thing 7 - I never imagined so many video resources!Now we won't have to depend so heavily on Discovery Video. Hulu is very interesting. I had no idea you could get recent tv shows on line. Who needs DVRs? I was glad to find the Arthur series on PBS Kids. Those videos are great for rainy day recess. Blinkx has a kids site which is a wonderful entertainment/educational place for kids to visit. My favorite has to be "totlol". I found many "how to videos (make a bracelet, do origami) and some really cute music videos for young children. There were Clifford stories and Schoolhouse Rock videos. It was hard to quit this one.

thing 1 - very interesting video - even little folks have to learn to search for information

thing 6 - My daughter has an iphone and my granddaughter has an itouch. I have watched them use their devices for 2 years now, but never got into it myself. It was really fun for me to see the educational possibilities of the itouch when my 15 year old granddaughter came over and spent some "face time" with me. Together we investigated the free sites for math games (Guess my Age and math drills) reading sites ( read me stories with talking picture books) and BrainPop free movies! I found 3 games for Toy Story3 that I can't wait to share with my second graders. There is even a calendar/planner called My Homework that can be used on a personal itouch.
The video on Cloud Computing was real interesting.
I just had fun investigating this one.

thing 5 - Facebook is a good way for me to keep in touch with family and friends. I was surprised on my birthday when several "friends" sent me birthday wishes. I think the best thing I can do for my second grade students is to teach them how to be safe on sites like Facebook. Then when they are old enough, they have some knowledge of the appropriate postings for their pages.
I am not sold on Twitter. I do not have an ego large enough to believe that other people really care what I am doing as I go about my day.I don't have my phone with me at all times, so I don't think it would ever work for me.
Back channeling seems like passing notes in class electronically. I think it is more important to listen, then question.

thing 4 -I spent way too much time watching these things. Lots to see!

thing 3 - Thanks to our librarian, Mrs. Reynolds, we had Skype "pals" in Nebraska this year. We contacted them several times and learned many things about their state.
I love the idea of having a guest lecturer by Skype. Maybe that will be a goal for us.

thing 2 - I have used Wordle several times.This week the software is not working. I called for support. Nothing worked. Kids did it for science review and really liked it.
I loved Bookr!


I think that could replace Powerpoint for our 2nd grade projects.
I am not sure that my students could work with Glogster, but we may try in the spring.