Ideas

=Ideas for Using Technology in Your Classroom= It is always hard trying to come up with how to use technology in your classroom. Luckily you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Here are some ideas that you can do in your class.

Idea of the Month [[image:Picture_1.jpg width="800" height="513"]]

 * Wordle**, [|www.wordle.net] is a website where you or your students can generate "word clouds" from words that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can change the font, layout, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery.


 * WARNING!!** Be careful when you have your students go to this website. Anyone can access this site, and create any wordle they choose. So, be warned that someone out there may have created a wordle with inappropriate words.

Using digital cameras
[|Using Digital Cameras in the Classroom] - this is a great link that provides very useful information about using digital cameras in the classroom.


 * Ideas**
 * Have each kindergartner choose a letter. Then, go on a walk around the school or in the neighborhood. When the child finds something that begins with that letter, take a picture of the child with that object. Use the pictures to create a class alphabet chart.
 * Take pictures during the day to give a photographic record of classroom procedures. Print the pictures out and post them so students can review the procedures as needed.
 *  Take pictures to document other growth, such as plants, butterflies, frogs, etc. Use these pictures to illustrate life cycles or stages of growth.
 * When learning about geometry, have students go around the school and take pictures of different geometric shapes that they find. The students then come back to class and create a slide show of what they found.

Mobile Lab
Use this time to have students complete assignments using programs they used in the computer lab.

Computer Lab
Use this time to teach your students how to use different computer programs that are availble on the computers. Many if not all of the program on the computers in the computer are also on the computers in the mobile lab. Some of the programs our school has are: Inspiration Comiclife Kidspiration Microsoft Office Programs GarageBand iMovie Kid Pix Deluxe 3X The Graph Club 2.0

Document Camera
Allow students to interact with this as well. It is a great tool to have students show their work, or come to the front and share solutions, write answers. Read picture books, and show the pictures.

Teacher Laptop
Create power point presentations to be used during lessons. There are many power points available online already. Google :ppt:verbs and many times a powerpoing presentation can be found. Here are two that I have used in class.