Photo Collage

I used Shape Collage to create a photo collage of the pictures I took for our class's photography challenge. This was very easy to use! You simply upload the photos you want to use and choose a shape you want the photos in. This could be a cool way to get to know your students by having them choose pictures that describe them.

Exploding Box

 We made an "exploding box" in class the other day. We needed four 12 x 12 pieces of card stock for this project. We traced the templates, cut them out, and glued them together. Making the cover was the trickiest part, and if I did this project again I would do a better job. Remember the Polaroid pictures I posted earlier? Well the little ones can be cut out and glued inside the box! Another use of this box could be to put a gift inside and give it as a present. The recipient could then use the box it came in as well! I plan to make more of these with more decorate paper.

NETS Standards

NETS standards are the standards that teachers and students need to have in order for them to teach and learn effectively in this world of technology that we live in.

Teachers need to be able to do the following: facilitate and inspire student learning, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments, model digital age work and learning, promote and learn digital citizenship and responsibility, and engage in professional growth and leadership.
NETS Standards for Teachers 

Students should have the following skills: creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts.

NETS Standards for Students

I will work on the teaching skills and make sure we practice the student skills, too, so that my students can work well with technology.

QR Game

A really neat iPad app that we used in class is a QR code scanner. You take a picture of a code, like the one above, and it will bring you to a website, show you a word, or something of that nature. We were to create an educational game out of QR codes. I used QR Code Generator to make my QR codes. I made 10 of them, and each one links you to a Google image of an animal. I printed them out and glued them on poker chips, and made a corresponding worksheet on PowerPoint which I attached as well. There are many possibilities for what this can be used for, and I would love to do something like this in my classroom!

Paperless educator

I did some research on being a paperless educator, and while I think it is possible, I don't think students will get as much out of class this way. I looked at Steve Katz's Prezi The Paperless Classroom to learn more about it. To submit assignments, teachers have their students use either Google Docs or e-mail. Some reasons he gives for going paperless are improved learning environment, improved organization, more efficient, and it will save the earth. There are a couple issues I have with this. First of all, computers are not always the most reliable thing in the world. If every assignment your students to is online, what will happen if their computer crashes or they get a virus and lose everything? Students might not have everything backed up on something else if this were to happen. Also, I don't want to see us getting completely away from physically writing.

Snagit Video

We downloaded Snagit for class, which is a free program that allows you to record videos on the computer and post them to YouTube. We did a multimedia project where we had to teach the class about a website, so my group taught the class about Fakebook. We also recorded ourselves using it and posted it to our class's YouTube channel. Snagit was very easy to use, but you have to make sure to talk close to the microphone, otherwise your voice gets muffled.

Apple in education

Today I explored Apple's educational website. It talked about the use of iPads, Macs, iPods, iPhones, and iTunes U in the classroom. I have an iPod touch, so I looked into how that can be used for educational purposes. I found that there are over 20,000 education apps for iPod touches and iPhones. These apps include reference materials, interactive lessons, and games that can make learning the material fun. Then I decided to look further into what iTunes U is because I had never heard of it. When using iPads, it allows you to create your own courses. It's a free app that students will love because everything they will need for the course is right at their fingertips.