My Head is in the Clouds!

With the increase in what is called "Cloud Computing", I thought I would talk about Windows Sky Drive.  Windows gives you a free place to store your documents online, up to 25 GB of free storage.  What is great about Windows Sky Drive, is that I can put my documents "In the Cloud" and I do not have to carry around a USB drive when I need to carry something to another computer.  The best part is, it is extremely user friendly.  Go to skydrive.live.com

Prezi! Your presentations will never be the same!

This is a great free tool to jazz up your presentations like never before.  It is also a great way to have your students present new information.  It is almost like a graphic organizer, but they can present it to the class!

"Presentations have not evolved much in the 50 years since the slide was invented, but Prezi is changing that. Prezi lets you bring your ideas into one space and see how they relate, helping you and your audience connect. Zoom out to see the big picture and zoom in to see details — a bit like web-based maps that have changed how we navigate through map books. " (From Prezi Website)


http://prezi.com/

Voki! Create a talking Avatar

Go to Voki.com and create your own talking avatar!  It is a great way to introduce a lesson, or add a homework message.  Check out the Voki at the top of my blog and you can see how much fun you can have with this tool.  You can even create avatars of famous people!  Have Abraham Lincoln introduce your unit on the civil war, or President Obama introduce your political science unit.  The sky is the limit with Voki.   http://www.voki.com/

Huge amount of resources--LiveBinder.com

Just found this website, LiveBinder.com, it has some great resources for about every subject you can imagine!  If you are looking for resources for a particular subject, you need to check out this website!  Other teachers have already taken the time to look for the resources, and you get to benefit from all their work. 

They have a huge amount of website resources, and web 2.0 resource listings.  They also list binders by subjects and grades, which makes it nice if you are looking for something like, "Reading resources for first grade".

http://www.livebinder.com/

Changing Technology

I am amazed to see how technology has changed so much in the past few years. I can remember in 1st grade, my elementary school got their first computers! When I was in high school, I learned how to program a computer using basic language. When I was in college, I got my first computer--a PC with Windows 3.1. I was in heaven!!! Now, we look back on these days and laugh when we see the amazing things technology can do. Do you remember your first experience with computer technology?