Limeades for Learning & Donors Choose

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE Sonic drinks, especially their ice. It's just so crunchy...don't tell my dentist though. :) Anyway, the reason I am talking about Sonic is to make sure you are aware of their latest crusade, Limeades for Learning. Each time you go to Sonic and purchase a drink, you receive a code that allows you to go to Limeades for Learning and vote for a classroom in need. The teacher submitted a project where supplies were needed on the Donors Choose site with a description of the project that they want to do with the class as well as the equipment needed. The projects range from a classroom set of a certain novel to playground equipment to projectors and document cameras.

What I love about it is that Limeades for Learning and Donors Choose put the power in the hands of the giver and the receiver. Both groups win here, as do the people who love Sonic (like me). My mom always told me if you don't ask you'll never know, and this site proves that...so I am challenging you to think of a need in your classroom, maybe you just need glue sticks for each student or maybe you would love a listening center with iPod Shuffles and then get out there and ask for it! What's the worst that could happen?

Skype in the Classroom

Photo from Will Lion

I want to start this post by saying, I love Skype! It helps me to stay in contact with friends and family for free and it's super easy. I have also found tons of great resources for using this tool in the classroom. I want to share several of those sites today, but first lets discuss what Skype is and how to get it on your computer.

Skype is basically a phone service that allows for computer to computer phone calls as well as computer to landlines. You will want to purchase a headset with noise canceling microphone and a webcam. The software is quick and easy to download. Once it's on your machine, launch the program for the first time and you will be prompted to setup your account.  There is basic information to fill out as well as deciding on your Skype name. Whatever you decided to use just remember that you will be using this username with your students and other professionals so hotmama might not be the best choice.

Next, you will want to find other Skype users, to do this click on the magnifying glass at the top of the Skype screen. You can then type in the information of the person you are searching for and click search. Once you've found the person, click "add" to add that user to your buddy list. The user will get a message asking them to approve you and add you to their list.

Finding a classroom to Skype with can be difficult but I suggest using ePals, it's a great site to make connections with other schools in an easy and safe way. Or this Skype in Schools wiki, where you can add yourself to the directory, find other teachers all around the world.
50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in your classroom is a great blog site that has just that, 50 ways to use Skype.

Some of the things the author suggests in this post might not work for you but many of them are awesome just as the title states. They are broken down into the following areas: 

• Promoting Education
• Promoting Community
• Skype Ideas for Teachers & Parents
• Resources for Getting Started
• Finding Others Using Skype

I really liked that they all break down the four walls of your classroom and allow your students authentic learning experiences. These activities give your students purpose behind what they are learning in your classroom!So, how do you plan to use Skype in  your classroom?

A Storytelling site- Storybird

Today I want to share a really cool storytelling site with you called Storybird. Thanks to Mel Bacon for sharing this with me. This site is awesome. You do have to have an account to create stories with this site but to read the stories that have already been created, it's free. In our district students aren't allowed to have user names and accounts that aren't controlled by the teacher so for us I would suggest using this as a way to help students brainstorm ideas for stories, use it as a discussion for author's purpose or as a whole class create a story together under the teachers account.

Below is a tour of storybird:


Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo.

How do you see using it in your classroom?

TGIF Tip-Blogging Guidlines

It's Friday!!! Today's tip is about blogging with students. The magazine Tech & Learning featured one of my FAVORITE bloggers, Kim Cofino. Kim is a 21st Century Literacy Specialist at the International School Bangkok in Thailand. She is an excellent resources for all types of technology integration.

On the Advisory Blog, Christine Weiser shared a cross-post, Student Blogging Guidelines by Kim Cofino. In this post, Kim discusses how she came up with this list of student guidelines with help from students in her building. This post is an excellent way to introduce blogging in your classroom or school while reminding students about internet safety and creating buy in. I believe that students will be much more willing to follow rules that they helped created rather that rules solely created by their teachers.

I don't know your situation but in our district we aren't allowed to give students access to creating their own blogs like Kim can do, but we are allowed to blog with our students. We do suggest that teachers inform parents about this activity and also create a contract for students to sign agreeing to behave appropriately while blogging.

How do you plan or currently use blogs in your classroom?

Word Magnet

I want to share an awesome site that someone on my PLN (Personal Learning Network) shared with me the other day. It's called Word Magnet, and it's awesome! Word Magnet is a site that allows you to type or paste words into a text box and then manipulate them around on several different types of graphic organizers. Several graphic organizers are a Venn Diagram, a stair step, a bull's eye, numbers, the alphabet, and many more.

Once you have chosen a graphic organizer, if needed, you select Done and all your text comes in underneath the organizer. The magnets can now be color coded, deleted and manipulated around the page. You can also make the whole group of magnets larger or smaller and add new magnets as needed.

There are many uses for this site, here are a couple:

• Introduce new vocabulary words
• Review vocabulary words
• Identify nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc via color coding
• Compare & Contrast characters from a story
• Identifying relationships between addition & subtraction or multiplication & division
• Identifying relationships between animal classifications or scientific classifications
• Comparing themes in a book

What are your thoughts? How would you use this site?