This week I’ve enjoyed training teachers how to use Blabberize with their students. This is a free Web 2.0 tool that will encourage students to publish their research and record their voices.  Go to www.blabberize.com and sign up. You will love it!

1. Sign up for a free account.

2. Log In and go to Make

3. Select a picture from your files. Click the arrow.

4. Crop your picture. Click the arrow.

5. Add a mouth. You will have to move the dots to place on the mouth. Click the arrow.

6. Select microphone to record. Click the arrow.

7. Click the red button to record. Click the arrow and Play your video recording.

8. Click Share and choose either a URL link to copy and post on your website or embed it like I did. Have fun!

Here is a birthday message I made for my niece:

24 educators from Greenville County Schools took an Intense 3 Hour Graduate class this summer at MT Anderson Support Center. We had 9 High School teachers, 5 Middle School teachers, and 10 Elementary School Teachers.

They learned so many cool ways to engage students in their classrooms this year using 21st Century Learning Web 2.0 tools.

We will use this post to evaluate the class:

Video

I love Edutopia! I get lost for hours when I explore their interesting articles and videos about engaging students in the learning process. One article that I downloaded is Edutopia Top 10 Tips for Using Media in the Classroom. It has some of my favorite websites and activities to do with students listed in one place. By researching and exploring Edutopia videos and articles, I’m inspired to take a risk and plan lessons that I’ve never tried before.

Also, I have thoroughly enjoyed using the GCSD Moodle Online Training Platform this summer. The students in our ALIVE class have done an excellent job posting to forums, reading articles, viewing videos and completing online training.  One of the blogs that we enjoyed reading is the Promethean Planet Blog . One idea that I so wish teachers would try is Flipping Your Classroom.  This is where the teachers records his/her lectures using video or podcast and posts the recordings on their websites or on their blogs.  Then all the time spent in class is actually creating projects, working in groups, researching, blogging, publishing, experimenting, writing, etc….

Many teachers also liked the website  www.Says-It.com that allows you to post the dates for upcoming events on cool signs (for example: McDonald’s Sign would have Test Friday, Study Your Vocab Words and it would be inserted into a Flipchart or Student of the Day would appear on a Concert Billboard sign.)  Check it out!

Online learning for ActivInspire is incredible on the Promethean Planet website. It allows you to learn at your own pace and get one on one individual feedback as you click the screen. Click here to view lessons: ActivInspire Course

Enjoy stretching your imagination and trying some of the online tips you learned about this summer with your class! They’ll love you for it!

I recently taught a workshop at Wade Hampton High School about Web 2.0 tools and I wanted to share some of my favorite ones with you.

The first one is www.tagxedo.com

Here are the directions:

Go to www.tagxedo.com and click on Gallery to see the tagxedos that have been created.

http://www.tagxedo.com/gallery.html

1. Visit this blog to view cool tagxedos : http://blog.tagxedo.com/
2. For our Foreign Language teachers:  http://www.tagxedo.com/languages.html
3. Click Create and install Silverlight. You may have to exit the program then go back in order for it to work.
4. Click Create again and then Click Load to load your words.  Suggestions: Copy and Paste a document that you or your students have created.  Use for Research Projects, Study Guides, Creative Writing, Foreign Language, Vocabulary Words, Poetry, Test Questions
5. The more times you type a word the larger it will appear. You or your students can type right into the space provided.
6. Choose the Shape you’d like from their templates or you can load your own image.
7. Then choose the Color, Theme, Font, Orientation and Layout.

Now you can click Save.  You can save as a JPEG or copy the Code Snippet and embed in Teacher Website or blog.

The next Web 2.0 tool I’d like to share is Voicethread.  www.voicethread.com

Here is a quick tutorial if you’d like to know how to make a Voicethread in 1 minute or less:  http://voicethread.com/share/8381/

Here is an example of a Voicethread I did with a few teachers last semester, just by uploading the pictures from the Windows 7 Sample Pictures folder.

http://voicethread.com/share/1486343/ Teachers and students responded using Web cams, typing, and recording their voices.

One more thing I wanted to tell you about Voicethread is you can go to the website and click Browse. You can find so many presentations on just about any subject. Just type the topic you are studying in the Search button and you can preview some Voicethreads that students and teachers have made to share.

I like to put Voicethreads on my Flipcharts in ActivInspire as Activating Strategies or on my blog or website as another way to learn about a topic besides lecture, PowerPoint, or the textbook.

If you’d like to see how to use Voicethread in your classroom, here is a link to show you how:  http://voicethread.com/media/misc/getting_started_in_the_classroom.pdf

In kindergarten, we are studying the value of coins.  Students are having so much fun counting pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  Empty your pockets and see if your child can name the coins and count the value!  MONEY MATTERS!

Click here to view a Voicethread about money.

Highly Effective Teaching Classroom

I heard a teacher friend say this week that every student deserves a smart teacher and I thought how true! I reflected on the classrooms I visited and the teachers I trained, and our need for continuous training. Our goal should be to be the best teacher we can be every day of our lives. Our students depend on us to prepare them to be the leaders of tomorrow. Here is my suggestion for the day: find another teacher who is passionate about teaching and learn from him or her. Read blogs, attend workshops, take classes so you can experience the thrill of learning something new. It also helps you experience the stress that comes with the learning process. It allows you to relate to your students and the stress they feel throughout each day

Also, surround yourself with people who are as smart or smarter than you in one of your many intelligences.  You can learn something new each day and be a lifelong learner.  (I wrote the first post sitting in my car using my iPhone……I wasn’t driving! I apologize for so many typos!)