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!