Animoto.com claims to be "The end of sideshows." The site allows users to upload photos and video clips and arrange them but will create the actual slide show. Users can choose from music loaded on the site or upload their own music from MP3's. The slide shows can be sent as links or embedded into web pages or emails.

The classroom applications are virtually limitless. I have used it with students as part of a book report project in which they created "trailers" for the books they read. Other ideas I had included using it for an "All about Me" project and using it to teach Symbolism or other literary terms (but then I am an English teacher so there are lots of ways history, math, and science teachers could use it that I haven't thought of yet.)



The site will allow any user to make a 30 second movie, but if you sign up for a free educator's account you and your students can make shows up to 3 or 4 minutes (lengths are dependent upon how long the song you use takes to play.) The only draw back I have really noticed is that the Educator's account approval takes a few days for the site owners to get back to you and the video's often take a long time to finalize and kids lose patience with that part. The upside to the finalization process is that once it has started the kids don't need to watch over the site and can in fact navigate away from it while the video finishes. The videos will then show up in their account under "My Videos"

Comeeko.com or Pikistrips.com is an interactive comic book building tool. I stumbled upon this site after searching for a comic book clip on Google images. The site allows you to upload your own photos, or photos saved on your computer and add thought and speech bubbles. Photos treatments can also be used to make the photos more like actual drawings, old photographs and add elements like hats, glasses and hair styles to photos.

This tool has many applications in the classroom. Students can use the tool to create comic books based on materials they have read in class, display an understanding of scientific or mathematical theories, and visualize historical events in a new way. Teachers can also use the site to create worksheets or handouts to support student learning.

The first assignment I let my students use the site for was a Romeo and Juliet project. The kids found the site very easy to use and fun as well. Many of my students who rarely turned in work were excited about this project. Some students used clip art or photos they found online like this one, but other students also took photos of themselves and friends to create their projects.

I only recently figured out what the term "Web 2.0" means. It sounded like some expensive program that I was going to have to talk some administrator into purchasing; but, as it turns out the term refers to any online tool that is interactive. This includes thousands of different tools from presentation creators, comic book generators and just about anything the mind can imagine. I have found several tools that look awesome, and have started to implement them in my lessons.

The first tool I found was Prezi.com. This is a presentation tool that allows you to create interactive presentations in which you can zoom in and out on the text, videos and photos you add. The site has a free educator account, but to add things like videos I believe you need to purchase an upgraded account.

The coolest use of this tool is to present lessons or lectures to your classes in an interactive way. You can also embed the presentations into blogs or web-pages, have students create visual aids, use it as a graphic organizer, and make cool presentations for your professional development days or conferences. Other advantages are that you can share and use presentations created by other users. This is how I found a lot of the Web 2.0 tools I will share later in this blog.

The draw backs are that you need to have access to a computer lab or a computer and projector setup to use this in a traditional classroom. But, this is the draw back to any Web 2.0 tool as well.

Mixing Mind and Metaphor on Prezi

I am a third year 7-12 Language Arts teacher working for an online charter school. I am also a mom of two. This means I really don't have a lot of extra money and the extra pocket change I do have usually gets eked out by surprise visits to the E.R. or a new picture window because baseball is meant to be played outdoors. In other words I am just like any other teacher who hasn't recently won the Power-Ball, poor.

I have spent countless hours looking for new lessons, ideas and tools for my classroom. My greatest frustration is stumbling on to something that looks promising, only to find out I have to pay to see the entire thing or use it. I have no problem with other teachers selling their ideas and lessons to make a little extra cash; But,I can never find good stuff at a price I can afford...free.

Thus, I decided that I would start sharing some of the cool free stuff I have found along with lessons and ideas on how to use them in the classroom. So, I decided to start this blog and dedicate it to the idea of Free Teaching Materials For All! I plan to share the things I create or find and hope other teachers will do the same. So, let us collaborate and educate!