10 Ways To Use Social Media in Your Classroom

10 Sites To Bring New Media Into Your Classroom Quickly

1. Wordle
Is your class interested in a particular topic? Type some of their comments into Wordle, and see a visual interpretation of all the words they used.

2. Prezi
Are your PowerPoint presentations putting kids to sleep? Prezi has fun and interesting slide transitions to keep your kids guessing about what will happen next.

3. Teacher Tube
Is YouTube blocked at your school? Or worse—did you use it, only to have a less-than-appropriate video pop up as “suggested?” Teacher Tube has classroom-approved videos.

4. Quora
If you have a question, Quora has an answer. Users can post questions and other members suggest and debate answers.

5. Poll Daddy
Quickly and easily set up a survey or poll for your students. You can see the answers instantly—no tallying required!

6. Thing Link
Turn a picture into a visually appealing cluster of links. Tag people in a photo and link to articles about them, or cover an infographic in links for further information. Then post the image to your class’s web page!

7. Skitch
Skitch is a quick and easy photo-editing app. Language teachers might find it particularly useful. Load up a photo and have the student label everything in it with correct the vocabulary.

8. Dipity
Create visually appealing and interactive timelines. Each event can have an image, and a link to more information. Users can scroll through the timeline and click on the events that interest them.

9. Wordpress
Do you find your district’s web host hard to use? Make your own page using Wordpress. If your students subscribe, they’ll receive an email every time you post something new. www.wordpress.org

10. Pinterest
Teachers post free print outs, pictures of beautiful classrooms, and links to resources.

Article Source:
* NEA - http://www.nea.org/tools/53459.htm

Two Steps To Securing Your Child's Future

The most important steps any parent can take to guarantee their children's future can be summed up in two statements:

1. Prepare the future for your child.

2. Prepare your child for the future.

The importance of the first step is to give hope, assurance and confidence to your child that there is a future so bright and blossoming for him/her to look forward to and strive to attain.

While the relevance for the second step is to develop the child's innate ability, skills and knowledge through proper parenting, quality education and continuous mentoring so as to enable him/her to not only anticicipate a beautiful future but importantly to possess an adequate measure of understanding of how to manage his/her own future effectively and make the best out of it.

Keep on learning, keep on succeeding!

Written by:
Ebenezer O. Akinrinade
Follow on @gent2smile on twitter