Kid/Inspiration

Inspiration/Kidspiration is a great software that lets you make really appealing graphic organizers.  The controls are a little tricky to get the hang of, but once you do, you can make a great tool to help kids with the strategic part of learning, that is, having a way to memorize and/or remember information.

I made a graphic organizer using kidspiration to help kids learn about their shapes!

Understanding By Design: A Rough Draft

Check it out!

Rosetta Stone

I'm pretty sure that most people have heard of Rosetta Stone, but it wasn't until I took an ESL class here at Marymount that I realized that Rosetta Stone could be used in an educational setting.  It can be used to supplement a foreign language class for an english speaking student, or English language learners can use it to learn English and help with adjusting to the US.  From what I've heard...I've never actually practiced using Rosetta Stone, it supposedly helps individuals learn a language in a natural way, similarly to the way they learned their first language. 

Storyline Online

All kids, but especially the little ones, love being read to.  They so quickly get wrapped up in a great story.  One website/technology that I love is called Storyline Online.  Celebrities are shown in videos reading loved books.  Examples include:  Rainbow Fish, Harry the Dirty Dog, and The Polar Express.


I had a particularly awesome moment using storyline online.  James Earl Jones reads the book To Be a Drum.  His booming voice is perfect for narration.  The best part was at the end of the video, I had the kids guess what other characters the actor had played.  When they found out he was the voice behind Mufasa and Darth Vader, they LOVED it! 

BrainPOP!

BrainPOP!  is an animated educational site that has videos of all sorts to play for your students.  I've seen it used in special education and ESL settings.  There is basically a plethora of videos in every subject and they are entertaining, informative, and age-appropriate.

Delicious.com

I am a huge fan of organization and beautiful things.  Naturally, I am so drawn to pinterest.com and it's my all time favorite website.  However, Delicious.com could rival pinterest any day.  Especially for students to have a space where they can remember things that helped them learn, or inspired them, I would love to use this in a high school classroom. 

Students can make different stacks of articles they read, make bucket lists, and pretty much compile striking information on the internet that is important to them. 

GeoGebra

Before I changed my major in college to Psychology and decided to get my elementary teaching certification, I was planning on majoring in math.  I love math and I always have, and now that love has translated into a love of teaching math to my little ones.  I love thinking about the various ways that they will try and solve problems and I love trying to understand why some students struggle with math and why it comes easy to others.  Especially for older students, when computations are more difficult, I think it's wonderful that there's a free software that blossoming mathematicians can use online. 

GeoGebra has a ton of tools that students can use while learning various branches of math.  There are interactive graphics, algebra, and spreadsheets.