There are endless educational possibilities for iPods and iPads as classroom
instructional devices.  The most wonderful part of using iPods to teach is that
you only have to teach content--not how to use the device as most kids have
played with an IPod before or know a parent, etc that has an iPhone.  My
favorite apps on the IPods are facejack and the QR code reader.  

     Facejack is a fun app that closely resembles the Blabberize website.  A
picture is uploaded into the app, the mouth of the picture defined and then the
students record something into the app that they want the picture to say.  When
done, the mouth moves and the students can hear the picture speak in their
voice!  Great for fluency and biographies!!

     I am also attaching the cheat sheet that was created to help teachers remember how to use an IPod touch. This cheat sheet was created by a colleague of mine who had to do a presentation for her graduate class.  My job was to mentor her through this presentation.  For more ideas on how to use iPods in the classroom check out the presentation on this site:  http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/ipodtouch.htm

i have had the most fun today!  The LMS at Monelison Middle School asked me to help her complete an assignment for a graduate course she is taking.  She decided to teach a group of 6th graders the basics of blogging.  The kids were SO excited!!  The plans for these student blogs is to work in conjuction with the English and reading teacher and the LMS.  I am looking forward to going back and reading more after the students have a chance to use these in a more formal class assignment.  LMS' blog is below and her students' blogs are linked off hers. 

http://mmslibrarian.blogspot.com/ 

I am very excited that I have finally figured out how to embed my glogster into my weebly site.  It took some playing with as I had to edit the html embed code but I got it done.  The challenge was that in changing the code I was either cutting off parts of my glog or enlarging them to the point that the images appeared fuzzy.  If I didn't play around with it, there was this white border on the right side and bottom of my glog.  Anyway, it is finally done and I am happy.  I have been trying to fine tune in prep for a hope-for prayer request. 

This is a list of my favorite web 2.0 tools for bookmarking.  These are great to help students find the right place online without worrying about what may pop up if the address is typed incorrectly.  I have also included cheat sheets for each tool.  Book marking tools are great ways to share a website with students so that they don't have to type in long addresses.  It is also a great way to differentiate.  One of my favorite things to do is to use Portaportal for guiding student research.  Portaportal allows you to set up as many portals as you want.  This means you could have a portal set up for Native Americans, Explorers, map skills, Civil War, etc.  In each content portal, you set up categories.  In these categories, safe links to sites could be provided, pictures linked, and so on.  Bookmarking sites have unlimited uses!

I have been cleaning out my email today and came across some resources that we use to use at TTI Presentors.  TTI stood for Teacher Training Institute and our purpose was to provide inservice to teachers helping them to integrate technology.  We always did a presentation on copyright.  Here are the presentation materials we used.

Did you know you can convert a powerpoint into a video complete with the sound effects and animations?  The link below will take to a free download that allows you to convert to wmv, avi, or mpeg (mp4) formats.  Then  you can move it into movie maker for adding it to other video, adding voice over, etc.

http://www.presentersoft.com/download.htm

Tip: The  powerpoint cannot link to outside sources or from page to page.

The world for our rural students can be vastly expanded by reality "play"online or SmartBoard.  Try some of the explorations on this site such as "Tinker, Build a Fish" to make the preditor/prey and adaptations concepts
come to life, or "Tinker, Zoo Matchmaker" to delve into genetics, or "Role Play, U-505" to role play commanding a U-boat in WWII.  True learning using state of the art technology....

http://www.eduweb.com/

While helping a USII teacher one year, I pulled the following resources but I have just stumbled across the material again and thought others might benefit as well.  You can quickly click and decide if they fit your style of teaching.

USII 2b (search Google "USII 2.b")

http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/specialist/ganzert_j/socialstudiesonline/StudyMaps/Grade7StudyMaps/USII.2b.pdf
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/EnhancedSandS/histUSII.pdf (pgs. 5-7, 14)
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/standards/StudyUSII.2b.htm  (password for SOL Pass is Amherst)
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/Printables/1877toPresent%20Flashcard%20set.doc
http://ushistory.pwnet.org/PDFs/USII_Vocabulary.pdf
http://www.acps.k12.va.us/curriculum/socialstudies/summary_grade7.pdf (excellent review sheet)
http://www.appomattox.k12.va.us/MiddleSchool/Social%20Studies%20Page/PP%207th0grade/me10Immigration.ppt (powerpoint for review of USII 2 and 3)
http://www.glencoe.com/correlations/PDFs/9022MA.pdf (correlation of text to MA curriculum framework...much the same as ours)
http://hcps.us/instruction/ss/resources_files/ss%20ms/US2/resources05/assessment/USII.doc

USII 4
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/EnhancedSandS/histUSII.pdf 
(pgs. 39-41,42-49, 50-54)
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/standards/StudyUSII.4.htm
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/USII.4activitypage.htm
http://www.wiziq.com/educational-tutorials/USII-4-IMPERIALISM   (powerpoint for review or teaching..click on the PP screen on page)
http://guest.portaportal.com/solss (portaportal with many  links to goodies you can use)
http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com/USII.4
http://www.quia.com/jg/571564.html

USII 5 
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/EnhancedSandS/histUSII.pdf (pgs. 55-59, 60-71, 72-73, 74-87
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/USII.5activitypage.htm
http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/auto.html
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/wright/
http://www.quia.com/jq/87064.html
http://happy.cirtexhosting.com/~ideasorg/mediaroom/search_result.php?search_id=Walker
http://www.foresthistory.org/education/curriculum/Standards/correlationVA.htm
http://guest.portaportal.com/solss
http://www.quia.com/rr/93609.html
http://www.glnd.k12.va.us/~pbrook/USII5%20Study%20Guide.htm (Powerpoint review)