Remember The Milk

Have you ever forgotten to do something important? Are you constantly using lists and wished that there was a free and easy website to use to help make this list? Remember The Milk is a great website for a person like this, and especially for a teacher. It is a great way to manage your tasks and the website's slogan is "Never forget the milk (or anything else) again." A few things I specifically used this website for was to make a list for all of the assignments I needed to get finished (or grade) and I also used this website to make the 'to-do' list for the classroom I am student observing in. Something extra helpful on this website is that you can set things like when the item on your list is due, its location, if it is postponed, time, and it has a repeat option. Another nifty thing is that each item you write on the list has a box next to it so that you can check it off when it is done. One thing I didn't like about this site was that if you are making a list that requires a certain order, you have to write it backwards so that it is in the correct order. Also, you cannot re-arrange items once you put them in the list. A few other great things about this site are that you can get text reminders, it is free (you can even log in with Facebook), and you can easily share your tasks with others. It was very easy to sign up for and you can even link it up with Google calendars. I think this site would be great for helping out teachers who like or need organization.

AnswerGarden

Have you ever wondered what your students are thinking about a certain subject you are teaching? Or have you ever wanted your students opinions about a question you have? AnswerGarden  is a great website that provides a fun and easy way to get short feedback from students in an organized way. This site is especially neat because you can use it as a brainstorming tool for students and you can link to any other website- like a blog or class website. You could use this site to make a page to gather feedback and answers for a plethora of subjects and questions. For example, I made an AnswerGarden to collect student opinions on what we should name our class pet. When I set this page up (for free), I did not even have to register for the site. You  can just click on the 'create an AnswerGarden' link at the top of the website and it guides you through the process of creating an AnswerGarden. You can set the topic or question to be whatever you want it to be and then publish it so that your students can go in and write a short response. It is also nice that the website limits the number of characters per response so it forces students to be precise in their answers. Another cool feature of this website is that you can embed it to another site very easily. This way you can easily share your AnswerGarden with your students and guide them to the site easily. I could see myself using this site in the classroom to either start classroom discussions, get anonymous feedback, for homework purposes, or to merely engage students in a new way in class. I found the site very easy to use and mostly self-explanatory. I hope you find it useful and fun, as I know I did! :) Enjoy! 

Wallwisher

Wallwisher is a great website I found on free technology for teachers. It is free and easy to sign up for. At first, I wasn't so sure how it worked, but they have example walls for almost every purpose you could think of using this site for. I looked at the education example which was a wall in which the teacher posted that they wanted their students to write sentences with a word of the day provided by the teacher. Students can then post sentences onto the wall and the teacher can comment on them. It works almost like an online homework board.  I thought that for this purpose, this site could be used as a much more elementary version of an online discussion. It also is a fun way to encourage students to be involved in their homework, because everyone can see what is posted (unless when you make your wall you choose the setting so that only the person who made the wall can see posts). When I made a replica of the education wall, I found it super easy to use, and I liked that I could adjust the privacy settings. It is also fun and creative to use because when you set up your wall, you can choose from many different backgrounds, set a picture icon, and give it a title and description or directions. You can even personalize it even more by uploading your own pictures rather than the ones provided by Wallwisher. You can also post videos and pictures to the wall. For example, when I posted to my word of the education wall, I wanted students to write simple and complex sentences with the word of the day, so I posted a YouTube screen cast of a teacher explaining different types of sentences for those students who need a little refresher.  Overall, I loved this website and thought it was very fun to make and that as a future educator, that I could see myself using this site for fun little homework assignments or as a fun way to introduce a new concept in class as an icebreaker. Enjoy! 

TimeRime

History teachers, this is the website for you! TimeRime  is a great website I found that lets you make, view and share interactive timelines. It is free and easy to use. You can also use other pre-made timelines that others have already made on topics such as musical history, world wars, famous politicians, the history of the United States, etc. This is a fun, visual, and interactive way to teach and learn about history and it is very helpful that you can make your own timeline using this site, because then you can be very specific about what information you enter into your timeline. This site is great not only useful to make timelines, but also to share your timelines with others, and learn from other timelines already made. You can also purchase a more advanced version of TimeRime for educational and professional uses if you wish, but the free version works fine for simple purposes. If you plan to use TimeRime to only view other timelines, there are no extra skills are needed, but if you plan to create a timeline, you need to learn to use the site, and also register for the site. The timelines would also be great to use with an interactive whiteboard, or SMARTBoard, or even an overhead projector. In searching some timelines that were already made, I thought that the one on President Obama's life could be very helpful to teach students and inform them with the upcoming elections and Presidential debates going on. This could also be a fun way to introduce a unit on Presidential history or to learn about elections and the government. I hope you find TimeRime as interesting and helpful as I did and that you plan on using it in your Social Studies lessons in the future.

Prezi

Prezi is a great website I found that, as it says, "makes your presentations ZOOM!" At first, Prezi reminded me of a more complicated version of PowerPoint, but as I explored it more and actually made a presentation, I saw how fun and interactive you can make your presentations become using Prezi. To start using Prezi, you must sign up for it (which is easy to do and is free as long as you get the public version). Once you are logged in, you can begin creating a new presentation. You can name your presentation and start it by choosing a template to edit, or you can start from scratch. When I made my presentation, I used a pre-made template so that I could build my presentation much easier (it also had a cute background and media already put in for me). You can also take a PowerPoint presentation you already have made and adapt it for Prezi. One benefit Prezi could offer in the classroom is that it is very appealing to the eye and all of the zooming capabilities help to maintain student engagement in the presentation. Also, it's zooming capabilities offer you the option to put tiny explanations in your presentation under media, key words, and passages. This could be especially helpful to students who need extra help or more detailed explanations of certain topics. The students can easily zoom into these sections of the Prezi to get the further help they need. Another great thing about Prezi (that I like better than PowerPoint) is that unlike in a PowerPoint presentation, you can be a lot more free with your order of presentation. For example, you can set your presentation in the form of any path you like. For the Prezi I made, I used a tree path so that I have roots, a trunk, and branches with all my main points on them. You could also make a circular cycle (to teach about the ecosystem for example) or any other path you would like. It also gives you the freedom to skip around in your presentation and zoom in and out to any point you like. Just like in PowerPoint, Prezi gives you structure and order to your presentation, but it also gives you liberty to be extra creative and much more visual. I will definitely be using this website to make presentations not only during college, but in my future classroom. I also found this great YouTube video that gives a great intro on how to get started using Prezi! Have fun making your presentations ZOOM! 

Hello! This is my attempt at conquering the blog world. I plan to use this blog to explore assistive technologies that I (and other future teachers) can use in their classrooms. I hope you enjoy my posts as I explore different free technologies and talk about my opinions of them :)