PowerPoint pen

Many teachers out there do not realize that they have a pretty awesome interactive tool already built into PowerPoint. What I am referring to is the PowerPoint pen. To get to the pen you need to have the
PowerPoint in Slide Show mode. You can then right-click on the slide and go to Pointer Options and you can select a Ballpoint Pen, Felt Tip Pen, or a Highlighter. You can also change the ink color if you would like.

Remember you can put PDFs into PowerPoint and have the students go in an highlight key phases, underline important concepts, etc.

You can also get to the pen tool during the Slide Show by going to the bottom left-hand corner and selecting the pen button.

This can basically give you the feel of an interactive whiteboard without dishing out a ton of money. To ease the use in the classroom I would recommend getting a digital pen or a tablet. I have tried to write with a mouse, and it is so not cute.

iDoneThis

The new tool I am stupidly excited about is iDoneThis! If you sign up at the site, it will email you every day and ask "What'd you get done today?" I see a million uses for this tool in the classroom and just in regular life!

People keep food journals. This would be a great way to keep up with what all you ate that day. You could use this as a part of an exercise program. Since I am a new mom I am always shocked at how quickly my baby is changing! I think this would be a great way to journal all the milestones she is hitting everyday. You can export the calendar and then throw it in the baby book! How cool is that!?

Your students could write what they learned in class that day, and at the end of the year you could go back with them and look at just how much they have learned in one year's time! The students could solve a problem a day and record it in the calendar.

A take off of something like Capturing Kids' Hearts could be to have the kids submit one positive item that happened during their day.

Pinterest

You know just when I think the "Internet" cannot find a way for to kill anymore of my time I find another great tool. It is pinterest.com and it is pretty! I love the idea of the virtual pinboard. I think the pinboard itself is often underutilized in the classroom as a tool to show thought process. With Pinterest we can bring that back to the classroom, and not upset the fire marshal with too many papers on a wall ;) Most people are visual learners and this site really employs that. All you have to do is pin an image from any site and you are good to go!

eInstruction

I am on an eInstruction overload this week. To help remedy that I am now working on a LiveBinder that deals only with eInstruction. It is where I am linking all the videos I have made so far (which of course reminds me that I have many more I need to make). I also am working to create handouts with step by step instructions with screen shots (unless of course I can find any that have been created by some sweet wonderful person out there). I know this will be time consuming in the beginning but I know this will be an awesome resource for our staff!

eInstruction