Citizen Science from Smithsonian: Shout

The Shout conference series is an excellent FREE way to engage your students. Your class can participate in live webinars to meet with experts. Here is a description from the website:

"Shout invites educators and students to take an active role in global environmental issues. Connect online to interact with experts in the field, share ideas, and collaborate with people around the world who, like you, are committed to solving environmental challenges. Shout gives participants a framework for success, with resources and tools for exercising social responsibility while building the 21st-century skills of collaboration, innovation, and critical thinking. When students are connected through technology and empowered to build activities in their own way the learning experience extends far beyond the four walls of a classroom."

Learn more about Shout here: http://www.smithsonianconference.org/shout/

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Flash on Ipad

Installed this great new app called Rover that allows you to use Flash based sites on the iPad. Used it with my iPad 2 today and it worked great! You just open the app and either use the app suggested sites or surf for your own. I tried Word Dynamo and was able to play the flash based games. I also tried Starfall. Both worked like a charm. There is a small keyboard icon in the upper right corner of the browser in case the ipad keyboard doesn't open. The app is free for now. Try it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rover/id483262612?mt=8

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Pledge Now

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NCLB in the comics

I love Web 2.0 tools and thought I would use ToonDoo, one of the student favorites, to create this cartoon about a funny story from our family. If you haven't tried it yet, you should. It is lots of fun. Our students have created ToonDoo's of vocabulary words, events in American History, New Year's Resolutions, math problems, and more. The commenting feature allows for collaboration and the kids love the chance to be creative and get real feedback. Enjoy! Note, I've posted the comic twice so you can see the two embedding options they offer. One has a scroll bar and one is interactively scrolled.

by camruns | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

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Message to the President from 1st Graders

Here is a great example of giving kids a voice. Here are the Corgill Kids-1st graders, sending a message to President Obama and the Secretary of Education.

Go to You Tube and Share your comments with the class. Tweet

Easy Live Streaming from your phone

A friend introduced me to QIK. It is an easy way to share live streaming with anyone anywhere. I was able to share my son's symphony concert with my family who couldn't make it just by turning on my phone and starting QIK. The live broadcast was available online and participants could participate in chat while watching. It also records it for future viewing. You can download and embed recorded videos as well. This is a great service. Remember that anyone can stream so you should not really let students head to the main site because you never know what will be live at the time. However, you have your own site that carries your streams so you could direct link to your own QIK site. See example below.


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Connecting with Friends and learning new things

Because of the vast array of technology tools out there, we were able to easily connect my daughter's 1st grade class in Alabama with a 1st grade class in Canada! Ms. Cassidy's class in Canada had a Yack Pack on their site which we used to call in and see if they were available. They were, and 5 minutes later we were Skyping and learning about each other. We visited the students' blogs and learned about Pictaps where you can create drawings that will dance. We are studying the human body so it will be fun to try drawing our self portraits and watching them move. Thanks to our friends in Canada for teaching us lots of new things. My daughter made her first Pictap below. You will soon be able to see the Corgill kids' Pictaps and new blogs since we have been inspired by our Canadian friends.

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