About Me

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I teach 8th Grade History and I love to teach kids. I am going into my 3rd year as a teacher. At the moment I am working towards my masters in instructional technology.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Museum Box

This is a neat site that allows students to create presentations to show and display pictures, images, and documents

museum box

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

SMART Response

I got to play with a SMART response system in class today! My little head is reeling with possibilities. There were some technical difficulities but nothing that playing a bit more won't solve. This program produces the most beneficial data about students, that along with the ease of use makes this my new favorite toy!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

5 minute videopedia

AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME! This web source is sooo cool. It is a collection of videos that are all around 5 minutes that cover a variety of topics. I found quite a few that related to my content area. Now you have to do some searching but it is sooo worth it. I found three videos that I can use to highlight events that occured in the civil war! It seems more like a collection of movie maker videos made by people who are professionals. I found the content page much more helpful so I have included it Here! Really check it out! It is really cool. I am not sure yet if I can get it at school because of the firewalls but I sure do hope so!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Facebook use idea

Since most of our students are familiar with facebook and the formatting it would be a great idea to capitalize on that. I read an article on a blog I follow History Tech about how to use it to do research about people. If we do a print screen copy and paste to a profile and then block out the information and pictures to replace it with our own information (like with info about Abe Lincoln). This could be a way to encourage our kids. My only issue is how to publish it so that they can edit the page to add things but not change what is already there (like moving the boxes that hide the information). Any ideas please comment! On the blog I found this on he also mentioned using it for twitter as a discussion piece for classes but I am not familiar enough with twitter to grasp that one! :)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

opportunities for Pen Pals around the world

I found a great site that enables teacher from around the world to put out ads for correspondance with classes around the world for various reasons. There are hundreds of different countries participating and all are looking for penpals for thier students. This seems like a great opportunitiy for student to student communication in a safe enviroment! Students of the World Seems soooo cool!