A year or so ago Michelle blogged about alternatives to gcast. One of the websites that she mentioned was yodio.com/. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work with the site a little bit. It is an easy, quick, and free way to create slideshows that include not only your pictures, but your voice. It combines podcasting and digital photography.

I have had teachers make a yodio of their autistic students that was used to provide information about that student to staff members. Another teacher is using yodio to showcase her student’s alliteration book. After each child creates their image and sentence, they are recording themselves reading their page. Yet another teacher has used yodio as a way for students to narrate how to solve a math problem. This example is available below:

Teachers can use yodio as a way to track student’s ability to read a piece of text – another fluency check. It can be a great way to showcase a students development not only for yourself, but for students and parents.

A note: if you add your phone number from school and that number doesn’t show up on a caller I.D., then it won’t automatically tie into your account. There is a way to add a password when you use that number so that you can access that podcast on your account.

For ease of use, this is a great way for students to begin creating personalized products.

I wanted to share a blog that I follow. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/. I like that Larry posts multiple websites relevant to current events, holidays, celebrations, and other miscellaneous and useful websites. These websites facilitate planning, provide background information, are educational in nature, or just resourceful when navigating the web. Because Mr. Ferlazzo teaches English language learners he always evaluates the sites that he references according to useability by ELLs.

I would like to know what blogs or websites you find helpful and informative.

We are off to the National Middle School Association’s 35th Annual Conference in Denver. How exciting!! The last time I went to the NMSA conference was in 2001 as a college senior. Having been in the classroom now, I am looking forward to all of the great things that will be presented such as technology, strategies, methods, resources, and freebies from the exhibit hall of course. 

Tomorrow afternoon, Jennifer and I will be presenting in one of the concurrent sessions. The title for our session is Strategies, Methods, and Resources for Increasing ELL Student Understanding and Performance. Some of the things we will cover during the 75 minute session are Who are English language learners?, Characteristics?, Structure- discipline, classroom procedures, graphic organizers, Academic vs. Content Vocabulary, Foldables, and Example of a modified lesson. Believe me, we have tons more that we could talk about but this was all that we could fit into the time. If you would like a copy of our handouts, visit our wiki (some pages are still a work in progress) at http://ellclassroom.wikispaces.com/NMSAhandouts. 

I look forward to reporting back on all that I learn over the next few days!

Interactive whiteboards, electronic whiteboards, smartboards, whatever they may be called, they have been a huge hit with teachers across every grade level and content area. Display your computer screen on your whiteboard, show a video/ multimedia presentation, create a graphic organizer or fill one in as a class, manipulate virtual manipulatives in math, create words or sentences with letter and word tiles, demonstrate how to ______ (you fill in the blank), save, cut, copy, paste, and print notes from class, etc. Think outside of the box and the options are endless. 

Please share your ideas and experiences, we would love to hear how you have incorporated this multifaceted tool in your classroom.