So, I had NO idea there were any educator social networking sites out there. I was impressed by both Ning and Classroom 2.0. I definitely plan to come to these sites to search for ideas rather than google. I thought that the “Gadgets” section would be a good think to keep an eye on just in case anything new pops up that I might want to use in the classroom. I also was happy to find a Education Leadership link on the right hand side. I plan to start my Master’s Degree soon, and I think that this could be very helpful.

I think that Pageflakes is a great information tool ! Although we use Edline, I think that Pageflakes is more “fun” (for lack of a better word) to look at, plus you can personalize it! For the classroom, I would definitely include a calendar, to-do list, some embedded video files, a dictionary word of the day, a quote of the day, and helpful links.

I coach cheerleading and I think this would be an EXCELLENT tool for coaches. You could post your calendar with practices, games, competitions online for the cheerleaders and their parents to view. You could record and embed each competition so that all cheerleaders and parents could view it…I’m really thinking about using this for my squads!!!

I am a huge J.K. Rowling fan! Since the Harry Potter series has come to an end, I was very excited to see on my Google Reader that The Tales of Beetle the Bard, which she originally wrote and sold to benefit a Children’s charity, will be published worldwide! YAY!!! See site here.

I think that Google Docs is neat! The hardest part was thinking of something that I wanted to send out to everyone! I see this as being a great tool to use on group projects. With gas costing a million a gallon, it is very convenient to be able to work WITH others from home. I also think this is a great tool because it’s FREE. I’m really not sure if the newer versions of Microsoft Office all come with Powerpoint, but once upon a time it did NOT. Google Docs makes it easy for anyone, even those without Powerpoint to create a slideshow presentation. Additionally, others who may not have Microsoft Office at all, can still collaborate on projects with others. Lastly, I would really like to explore using this in the classroom. I teach 4th Grade Social Studies. It would be neat to give each of my classes a region of the United States to work on and research together and at the end have a “book” on the 5 Regions of the United States created by all of my classes. The best part would be sending your whole class down to the computer lab to do research and to work on the same document AT THE SAME TIME!!!

I will not even disclose the amount of time I spent on the computer searching YouTube and TeacherTube…I’m sure you all did the same thing. Here is what I found in the scavenger hunt:

Teaching Content Video 1 – This is a video where Robert Krampf, who had A TON of science videos, creates a density column. This would be a great way for kids to learn about density and experiment with different objects to see if they will sink or float.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCSxEI82Sek

Teaching Content Video 2 – This is a video of a song from “Animaniacs” listing the US Presidents…it’s cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvy0wRLD5s8&feature=related

“How To” Video – So, I love cake….particularly red velvet cake. Here is a video showing how to make this wonderful treat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OpoH1WbcCQ&NR=1

Note: This is just the first step with all the ingredients, you have to watch the rest (there’s more videos) too!

Fun Video – Tumbling is a HUGE part of cheerleading–my favorite SPORT, yes SPORT!!! This is an amazing video I found on YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JcuD4YXus9k&feature=related

This was my first time ever hearing of TeacherTube and I was very impressed! This is another video I found from one of my favorite cartoons, “Animaniacs”. I teach the 50 states, capitals, and postal abbreviations to my 4th graders. Here is a cute song with the 50 states and capitals…ENJOY!!!

So, podcasting is easier than I thought! The hard part was figuring out what to say. Anywho, Evoca was really user friendly, I felt pretty confident using it! So…here it is…my first podcast!

My initial thoughts on podcasting are that there are not enough hours in the day to be able to include it in my routine. I think that it is an excellent resource for educators. I visited quite a few podcasts including the PBS podcasts, Learning Out Loud, Skip the Tuition, and the Education Podcast Network. I thought of a couple of ways to use Podcasts in the classroom, but it would definitely take HOURS AND HOURS to find the right material. I was really impressed with a podcast that I found on Learn Out Loud called “American History Rules”. There were lessons, homework assignments, test and quiz reviews, and even audio/music files. This would ideally be how I would want my podcast to be. Baby steps, baby steps…I know that I will not be able to have anything like the American History Rules podcast yet. Maybe I could start by having my kids do a podcast as a project. Maybe some type of interview or creative performance would work best. Kids like to perform and enjoy hearing themselves talk! I’m going to have to put some thought into this to make it work, but I am definitely up for the challenge. If anyone has any ideas that would work for 4th Grade Social Studies or Science…let me know!!!

I love reading! This has by far been my favorite “thing”! I loved searching my favorite books and seeing what other books were recommended! I definitely see myself using this for personal use. It was a little harder to search books for younger children. I’m honestly not sure that I would use this in the classroom unless I was navigating the site. I could see myself creating a LibraryThing for the class and inviting students to check out the books that I have added.

I’ve bought some new books I plan to read based on the ratings and descriptions of others on LibraryThing. We’ll see how that turns out soon…

I like the idea of being able to access your bookmarked site from any computer. I always forget website and end up searching google for 10 minutes before I can find what I’m actually looking for. While just looking on Delicious, I realized that there is a TON of information…kind of like a search engine. Tagging was easy. I just thought of any/all words that described the site and wrote them down. They were all pretty much the same for the sites I added. Initially I had a little trouble figuring out what I should tag. I just had to think about which websites were the ones that I usually forgot and then it was easy. I coach cheerleading and there are TONS of dates to remember and forms to turn in and there are several sites to check to make sure that you are on top of everything. Unfortunately, many of these sites have similar addresses and I usually mix them all up if I remember them at all! So…I went and found all of them (it took a while, but I won’t have to do that anymore!). Here is my Delicious Site!

It is quickly becoming easier to check my Google Reader daily! I have 8 subscriptions and usually only about 4 have new content daily. The most interesting thing I’ve read lately has been on dy/dan. He shows us some picture that are supposed to be grass…crazy, right? He invites his readers to speculate on HOW this is possible. At first, I totally dismissed this and figured they were just photos tinted green. After reading the comments of others I changed my mind…I don’t want to ruin it, it’s interesting, go check “Lawn Photos” out.