Shelfari

Shelfari is a really neat tool! Not only can I keep up with the books that I have read; but also, I can read review for books that I haven't even read yet. This would be a neat way for a class to keep up with all of the books that they have read throughout the year. I think the visual of all of the books would really open kids eyes to how many books they have actually read! The organization and graphics of the website are both adult and kid friendly. Thanks for recommending this site, I will definitely use it both personally and professionally.

Image Generators

This was so much fun! Sorry, I used all wedding pictures but they were the only pictures I had on my flashdrive. I could really see children enjoying the FD Toys site. It was really neat and there were so many cool things you could do with it! I really enjoyed the generator blog; especially the madmen activity. I couldn't quite understand teh Letter James site.

Twitter in the Classroom

I think that Twitter could definitely be used with middle and high school students. It would be a great way for them to share ideas and information when completing classroom projects. I also liked the PowerPoint that suggested you start a story, tweet it, and then let others add to it. (That idea could possibly be used with lower grades). I also like the idea of talking with another classroom and locating them via google! That would be a lot of fun for elementary students. Twitter could definitely be used as a professional teaching tool because you can collaborate and gather ideas from other teachers. Overall, twitter as a teaching tool could be used in many great ways! I think I might like Twitter a little more than I thought! :)

Twitter

After experiencing Twitter for a few days, I have to say that it is not something that I personally like. I have to admit that I prefer facebook much better. I think I like the personal connection that I find with facebook much better than Twitter. I can look at my friends pictures and make comments directly to them. Twitter doesn't allow for all of that. I also find locating people much easier on facebook. I will continue to play with Twitter for a while. Who knows, I may eventually prefer it over facebook.

Technorati

After examining Technorati, I found several blogs that would be interesting to follow. I typed in "recipes" and was able to find several blogs that would be helpful to me as a cook. On the downside, lots of other blogs popped up that in my opinion did not even fit that category. Technorati is fun if you have the time and patience to sift through each blog to see if it is beneficial and relevant to you. However, my favorite sites are flickr and delicious. As a classroom teacher both of these sites allow me to tag things that would be useful in my classroom. The things that I tag I pick and able to quickly know that they are going to work for my students. I also feel that declicious and flickr would be "safer" than technorati because the searches do not seem as broad.

***As a side note the links to claim our blog and create a watchlist are not working.

Delicious - Social Bookmarking

Today as I explored the delicious site I was impressed by all of the information that could be found. Recently we have been studying animal habitats and I was able to locate several virtual games that we could use to study habitats. I also found several lesson plans that could be used for inferring & landforms. I definitely will use Delicious as a way to tag my favorite websites and as a research tool for finding new information and sites. This is probably one of my favorite resources that we have used thus far!

I've only added a few but here's my delicious address: http://delicious.com/kellycraig

The Sandbox

The sandbox is really fun! It reminded me a lot of a Wiki. I tried to add a new topic "Favorite Musician" but I don't think I did it correctly. When I brought the sandbox back up it wasn't there. Any ideas? I think this would be a great thing to use with the staff at our school. We could comment on things that maybe our PTO or principal needed information on. Great Resource!