While the two blogs I had been following closely in my last post are great, I also learned that they certainly don't post everyday. Which is fine of course, but I had gotten used to checking my Reader each day and while I was still learning quite a bit from the more mainstream websites I had subscribed to, I love getting the personalized feel from real teachers in the classroom who are blogging.
After coming to terms with the thought that bloggers just don't post everyday (especially teacher bloggers who have a million other things to do), I came across a great site that absolutely includes a post each day. On Tammy Worcester's site (which now holds a prominent place in my Google Reader account), she writes about a new technology tip regularly. I of course had to go through all 90+ of them after the first five tips proved to be so useful. My favorite, and one I instantly shared with fellow staff members, is that Google can search for information by reading level. Just click Advanced Search and voila! You can choose Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced and then only sites and articles at that level will show. This will be great for my students when it comes time for our research project. They are always overwhelmed by some of the language in the articles they find! Another neat tip she had was about using QR codes in the classroom. I was so excited about this prospect and even talked to our tech specialist about a lesson idea I had for it, when I realized QR codes would not work because our iTouches do not have cameras. Oh well! Maybe a plan for the future-if nothing else, now I know how to use them.
Hopefully some of her tips can be helpful to others!
Gotta love Google's advance search tools. Another site I use for readability levels is Juicy Studio and Readability.info They both analyze web sites, while the later will also do word docs. Check them out and share your thoughts! Great resources if you are moving onto CEP 811.
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