Tool 9

Jing is amazing. It has a screen casting image for sharing and teaching. It's a quick and easy tool. There is a fun sun that is always available on your screen when you download the software. My class can find images of insects and place them on a doc. Then they can add labels to their image as well as their voice to describe the characteristics of the insects. Students can also use google maps and capture imagines of states. This would be perfect when the students need to learn the 10 neighbor states around Texas. Oh so many possibles come to mind! One more that comes to mind that I want to share is finding images of Texas symbols. Students can create a screen cast with all the symbols they copied from the web that are about Texas. They can add voice to their images and e-mail it to their parents so they can watch it. Great tool can't wait to use it.

Skype is a brilliant tool to communicate with friends, family and colleagues face to face if you have a videocam. I would definitely us this tool with my students. This past year my students and I communicated by e-mail with an author of a book called Chicks and Salsa. The students would get so excited to hear from the author and I would place the e-mail on the active board and would write back to him. This coming year I will communicate with this author by skype. Skype has a lot to offer a teacher. You can communicate with students around the world about the similarities and differences growing up in their country. This would be perfect when the students are in the unit called Friends Near and Far. Students can have a conference with a community leader which is another TEK for first grade. So many ideas are coming to mine. As a teacher I can have a conference call with a parent or another colleague. Personally I am going to get a webcam so I can communicate with my family who is in Costa Rica, Mexico, Mission Tx, Chicago.