Finding freebies to use in your efriendly classroom!

Where does Christine get her free software applications that she uses in efriendly training sessions to help teachers integrate technology in their student activities?

It is really no mystery...I love to troll the internet to find "free" applications. Here is a list of some freebies that you may find useful for your classroom!

Feel free to leave a comment of what you find useful for your classroom that is absolutely free!

Virtual Karma--a list of Web 2.o applications
A very extensive list of free software from graphics, audio to web security
Best ever freeware list
Best 2.0 Software of 2005---repeats some of the list of Virtual Karma site
Complied list of 100 free applications for Windows XP
Freeware for your Mac or Windows PC. Search in the categories.
A list of over 300 applications categories by "I want to..."
Freeware for your Palm OS
Freeware for your Pocket PC

Essential Strategies When Teachers Create Learning Experiences for Students

Anyone looking for grant funding or NCLB interventions are looking for "effective research-based strategies" to incorporate for student learning to increase achievement? Right? So what does that mean? This blog entry on the Crash Course for Learning Theory has quite a few of the "essentials" in good learning design. Incorporate these with technology tools and efriendly learning applications and you will have IT!

Its Testing Time Again!

The holidays are over, a new semester dawns, and teachers and students are gearing up for high stakes testing!

Lesson plans created by teachers are becoming more surgically precise during the next months as the eve of state testing approaches. During recent professional development sessions for technology integration I have had teachers tell me they really don't have time to do the "technology" thing because they have to focus on state testing! I then show them how student activities using technology are helping them prepare the students for the myriad of knowledge and skills tested.

A great resource for practice activities can be found at the National Center for Educational Statistics. Teachers can find reading passages for reading for information, reading to perform a task, or reading literature and the accompanying questions.

Various states also released items from previous state assessments that teachers can use to model sample student activities. Illinois has released some of its ISAT math test items, which are especially helpful for working with extended response and short answer items. Other ISAT and PSAE items are online.

Texas Educational Agency has numerous released items in pdf and online versions that teachers and students could use to prepare and practice for assessment.

Virginia Department of Education released test items for teachers and students in reading, math, writing, and science.

Michigan's MEAP testing released items are online.

Arkansas ACTAAP items.

Here is a hotlist of states and their released items. You may have to search through a few of the page of a pdf to find the sample test items.

Now make sure that you use technology to help students demonstrate their understanding of vocabulary, text comprehension, and making connections to new knowledge!