This list gives you the top educational bloggers known to people. The third one on the list was Jerry Blumengarten, who I already follow on Twitter and who we did a Google Hangout with in another class! He has some great posts on Twitter and is a leader in the #edchat chat every week. I will be referring to this list when I need some new ideas on who to follow and want to see more educational information to blog about, or just to learn more about becoming a teacher. I had to make a professional Twitter account in another class of mine to develop a Personal Learning Network, and this list is going to help me greatly to find new people to interact with. I feel that this will help me come a better teacher because there is so much to learn out there. Without lists like this, it would be so difficult to know where to start. Before finding an article like this one, I had no idea where to start with my PLN. I have already bookmarked this website and now have this in this blog so that it is now archived and I can refer to it for extra help and to interact with current educators.

http://www.weareteachers.com/education-directories/top-edu-bloggers

Last night, I participated in the #edchat chat on Twitter, and it was really cool to interact with others over this and to see what other people's opinions are. The topic was: If there is so much research that points to homework being useless, why are teachers still giving it? There were so many responses and people participating in the chat that it was hard to keep up with! However, I did get links to some of the website articles provided, as well as nice quotes that related to the topic. I will also be reading the archive of the chat later tonight, so that I am able to see what everyone had to say.

After reading this article, 50 Must-Download Apps For Lifelong Learners, it gave me hope knowing that there are still people who want to continue their education. It was also cool to know that people are using their iPads for this reason, rather than just sitting around playing games. With the discussion that was held in another one of my classes about how pen and paper may soon be extinct and students may be only using technology, it is comforting knowing that there are so many educational apps available for these students and for others. My top 10 favorites listed in this article were:

1. iTranslate- This app helps you learn different types of languages right at your fingertips.
2. Instapaper- This app allows you to save blogs and other websites to be able to read offline.
3. Reading Rainbow- I used to be OBSESSED with this show when I was a kid, so it is awesome that there is an app for that that I can share with my little cousins and the kids I babysit!
4. Goodreads- This app allows you and others to rate books. I love reading but have a hard time choosing books, so I will be downloading this one!
5. TED- This is an app that has a ton of video lectures available for all to learn about whatever they want to!
6. Khan Academy- I have been on this website before, and I love it! It's awesome that he has an app for it because you can bring your learning anywhere.
7. NPR- This app gives you current events to learn and read about. I love these types of things because it is sometimes hard to keep up with current events while being so busy.
8. eHow- This is one of my favorite websites to go to when I have a question about something, and having it as an app would make it so much easier to access.
9. First Aid by American Red Cross- This is a great app to have at all times. No matter where you are, you may need to use First Aid, and having this app at your fingertips would allow you to help people in need properly. I especially like this because I babysit a lot and work in schools, and the kids are constantly getting hurt.
10. Math Formulas- Reference Guide- This gives you all of the formulas you could possibly need.

These apps are awesome for people who are in school or people who want to continue their education outside of school. Check out the website to see all 50 apps!

http://www.edudemic.com/50-must-download-apps-for-lifelong-learners/

Using Photography in the Classroom

This blog was about making school more interesting and fun by incorporating photos into the classroom. You can post pictures of your students on a private page online that only your students and parents have access to, which will not only give students an incentive to participate, but will ease parents' worries that their child is not being taken care of during the school day. Photos can also be used to decorate work that the students have done, such as art projects or papers. These works suddenly become more interesting to students, parents, and faculty walking down the hallway because there is a picture associated with the assignment.

My favorite use of photography in the classroom from this blog is to have the students use a digital camera or iPad to take pictures of something specific to share with the class. For older kids, this can be objects associated with the math assignment that is due at the end of the week. For younger kids, you can send them around the room looking for something that has stripes, something blue, or certain shapes. You can then hook the device up to the computer and project the students' findings onto the board.

Finding ways to link lessons to your set curriculum can be hard. Using a camera can make it easy! There are countless ways that students are able to find relationships between the past and present through a camera and old pictures, and the author of this blog mentioned students finding examples of cause and effect throughout the school day. As soon as you take out something that is not used every day, like a camera, students suddenly become more interested in what you are talking about and are more willing to participate and have fun with the projects.

So get ready, grab your camera, and start teaching!

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2013/09/5-fantastic-photos-using-camera-classroom

Reading Workshop Ideas

This blog was great because the teacher that wrote it teachers second grade, which is around the same level that I want to be at in my career. I have worked with kids since I was in the 9th grade, and the first thing you notice is that they want to tell you EVERYTHING. They want you to know funny things that happened that day, bad things, weird things, gross things, and even things that are made up.

Padlet is an awesome way to be able to hear all of your students' issues, concerns, and stories. The kids can use the computers in the classroom to enter their comments onto a "cork board" that is projected onto the screen. Like Google Drive, it happens in real time and more than one person can be logging at the same time.

Answer Pad is a fun way for children to express their ideas. The teacher can ask a question to the class, and the students can write or even draw their response. This would only be used in a classroom in which the students have access to iPads, but it would be a great way for students who are visual learners to interact in lessons.

With LiveScribe, students can put stickers on paper in notebooks or projects, touch the sticker with the LIveScribe Pen, and you will hear audio coming from the pen! The author's son did this with a report on parrots in preschool, and posted a video of how it was done Here . I think that this is a creative and fun way to get students engaged in lessons and for them to heighten your senses during a presentation.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2013/09/how-technology-can-support-enhance-your-reading-workshop

5 Great Apps for Teachers

I have been working with kids since I was 14 years old, and I absolutely love it. Not being the most creative person, it can be hard for me to come up with new and different ideas for things to do, with regard to both the children and parents that I am interacting with. I often turn to online posts and blogs to help me with this problem, and this one caught my eye because it tells us how to involve parents in a classroom easily. Since I am looking to teach third graders, I know ahead of time that parents are going to want to be even more involved than older students' parents would because of my class' age.
The first app is called "WDWDT: What Did We Do Today?" and is great because it can be updated throughout the day during lunch and recess times. When I babysit after school, I ask the kids "What did you do at school today? Anything fun?" and the only thing that they can remember is something that was either extremely out of the ordinary or something that happened within the last hour and a half that they were in school. As a parent, I know that I would be frustrated with this answer each day because I would want to know what my child is learning in order for me to be able to do things at home that are alike. With this app, a teacher can update parents at all times of what their students are doing during their school days.
The second app is called "Educreations" and is an interactive whiteboard. If there are lessons that the students are having trouble grasping, teachers can put the lesson on this app and include their voice, color, and writing. Parents will then be able to help their students at home so that the kids can have a different perspective on the lesson. This is also important with other lessons being taught because many parents do not know a good way to go about helping their kids grasp the concept. There have been multiple occasions where kids I am watching need help with their homework, and I show them how to do it, but "That's not how my teacher does it." Not being in the classroom with them, I do not know how to show them the right way to solve the problem. This app would eliminate this issue.
The third app is called "Aurasma" and allows a teacher to create augmented reality. Teachers are able to write on a homework paper or letter home to open this app, and holding their phone over the paper will automatically open a video that the teacher has posted. This is important when there is more explanation needed with homework or trips.
The fourth app is called "Animoto" and is a video app. With this, teachers are able to create videos out of pictures that were taken, as well as add sound to it. Between art projects and field trips there are plenty of pictures taken in the classroom. This allows parents to stay connected and see what their children are doing throughout the day. This is especially important on days that the kids go on trips and the parents are unable to come along.
The fifth app, and my favorite one, is called "Remind101". This app is used to text message parents of the students to remind them of different events and tasks during the week. Sometimes, kids just do not bring papers home that they are given from teachers. Somehow, it gets lost in the mix when going from school to home. With this app, teachers are able to text parents reminding them to pack a lunch for a field trip, sign a permission slip for an event, finish the class project by Friday, study spelling words, etc. It is perfect for a quick and easy way to keep in touch with parents through their phones, which are usually checked on an hourly basis.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2013/09/5-apps-creatively-connect-parents