FotoFlexer

         I spent some time playing around with the possibilities of FotoFlexer. There were a couple of things I liked right off the bat. The first was that I could access my photos from Flickr to enhance and edit. The next is the vast number of ways you can alter a photograph. You can do the basics like cropping, rotating, and flipping. You can also add text, make a collage of multiple pictures, distort the images in several different ways, add animations, and the list goes on and on. This software has an abundant number of possibilities. I am really excited about this because I take a lot of pictures in my classroom. My students don't generally receive yearbooks, and the collage capability would by great in our class producing their own yearbook.
         The only issue I had was printing. I couldn't find a way to print from the site, and if I saved the pictures to my computer I had difficulty opening them to be able to print that way. I am going to continue to play around with it and find what I am doing wrong. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Why I Love ThinkFree!

        ThinkFree is a type of free web-based software. It allows you to upload documents, spreadsheets, and presentations so you can access them anywhere you have Internet access. It is also compatible with Microsoft Office. The first thing I thought of was how I could use this. Every day I bring my school laptop home with me. ThinkFree will give me the ability to access what I am working on at home without having to lug my laptop home every night. It will also aid in sharing documents with fellow teachers. Right now if there is something that needs to be shared with others it is usually through e-mail, or zip drives. Employing the use of ThinkFree will give everyone access to what we are working on as a group at all times. In terms of student use, it would be helpful in a school-home connection capacity. They would have access to projects or papers they were working on where ever they are.
        The only negative that I noticed was when I tried to access documents I uploaded from my computer on my phone. I can view them, but not edit them. From what I understand, from what is posted on the site, you can purchase an upgraded version which allows you to edit from a mobile device. Barring that little drawback I think this is great software that I will definitely use.

Here is a link to my classroom webpage. What I have started with is very basic for the beginning of the year. I would use this website to keep my parents informed of upcoming events, to post pictures of what we are doing in class, and to post student work.

This is a concept map that I would use with my second graders when we do our big Science Fair Report in the spring. Small groups of students conduct experiments of their choosing and then report on their findings. As this is the largest writing project we do all year it would be helpful for the students to break it down into categories. We would probably make a map together, or I would give them a map with just the headings and have them fill in the rest.

In second grade we discuss slavery, Harriet Tubman, and the underground railroad. This map will allow them to travel one of the paths that Harriet Tubman used to ensure safe passage to freedom for so many people. I would first display the map as a whole group project. This way I could show them how to navigate the map. I would then let them travel the map with a partner. I would also have questions for them to answer for each marker on the map. When they reached the end they would click the link to The Journey, this will give them more information about the trip they just took.
View Underground Railroad Route in a larger map

One educational podcast I subscribed to is called Bytesize Science. It has a series of short audio and video podcasts explaining different science related topics such as the digestive process, the chemistry of fireworks, how solar energy works, the chemistry behind cotton candy, and many more. Their full content in a "bytesize" format would keep the interest of almost any grade level. Click here to enjoy Bytesize Science.