Worth 10 Minutes of Your Time

Things I Learned on Twitter Today

1.  Recap of great articles to read http://summify.com/rkiker/2011/10/15/1/?utm_campaign=viral&utm_medium=web&utm_source=short 

2.  25 Free Apps for Lifelong Learners http://www.missiontolearn.com/2009/06/lifelong-learner-free-resources/

3. Pearson and Google Join to Provide Free Learning System: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/pearson-and-google-jump-into-learning-management-systems/33636 

Things I Learned on Twitter Today

1. Photos of the decade http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTXRYG2

2.  PBS Free Games http://pbskids.org/lab/games/ 

3.  Discovery Education Web 2.0 Links - http://web2011.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools.cfm

Creative Learning

Creative Learning

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler

Welcome to Our Class Blog

Welcome to our class blog!

This blog will be a quick way for you to access your peer's blogs and view blogs from previously classes too!

You will use your blogs as a way to share your curriculum projects, links, and videos with one another and ultimately with your students.  Here is an example of an excellent blog that is being used for instruction by Mr. Brent Myers at Mission Middle School in Bellevue, http://thunderamericanhistory.blogspot.com/.

Bookmark this page and come back often.  You will notice that the most currently updated blogs will appear at the top of the blog list. It is very easy to see when updates are made! :-)

Connect with Students via Text Using ClassParrot

ClassParrot was my Twitter gem for the day! ClassParrot allows you to text all of your students at once for FREE! Set up is simple and you will be up and running in minutes.

To get started, here is what you need to do. First, create an account and set up a class. Then, have kids text to join the class with the code ClassParrot provides. The dashboard in ClassParrot makes it simple to send your 145 character message to your class of students. I created my account and have given it a try. I LOVE it!

I see the communication potential as being HUGE using this tool. Most kids prefer a text to an e-mail, so this is the perfect way to get a message and reminders your students who are connected to their phone like fingers are their hands. The fun part is that the cell phone numbers are organized into classes by ClassParrot AUTOMATICALLY. This is the first tool for organizing and sending multiple messages via text that I have found to be so user friendly. ClassParrot is to text messaging what groups are to e-mail addresses!

In addition, you can pre-load your texts to be delivered at a certain time and date. You can sit down and put in all the reminders at one time and kick  back while the system does the work for you!

Check it out at http://classparrot.com and see what you think!

Weebly: Quick and Easy Way to Make a Website

Are you looking for a super easy way to make a FREE classroom website? Try Weebly at http://education.weebly.com/ . Weebly makes is so simple to create a classroom web site. You can have your site up and running in less than 30 minutes.  The price is right!

Weebly not only allows you to create a website from anywhere with the Internet, but also allows you to create student accounts too! What a fun way for students to keep an electronic portfolio of their work over the school year!  

Here is a link to our BPS site at teacher-sites.weebly.com

View some BPS examples on the blog.  Teachers from around the world can also post their Weebly Educational Website to the blog so we can all get inspired from each other and learn some pretty cool things. 

Check it out!