Free Fallin'

Oh man!

I am so excited to finish up this Summer Camp 2.0 with a free choice assignment!! I have been exploring two really great technologies (that I found on Pinterest, thank you very much) for the 2012/2013 school year.

Summer is a difficult time to get excited about something educational. Today, while working my second job at the YMCA I burst out with excitement over this new technology that I have found. My co-workers, while trying to be as enthusiastic as possible, just couldn't get on the excitement bandwaggon as I told them about these two websites. So now, as I wait out my final hour of the night working behind the desk at the Y, I just have to share with you these two amazing technological resources!!

Classroom Organizer - Booksource
http://classroom.booksource.com/

This is for all of you want-to-be librarians or those of you sick of attempting yet another check-out system for your personal library. After signing up for a free account, I was able to use the barcode scanner on my cell phone and scan in the barcodes of all the books in my classroom library. When I scan in the books, the site automatically updates information like the number of pages and the lexile score. Now that I have scanned in all of my books, I will be able to upload the names of all my students. Then, when they want to take a book out of my classroom, they can use a computer or their own smart phone to check out the book!! It is my hope that this introduction of technology into the reading process will increase the use of my classroom library! ALSO, at any point during the school year, I can look up data on the books. I can find out which books haven't been checked out and which ones have been checked out the most. I can see how many books each student has checked out and whether any books still need to be returned... I am not going to lie, this new technology is SUPER exciting to me!!

Remind101
https://www.remind101.com/

Ok, I signed up for this today and I am super stoked!! This website allows me to text reminders to my students or parents without them receiving my personal phone number. Once you register for your free account, you can create classes (for those of us with more than one prep). Parents and students sign up to recieve the text messaging system through a randomly generated phone number and the use of a code name for the particular class they are interested in (For example, to sign up to receive my text message alerts for 6th grade English, parents simply need to text the message @olinger87 to (720)545-1885). Throughout the school year, I am able to type in a message (140 characters or less) and send it out to all who have subscribed. ALSO, I am able to set up messages and schedule them for a later date. For example, if I assign a large project with several due dates, I can put all the due dates and reminder text messages in to the computer and it will send them out on the days I choose. I see this as a huge benefit for reminding parents and students about major events coming up throughout the school year. Unfortunately, our class websites don't get checked as often as we would like them to. This is an in-your-face, unavoidable way to quickly reach more parents and students.

So, that's all!! I am going to be trying both of these technologies throughout the school year.... we will see how it goes!!

Thanks for reading.... only 33 minutes left of my shift at the Y!

Goodnight!!

- Stacey