Publisher

Microsoft Publisher is a widely used computer program. While this is not a website, it is still a great piece of technology to use in the classroom. It a great way to create many different projects. My two favorite ways to use this program are creating a brochure and creating a newsletter.

To create a brochure, the first thing you do is select the brochure layout you would like. It will already have the text boxes and picture boxes in the brochure, you just have to click and type, and select the pictures. It will show you where the lines are as well so when you print it out, all you have to do is fold in on the right lines and you have your brochure. Below is an example of a brochure created for famous artists.

Another way to use Publisher, is to create a newsletter. I think it is important that each classroom has a classroom newsletter that goes home to parents at the end of each week to make the parents aware of what happened in the week, as well as what will be going on in the upcoming week. Just like the brochure, you select the layout you want for your newsletter. You are able to select how many pages you would like it to be. It also has the text boxes and picture boxes already on the newsletter, you just have to type what you want in them. Once finished, you can print it out and it's ready to go. You could even give the students the information you want in the newsletter, and have one student make it each week. Below is an example of a template of what a newsletter may look like.

XtraMath

XtraMath is a great Ipad application. Have students who are still struggling to learn their basic math facts? Then this application is perfect. Students are able to practice their math facts on their own. And once they master one type of math fact (addition or subtraction), it moves them on to the next type of fact (multiplication and division). Some believe that drilling math facts is a practice that is gone. However, I think it is still very important to do with students.

XtraMath is a free app for students. It can also be accessed at home on the Internet in case they do not have an Ipad. The teacher has to sign up with their school email. Once they do that, the enter in their class roster. Each student has a username and a password then. They are able to log in and click start and do their math fact practice for the day. Once they are done, it shows them how many they got correct and how many they missed. When the teacher logs in, it will show a graph of how the students are doing and which students are excelling, which students are average, and which students are struggling so the teacher can work more with those students.

I was able to implement XtraMath in a second grade classroom. It became part of the students morning routine. They would come in in the morning, get their stuff put away, log into XtraMath and practice their math facts. They would continue doing this all year until they had mastered their facts.

If you would like to try out XtraMath, click here. http://xtramath.org/

Roojoom

A Roojoom is a great interactive site that can be used for a single topic. It's a great way to have students look up information about a topic and organize it so it can be easily viewed.

Roojoom is a free website. All you have to do is sign up. Once you do you click "Create Roojoom." You then pick your title for your Roojoom and write a description about it. Once finished with that, on the right hand side you will see a number "1" and click on add step. Each step is called a track. You can then do research on another web tab about your topic. You can put in anything you want about that topic, youtube videos, pictures, articles, blogs, etc. Once you have found something you like, you can copy the URL and paste it into your step, give it a title, and description, and click finish. Your first step is then added. You can continue to do this until you have everything you want in your Roojoom. You can share it and then anyone can look through it once they hit start.

The Roojoom I created was one for a class I had to take. I did my Roojoom on technology to go along with this blog. It was titled Technology in the Classroom. I found two youtube videos about the importance of technology, an article, a blog, and a descriptive picture. When someone goes to watch this Roojoom, they will view each track and what it has to offer. Below is the link to my Roojoom as well as a picture of what mine looks like.

If you would like to create your own Roojoom, click here. http://www.roojoom.com/editors_pick/

http://tracks.roojoom.com/u/sarahpusateri,1222/technology-in-the-classroom,3314

Glogster

Normal presentations can sometimes get boring after awhile. Glogster is a way to make more of an interactive presentation by creating an online poster that can be shared with others. It is a very simple and easy to use website for grades four and up.

To sign up for GlogsterEDU, it is free. However, you can sign up for an actual account so each student can have their own username to work on their glogsters. For teachers, you want to make sure you are going to GlogsterEDU because these are the more educational glogs. To create one, all you have to do is click "Create New Glog" and a new blank one appears. You can make them portrait or landscape. On Glogster, there is a tool bar. There is where you can insert text boxes, and pictures, and put frames on everything you put in. Then you can just click and move them around your glog and position them where you would like. Each item you put into your glog can be pinned so it won't move. Don't worry if you put too much information into one text box. When published, you can scroll on your text box to see everything that is there. When you are done you click on save. Then you enter a title for your glog, select the discipline (the subject area) then narrow the selection even further. The last thing you do is select what grade it is for then click on publish.

How I used Glogster in my classroom, was that my students read a story on Sacagawea. There were five different characters in the story that my students could choose from. I had about twenty-five students, so each topic had five students researching it. They were to research their topic, and create at least three text boxes with accurate information, and include at least three pictures of their character. When everyone was finished, they presented them to the class and were graded on the information they had as well as the presentation. Below, is an example of one of the Glogsters that were created.

If you would like to try out Glogster, click here. http://edu.glogster.com/

Reading Cards

Children nowadays are always playing with playing cards. So, why not make ones that are educational? The website I like to use that is great for creating playing cards is Read Write Think. There are many different things you can do on Read Write Think, so if you have time, I suggest going and looking around the entire website.

The first thing the student would do when creating is enter their name and then click start. They then enter the topic and choose the descriptive category that goes along with it. Whether it is a real or fictional person or place or object. Then the students can select an image of their topic and put it on their trading card. They then answer all of the questions that pertain to their topic; such as events, and time period, and the problem of the story. Once done they click finish editing. Here they can add more cards and even print the one they just made. Once they printed it, it can be cut out and folded to create an actual playing card.

For my class, I had the students read a story on Helen Keller. Then we created playing cards about her. They started by entering their name, typing in Helen Keller, and selecting Real Person. Then they would have to answer all the questions relating to her and the story. Once done the printed them out, cut them, then taped them together. You could have students do this with a variety of stories that you read in class. They can make all different types of playing cards. And they can even use them to play games and to study with. Below is an example of a Helen Keller playing card.

If you would like to create your own reading cards, click here. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/trading_cards_2/

Wordle

Wordle is a tool that is used to created "word clouds" which are essentially a collage of all different words. Wordle is a free website that anyone can use. There is no need to sign up to use the features that Wordle has to offer. You are not able to save your Wordle, so keep in mind if you use these they need to be finished then.

To create a Wordle is simple. After you get on the website, you just click Create on the top of the web page. This will take you to the next page where you are then able to enter in your words for your Wordle. You can enter as many as you would like. If you would like to enter a phrase, or something more than one word you must put it all together or it will be broken up as if it were many words. For instance, if you were to want to put in a subject, instead of typing Social Studies, you would need to enter it SocialStudies as all one word. That is why I suggest as well that you capitalize the beginning of each word to make it distinct to all the read it. If you have a word in your Wordle that may be more important than other, you are able to change the size of that word. The size of each word is proportional to how many times you type it in that first box. If you write Apple Banana Banana Grape Grape Grape, you will see when it is created that the word Grape will be bigger than Banana which will be bigger than Apple. It does not matter how many times you type a word, it will only appear once. The only difference will be the size of the word.
Once you've entered in all your words, you then hit the "go" button. This will create your Wordle. On this next page you can use the buttons on the top of your Wordle to change the layout of it, the color scheme, and the font. Once done with that you are then able to print your Wordle.

There are many ways you can use Wordle in your classroom. Students can do a book discussion and create one all about themes of a book. You could have them create one of their vocab words. A Wordle could be used as a graphic organizer with the main idea bigger and the topics smaller.A great way I like to use Wordle in your classroom is as an opening activity for the start of the school year. At the beginning of each year you always have the students get to know you, the teacher, as well as their fellow students. I had the students create a Wordle that was all about them. You would give the students a list of things or ideas they could include, and have them make the more important ones bigger than others. Students then print them out, talk a little about them to the class during a circle time, then they could either be displayed on a bulletin board or hung on the students desks for everyone to see. It is also a great thing to have to show parents on a parent night.

Here is an example of my Wordle. As you can see I made my name bigger than the rest cause I felt is was the most important. Then I made other words different sizes depending on the importance of them.

If you would like to try out Wordle, click here. http://www.wordle.net/