Friday, July 07, 2006

Friday at NECC06 - Web Wonders

Friday already at NECC06- another long day ahead as I don't fly back to Maine until 9:30 pm San Diego time. I believe I arrive home around noon tomorrow. But it has certainly been worth the trek - got up a little slower this morning. Could have been the Brazilian dinner last night with the open source crew. This conference has been a life saving networking experience for me. I feel so privileged to meet many people that I have communicated with digitally over the last year.

Now, I am waiting for 8:30 and the beginning of another session -
Web Wonders - Sites that are Time-Saving Tools for elementary teachers.
Gail Lovely presenter: http://www.GailLovely.com
by Sharon Betts, Educational Technology Coordinator Maine School Administrative District 52

All teachers are stretched for time, but none more so that those working with our younger students. I hope to come away with many ideas to help my teachers next year. Gail started us out with a warm up and this was the first time that happened this year. Could it be because of the elementary school background? A teacher is always a teacher in every setting.

She browsed to her book marklets - http:/www.bookmarklets.com
This is something I had not used - it allows you to see the last time a webpage was updated. This is a great tool for students to use in verification of facts. Just think how many country names have changed in the last 20 years.

Personal Educational Press - another site that I had not used previously. http://www.educationalpress.org
I don't usually like a laundry list approach to presenting, but I must say, Gail has some great
resources. You can take lists of words and make everything like Bingo Boards to crosswords. Fantastic resource for teachers. Wow - I am sending this link to my staff as soon as I get back.

Fonts online, elementary and primary games, book plates, shape books are some of her ideas. You can even 'google' these terms for further sites offering resources.
Kidz Club, A kids Heart (has lots of ads, but teachers are using it for printables), Learning Page
(free side of Reading A2Z) are just a few of the sites she mentioned.

Interactive tools:
teachnology.com
Easy Bib (easy for elementary students to site sources)
PBL checklist Project Based Checklist

Using other schools is a great way to share resources. Gail reviewed several elementary schools
across the states. The advent of the web has made life easier for teachers if they can only find the time. By participating in a session like Gails, most of that work has been completed.

I have listed some of the URLs that were presented, but she has many more in her handouts on the NECC site as well as her personal site.

I have never taught students under 6th grade, but Gail with her enthusiasm and extensive resources made me itch to get back to work with teachers.

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2 comments:

Cheryloakes50 said...

Hey Sharon,
Sounds like you had a great time at NECC and thanks for sharing all these great links from Gail.
See you in Maine.
Cheryl

Anonymous said...

Thank you for so many kind thoughts and for sharing some of my resources with others! I agree with you, by the way, about "laundry list" sessions... I hope you found some of the "this is how this might be helpful" banter useful as well! Thanks again for coming to my session and for sharing my work with others!