THING 13 - thank goodness for the freebies
April 2, 2008 by atlantapeachteach
These tools are really great, and I’m always amazed that anything so good is FREE. (Are we still capitalist??) I looked at several of the sites offered, and two of them really work for me. The first is Quizlet. This is a site that allows you to quiz yourself in a variety of ways. It would be great for learning vocabulary or, as is common in my World Cultures course, names and titles. For example, my students recently read a chapter about the political and cultural activity in Russia. They had to learn a lot of names such as Boris Pasternak, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, etc. To these students, who did not grow up with these names in the news, they proved to be very difficult. Quizlet would be a fantastic way for them to learn these. The site allows you to type in terms, names, etc. and then you can choose to “familiarize,” “learn,” “test,” “play scatter,” etc. I can see this being very helpful to many grade levels and across the curriculum.
A second tool that I really liked is Ta-Da Lists. What a great thing to a list-maker like myself! This (free) site allows you to make lists to remind yourself, to organize yourself, etc. and post it on the web. Personally I found it fabulous, and I believe that it would be great for students as well. If they were working in a group, they could generate a list, and then as the tasks were completed different members could check them off - much like a wiki - but not nearly as complicated. A teacher could post the list if needed. The uses are endless and the benefits numerous. Can’t wait to use these with my students!
STRETCH TASK - SKYPING SHELLEY!
Ok - I did it. I didn’t think I could but I did. Skype will be so great for students to interact with other classes a world a way, or as the idea was suggested in the instructions, interview an expert on something. Can’t wait to put this to use in my classes.
On a personal note, I’ll be using it to speak with one of my sisters who lives in Macao and a niece who will be going to school in Germany next fall. What a great tool!
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Try skype with a webcam. I find windows messenger with a webcam be work better but Skype will allow easier cross platform use between XP and Mac OS.