Entry 31: Another Political Game

One of my good friends showed me this game that really helps show students how the electoral process works. Great game where the students actually compete to become President of the United States. A great tie in with your social studies lesson. Check the game out below.

Elections Game

Entry 30: A Poltical Game

A friend of mine emailed me this link that I thought was great. The link gives you statements that each presidential candidate has made and asks for you to click on the one you agree the most with. At the end of the survey it lets you know which candidate you have the most in common with. It is a great game that I know I will be using in my classroom. Check out the link below.

Presidential Candidate Link

Entry 29: The Blog Question

Now I have many people that do blogs and even incorporate it into their classroom. I even did a wedding blog so all of our distant relatives could keep track of what was going on. Whenever I do a presentation though, the one question that I keep getting asked is whether or not kids actually do blogs. My response to them is asking them whether or not the students in their class have a Facebook or MySpace account. If they do have one of these than yes they are blogging because each of those accounts has a blogging feature to use.

Now many of the students we work with have a tough time expressing their feelings. In my mind a blog is the perfect way for them to do this. It basically gives them a chance to write out what they are thinking and at the same time they can come back at a later time and reflect. What a great idea for ED kids huh. Do you have any other ways you are using or can see using blogs in your class. Let me know.

Entry 28: One Note

How many of you have used one note before? How many of you have papers just laying all over your desk and you can't find anything when you need it? Well this year I have begun using one note and it is making my life much easier. One note is a program put out by Microsoft that allows you to make separate folders for each student and allows you to take notes over them. The best example I can give is that each student on my caseload has a separate folder for them. In each folder I have a copy of their schedules, a copy of their classroom accommodations, a copy of their testing accommodations, a copy of the parent contact sheet, a copy of their IEP, and a copy of parent/student concerns. Now instead of going back to a folder to get the information, I can just get on my computer and pull up everything and jot my notes down on it. Great program that I will be talking more about.

Entry 27: The Team Blog

I am extremely lucky to teach in a district that embraces technology as much as mine does. Everyone in our building has a blackboard website and they are expected to maintain it. Our teachers are very good at this and actually go above expectations. The only problem we ran into is that you could never access the sites from just one place and also the websites were just so long to remember. This year I decided to change all that by starting a blog that will keep parents informed of what is going on with our team. Just another way to communicate with parents. You can see the link below.

Team Blog