Tool #6

I went to Polleverywhere.com   I made a sample poll asking "What is your favorite animal?"  My students can definitely use this when collecting data to make graphs in math.  This would be a fun and exciting way to get everyone involved. They can create a poll to poll the class and even their parents (we can embed it in our class blog).  After they have obtained their data from Poll Everywhere they can make pictographs and/or bar graphs to show their findings. 

Replace your audience response systems with Poll Everywhere

I also went to todaysmeet.com
This would get the class involved in content questions for all subject areas.  I can ask questions and my students can answer.  They can also ask questions and make comments.  This would get everyone talking about what they are learning!
http://todaysmeet.com/tautenhahn

Tool #5

I went on Storybird.com and wrote a story using artwork provided by an artist.  Student would love writing stories and sharing them with others.  We have been working on writing stories that have a beginning, middle and end and using details to connect ideas.  You can create a teach account and manage your class.  It is safe because the account is private.  Student names are not shown and you can choose how to share stories.  I can then embed the stories on our class blog.  Check out my story about my 6 month old black lab named Nellie!

http://storybird.com/books/no-nellie/

I also went to wordle.com.  This can be used a variety of ways.  Students use it to do things like write their spelling words or write as many words they can find that follow the spelling pattern.  They also can write nouns, verbs, adjectives, synonyms, antonyms, etc.
I created a sample using my student's names.

Tool #4

My team can benefit from using Google Docs. We can create, share, then edit the document without having to attach it to Eduphoria or a seperate email. We definitely could have benefited from Google Docs when constructiong our year long road map. Students can create powerpoints and other documents and then share with their group members to edit and revise. Also, I think it will be neat to use Google Video, so my students can upload their created videos, like how to solve a word problem!

Tool #3

I have found that Discovery Education is the most useful.  There is an abundance of great videos that you can use.  Also, you can search for full videos or segments.  Magic School Bus and Life videos are two of the many great types of videos available to stream in your class.  Youtube brings up a lot of homemade videos, so it is not as easy to search for appropriate videos to use in the classroom.  One great feature is you can easily create a video with your class and upload it to Youtube.  We utilized this last year while our ducklings were hatching.  Students were able to relive the experience from home and show their parents on our class blog.

This video shows great pictures of stages of the life cycles of a variety of animals.

 This is a great video explaining "What is a bird?" found on Discovery Education. I cannot embed this video without downloading it so it is hot linked.

http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=B566FE3A-8B35-443D-A484-B5306E282C89&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US

Copyright and fair use allows teachers and students to use images, videos, etc. if they are using a secure location (not for all of the public to view) for the content.  This is new to me and great to know.

I downloaded Dropbox and found that it is a great program to hold all your files, pictures and videos.  Now my files (pictures, lesson plans, etc) on my home computer and work computer can be in one place.  I no longer have to email them to myself! :)  You can log on to dropbox from another computer and you can share pictures, videos and files with other people.