Games

I think that administrators need outlets to unwind. I enjoyed playing games on www.friv.com. I played a game to where I was a Fashion Designer. The game I liked to the most was Pizza King. Mostly you are a waitress who has to complete her job. It is important to have ways to get away sometimes. I will go to this site again.

http://screencast.com/t/6VGWxfXODUQ

Music Websites

I am a music fanatic, so this assignment was really fun for me. I actually think that this is a great tool for music teachers. I think it is important for people in high stress jobs to have outlets of some kind to unwind. I tried all three music websites. I think I was most fond of the FavTape. It allows to find almost any song you like and make a little tape. My husband is a music teacher and he is requiring his students to create a CD with some of their favorite songs. His assignment is to, by the end of the semester, for them to acknowledge the musical aspects of each song. He should have used FavTape and he could have skipped the CD part. He also could have listened to all of their CD's without placing them into his computer. I really enjoyed this assignment.

http://favtape.com/green8444/Amanda%27s+first+favs

Jing

Jing would be a great application for teaching students and teachers how to use technology. This is also wonderful because it allows you to save the video or picture to where you can look at it over and over again. I think this would be a great tool for in-services or just basic instructions of how to do certain things on the computer for your school. For example, our grade book system is quite complicated. You have to use a step-by-step process to put students’ grades on for report cards. This would be great to have someone use the Jing application to complete the step-by-step way of using it. This could also be a great accountability tool. I cannot think of any disadvantages of this application.


http://www.screencast.com/users/green8444/folders/Jing/media/8416280d-0594-4cfd-b44e-ffa6e54cd266

YouTube

Last year at my school, the 8th grade teachers participated in the Talent Show. We danced to Soulja Boy dance. It was hilarious. I am the gangsta to the far left in the front. It was ridiculous, but we had so much fun. This kids went wild and for a brief minute I felt like a rockstar. HaHa. I enjoy using YouTube for pleasure most times. Although my mom turned me on to TeacherTube. This site is great for teachers. My principal has used some videos during faculty meetings. Although she had to get a special code because YouTube is blocked at our school. I guess this is where I get to the advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that there are so many useful, informational videos to watch for both students and teachers. It is a shame that because a few bad mistakes caused this site to be blocked. Almost anything can be placed on this site, therefore not making this site always best for (in my case 8th graders) students.

I am quite new to podcasting. I went to iTunes and clicked on the Education section. I am an 8th grade language arts teacher. Therefore, I clicked on the podcasts titled Grammar Girls-Quick and Dirty Tips. Grammar can sometimes be very boring, so I am always trying to find new ways to make it more interesting. This is a great tool. I listened to a few different podcasts. One of them was titled "Grammar Girls- A Little Extra Information". This podcast was about appositives. Great reinforcement for this grammar skills. Another podcast I listened to was "He's got a complex.- Complex Compound Sentences. I love how they put a little humor into the titles and in the podcast themselves. My students would really like these because it is another way to get information to them. I also plan to share this with my professional learning community this week at school.