I recently found some good websites through the different blogs that I follow.  I will add some of them to the Jefferson Edline page for easier access.  Since I really don't type up newsletters anymore, I thought I would send this out in an email after posting it on my blog.  Enjoy....

Typing for primary (K-2)

•  http://www.uptoten.com/kids/kidsgames-coordination-lettergame.html
• http://www.tvokids.com/play/bees_and_honey/bee2blueback.swf

Typing for intermediate (3-5)

• http://www.tvokids.com/games/keyboardclimber
• http://funschool.kaboose.com/gamesFiles/flash/kaboose/spidertyper/spidertyper.sw

Interesting math sites

• http://penflakes.com/flakepad/ - design things and talk about symmetry
• http://www.thinkingblocks.com/index.html

Science

• http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes/

Reading

• http://www.wordtamer.co.uk/
• http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/

And just for fun

• http://www.drawastickman.com/

Technology Use in Schools

I am just now getting to the summer issue of THE Journal.  I found an interesting article about technology use in the classroom.  Some studies are showing that teachers and students are not using the resources that are available to them.  So...what is it like at your school?  Are teachers using the technology that they have in their classrooms?  Are they using it in meaningful and engaging ways?  Are students using technology in the classrooms?  All these questions are very relevant since we are putting tons and tons of money into purchasing new tools all the time.  Follow the link to read the article and let me know what you think.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/1105/journal_201106/index.php?startid=42

Cyberbullying- Good resources and suggestions

Good article from THE Journal on cyberbullying.  http://goo.gl/Gen72

Anne Frank House

This is a very informative website showing a 3D walkthrough of Anne Frank's house.  It provides videos and excerpts from her diary at different points of interest in the house.  I really enjoyed learning new information as I took the tour.  http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Enter-the-3D-house/#/house/start/help/

Three Awesome Websites

Love these three websites about our solar system.  I spent a couple hours this morning perusing the loads of information on the 50th anniversary website for NASA.  It was great!  Check all three out.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/50th/main.html

http://www.solarsystemscope.com/#plans

http://climate.nasa.gov/Eyes/eyes.html

Sugarsync

I have been using Dropbox for about a year and a half now and I don't know what I would do without it!  It is amazing to have files on my laptop and my home computer always in sync.  I never have to worry about losing a file since I can always go online and find any file I have deleted.  I trusted it enough to hold all my national board portfolios.  You get 2GB free and the more you share it, the more space you can get.  I am up to 5.5 GB!  I don't have any plans to change, but I just found out about Sugarsync.  It looks like a similar program to Dropbox, but a free account gives you 5GB right from the start.  I am not sure if you could use both of the programs together on the same computer or not.  It might not be a bad idea for those who haven't tried either program and want to start backing up their files.  https://www.sugarsync.com/

I liked this article from the Sacramento Bee about home visits.  http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/23/3573235/teachers-visits-to-students-homes.html

Jotforms

Jotform Dropbox Video from Interlogy Internet Technologies on Vimeo.

Presidents Interactive through Google Earth, Art Project, and Google Body

I read about the following website from the Google blog.  You can explore all of the US presidents on the Google Earth map. View their birthplace and click on the number icon to learn more.  You can also see a progression of the states that voted during each president's election (shaded in red).

I heard about these other Google features a while ago, but it wasn't until recently that I was able to take a look at them.  Google Body allows you to explore the human body just like you would in Google Earth!  It is amazing!  The other link is for the Google Art Project.  Here you can discover and take tours of famous art museums from around the world.  You can also zoom in one any piece of art to get a closer look.  


Google continues to expand their repertoire!  They amaze me with the amount of content they provide for free.  

Math Resources

I really liked this article by Kelly Tenkley.  I follow her blog and came across this article which is full of math resources.  Check them out.

BTW..some of you have mentioned that you couldn't find the link to the article.  If you click the title of this post, it will take you to the article.

Thanks!

More resources from sessions I did NOT attend

Googlize your classroom- https://sites.google.com/a/pgcps.org/googlize-your-classroom/home

Voicethread: Turn up the Volume: https://sites.google.com/site/edtechlearning/voicethread-pumpupthevolume

100+ Free Internet Resources for Real Teachers in Real Classrooms- https://sites.google.com/site/meetthegeeksii/

Good bye FETC!

Loved the 80* weather while we were here. The conference was shorter than I remember, but still had a great time and I learned a lot while here.  The last session I attended was great but I didn't gather any notes while I was there.  Hall Davidson was the presenter and he also did the closing session immediately following the last session.  I was disappointed when I found out that the person who I thought was going to be the speaker during the last session was not there at all.  Kari Byron was on the conference program so I thought that she would be talking to us.  She sent in a little video and that was it.  Hall Davidson did most of the talking and even that was short.  I suppose it is a good thing it was short because the room was packed!

Gail Lovely- Tech for Tots: Using technologies to enhance early learning

This presenter went through a lot of different sites.  I tried to list them below so that you can check them out.  I liked the iboard link from the UK and there are others worth looking at.

Sites for students must be:
Uncluttered
Curriculum rich
Fun
Purposeful
Interactive
Engaging

http://newserver.iboard.co.uk/ website from UK with many interactives

Http://simplybox/public/?I'd=22915

Tools for creating:
Storybird.com
Kerpoof.com

Offline tools:
Photosoftware
2simple software
Fable vision
Projects:
Projects by Jen
Journey North
Collabortion:
Twiddla- drawing
Titanpad- writing
Stixy
Blogs- mrs cassidy's classroom blog
Myna
Voicethread- Check out: Letters from the internment camp
Aviary

Apps:
Http://myap.ps/ecctech

Timer:
Minutes please website
Internetbuttons.org
Bridgeurl.com
Techfortots.yolasite.com- all the resources here

Web tools that will make your classroom rock

Tinyurl.com/6cnbfkh

This is the website to the slides from the presentation.  I already knew about most of these resources.  Once I saw the list of items they would be talking about I decided to go to another session, but I thought that I would still share the link of resources with you.

Rushton Hurley- Getting teachers to adopt technology: what to do and not to do

I first attended a Rushton Hurley session two years ago and I loved
his humor and especially enjoyed his tools that he gave us.  He is a wonderful speaker and he uses videos and other resources to grab your attention and make you think.


xrl.us/NVnews this is a link to his newsletter sign up page so that
you can get an email with different links on a regular basis.


Tinyurl.com/RHatFETC2011
The link above is for all the links he shared with us during the
presentation. Below, I will try to jot down some notes from his
session.

*Technology should help my kids learn better or should save me time.

Training-
Do's and don'ts:
Don't limit by requiring
Do remind them of their expertise

Don't start with standards
Do show something fun
Tag galaxy is visually compelling- capture their attention

Don't sit everyone in a lab for training
Do allow regular (and short) sharing time
Amazing things happening on our campuses happening every day

USING FUNDS: do's and don'ts
Don't limit technology to labs
Do show what's possible with one or two computers in the classroom

Don't buy expensive software that teachers haven't used *(didn't catch
everything this said)
Do learn what's freely available

Don't blanket the campus with expensive hardware
Do use targeted spending to focus purchases

Primary Technology: They can do it too!

All resources posted here: primarytechnology.pbworks.com
This session focuses on the primary age group. The presenters gave
many resources for kidspiration. They also gave us different web2.0
tools like: voicethread, glogster, kid blog and many more. All
resources are located on the website above.

Programming Wizards: using Kerpoof

Well...my first session was packed full of people so I am attending a session on using Kerpoof in the classroom. Kerpoof.com is a website that I have demonstrated to many of my teachers. Kerpoof allows you to do many things, but for this session the presenter is demonstrating how to use it to help the children understand programming using the movie feature. Devren Hobbs showed us a brief tutorial on using Kerpoof and then showed us how that correlates to computer programming. I don't know very much about programming but the idea that the very basics of programming can be taught to elementary children could be very useful. I like the idea that the teacher creates a simple movie and then gives the children a timeline to write out the actions that they witnessed.

Link to a Kerpoof Lesson Plan:  http://www.kerpoof.com/edu/plans/Programming_Wizards/Programming_Wizards.pdf

Ready for FETC!

Well, I am with my wife in beautiful Orlando, Florida enjoying the
warm temperatures. I will try to update my blog with every session I
attend and important things I find out.