Set Sail With Technology Week 7

FUN! Here's my wordle! FUN! Click on the link to see my wordle. I used the Texas Flag Pledge.

title="Wordle: TEXAS PLEDGE"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/2247219/TEXAS_PLEDGE"
alt="Wordle: TEXAS PLEDGE"
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I could see kids loving to make these word clouds. At the beginning of the year I usually do name acrostics. The students use their names and write adjectives that describe themselves using those letters of their name. This could be a new way of displaying their final draft of this project. They could publish these with Wordle. Of course, it wouldn't really be an acrostic, but that would also benefit them because it would give them more freedom in words they choose. It could also automatically modify for those students whose vocabulary might be below level. The number of words typed in could differ from child to child and still be a great looking word cloud. Although I left mine black and white, they students could edit their font, size and color.

Kid Pix has been a program that I have always had available for my classroom, but I've never used it as an educational tool. I loved the website with links to ways to use Kid Pix better in my classroom.

As far as our campus situation with technology, we do not have a computer teacher. Each grade level is given specific times they can use the lab each week. Teachers are responsible for their own lessons and activities. As we plan and need the mobile lab, we just reserve them or sign up for a time and day. Up until this point, I've used mobile labs and the computer labs for word processing (poetry, writing assignments, etc.) and for practicing skills on computer programs that are quite ancient. Now that I've learned about so many programs and will be exploring their possibilities, I will be using our technology in a much more academic and effective way.
Thinkfinity seems like a site that has lots of great information not only for teachers but for parents as well. I think that I will add a button for this site or a link onto my blog. Although I only looked at a few lesson plans, they seemed to have great ideas.

TerraClues would be great for motivating kids. I played with it for a bit and did the "easy" hunt to see how it's used. As with most of the other programs, I would have to play on it and take a few tutorials to figure out the best way to use it.