Friday, June 29, 2012

Fabulously Free Tech Tools - Day 2


I hope some of you had a chance to play with the websites that I mentioned in my last post.  I have a few more tools to share with you from my second day at the ISTE 2012 Conference that was held in San Diego this week.

1)  If you love Wordle, then you might really love Tagxedo.  With Tagxedo you can enter text AND pick a shape  for your word cloud.  Below, is a Tagxedo I made just from entering the URL for my blog.  It picks out key words and I just selected the apple shape.  I think this site is just plain fun.  It was also a lot faster than Wordle.

Mrs Rios Teaches: Fun, easy, and (mostly) free technology tips, tools, and apps for the primary classroom. | Toontastic & Wordle

As far as using this in the classroom, one teacher mentioned that she enters words associated with a particular theme into her Tagxedo, and the kids have to guess what the theme is.  I think this site has a lot of classroom potential.

Update 2/14/16! Turns out that I really ended up loving Wordle, too! Click on the image below to see how to make these adorable, personalized bookmarks for your students.


2)  Toontastic is a great storytelling app for the Ipad available at the ITunes store.  The best news is that it is FREE!  Toontastic allows students to choose the setting, characters, music, and plot of their story.  It is then animated and the students do a narration for their story.  I love all the ways you can incorporate Language Arts skills with this app.  You can preview Toontastic on the web HERE

Oh my goodness, I am going to stop here.  Those two tools alone, could potentially eat up your entire day.  Have fun.

Let me know what you think about these tools.  How can you foresee using them in your classroom?

Looking for more technology posts? Click on the image below.

Mrs Rios Teaches: Fun, easy, and (mostly) free technology tips, tools, and apps for the primary classroom.

Follow me on Pinterest for more technology ideas!



Until next time,

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for the technology tools! I'm going to check them out now!
    Lisa
    Learning Is Something to Treasure

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    Replies
    1. Great Lisa, thanks for stopping by. I hope you find some tech tools to use in your classroom this upcoming school year.

      Nicole

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  2. Love the Tagxedo! I'm going to have to try it out! I've nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award! Stop by my blog to pick it up.
    Colleen
    Totally Terrific in Texas

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    Replies
    1. Colleen, I had heard of Wordle, but had never tried it. Tagxedo makes me want to do something with it. If you think of any great ideas, please share them.

      Thanks so much for the VBA! I'm heading over to your blog right now.

      Nicole

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  3. Mrs. Rios-

    Thanks so much for your tech updates. I just downloaded Toontastic and it is AWESOME. Although I am a fifth grade teacher during the school year I will be teaching a 1st and 2nd grade reading enrichment and I can't wait to introduce this app to my little guys!

    Thanks again,
    Damien of The Reading Buddies

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  4. Damien, I'm so glad you liked Toontastic. I thought it was really something specia,l with a lot of potential for the classroom. It sounds perfect for your enrichment kiddos. They will have a blast!

    Nicole

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  5. I gave you an award! Come see it at:
    Tori's Teacher Tips
    Tori :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! Thanks, Tori. I will go check it out.

      Nicole

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  6. I love Toontastic. I just downloaded the app and it is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  7. I know, Sabrina! Right?! I want an IPad soooo bad. I have a Donor's Choose project in draft for an IPad. But, this app just makes me want go buy one myself.

    I'm glad I was able to help.

    Nicole

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  8. I actually used Tagxedo for a final project during my Senior class this year for my undergrad! I'm obviously going to have to check out Toontastic as I have an iPad!! I just found your blog and I am now following - thanks for all you do :]

    Sara
    Miss V's Busy Bees

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    Replies
    1. Awesome! I think Tagxedo looks so exciting and I love being able to pick the shape. Thanks for following. I am also now following your blog as well.

      Nicole

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  9. Can't wait to try this . . . what a clever idea!! Thanks for sharing!!!

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