Three websites I'm embarrassed I didn't know about before this week!

Okay, I'm an educator that prides herself on being technologically aware and forward-thinking, so I must say I am totally embarrassed that I did not know about these sites before this week. Well, I shouldn't say that, but I haven't USED them until this week, and they are GREAT!

First of all, picnik - as a photo editing software, it is user-friendly, fun, and definitely worth knowing about! Here was my first picnik "project":



Picnik also has suggestions for using the software in the classroom! I love it when technology reaches out to education! The picnik blog also has a recent post about using picnik for back to school projects!

#2 - Animoto - Now, to be honest, I haven't actually created my own show, but I have looked at some others - I am impressed! Also, it is FREE for educators!!!! I am so excited about this one and definitely will be using this with my students this year!

Finally, one that I have known about for a long time, but haven't used, and that is Pandora. This is something that you don't understand the awesomeness of until you have actually used it! This is one that is blocked at my school, I'm assuming it is blocked because of the streaming music.

So, my fellow educators - what are some other sites that are "must-knows" for use in the classroom???

Technology is taboo . .

in my county. Like stepping back in time into a time machine, technology in education is non-existent. Emerging technologies are unheard of. I tried to push through a blog project where my 9th graders would create their own blog with their original poetry as well as their responses to poetry. The students were excited, the parents were excited -- everyone but the technology department of my county was excited. According to them, the Federal Protection Law of 2000 is the reason I cannot complete my project with my students. However, according to the Federal Trade Commission website, this law only applies to children under the age of 13. NO student in my class is under the age of 13. So what is the problem? Is the problem that they don't want my low-socioeconomic students to have access to technology? Is the problem state-wide? I have found numerous websites/blogs/etc. which prove that wrong. . . Let me tell you what I found:

Laptop Integration in the 9th grade ELA Curriculum
A Webliography of Resources for Laptop Integration into the Georgia 9th grade English Language Arts Curriculum

Cool Cat Teacher Blog -- a teacher in Georgia who is technologically "with-it"

Weblogg-ed
Not Georgia-related, but an excellent, well-respected blog on the use of emerging technologies (such as blogs) in education.

Maybe I need to move out of the country. Here are a few innovative blogs from around the world:

New Zealand
A class blog for a 2nd/3rd grade class in New Zealand.

Canada
A class of 6-year-olds participate in the creation of a class blog.

And then there was Alabama . . .
Although obviously within this country, an excellent example of a collaborate class blog in a senior English class.

So what is the problem in my county? ? ?