WOW! MORE TOOLS!

I have no idea where to begin. Last year at FETC I did not have time to walk the floor, and I really didn't have that much time this year. But in my time at the great hall of the Florida conference, I learned a lot about some new tools and even some old favorites with improvements. There are so many to mention, it's hard to choose where to start. I should start with Scholastic since they were a gem and let me work with their ".com" kiosk this week. However, they have SO MANY great things to share, I have to save them for near last. Let's do a short run down right now.


BrainPOP Jr: BrainPOP has always a great place to get that short little video that has tons of information that can grab the attention of most students. The new BrainPop Jr. has even more, and for right now it's free for anyone to try (probably until May). I LOVE the jokes, the word wall, the comic strips, okay, I am loving it all. I'm watching a video right now to help Joey with his math. I am ready for the phonic videos to be introduced. If BrainPOP some how finds this blog, I'm willing to beta test anything on this site with my learning challenged 7 year old and my niece who is 6 and loves school. Oh, and teachers, guess what? They have lesson ideas for you and a complete section for Grown Ups. Another feature I really like is that their videos can go full screen, and the one I watched earlier also has closed captioning available. Since Joey struggles with reading, I find close-captioning a great way to reinforce what he's trying to read on his own. He hears it being said and sees the words in print!

Boy I want to tell you about Scholastic. Can you patiently wait? Tomorrow I want to share a techy item and then I have some other great things to share. I could spend 2 weeks on the various Scholastic items alone - and still have a need for more time and space to blog about all the neat features and tools.

I will leave you with this little morsel. For those of you who know me, you know that I was once working with the "DEN" and my counterpart was Karen Seddon. She's the most down to Earth dreamer I know and she has such a big heart and growing passion for educators. When the DEN had to dissolve our positions, Karen pulled out her rose colored glasses and looked at this in a positive way to branch out on her own to try something inspiring. She introduced at FETC to some of her friends and colleagues her new business "e-Cubed.....to encourage, equip, and empower teachers". It is going to be more than what the blog site shows now. She is creating a complete site that will benefit teachers and will be offering a lot of great services to the education world. Keep an eye on her as she grows into "THE" evanglist for creative technology.