Technology & Learning in District #205: 10 Truths About Teaching With Tech–from Clouducation

Like what this says and how it says it. So many of my colleagues are desperately clinging to their "traditional" teaching tools - my philosophy is changing - more of a "why fight it" frame of mind.

Technology & Learning in District #205: 10 Truths About Teaching With Tech–from Clouducation

32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom

This relates directly to my inquiry. So excited to find this and love how it is presented.

32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom

facebook for educators

Lots of great resources on Twitter today. I am going to have to have a widget on my blog for "related articles" to store these gems.

facebook for educators

5 ways Social Media has made me a better educator | Ronswithscissors's Blog

This has some great reminders and reflects a path I am striving to travel.

5 ways Social Media has made me a better educator | Ronswithscissors's Blog

5 things I have learned from students about education technology… « CLOUDUCATION

I really like what this had to say about us assuming kids know so much about technology as it is something I have been saying for a while now.

I was also really interested in the comment about teaching kids about email - so true! It is such an important part of my day yet students groan when I ask them to email me something.

5 things I have learned from students about education technology… « CLOUDUCATION

Simple Steps to Leverage Social Media for Your School | Educator Studio

This has some great advice and links. Learning more from Twitter every day ;)

Simple Steps to Leverage Social Media for Your School | Educator Studio

Six Reasons Why Kids Should Know How to Blog | MindShift

Found this on Twitter and think it confirms why I am blogging with my English 12 students, and why it is important.

Six Reasons Why Kids Should Know How to Blog | MindShift

First class to blog

As I write this post, my first block of English 12 is blogging their responses to some quotations from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. We are using Kidblog.org and so far I am pleased with the ease of sign-up and log-in and the students seem to be able to use it with little difficulty. I like that I could have all of them set up before they came to the computer lab. This made the log in smooth as they just had to select their name and then use the password I gave them.

I am interested to figure out why kidblog.org advertises that they are perfect for elementary and middle school classes. So far I have seen little to lead me to believe this won't work well for high school classes as well. They are able to add images, video, hyperlinks and can also change fonts, text size, bold, etc.. So far I am impressed with this tool.

The next step is to see how many of them access it outside of class to finish this first assignment.

Oh, and to add to my inquiry, I tweeted about the class blogging while they were doing it :)

Here is a Flickr slide show of the kids at work.