Web Tools

Hello! This past week I focused a lot on web tools to use in the classroom. I am sharing with you some of my favorite web tools that are easily applicable to many grades and subjects. These are all fairly easy to use and are extremely helpful. Go explore!

Glogster can be accessed on the web and can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom. I have used it before to make an advertisement, a biography, picture collage, and an end of the unit project. Glogs are can be very helpful as you can add Youtube videos, sound, animations, pictures, text, and more to personalize it. They are fairly easy to use and are tons of fun to play around with. I will definitely consider asking my students to use Glogster for assignments similar to what I have done in the past.

Prezi is another free resource that is available on the web. This is a unique and creative way to present information for any subject as a summative project. Alike Glogster, you can also add Youtube videos, text, and photos to your Prezi. I personally never used this before college, but have since found it a valuable resource. I find it fun to personalize and entertaining to watch. 

Educreations can be used to record someone writing and talking during a lesson. There is an iPad app available for this tool, or there is a website which has the same capabilities. Tools such as markers, backgrounds, and photos can be used to construct a lesson. The record button will record all activity on the app and one's voice. Once a lesson is completed it can be shared with students through the website, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, uploaded to Youtube or a web link. There is also access to lessons created by other teachers. These lessons can be downloaded and used in the classroom. It can also be helpful to record parts of a lesson for a student who may be absent.

My WebQuest

This past week I completed my social studies webquest. The purpose of the webquest is for students to research a state that they would want to convince their parents to take them to on a family vacation. They must learn about the capital, state bird, state flower, climate, tourist destinations, etc. The end project is to create a brochure that presents the information that they have found and entices their parents to the destination. For my website I used Weebly, which is an incredibly easy web tool to create your own websites. I highly recommend it! Explore both links!

New Resources & Findings

While we were off of class this week, I spent some time looking for social studies resources that pertain to what I may be teaching in the future. I looked for where I can find lesson plan ideas, hands on projects, teaching materials, historical archives, and other teacher resources. Some of my past favorite websites with compiled subject ideas are Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. I also found a new great resource called Classroom Aid.

Pinterest is a popular form of social media which is comprised of "pinning" ideas to save to use that may interest you for future use. On this site you can search specifically for ideas/pins or even follow others who pin similar ideas that you like. There are endless ideas!

Teachers Pay Teachers is a website where teachers upload various teaching tools they have created for others to download. They are sorted according to price, grade, and subject. There are plenty of free social studies mini-lessons, projects, units, etc. It is great to find resources made by real teachers since it can give you new perspectives and ideas, and it may be more effective if it has been used in the classroom before.

A new website that I found is called Classroom Aid . This website has links to many other websites that have library archives, interactive maps, documentaries, teacher blogs, and social studies games. Check it out!