The Question is..."Have You Tried Anything New This Summer? The New School Year Is Right Around The Corner

     This week I had to run into our local Walmart seveal times and noticed  my first "back to school" display of the summer being assembled....new crayons and all! After my initial shock of the realization that my summer vacation is half way over I thought to myself.....wait I haven't finished everything on my "summer to do list".   I went home and started reviewing my list of things that I wanted to do this summer.  I did read three books on my list....2 for pleasure and 1 for professional development, but I still have about 5 more that I want to read.  I always have more books to read than time.  I am still trying to figure out how to work my ipad 2 and Adobe Photoshop...but hey I started.  I even have sewn several things for my daughters...not to bad.  So, my question is ..." Have you been able to check off somethings off your list of things you wanted to do this Summer?"  (I am not referring to the clean out my drawers and closets list:)

     So, if you happen to be looking for something new to try before school starts in a couple weeks check out a couple of the new educational tech resources.  When you return to school you will be able to show off and of course share your new resources and skills with your peers.

Google Maps...awesome resource for teachers...especially for Social Studies

Maps are obviously useful for Social Studies teachers, but recently when I attended a Digital Literacy Workshop I was introduced to the idea of using the multimedia maps to create stories. As a teacher you can build background for a story by using Google Maps and Google Earth by plotting points on a map and one could even add notes, pictures, and video clips to each placemark.  After your students have enjoyed you using the multimedia maps to enhance literacy they will be motivated to begin creating stories of their own using these resources.  Check out Google Lit Trips for more information about incorporating Google Maps and Google Earth into your lesson.

     Yummy Math is a site that was created for sharing math problems that could arise from real world situations. The activities found at this site are arranged by mathematics subject areas and chronologically. The following is just one example of a problem one would find at this site:

       The NBA Finals are here again and the Dallas Mavericks will be playing against Miami's Heat. In Brian's latest investigation, he has asked students to study the frequency of teams making the finals with data given as a pie chart and questions of comparisons. He has asked student to produce data given average; create a bar graphs; use data to create a Venn Diagram; and construct percentages and odds of teams being in the finals.

Try these two out and let me know what you think and I would love to hear from you....share some of your favorite sites with us!!