Last Friday we got the computers up and running and got all the kids working on the computers. It was much easier than we thought. The students figured out how to log-in (we gave them an animal picture to find) and were able to work with little guidance. We figure it is only going to get easier as we use it more. While Chelsea was working with five kids at a time, Brendan was making puppets with the kids. We will try to get a picture put up on this post.
Here are some sites that I thought I would share:
1. Everfi:
Everfi is great for learning STEM education or Digital Citizenship or Financial Literacy. It is pretty cool.
Everfi
2. Bouncy Ball
You have to try this out. If you need some quiet time in the classroom or you want noise and movement this is your web site. The balls move faster the more loud it gets in the room.
3. Dictation
I like to use dictation to get kids to go from speech to text. I use it with these handsets: 
I have been using these microphones for a few years. They are pretty cheap from dollar stores for around 6 bucks. They are a low throw microphone so you can have many kids recording their voice and when you listen later you don’t hear much background noise.
I have used this for having younger students reflect on their learning. They just use an application like VideoBooth or Photobooth or Picasa and record their thoughts. I also use it with higher grades to have students tell me more about what they are thinking, what they know about a subject, to explain how to solve a problem. It is great for running records and other reading tests as the kids can all record at the same time (if you have enough phones and technology). I find I can get more information about what the kids know and don’t know using this technology.