Classroom Management Software

Recently a conversation took place on Twitter between several individuals, @shareski, myself, & @mbjorgensen concerning Classroom Management Software.


The start of the conversation came from @shareski, who stated that "Never been excited about demos that show how to control or lock student computers. We can do better." This stuck a chord with me and I responded, "If we're always controlling what they see, when do they learn to think for themselves? Just my opinion!" From my recollection @mbjorgensen felt that there was a place for such software, and posted a response on his blog, Jorgie's Learning Blog.


I've read the post, and agree heartily, there is a place for such software, especially in a computer lab setting. I've not spent much time in computer labs, and actually never considered the uses for such software. I love projecting the monitoring software so that students can self-monitor! It also seems very useful to help students collaborate from across the room.


I do also want to admit that I took @shareski's comment a little differently than @mbjorgensen. When I read the original comment I was thinking about filtering type software. I do agree there are certain sites that are not for student use, but we also have to start teaching students to be intelligent consumers. There is a lot of bad stuff out on the net, if we filter everything students will never learn how to navigate safely on their own.


I want to end by saying, I respect and follow @mbjorgensen, but this is one of the limitations of a platform like Twitter. I think both @mbjorgensen, & myself had different takes on the same comment. Twitter is very useful, I constantly find new and exciting information on Twitter, but the conversation can be confused. Thank you Jorgie for your comments, and clarifications! Please check out @mbjorgensen at Jorgie's Learning Blog and @shareski at Ideas and Thoughts from and Educator.




Patrick


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GameGoo

Annemarie, from SMARTBoards & More, shared another great site. GameGoo is a fun site for teaching literacy skills. It's fun, easy to use, and would work great on a SMARTBoard!

Patrick

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Good Company!

Apparently Teaching All Students is in good company. On a recent post at Learn Me Good Teaching All Students was listed as one of 25 Edublogs to read! Included in the list were some blogs I love to read including Free Technology for Teachers, and Larry Ferlazzo's Website of the Day. I'm honored to be mentioned with these blogs, and I found quite a few that I plan on start reading like Learn Me Good and I want to Teach Forever. Make sure you check out the other blogs on this list.

Patrick

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Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration

Richard Bryne over at Free Technology for Teachers has done it again! He's created an amazing resource for getting teachers started using Web2.0 Tools. Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration is a great resource for introducing Web2.0 to new teachers. Each website is listed with what it is, as well as ways to use it. Check it out today, and share it with someone new!

Patrick

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PhotoPeach

Anne Marie of Talking SMARTBoards & Much More posted a great site called Photo Peach. PhotoPeach is an easy way to create photo slide shows. You can upload photos from your computer, or use photos from you Facebook or Picasa account (Flickr seems to have some issues as of right now). You can then add music to your slideshow. You can pick from pre-selected music, or even borrow songs from Youtube.

It's a easy site to use, and makes a great slideshow. You can also share files, or embed them in other websites (Facebook, blogs, etc...). Here's a short one that I created in about 5 min.

Memphis on PhotoPeach



Patrick

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15 Free Web Apps for the 2.0 Teacher

Today we have a guest post from Karen Schweitzer.  She wrote a great post in April about 20 Online Resources for Special Education Teachers.

Patrick

15 Free Web Apps and Software for the 2.0 Teacher

 

Integrating technology in the classroom doesn't have to be expensive. There are many free web and software applications that can help the 2.0 teacher communicate with parents, assign homework, administer tests, and more. Here are 15 applications that are worth exploring:

 

Bookgoo - Teachers can upload documents to Bookgoo and mark them online. Bookgoo allows annotations, highlighting, and other markings.

 

Chalksite - Chalksite is free education software that can be used to create a class website, update online grade books, assign homework, send messages, and more.

 

Class Marker - Class Marker is a free online testing site that makes it easy for teachers and other users to create quizzes that can be taken online. The site marks all of the quizzes automatically to save time and make online testing more convenient.

 

EduSlide - Teachers can use EduSlide to create their own course or access lessons that have been created by other people. Courses can include testing modules, wikis, chat, blogs, slideshows, and more.

 

Engrade - More than 50,000 teachers use Engrade to manage classes online. The free set of tools includes an online grade book, an assignment calendar, secure online messaging, progress reports, and an online attendance book.

 

Flashcard Exchange - This web-based flashcard program can be used to print flashcards and study flashcards online. Teachers can use the flashcards that are already on the site or make their own.

 

Google Apps Education Edition - The Google Apps Education Edition is a suite of communication and collaboration applications. The apps have been specifically designed for schools and universities and are free to try and use.

 

GroupTweet - This free Twitter app makes it easy for teachers to set up a private group among parents or students. Messages can be exchanged via Twitter and can only be viewed by members of the group.

 

Mikogo - This free screen-sharing tool makes it easy to show your computer screen to other people who are online. Perfect for teachers who want to guide a group of students through web pages and other documents.

 

Natural Reader - Natural Reader is free software that converts text into speech. The software can read from Microsoft Explorer Internet pages, MS Word files, Adobe PDF files, and other text files.

 

SlideShare - This online slide creator makes it easy to create your own online presentation using PowerPoint slides or Word documents. Presentations can be kept private or made public and can be turned into webinars if you add audio.

 

Sync2It - Sync2It is a free bookmark management software application that synchronizes bookmarks so that they can be accessed across different machines and browsers.

 

VerbaLearn - This free application makes it easy to study English vocabulary over the web. VerbaLearn offers special sections for both students and teachers.

 

Web-Chops - Web-Chops is a cut and paste tool that's perfect for teachers who want to clip and share pages, pictures, and text on the web. Clips can be organized on one topic page and shared with one or more people.

 

WriteWith - WriteWith is a document sharing tool that can be used by groups who want to write together online. The free web app offers document sharing, tracking, and other nifty features.

 

 

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Karen also writes about online colleges and universities for OnlineColleges.net.

 

 

 

 

 

Literacy Lava

I came across a great resource recently.   It came across my Google Reader and I'm sorry to say, I can no longer find the poster!  Literacy Lava was created by The Book Chook.   It's a great downloadable and printable PDF full of tips for reading with children.  It covers babies, toddlers, and primary aged children and gives parents great ideas for how to read with kids.  Take a look.

Patrick

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Reflections on a new year...

So today is the last day of the school year.  By the time most of you are reading this my students will be coming for the last hour of the 2008-2009 school year.  This year has been quite different for me, in many, many ways.  This was the year that I started writing this blog, it was also the year that I really started paying attention to social media, and started managing my PLN.

This was a year, where I started at a new school district. It was frightening, and I wasn't sure I had made the right decision.  Now I know, it was the right move for me.  I moved from a district where I constantly felt like I was not good enough, to a district which has treated me like a king.  I am so glad to have found this district, and can't believe the overwhelming support I've been given.

This was the year I discovered what true inclusion and acceptance was like.   It started with a simple thing, I don't take attendance.  That may seem like a little thing, but what it really and truly means is that my students homerooms are theirs, and they come to me to work, but socially have a connection not truly possible any other way.   I have difficult students and all my colleagues made an effort to help and include the students in every part of the day.   Taking it upon themselves to treat them as they would any other child that was in their classroom.

This was a year, with little drama, trouble or strife.  My kids were great, the administration worked with me, and I had wonderful instructional assistants who listened and supported my decisions (even if they disagreed from time to time).

This was a year, and in just 3 short months, I'll be back here again.  Starting all over, and planning for another great year. I can't wait!

Patrick

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Google Documents

I've been a user of Google Documents for quite a while now and have always found it to be a great way to share ideas, as well as for Data Collection. You can import many types of Microsoft Word and Excel documents into Google Docs, but up until today none that ended in .docx. Today Google has added an option to import Word and Excel 2007 documents into Google Docs. Happy importing!

Patrick

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MapTrot

Robert Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers shared a great site for maps, Maptrot.  It uses Google Maps, and allows you to input multiple points of interest.  For me, I can see using this with students to see where multiple points of a community based trip are located in relation to each other.   It can also be used as part of social science lessons. It's a very easy to use site.  Most maps can be created in less than 5 min.



Patrick


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Kids Bowl Free

Recently on Twitter @modelmekids posted a link to the Model Me Kids Ning. The link was for Kids Bowl Free. This program is for families and children (any child) and allows kids to bowl up to 2 games per day for the entire summer. There are certain limitations and age limits, but it's a great offer for many families. There is a list of participating bowling alleys from across the the country, and more are being added all the time. Take a moment to check out and sign up today!


Patrick

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: FredArmitage

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Professional Development DVD's

http://www.alltogetherwecan.com/2009/05/31/professional-development-dvds-by-dr-caroline-musselwhite/

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FREE Unique Learning Summer Curriculum

Readers of this blog might remember that I've talked about News-2-You before. They also have a curriculum called the Unique Learning System. The Unique Learning System is a thematic curriculum with reading, math, science & social science standards built into it. They have included multiple bands, i.e. grade levels, to facilitate teaching multiple groups of students. And they are giving away their summer curriculum for free! You can download the free curriculum from here:

Summer Curriculum

Patrick

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