREE account that can be utilized.  Once you log in for the first time, the PowToon Wizard will guide you through using the animation tool (which is SUPER easy).  If you desire to use PowToon with students, an $8 a month fee will allow the teacher and 60 students access to the creation tool.

PowToon Tutorials

Here is an example of a quick PowToon that I created today.

Common Sense Media- Easy Way to Preview Media

I don't know about you, but for me as a parent and a teacher it has gotten harder and harder to decide what may or may not be appropriate for children to view.  One thing I love about this website and app is that it not only gives you the rating, but it also tells you WHY the rating was given. 

The following was taken from www.commonsensemedia.org

	Common Sense Media helps families make smart media choices. We offer the largest, most trusted library of independent age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books, and music.  Our Parent Concerns and Parent Blog help families understand and navigate the problems and possibilities of raising children in the digital age.
	Common Sense Education provides teachers and schools with free research-based classroom tools to help students harness technology for learning and life. Our K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum teaches students how to make safe, smart, and ethical decisions in the digital world.  And our revolutionary educational rating system, Graphite, helps educators discover, use, and share high-quality digital products that propel student learning.
	Common Sense Kids Action works with policy makers, business leaders, and other advocates across the nation to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed. Kids Action works to drive policies at the state and national levels that ensure all kids 0-5 have access to vital education and health resources; that all children have high-quality digital learning experiences; that their online data and privacy is protected; and that child poverty is reduced in America. With over 65 million Common Sense users, more than 275,000 educators, and potential advocates in every home and school across the nation, Common Sense’s advocacy platform is building a movement dedicated to making kids our nation's top priority.

Why I Love Kidblog

We all know that teachers are rich, right?  Wrong.  So, usually I steer clear of resources that cost money.  However, when it comes to having my sweet students create their own learning portfolios on a blog the $36 annual fee for Kidblog is well worth the money.

The Top 5 Reasons I Love Kidblog
1.  Ease of use- Even for my students who struggle with using technology, one 30 minute lesson was all it took to have them blogging on their own.  It was very quick for me to register my students, and each student got their own page.  Kidblog uses a very simple design and it almost guides the blogger through the posting process.

2.  Management- I can control who can post, what posts, and who can view it.

3.  Safety- Unless I (the teacher) have added you to the blog, you will not be able to see any posts.

4. Collaboration- In reference to #3, if I want to collaborate with another classroom we can link our classes so that they can view and comment.  This is great for global awareness and 21st Century collaboration skills.

5.  Parent Access- A student can send their parent an invitation to "join", but that parent can only see his/her own child's blog posts.

Mentor Texts

I don't know about you, but sometimes I struggle with matching the perfect text to the objective that I am teaching.  So after doing some extensive research  Googling, I came across this blog that I absolutely love.  It is called, Teach Mentor Texts and you can find tons of books with excerpts, suggested paired reads, and writing prompts.  Simply click on the label that matches the objective you are teaching and a list of books with teaching ideas will pop up on your screen!

Flubaroo

I have known about flubaroo (thanks to an awesome colleague, Dr. Vann Lassiter) for quite a while, but have not had a chance to really use it until today....and I LOVE it!

Flubaroo is an add-on that can be used with Google forms.  It will grade assignments for you and will also indicate the percent correct for each question (ex. 58% of students got #13 correct).  This feature allows for a quick data analysis of which questions posed the most problems.  In my case, I am able to take that information and locate/create similar problems/scenarios for my students to practice with. 

I have linked the Flubaroo user guide to this post which includes step by step instructions and video tutorials:)  

This is a wonderful FREE resource that I am sure you will appreciate. 

Book Wizard by Scholastic

Scholastic has a website/app called Book Wizard.  This website/app is very helpful for the teacher looking for those "just right" books.  Books can be found by using reading levels as well as by searching for titles.  Once found, most books provide the genre, interest level, reading level, and some even include free teaching resources!  The app includes a scanner, which helps the teacher to quickly identify the above mentioned categories.  

Some minimal cons include that not all books are listed, not all categories have information provided (ex. some might not include the genre), and not all have free resources.  However, as far as FREE resources goes, this app/website is definitely worth checking out!

Goodreads

This year I made the switch from teaching math and science to teaching reading and social studies. Now don't get me wrong, every teacher is a reading teacher, but this change has led to my temporary hiatus from blogging about technology.  This is largely due to the fact that I believe that a teacher needs to know their content and be comfortable with it before they begin to enhance it with a lot of new technology.  Throughout the year I continued to use the technology/programs/apps that I was already familiar with, but I did take a break from searching out anything new/cutting-edge.  

Now that we are approaching the end of the year and I start thinking about next year, I have once again begun to search out tools that will make my classroom more effective (and some tools that I think are just awesome for myself).

The website Goodreads is one of my new favorites (and yes, there is an app for that).  This website is almost as addicting as Pinterest.  Once you set up a free account you are able to rate books that you have read.  As you rate your previously read books, the system makes recommendations to you for future reading.  One of my favorite parts of the app is the scanner.  I was recently in the store and saw several books that I would like to read, but since I currently have a stack on my nightstand I did not purchase them.  Instead, I scanned the barcode with my app and added them to my "want to read" virtual shelf.  As you investigate different books that may interest you, ratings and book reviews from other members of the goodreads community can be viewed.  You can also follow your "friends" and see what they are reading/have read.

So how does this apply to my classroom?  This app is nicely correlated to genres, and therefore I can search through children's literature, fiction, historical fiction, etc. and based upon what my class has enjoyed reading I can find suggestions for future reading.   Older students may enjoy having their own log-in and access to the app.  I would probably suggest not using it with younger students as inappropriate books may be located while conducting a search.  

Give it a try!  It's free and I really think you will enjoy it:)