Finding Dulcinea: The Librarian of the Internet and so much more

There are a ton of websites out there that have been developed to help students and teachers with internet inquiry.  One such site is Finding Dulcinea.  Check out my Group Prezi that provides an overview of using finding Dulcinea in the classroom.
You may also be interested in checking out:
Thinkfinity
Webspiration

Hooking Reluctant Readers

Every year I have a few students that require a little creativity in order to hook them into the wonderful world of reading.  What better way than to use multimedia books.  I wish I had heard of these books sooner.  Check out the podcast with author Patrick Carman, where he describes what goes into creating a multimedia book and how reluctant readers are responding to them.
Check out his personal website for more details on his books.

"The Paperless Classroom"

Classroom websites are an amazing way to keep your students, parents, and others connected to what you are doing in the classroom.  But what if your website was the hub for all that you teach and plan to present?  What if it takes the place of your filing cabinet and allows you to store and post all of your lesson plans and activity sheets with the click of a button?  Mark Barnes discusses the "Paperless Classroom" in this linked video.  From podcasts to message boards he covers a plethora of web 2.0 tools and how to embed them into your class website to enhance student learning and digitally organize all of your teaching tools.  I was amazed by all of the wonderful information and resources he shares in this video.  You have to check this out!
My goal is to try and work to organize my classroom in a similar digital fashion.  It will take a great deal of time and energy in the start, but will greatly pay off in the long run.  I think everyone will eventually be driven to this type of organization, especially with so many virtual classrooms coming into view.

Check out/Subscribe to Mark Barnes' Blog page

Shelfari---Motivate your students to read by creating personal libraries for each student

 Shelfari is a wonderful website where students and teachers can create/share their own personal library of books, write reviews about them, access other students' bookshelves, join groups to discuss books, and access discussions that people have read about books you're interested in.  You can organize your bookshelf according to books you've read, are currently reading, and want to read.  Students no longer need to keep a hard copy of the books they've, instead they import them into their shelfari bookshelf and can then print out their list.  What a wonderful way to motivate and engage your students in reading!  If you have any questions ask me.
I just started my shelfari bookshelf and you can see it on the right side bar of my blog page.  My current bookshelf is more of a professional development library.  It would be great for literacy coaches and curriculum directors to create a Shelfari Prof. Development Library for their teachers to access and discuss books.  I plan to create another bookshelf where I upload books for children and write personal reviews for my students to access.
If any of you are using shelfari please share any insights you might have in incorporating it into the classroom and leave your shelf name to add to my list of friends.
Check out the shelfari blog

Glogster! What an Amazing Webtool

Web tools and multimedia are great ways to engage students and create final product presentations.  I love the capabilities that Glogster offers for this.  While looking through the sites' project library I had so many wonderful ideas of how to use this in my teaching and then as a project presentation option for my students.  The MLK example gave me ideas of how it would be a great way for students  to do literature circle cumulative presentations or share their knowledge on biographies they've read.  Teachers could use glogster to introduce topics and get their kids excited about what they are going to learn.  I love the fact that you can embed video, graphics, etc. all into one interactive poster.  If you haven't seen this you have to check it out!