More on Diigo

When I take my students to the computer lab they go to my teacher folder and click on different links I have saved for them since the county school system does not allow them to type in web addresses on their own.  This worked fine until my folder ran out of space.  I didn't have very many items in there and found this annoying.

Now that I have been exploring Diigo I have created a list of bookmarked pages that I use with my students or they use at home.  I am still in the exploration phase but I have found a few interesting features which I think will be helpful to my students.  This is a screenshot of a few websites that I added to my bookmarks.

Under each bookmark I can make comments and leave notes for the students.  I used this area to write things I think the students would need to know such as the interesting features of the site or for some the username and password.  For some sites I also used the capture and drawing tools to show students where to login and remind them of the username and password.  I cut some of the information off in the screenshot so that I would not publish the info here.

Another nice feature is that I can send my list of links to others on my team since many of them use the same websites, and it would save them some time.  For anyone interested in my list so far the link is below. 

Mrs. Scott's Bookmarks

Prezi

During one of my classes last spring a classmate introduced me to Prezis.  Since then I have seen a few presentations and heard about how many of my classmates use them in their teaching.  I think a Prezi is a great interactive tool to make a presentation and keep the attention of the audience.  I did find that some of them move a little too fast for me and then it loses my attention.  I finally decided to create an account and think about how I will use this tool in my classroom.

If you do not know much about Prezis, they are a presentation tool that allow you to organize your ideas with videos, pictures and text.  Instead of putting information on different slides like a PowerPoint, you use one large open space to create your presentation.  You can show importance of aspects of your presentation by making them larger or smaller.  Later you organize the sequence that you would like the project to follow.  When people view your Prezi they can zoom in and out and follow the ideas around the screen.  After I created an account I watched the tutorial video which I found very helpful.

I started to think about how I would use this tool to introduce new concepts to my students or review for tests.  Since my students are young I think this would be a great way to keep them interested in the content I am teaching and incorporate videos, text, and photos in the presentation in a creative way.   Below are two Prezis that I liked and thought I could be relevant to what I am teaching my students this year.

Strategies for Adding and Subtracting Numbers


2nd Grade Science: The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Hopefully I will start working on creating a Prezi of my own!