Elementary Technology

A new way to communicate….

Wall wisher is a free, online notice board maker.  It’s ideal for making announcements, posting notes and responding to questions. Wall wisher is an online bulletin board that can be collaborative and interactive. All you have to do is follow this link http://www.wallwisher.com/ to post a question, make an announcement, take notes or anything else that comes to mind. Your students can comment, respond and post. They can even include images or videos. Imagine reading a book and asking the students to post an answer to a question about the story online.  Not only do they write for an audience but they can also see each others responses.

I heard about Wordle a while ago and tried it out and thought it was pretty cool. I passed it on to our writing resource teacher who also thought it had great possibilities for use in writing lessons. So, I have been waiting to find the right time and the right way to introduce Wordle to some of our teachers. Today, while searching for Martin Luther King resources, it came to me. Create a Wordle out of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and see what it looks like.  Although I have heard excerpts of the speech for the past few years, I have not listened to nor read the entire speech. So, here it is… no surprise to me at which words are the largest. I think I found a great resource for teaching about Martin Luther King and what he was all about. I think he would have been proud of his Wordle.

http://www.wordle.net

For those of you who are just starting to create new lessons on your SMART Board…here’s a gift. I always advise people to search for lessons that may already be created. They may meet all your needs or may need to be tweaked slightly and then will be just what you’re looking for. Here are two notebook files for your SMART Board, ready to go. One for grades K-2 on counting change and one for grades 3-4 on multiplication practice.

Counting Change notebook file

Multiplication Wheel notebook file

And here’s the site they came from with many, many more.

http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/EDTECH/SB/templates.htm

Welcome to my blog. This is a place you will find useful information for integrating technology in any elementary classroom. I will update you on current websites, web 2.0 tools, best practices and lesson plans. Please be sure to check back often.