3rd+Grade

1.) The first thing I did was create a weebly website. I had always wanted to have a class website but was too scared to create one. Weebly is very easy to use. Go to weebly.com For a finished product example, please visit msdumasclass.weebly.com

2.) I then started a class blog at kidsblog.org Another "blazer" had done this and she talked about how the kids really got excited about it. Like her I was hoping that this would be another avenue to help kids write more. The example of our blog can be found on my weebly.

3.)I tried to do a voki (voki.com) but I could not get it to work. It will send you an email to activate your account, which I did, but it would never activate my account. So I finally gave up, maybe Jim can help you with this.

4.)Wall wisher- which is kind of like a blog. You can post a question or comment and the kids can comment by putting "post its" up on the wall. It is visually nice and inviting, however for working on the children's writing, I found the kidblog.org as a better choice for me.

5.)Delicious.com- way to bookmark websites so that no matter what computer you are on, you can always access it. Great for traveling teachers! When, we went back to our school and presented this, another teacher told us about symbaloo.com. This is another way to bookmark websites, but it is in more of a visual formats. You can also download your delicious bookmarks into symbaloo if you would like.

6.) edu.Glogster.com- this is an online poster. I used it as a Michigan project. The kids had to take what they learned in social studies class and make a travel poster to entice people to visit Michigan. Examples of completed projects are again on my weebly. Be careful, I had problems when I would log into this site, it would crash my school computer (not my home one). Also, when the kids were working on it in the lab, sometimes the site wouldn't work or it was slow. Finally, when we went to publish the final project some of the kids pictures were not there anymore or their background had disappeared. Even with those few problems the kids loved it! I showed them how to get on, type words, find images and they basically figured out the rest!

7.) Research help- I found this website and it is great! This is a search engine that shows video, has audio, as well as text. Qwiki.com It was very helpful for my 3rd graders, since a lot of websites are at a much higher reading level. Now we did learn today about the advanced search option in google that allows you to select reading level.

8.) SpellingCity.com - This is a great website for Elementary. You can add your spelling lists and it automatically loads them into different games and activities!

9.) Right now my students are working on biographies. After they write their paper, I am then going to have them make a short "cartoon" version of their person at goanimate4schools.com

10.) I am also working on another project using google maps/google earth. It is a take off of Flat Stanley. My class sent "Flat Gus" around the world to relatives and as we get information back, I am going to pin point it into google. Then the class can follow his adventures!

Next year, I hope to play more with the podcast items and making videos. Good Luck and have fun :)