Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Top 10 Cool Tools for School

After looking over my classmates blogs for ideas about school tools, I came up with my list of top 10 best resources.
Here it is:

This is a very useful tool for learning how to use grammar, spelling, etc. But it's not as interactive as all the other resources that I listed. Therefore, I didn't find it to be as good of a tool. 

This virtual book is very neat because you can write a book online, but you can use it for as much things as all the other tools. 

This site allows you to make a jeopardy game. I really liked jeopardy games as review tools when I was in high school, so I thought this site would be very useful to teachers. 

Wiki Spaces is a great organization tool. Enough said. I think that all teachers should use it to post to teachers, students, and other teachers. It helps get work done. 

6. Animoto
Animoto helps people make videos. I think that in this day in age, teens and even children love making videos and posting things. So, what better way to share ideas and get a point across than to use a medium that most students will respond to today?!

5. Wiked
Wiked is full of great games and learning tools. One of the best sites I've seen in a while for such resources. 

4. Wordle
Wordle allows you create word-collages. I believe it's a very interactive way to learn new things. I think English teachers could get a lot out of this tool, especially when using vocabulary. 

This site is formatted exactly like Youtube, but instead of funny videos, it includes teaching-related videos that are useful in order to come up with new ideas for the classroom by learning from fellow colleagues. 

I use pinterest on a daily basis to just look at pictures and peruse posts that interest me. But after reading Brittany Dunlap's blog post, I can see the value in using Pinterest in the classroom. If you want to know how to do so, no one explains it better than her, so refer to her blog. 

I love Smart Boards!!! They are extremely useful tools for a classroom. Not only are they interactive when just using the basic SmartBoard software, but you can also use them in Powerpoints to add content during class and incorporate students in learning. And I also found, while searching this site, that there are additional tools available to SmartBoard users (software) that will make an even greater impact in the classroom. 

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Cool Tool for School

In Top 100 Tools 2011, the #7 best tool of the year was Prezi. This interactive website helps you create "powerpoint-like" presentations to make teaching and learning more entertaining for both the teacher and students.

Here is how you create a Prezi presentation:
1. Make a Prezi account
2. Choose the template that you would prefer depending on what you are going to use the presentation to teach.
Example: You could use the strategy template, which is the one I chose in this instance, to explain your goals, visions and risks for a certain task.


3. Look at the specific topics in your presentation and edit them.
Example: List the goals that you have for this project/task.

You can do this by zooming in on the particular "bubbles"/sections and editing the content within them.
4. Connect all of the bubbles/sections together to help them flow in the way that you want to present them. Prezi will then create a presentation that moves from one section to the other for you.


Hint = You can also go from one portion of the "bubble" to another portion of that same "bubble". I did this in the presentation that I will be attaching.

5. Finish your project. Save and Download it if needed.
6. Present

Now that you know how to make a Prezi presentation, feel free to view my Prezi presentation so that you can learn why Prezi is a great tool to use in the classroom.

Prezi 101 - A Great Learning Tool

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