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=My Delicious Bookmarks= [| Delicious Bookmarks] = = = = = = =Promethean Boards=

My district has started to purchase and install Promethean Boards in the classrooms. We started with the high school building first and they are now working their way through the elementary building as well. Although I do not have one installed in my third grade classroom yet, I am hoping to by the end of next. The district has started to provide us with training, which it will be useful to have a foundation of knowledge on the board prior to it being installed. I have started to look for informative websites to help me get started learning about the board. Here are a couple great websites I have come across.

Promethean Planet provides a great deal of resources. You can easily search my age of your students, subjects, themes, etc. []

Promethean World provides information you would need to find funding for the purchase boards, including research findings, case studies, economic stimulus, etc. []

=**Podcasting**=

While researching podcasting in the elementary classroom, I came across two amazing websites that provided me with so many ideas that I can implement in my third grade classroom. My students would be so excited to participate in any one of the project examples given on these two websites.

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=Google Earth & Sky=

My students look to log onto Google Earth and Sky. They introduced to it through their technology classes and become quite amazed at the ability to locate their house, school, or other popular landmarks they know. Google Earth and Sky could also be used as we learn about various locations through the stories we read or though our Solar System unit.

=Google Map Ideas=

I teach a unit on our community for Socal Studies. We start off the unit with a leson title "Where in the World is Towanda, Pennsylania?" Google Maps can really add to this lesson by allowing the students to physically zoom into our town's exact location in the world.

Google Map of Towanda Area School Distict

[|Towanda Area School District]

=Wikis In My Classroom=

Now that I have learned about wikis, the ideas of how I can implement them in my classroom are endless. One idea that pops to mind is creating our class books on a wiki. Each student contributes to our class books, so once we finish learning about a certain type of genre, I could establish the story starter on a wiki and the students could go on and add their portion to the story. Peer editing could be done right on the wiki and the finished product could be instantly available for their parents to view. Individual stories could be posted there too.

=Wikipedia=

Wikipedia is not used that often in my classroom because we do not do much in the terms of research. Once in a while I might assign groups to research a certain topic under a unit we are working on, such as a planet, an inventor, a famous person, etc. Although I teach my students about being careful to use reliable websites and that Wikipedia has some good information, but it might not all be reliable; I am not aware of any specific policy my district has on the use of it. A policy might be in place in the upper grades that I am unaware of.

=Educational Theorist=

Joseph Lancaster (1778 - 1838) was the founder for the monitorial system of education and a pioneer of teacher education. Although his method of teaching was considered a failure, he has paved the way for future endevors in public education.