The cool tools segment in class has quickly become my favorite. On Thursday I enjoyed grabbing the reigns for a few minutes and becoming the teacher for my demo. Using the share app. is a bit shaky and slow however, I definitely recommend sending the uniform resource locator (yep, I read!) to the chat window as a back-up. I do feel as if my little colonies site greatly pales in comparison to the other sites that have been showcased thus far. I am a huge fan of Nikki and Katy's virtual field-trip sites. The fact that you can keep an online journal about the different countries. Plus, on top of that taking photo tours and the like is really powerful. Sarah's ePal's site has got to be my favorite though. I've been wondering about finding student pen pals for my class from other strange and exotic lands for a long time, and after doing some extra browsing on this site, it looks really legit, and the best part is that it's free! Very awesome, now all I need is a class.
We've only seen a few so far, but the bar is raised very high. I'm very excited about what is on the way with these!
I am enjoying the cool tools also. It's fun to see what different people come up with especially since everyone has various backgrounds. Some of the cool tools presented so far are new to me and I can't wait to see more. I really like anything that allows students to travel around the world from their computer. It's a great way to see places that are too far for an actual fieldtrip and most of the time they are free. I would like to know how the epals site works if you get a chance to use it in your future classroom.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the epals site. I think it's really cool, and I'm thinking of using it as well. I understand about thinking your cool tool site is not as good as others...they set a high standard! I'm not sure I can live up to it, either! And yes, the virtual field trips were really cool.
Clayton, when you were demonstrating your colonial site, it triggered a site I used when I taught 4th grade, if you're interested take a look it too is incredible! www.plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html#
ReplyDeleteI think it is more important that you think your cool tool is cool. You can never replace teacher enthusiasm! Kids know, and feel when you are into what you are teaching.