Fabulous Tech Tools - Day 3

Hi Everyone,

This will be the last post on tech tools that I loved from the ISTE 2012 Conference held last week in San Diego.  Not to say that I won't be sharing more tech tools in the future, but I will be turning my attention to My Classroom Makeover and Back-to-School prep.  So stay tuned!

Onto Techie Awesomeness....

1)  The Toontastic app, on ITunes, was such a big hit with some of you that I thought I would share one more story-building app that you might want to take a look at.  This one is not free, but at $4.99, is totally worth it.  It is called StoryPatch.  Take a look at the video below for a demo.

I think this app could be so helpful with those kiddos who just hate to put pencil to paper, or students with special needs and small motor skill difficulties.  Once again, this app makes it totally apparent to me that I MUST get an IPAD, like yesterday!   This brings me to my next tech tool...

2)  Donor's Choose - is a website where teachers can create projects asking for materials for their classrooms.  Generous donors search for projects that are meaningful to them, and fund those projects.  When your project is fully funded, Donor's Choose takes care of making sure your materials are sent to your school.  All you have to do is create a project, and then create a Thank You package (it's not as complicated as it might sound) for your donors. 

I have a project in-draft right now on my DonorsChoose site to request that much needed IPad.  I have been pretty lucky with getting projects funded in the past, so I am hopeful. 

If you have never tried DonorsChoose, head on over to Jessica Stanford's website (Mrs. Stanford's Class).    She has a detailed post on how to get started with your very first project.  I think I read that she has received over $20,000 of free classroom materials from this site!

3)  Ok, I am still playing around with this last one, but I thought I would throw it out there and see if it sticks with any of you.  It is called ClassDojo.  This is a behavior management website.  It allows you to record both positive and negative behaviors for each of your students, create reports, and... according to more than one presenter at ISTE, is very motivating to students.  Two things that I like about this website are that 1) you can connect to the website via your smartphone, or other mobile device, and use it as a "remote control" of sorts, to record behaviors from anywhere in your classroom and 2) you can email parents the behavior "report cards".  It has too many features to go into detail about, but their website has an excellent tour for you to check out.

I would love to hear your feedback on these tech tools.  Or better yet, if you have used any of these tools in your classroom, we would love to hear about your experience.

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Have a great day.

Nicole