PD+12-13

=Professional Development=

New and Exciting
Edmodo--to join our group use code brtcou

Tools
Calendar--There are several to choose from--Google is the one that most people like. There is one on Edmodo that you can use to help your students keep up with their assignments.

Scheduling--If you or your students want to schedule something--like a department meeting, etc. Doodle is for you.

Mind Mapping--People say that a picture is worth 1000 words. Does it make it easier to remember what you are studying. Try this free tool. Click here

Social Bookmarking--Saving your bookmarks in the cloud. The best way is Diigo. It does multiple things.

Virtual Storage--I love storing things in the cloud. But there are options. The easiest is dropbox. But there is also skydrive or sugar sync. Also Edmodo will allow you UNLIMITED storage.

Discussion Forums

Blogs--My favorite blog site is WordpressThis blog can be a webpage with many different pages for homework, quizzes, and writing prompts for your students. But another blog site is by Google. It is called Blogger.

Wikis--There are always choices. My favorite wiki is wikispaces It is free. PBWorks used to be free but now they are charging.

Microblogging--This is twitter. Even though it is not well thought of in education circles, I use it for professional learning. When deciding who to follow, I pick people who are visionaries. They post links and comments that are interesting and help me.

Audio--Audacity is great for making an mp3 file for your students to listen to. It would be great for foreign language instruction, ELL and even really hard lectures where students could listen over and over again. You must also down LAME to make an mp3. Both are found on the download page.

Video--When I think of videos, several different things go through my mine. First--there is a screen cast of what you are doing on the computer. You can download CamStudio and it records your voice while you are working on your computer. Then there is the flip camera which is easy to use and records regular video and shows immediately from a computer with a USB input. The example I like is called a [|commoncraft video which is explained here.]

Quizzes There are several but I think that eQuizzer is the easiest with the most features. If you have examview (which comes with most textbooks, you can make tests with examview and then use the player to allow the students to take the test on the computer.

Rubrics--The best rubrics can be made at rubistar. This is a free site to help teachers with rubrics. There is another section which is called notestar and it helps teachers keep up with the notes that the students are taking.

E-Portfolios--The best way to keep an e-portfolio is with live binder or one note. LiveBinder is a three ring binder of information that is on the Internet. One note can be used two different ways. It comes with Office 2010 but is also found on the skydrive for free.

Slide Shows

Social Networking--Edmodo