50 Ways to Anchor Technology in your Classroom Tomorrow!

On top of all the other cool stuff at TCEA, there was one more addition to the schedule...me! I was lucky enough to have my proposal accepted to present a session today. A friend, also from Garland ISD, and I decided to compile a list of 50 easy ways to incorporate technology into your lessons and classroom. We both teach at non-Title 1 schools in average suburban neighborhoods, which means we really don't have a budget for technology. All of the technology currently in our classrooms has only been possible through writing grants. So needless to say, we have become pretty savvy at finding free resources to use with the students. Our list is made up of free websites to use as teaching and learning tools, free websites to use for management, Web 2.0 tools for projects, digital camera ideas, digital storytelling ideas, powerpoint tips, and Gogle tools for the classroom. 

We decided to pick some of our favorite websites to demonstrate for the audience, since there was no way we would be able to show them all. Here is a short summary of each of our favorites that we demonstrated:

Fur.ly- Use Fur.ly to enter in multiple URL addresses.  It will then convert the addresses into 1 short, simple URL.  This would be great for student projects, webquests, and more! We used it to present each of these websites. That way we could easily navigate back and forth through each of them.  http://fur.ly/f48/

Super Teacher Tools- Create seating charts, groups, and randomly pick names within seconds!  This site also has fantastic flash versions of Jeopardy and Millionaire games. To maximize your use of this tool, take a couple minutes to create a class list that will be saved. They will e-mail you the number and then each time you access a feature of the site you just have to enter your number for all students to reappear. 

Dove Whisper- This site contains Internet games for all elementary grades and subjects. Use Dove Whisper as a computer center in your classroom or add these links to your class website for students to practice skills.  

Build Your Wild Self- Have students create their "Wild Self".  Use their creations for an intro into animal adaptations and habitats in science, or use them as a creative writing prompt. I love using these as avatars for our class blog.

My Avatar Editor- Have students create a mii.  Use their avatars in various ways, such as decorations, "all about me" assignments, and goal setting and tracking. This site is great because it gives you the ability to save as a jpeg or png file. 

MyStudiyo- Create multimedia quizzes in minutes!  You can attach them to your blog or class website.

Tools for Educators - Create custom game boards, customized dice, and many other printables to use in a variety of lessons.

Rubistar-  Create a rubric quickly with this site.  Also, you can browse and edit pre-made rubrics.

Last, I want to share our presentation website. It has ALL of the 50 ideas hyperlinked, as well as a pdf that you can print out if you would like. Check it out here: https://sites.google.com/site/anchortechnologytomorrow/

Let me know what you think! And if you really like it, share it!!! Our hope is to continue adding to our list as we encounter new and interesting sites or ideas.