Web+2.0

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Organiser+Tools

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Creativity+Tools

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Slideshow+Tools

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Writing+Tools

Having explored the Web 2.0 website, I have learned some amazing things that I will be able to apply on my classroom, once I finally get one of course! There are so many helpful tips and hints to use, it would be silly not to take advantage of them. One of the tools that I thought would be useful was the presentation tool. When using the presentation tool you are able to share presentations you have created or stumbled across with fellow teachers and teammates no matter your location. Opening up the presentation tool link, you have numerous links that you can chose from, each having a specific purpose. Not only can you share your presentations from where ever you are, but you can also edit them from where ever you are. There isn’t any software that is required or that you have to download, and they give step by step instructions. Another tool that I really liked was the organizer tool. Everybody knows that teachers have their hands full and don’t always have a lot of extra time on their hands. This tool can be SO helpful to teachers. The links listed under this tool can offer you organizational help in many different areas. This tool will help you capture ideas, organize information you have and/or come across, it also helps you create documents. If you are are having a difficult time brainstorming activities or lesson plans, this tool can help you and do the hard work for you. The organizing tool offers help in putting together flowcharts all the way to floor plans. There is a wide variety of things this tool can help you with. And best of all, its easy and while you are utilizing the links, you can invite friends to help you out or ask for suggestions while chatting live with them!!! The creativity tool was a tool that would be great during transition periods. It offers a plethora of games that are offered in all subjects. Not only does this tool offer games in specific subject, but it also offers games that can stimulate the brain. There are specific games that can help children come to a decision if having a hard time finding one, to puzzle games that can keep the children busy while others are finishing up their work. The slideshow tool was an interesting tool I looked into as well. This tool allows you to share powerpoints either you have created or found with others easily. Specific website that help you in creating a powerpint, not only allow you to create a powerpoints with pictures, videos, and text, but they also teach you step by step how to add your own voice to the slides. If you have a collaboration of photos, if you wanted to, you could even turn your photos into a video. This tool allows you to turn boring old powerpoints into newer, fresher, more exciting and advanced powerpoints without making it any harder on you. The last tool I chose was the writing tool, one that I loved so much! This tool is SO cool! This tool allows you to publish books for kids online and also allows them the access to read them too. Many of the links that were listed under the writing tool give the chance for students to create their own story book. They can create a book on anything they want and then can print it off. There are also links that allow one to create a picture book or even a 3-D pop-up book. There are links that target older students too. For those who may be too old to write a book or create a picture book, they could write in their own diary or journal digitally. There were so many links that can allow students and teachers too to create their own story and share it with others. All of the tools that I explored in detail I can use in my very own classroom. And what is best about all of it, is it won’t be hard for me. Everyone knows that you have monthly staff meetings and even weekly meetings with your teammates. If you are working on a specific unit and have put together a presentation that gets your point across, why not present it. It’s one thing for someone to listen to your ideas, but if you can actually show them something, more than likely they will get onboard with you and see how great of an idea it really is. I am a organizational freak when it comes to anythings. If I can get help organizing my thoughts, great! Sometimes teachers get cause up in all the work that comes along with being a teacher. The paper grading, making lesson plans, staff meetings, parent meeting etc., sometimes it would be helpful if we had something that could help us organize our thoughts. Not being organized takes away time from the students learning. The more organized a teacher can be, the more the students can benefit. Not only can it benefit the students more, but it could offer new an fresh ideas, ideas that you may have not thought about, something that could be the extra help that could get through to the students that may be having a harder time understanding. The time I have spent in classrooms, I know the importance of a smooth transition time. There have been a number of instances where there hasn’t been a smooth transition from one activity to the other and the next thing you know the teacher lost 15 minutes trying to get the students back on track. The creativity tool would help eliminate this problem. If the students are working on a worksheet or on a science lab write up/experiment, having a science games avaiable to those students who have finished before others would keep them on track and give them less opportunity to distract the other students from getting off task. Once everyone has finished their work then we would more on, together as a class. The busier you can keep a student and the longer you can hold their interest the better things will run in your classroom and this tool would help aid in providing fun and engaging games for the students. I can’t remember how many slide shows I watched as a student, even in elementary school. The one thing that really sticks out about the slide shows is how they were always having a difficult time getting the slides to come up, sometimes even not at all. What is great about this tool is I could access my powerpoint from any computer. There would be no reason for my kids not to see it. Also another perk to using powerpoints in the classroom is to add an additional type of learning into the classroom. Students learn in a number of ways, and to be able to give them something visual as opposed to just verbal directions, it could help those students really get a grasp on what they are being asked to do. Having my students create their own story books would be such a great activity to do in my classroom. Not only would it allow them to publish something of their own work, but it would also involve them using all of the writing steps. They would start with brainstorming and take all the necessary steps to coming to an end result, the final copy. And in their case, it would be publishing their very own book. This is something I could use with all ages, which makes this much better! And it’s not something I could do just once. I could have them create picture books that have to tell a story about the unit we are studying and then the next unit I could have them create a 3-D pop-up book. It’s so great when you can use one subject and integrate it into another! Talk about knocking out two birds with one stone, and they wouldn’t even know it! It really is true, practice makes perfect!!!!!!