Blog Post #8

In doing my research for this post, I found some really great sites and tools to use in my future teaching. I was asked to find 21st century learning and communicating tools. When I first read the objectives, I kind of thought it would be hard to find things I could use in the classroom. I literally googled 'education tools' and found a big board on Pinterest with so many tools to use! Pinterest is also a tool I have mentioned, and it always comes in handy.

The first learning tool I am going to talk about is TubeChop. One day in class this semester, I had a teacher tell me that she really wished she could let students see parts of a movie to get the meaning, but knew she couldn't because parts of it was inappropriate. TubeChop can take YouTube videos, and chop the video into certain parts that you want. This way, you can show children certain clips that can be educational.

Another great tool I found is very similar to Blogger. It is called, Weebly. Weebly is specifically made for teachers to create class websites. Students can even make them too and it is great for blogging. It is protected for the students, so they can only see appropriate content. There are also so many different gadgets you can add to the blogs. It is free, therefore, teachers should have no problems with using this site.

My favorite that I have found is Blendspace. On Blendspace teachers can create a class (They can make more than one if they teach other classes) and in that class, they can make lessons. Once you have created a class, you give your students their class code so that they can register in their class. On their class page, they can view lessons, take quizzes, and even do collaborative projects. Through Blendspace, teachers can track their students' participation. You can see how long students spent on different things. They can also do help requests on different resources that you can track too. You may also add other features for an additional price, but otherwise, Blendspace is free. The lesson plans I looked at throughout the website are so fun and creative. You can make videos, diagrams, voice clips, and so many other interesting things. Students can also reply to the lessons and post their responses in the same way. Blendspace has also just added an application for iPads, making it even more convenient. Blendspace is very new to me, but from what I have learned through this research, it seems like an extremely great resource to use in the classroom. I think students could get really creative on this website.

These are only a few of the great resources I have found. I could probably go on forever if I had to. There are so many new and exciting things that teachers can be using in their classrooms, and I will take advantage of these things I have found when I teach. By the time I start teaching, there will be even more new and fun tools to use you. If you want to learn about even more useful tools for the classroom, check out Eric Sheninger's, "Web 2.0 Tools for Educators" board on Pinterest.