Colorado+Web+2.0+Tools

=**Please add your selected tools and your understanding of their benefit to yourself or teachers. Do you plan to integrate this web 2.0 tool into lessons or personal life?**= Sample **LinkedIn**- []. This is a social networking site that provides the established or novice professional guidance to meet individuals who are interested in or are currently in similar career fields.This site is used __#|to network__ with the professional community to share information, discuss topics, get helpful insight, job hunting, etc. The site is only used on a professional basis, not as a twit to see how your dog is or why you dislike yellow! So for those who are intimidated by the negatives that other social networking sites may bring in the professional world, this would be right for you. It would be great for me to use on a personal basis to begin to network about becoming a new teacher:0) I have longed to see the reasoning behind Twitter.It is nice in the sense that it is short, bit-sized information about updates of individuals who you would like to stay connected with 24/7. I seemed to struggle with finding an educational basis for it, until I searched around after viewing the tutorial and found that it can indeed be used for learning.I think it would be a great tool for updating students on ideas to keep in mind when coming to class, short poems or quotes, assignment deadlines, reminders, room changes, reading lists, interesting articles, continuing discussion as a class, etc.It could also keep me connected with the news, networking in the community (events), etc. This tool can be helpful for both in class and for personal use.The __#|fine line__ is the digital gap! Heard about this but never used it or seen it. Good social network place.
 * Twitter- Twitter.com **

My principal just challenged me to create a [|twitter] account a couple months ago, and I’ve discovered that twitter is an AWESOME resource for educators!!! In my opinion, every educator should have a twitter account. There are some FANTASTIC educators tweeting on twitter, and sharing and implementing some of these great ideas/strategies is only going to be beneficial to our students and education in general. Start by following Nicholas Provenzano @thenerdyteacher, Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn, Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher, Todd Whitaker @ToddWhitaker, John Stumpenhorst @stumpteacher. You can also follow educational chats (tags) by searching hash tags such as #edchat, #mathchat, #engchat, etc. **My Library**- [] Wow! What a great tool for both inside and outside the classroom. It would be great to use it for updating myself of current science knowledge and much more when I am driving in my car. This site provides a large amount of free material that is accessible to all users.It allows one to __#|download audio__ onto CD, and Mp3.It even allows for access to 24/7 Librarian to help with your needs.It provides DVDs, books, manuals, movies, and much more.It even allows for someone to get the their library card online, as well as access material through interlibrary loans. Great site! I was viewing this __#|program__ from a distance, because I can’t download on the school computer:0( I can tell you that I am surely impressed and will definitely use it both for myself in developing lessons and for students to show their progress (if they are doing a online tutorial, etc.). I have been using screen shots to demonstrate activities that I have had in my lessons, but seems like it would be so much easier. Why did I just find out about you now! And it’s FREE! I am eager to use it on my home computer. You can snap a picture, add text, catch a video clip, and more:0)
 * Jing-http://www.jingproject.com/ **

This site allows for use to easily access the use of a blog without having to know the works of html. The layout of this site makes it easy to navigate and easy to construct.I like this verse a Microsoft SharePoint in web or blog development because you can easily see your progress by selecting to view your blog at any time.I plan to use this for myself and for student use (if applicable). It is user friendly and has a great look! PDF allows you to create forms without the ability for people to edit your information. Thisprovides security capabilities.If you had your information posted for the classroom access it would allow them to view it with Adobe reader (which is free of charge), but would not allow them to make changes to the document.This could be a great tool if you have the information posted to a community folder, they could view it but not make changes.It is also a handy tool to allow for access to larger documents. Rule of thumb is that if you have to scroll more than one page it should be posted as a PDF document on the web.Microsoft word allows for you to save as a PDF document and with the access to the university FTP you could easily post it to be available on the web. Here it is once again! Note to self: always make sure you type it in a document first:0)
 * Blogger- Blogger.com **
 * PDF-Online- **

http://alpha.zooburst.com/
 * ZooBurst** is a free publishing writing tool that allows creation of 3D pop-up books. It gives a virtual feel with turning pages and is interactive through pop-up pictures that can reveal more information about that particular image. This is a great source for teachers to use to create modified books for students that rely on visual cues. Sound and text available to support a variety of learning needs. Students may use this tool to retell a story they read, in their own way, and publish it for others to see.

http://voo2do.com/
 * Voo2do** is a free organizing tool that is simple to use and helpful for organizing a busy schedule. Keep track of tasks within projects, estimate time needed for a project and keep a timer going as you work, make notes, update via email and have access 24/7. Sort tasks into personal or work related. This tool makes it easy for busy people to prioritize and accomplish tasks assigned.

http://goanimate.com/ _ __www.Popplet.com: I found a great site to help out our visual learners that combines Inspiration and Prezi-type movement together. Popplet.com is a graphic organizer system that allows users to create various formats of information. What I like most about it is that you can insert photos, videos, etc. from online or your computer to fill in the info" popplets." You can also zoom in and out, similar to Prezi, and create a sticky board for others to view. It is an excellent presentation and graphic organizer environment that is easily grasped by the students.__ __What a great way to save time and information that you do with your students. You can make a popplet with your students and then save it for future references. You can also use it before class to prepare your information to present to the class. The great thing about it is you can add pictures to your own text. You are alos able to share your information with others or use their information for yourself.__ __-This looks incredibly interesting because it offers everyone a visual guide to their though process. It would be a nice tool to set up a piece of writing or even a study guide. I will definitely keep this in mind for the future.__
 * GoAnimate** is a free drawing tool that is used to animate a video. You can choose from multiple characters and scenes (more available for a subscription price). There are voice options loaded or you can record your own voice. It is easy to use and a project can be completed quickly. Just type in what you want to say, who says it, and how long you want each scene. Teachers can use this tool to teach a particular lesson or reinforce instruction. Older students will enjoy making their own animated video to share with the class. There are plenty of options so each animation will be unique.

__www.Doodle.com: While this site's name isn't indicative of its purpose, it does offer a great meeting planner. You can go in and offer specific meeting times and dates in a "poll" format for people to choose from. Through interactive voting, you are able to see who can attend which meeting date and time, when. I can see how this would be useful to help teachers plan meetings with one another, or for parents to select parent-teacher conference times.__ __I think this is a pretty neat program to use if you are a busy person and need help planning and meeting people.__

__www.Doodle.com The name of this__ #|application__ through me off too. The only feature I might use in the classroom would be the poll tool. Maybe the site has great tools to offer, but it didn't do a great job of selling it's product. When website don't show me how they can help me help my students then I don't bother. (Elena Duran)

www.linkedin.com: LinkedIn is a professional connections website that allows you to become followers of people you know in the "professional" community. It is the more serious version of Facebook, allowing for you to keep apprised of new information regarding your coworkers or other business related people. It would be good for networking if you are looking to transfer into another career or position someday. The long-term implications of meeting professionals in your field through this site are positive... provided you remember this is an online resume-type environment.

www.igoogle.com: iGoogle allows you to set your google homescreen to more personalized style and interactive widgets. These widgets can be very helpful in the educational setting by giving you quotes of the day, astronomical happenings, weather, news, etc. They are like mini windows/apps for your Google homepage. In fact, the widget for 2.0 webs helped me to find the Popplet site! You could also request that the student computers have similar widgets which could lead to discussions, applications, etc. for classroom use. This is a pretty nice if your a new teacher at a new computer to organize all your pages on the computer.

www.linkedin.com Since this site was created for professionals, I think it fits with the social networking needs of those who wish to "chat" with others on topics that may be more serious, as opposed to the overwhelming nature of Facebook assess. LinkedIn allows one easy contact to other (busy) persons who are dealing with business- and school-related issues. It should be advantageous to to be linked with a professional community and to take advantage of information pertinent to career orientation.

@http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php As a tyro in field of art, this idea of visiting "museums" has great benefits. I have been a visitor to many in times past, but visiting rooms of organized information virtually seems like a great idea. I think that organizing information visually is the key to good learning, and stretches the curator. I will enjoy experimenting with the options available here.

@http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php I liked the idea of the museumbox, but I didn't come across many well done samples. If you do play with this site more please share your creations with the class. Also, if you come across a well done box send it my way. I searched the site for about half an hour but didn't really find any projects that I would use for a sample. If I did use this site I would most likely use it as presentation tool (Elena Duran).

[] Videos are able to communicate in such a dynamic method, and indexing them so they are available at a flick of a finger is really phenomenal. I think this is a great way to save time when having to reteach or teach to different groups the same thing. It also makes it easier for the learner who can't rememember everthing they heared or can't keep up with notes to be able to return to this information at a later time to help review. [] Here is a site that will be very useful throughout time. Yes! Colorado 2.0 site has been very useful in listing sites for exploration. I have listened to a number of the tutorials and find them very helpful. The more exploration that I do, the more fluidly I seem to be able to work getting around and truly visuallizing all that is available. It still seems daunting, but I'm learning from my colleagues, and actually beginning to enjoy this mastery of techy information. However, I have a long way to go..... _ This will work perfectly for creating tutorials for my students especially when I might need to be out of the classroom so they can continue learning. I've been thinking if ever I do need two call in a sub it would be easy to have the students watch a tutorial and create something so that way they aren't just sitting and doing nothing. It also would be a great way to differentiate my classroom, video tutorials might just be away to catch up a student who's falling behind. I have downloaded and tried the demo version of Jing and find it easy-to-use. - This is a site I see being extremely helpful to me for lesson, because it allows the teacher to do a lot more with demonstrations without relying on Facebook. It also looks a little less distracting than the "trace" Google lets you do and it is open to more possibilities.
 * Jing-**http://www.techsmith.com/jing

www.linkedin.com Since this site was created for professionals, I think it fits with the social networking needs of those who wish to "chat" with others on topics that may be more serious, as opposed to the overwhelming nature of Facebook assess. LinkedIn allows one easy contact to other (busy) persons who are dealing with business- and school-related issues. It should be advantageous to to be linked with a professional community and to take advantage of information pertinent to career orientation. -I have never used LinkedIn before, but I would like to invest more time in it. The site looks fairly user friendly, and it is a nice balance between Monster/Facebook. I've only watched the video so far, but I'm excited to see how many professional organizations (especially universities) are starting to invest time into the site. I love Wolffram Alpha, it has to be the coolest information site I've seen. I'm not aware of its potential yet but I just love typing in single words and finding out a lot of great stuff. I would very much recommend using this as a information site. This site seems rather interesting to me. It allows you to place a lot of information about one historical event in an organized and interesting manner. Really nice to implement into the lesson plans and have students create their own box and present it to the class. I could use it as a presentation tool and I'm sure there are many more applications for this I just have to look at it some more.
 * Wolffram | Alpha-** @http://www.wolframalpha.com/
 * Museum Box**-@http://museumbox.e2bn.org/index.php


 * Goodreads-** This site is like a "book club" type of social network for readers who want book recommendations from real people they may know. On Goodreads you can keep track of things you've read, are currently reading, or would like to read. You can also rate books and see the ratings of others. Another cool thing you can do is compare you "book compatibility" with your friends, so that you can see who has similar tastes, and thus decide who might give you the best recommendations. I think this is really cool because I am picky about books to read and I would enjoy finding someone with similar tastes for recommendations, and my students could use it too!


 * LinkedIn-** This is a professional social networking site "helping people find and share career opportunities." This site gives you more control over what pops up when prospective employers "google" your name. You can also network and set up introductions to new people through friends you already know. This site automatically updates all of the contact info of your connections and references as they change, so you don't have to do the work. You can also search for people who work in similar fields and discuss and solve problems of the industry together. I'd love to explore the site with regards to teaching opportunities in the future. I'm not looking right now, but my husband moves a lot and it is sometimes hard to find a new teaching job.


 * Jing-** This is a screen capture tool. I was not impressed with it because you can essentially achieve the same exact thing by using the computer command ctrl+prt sc and pasting it into paint. I am very quick at this process myself, so I don't think it would be useful. I noticed someone else said you can also make video tutorials with it too, but I didn't see that tutorial. I would recommend [|www.screencastomatic.com] for video tutorials.


 * Jing**- I agree with you. I didn't find much advantage to using Jing. Screen print is simple enough. I'm also a huge fan of [|www.screencastomatic.com]. I loved it so much that I purchased a year membership. It was a great investment! I constantly used it during student teaching. All three of my children used it for the school projects. (Elena Duran).


 * RSS-Google Reader-** This is essentially a place where you can receive all of your favorite live feeds and updates from your favorite blogs and websites as they happen. The comparison they used said it was like Netflix compared to actually going to the movie store, in that you don't have to search endlessly for updates in many different spots anymore, the updates of your choses sites come to you. Pretty cool! Many of my students had blogs and this would be almost like receiving updates from everyone you know on your facebook or twitter page, so they might be into it.


 * Library Thing-** This is great tool to use to help you cataloge books you are reading, own, like to read, etc. It is also a type of social network. You can contribute to book reviews, tags, or rate a book. What I liked about this tool, is that it offers book suggestions according to books in your collection. I would use this for myself, but not sure I would use it in the classroom. []

[]
 * Glogster-** This web tool allows Teachersand students, or anyone wanting to express themselves, to create a poster using multimedia: Text, Images, Music, and Videos. I think this would be perfect for creating a presentation and can be used as an alternative to PowerPoint. I would definitely use this in the classroom.


 * iGoogle-**This neat tool allows you to customize your homepage. You can use different gadgets in different forms, making information easily accessable.You can set up your homepage in categories like: news, communication, games, or politics just to name a few. I can see how this tool would be helpful for teachers, who like organization and easy access.
 * Roxio PhotoShow-** This tool allows you to create unique multimedia slideshows, using your own photos. Its very easy to create, all you have to do is upload your photos, select a theme, add text, annimation stickers, or music. Once your slide show is created, you can share them with others. I think this is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom and for personal use.

[|Edmodo]- edmodo.com. Edmodo is similar to facebook for classrooms; however, edmodo allows you to do much more than facebook does. I just created an edmodo account for my online students during our fourth block, which started in April. After creating the edmodo account, I was able to "invite" students to join our edmodo group by emailing them a group code. It was helpful in my online class, because students don't really have a place to socialize, so edmodo offered them a place to just get to know each other and build relationships. I then created a widget for our Edmodo feed and placed it on my homepage, so that even students who chose not to join edmodo could see what we were posting. Edmodo also allows teachers to post assignments, give “awards,” conduct polls and quizzes, and post alerts (which appear in bold). I’m not sure how or if I would use this tool in a traditional, brick-and-mortar classroom, because those students seem to have plenty of opportunities to socialize!

[|Pinterest] – pinterest.com. I just created a pinterest account a few days ago, after a student in one of my master’s classes showed me some of the fun ideas she had found on pinterest. She found some ideas for using hoola hoops to create Venn diagrams, using paint sample cards to add vivid adjectives in poetry, etc. Pinterest allows people to search images anywhere on the internet and then “Pin” the picture to their pinterest site. People can organize their pins into categories, “follow” people with similar interests, and share cool ideas!

Slideshare – slideshare.net. Just browsing around Slideshare, I don’t see any presentations that I would be able to use in my classroom; however, it does allow the ability to upload presentations, documents, and videos and share on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. I could see this being helpful for ways to share my PowerPoints with my students. Often, the PowerPoints I create are too large to be emailed, so I have to find other ways to get the PowerPoints to my students. I can put them in the Doc Sharing area we have on our course home pages, but if I could just share them on Twitter or Facebook, it might be faster and easier for the students to access them. Plus, while there are not any presentations in their entirety I could see myself using, I could use this site to conduct research or generate ideas for creating my own presentations.


 * Thinkfinity** - I have found a lot of interactive engagement in Thinkfinity. At the bottom of the page, is where you will find the links to other 2.0 sites. Take Illuminations for instance, this site offers activities, lessons, standards, and other web links that are designed to enhance the classroom experience. Thinkfinity is designed for the classroom environment. It helps the teachers bring technology to their students.


 * San Francisco Orchestra for Kids** - It has always been difficult for me to find interactive sites that are catered to music. This site is amazing to help students learn about music in an interactive process. It helps them learn about different kinds of notes and symbols. I also like having students come up to the board and interact with the whiteboard.


 * Sphinx Kids** - This is another great interactive music website. This site introduces the students to some of the most famous Classical composers. The students can learn about the history of the composter and can listen to excerpts from that composers works. The students can be introduced to the instruments of the orchestra and what they sound like. This site even includes interactive games for the students. The focus of the site is to introduce students to musicians that are minorities and to encourage all students to get and stay involved in music.


 * ArtistServer** - This site has access to a server that holds hundreds of song files from around the world. The user can pick a style of music, click on the map of the world and listen to file. The user can continue this process and introduce others to new and interesting form of music and study geography at the same time making this a cross-curricular site. One of the issues I have with this site is the user interface. It is quite difficult some times to know whether or not you are hovering over a link to a file. I hope that this is corrected in time because the concept is very educational.

[|Grammar Book] This site is useful for all students because it is user friendly, it gives quick access to grammar questions, and it offers tons of examples. I have used this in my class, but the site is not utilized enough.

[|Student Publishing] I found this site on the "Cool Tools 4 School" wiki, and I love the idea of students having something they create as a community for a real polished product.

[|CNN-iReport] I think this link is really good because it shows students that the average everyday person can contribute to the news and how it works and influences society. This is great for students to make news and read news.

[|StoryMash] I found this site on "Cool Tools 4 Schools" wiki and it sounded like a really cool website where students could collaborate and hone their creative writing skills. I was already having visions of how I could use this in my creative writing classes; however, when I opened up the website it had an example paragraph that individuals could add to and collaborate about. The first line read, "I've had sex in silence for years," and went on to discuss masturbation. NEVERMIND!

media type="custom" key="19878988"
 * The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators** - This is an amazing book. This first of its type I have experienced on the web. This interactive book’s main focus is to introduce educators to the amazing opportunities that await them in the 2.0 world for their students. The book contains an introduction about why the web is valuable. It also contains resources for elementary, middle school, high school, and ESL/ ELL students. Chapters on Skype, blogs, alternative education, and social media are included for educators. Each of the chapters contains hyperlinks for the resources. This is one cool tool.


 * Artpad** - If you’re looking for an interactive 2.0 site for art, this is an excellent place to stop. This site allows the teacher and students to create original works of art. Text, brushes, colors, and paint buckets can all be modified. The user can add a frame to their piece of artwork and look at it in a gallery. The image can even be printed or emailed to share with others.

www.twitter.com I have heard about this site for awhile and it did not catch my interest at all. I have no need or time to let everyone and anyone know everything that I do. Not only do people have to watch personal information that they share, but having it open for anyone to see is even more unsafe in my opionion. I recently signed up for Twitter for my other technolgy class and I have not found it useful at all. I can see where a secondary teacher could use this for their classroom, but I feel that there are more secure ways and places to do this. Maybe I have not explored the site enough, but I think that a Wiki would be more useful for students and teachers to communicate through, and with sharing information. Unless I find a use for this site that another cannot do in a more secure way then I do not see myself using it in the classroom.

www.goanimate.com This is a site that I checked out in the last few weeks, and really enjoy. I find this as a benefit in a way that it can be a fun add on to a lesson. If a teacher has time to create a little video to teach their students about a subject instead of lecture up in front of the classroom I think this site is great. A teacher can use this for introducing themselves in the beginning of the year, or use it for part of a lesson. In my opinion this is not a needed tool, but it’s a cute way to add something different to learning in the classroom. I can see myself using this tool for something small in the classroom (if there’s time to create a little fun video), but it wouldn’t be for any huge parts of my lessons.

www.pinterest.com I love this site! I have found it to be a wonderful benefit for my own personal uses and teachers. Everyone always talks about this sit and now I see why. It is a wonderful way to search for any subject and find awesome lesson plans, ideas and student work to show the outcome. Some of thesepages take you to teacher’s page that have been sharing their lessonplans and ideas for awhile, and teachers that reccommed other sites to find ideas. If you are searching for a specific craft then you can find it on Pinterest, you can find different varieties, or put ideas together and create your own. I do plan on integrating this into my classroom in many different ways. I can’t wait to search through more lesson plans and using some of the links that they share for the students to use.

www.pinterest.com Michelle pinterest is my new guilty pleasure. More and more I am turning to pinterest to find those" too cool" lesson ideas. It is much easier to locate teaching material using pinterest search or just linking through teachers sites than it is to use popular search engines like Google. I would love to utilize it in the classroom with my future students. I'm sure they will enjoy as much as we do! Have you checked out www.Popplet.com ? You should check it out when you have time. I wish I would have known about it when taking integrated methods. It is perfect mapping tool! (Elena Duran)

www.thinkfinity.org I hadn’t heard about this site before and it seems very useful. From what I searched through I will be using this site for future lessons, and I think that teachers will very much benefit from it. This site includes lesson plans, activities, videos and lots more. So far, I love it!

[] this web 2.0 tool is a great way to introduce students to astronomy. it is a tool that i will use once i learn more on how it can be used. the big advantage to using this tool is that it uses actural images from the diferent telescopes around the worl along with the ability to give a virtural tour of diferent aspects just like if you were at an observitory and looking at tne object. the one part i liked the most and need to play around more with is how to create your own tour of the heavens. this tool can make astronomy come alive for students who do not have a chance to see it in real ife because they do not have a telescope or access to one

[] - huge resource for higher education students who are having trouble accessing pdfs for school

[] - another resource for organizing PDFs

[] this site gives a great way to jazz up presentations along with creating slide shows

[] is a real time system in which teachers and students can comunicate, alows for the creation of small comunities.

[] a global learning platform for teachers and students to use

[] has lots of classroom resorces availible

[] this site is a great way for students make short movies and to share them with others

[] - This is a fun site for students to make and write their own stories. They are able to use illustrations and type in their story. They can share it electronically or even pay to have it made into a book.

[|http://www.turtlediary.com/]Turtle Diary is a fun site for younger elementary kids. There are lots of many great games that are all organized by grade level and subject.

[] Kid Blog is a way to use blogs in the classroom that have privacy settings specifically for students and teachers. I created an account last year but was never able to use it in my classroom. I am planning on using it more this year and maybe having students take turns making daily updates.

[] Fuel the Brain has lots of awesome games, mostly math games. I found it useful because it integrated math skills other than just number and operation practice.

[|www.moodle.com] This is a cool site that is like an individual website. You can post messages and assignments on here for students to access. Students can complete the assignments then submit them back to you through the moodle site.

[] You can create presentations on this website that includes animations. The format is very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint but has animated characters and props that you can incorporate. This could be used in a classroom to as a change of pace for presenting information.

[] This website has a ton of web 2.0 tools. It provides a short description of each website when you hover over the icon with your mouse. These websites can be used in either personal or professional setting. There is some really cool stuff here!

[|www.delicious.com] - I have just started using this site more this semester then ever before. Last semester I made the account but rarely used it because i forgot to add the add option to my toolbar at home. I was unaware of all the sites they have listed as recently tagged by other users. I am a big fan of pinterest and this site works similar to that in I i am interested in healthy food recipes all i need to do is find a tag by that name or just discover some myself. I like this site more and more everyday for the main reason that i can bookmark stuff from any computer I am on may it be at school, at work or at home. So now all of my favorite sites are all together instead of scattered throughout multiple computers.

[|www.tumblr.com] - I have recently started using this site to follow blogs, specifically in the realm of staying healthy and maintaining an active and fit lifestyle. I like to see what other people are doing as far as workouts, and food preps that they are doing. Currently I have been following more and more moms and moms to be because i myself am expecting. I love to hear new ideas and what other expectant moms are doing to stay healthy.

[|www.pinterest.com] - I know lots of people have already written about this site but I have to as well because I just love it! I use it probably every day and have even downloaded the app on y phone and ipad so i can pinterest whenever I can. I use this website as a resource to just about everything in life from fashion, education ideas, party and game ideas, crafts, fitness, and of course great recipes! I have gotten so many great ideas from it for my new babies room and so many of my friends are using it to help plan their weddings, I only wish that it had been around while I was planning my wedding, I could of gotten so many more great ideas from it!

[|www.surveymonkey.com] - I have been using this site the past year or so, mostly at school for the use of surveys for students and staff in our building. Its a free site which is awesome because a lot of the survey sites out there make you pay per survey. It also it really sufficient in designing the survey exactly how you want or need it with multiple options on answers and questions. The site also provides results from the survey to the person or persons that design and implement it, in a timely manner. The surveys are all secure and data can be transferred to be able to use in other forms such as presentations.

www.edmodo.com -This site serves as a discussion board. It allows people to stay in contact with others and it is free. It is all web based.

www.capzles.com

This site is great for presentations and eportfolios. Students have to rely on "moments" that are either images, videos, or PDF files that they organize to either present or demonstrate their knowledge of the content. Used as an eportfolio system, students are able to upload PowerPoint, Prezi's, word document's, pictures and videos which is a great way to demonstrate work and growth over time. The site is free to use.

[|www.classtools.net] This website provides free games, quizzes, and activities that can be customized. These include a game generator, countdown timer, and random name picker. I use the Arcade Game Generator the most. These allow students to become more engaged by challenging them to recall the information and apply it in the game. I plan on using this website to increase student motivation in my classroom.

[|www.multiplication.com/games/play/grand-prix] Visit this website to practice your multiplication facts and race your friends! Students can play various types of games to strengthen their multiplication skills including multiplayer games. There are also quizzes, teaching tips, books, and their blog. This is a fun and engaging way to help students to master their multiplication skills. I will use this website in my 6th grade math classroom.

[] Screencast-O-Matic allows you to record everything that happens on your screen as well as audio. You can save the footage, import it into a video editing program, and then quickly create a tutorial for your students. I have used this to create a Movie Maker tutorial so my students could review basic use skills and make sure they covered all the requirements for their projects.

[] Toon Boom has several different products for creating and animating. Flip Boom Cartoon is a tool for kids to create cartoons, ecards, and projects. The user interface is basic and friendly for kids. The buttons are simplistic and explicit so kids know just what to click to get what they need. They are able to draw or insert pictures and add slides to show animation. Cost is $39.