What it is: Volunteer Spot could be just what you need to coordinate classroom helpers and volunteers. No more messy sign up clipboards, endless reply-all emails, reminder phone calls, phone tag, and weeks of scheduling to get parents actively involved in your classroom. Coordinating volunteers is easy, just schedule activities, invite volunteers, volunteers sign up with a simple click, and send reminders. You can easily schedule one day events like field trips, or multi-day sign up options for extended volunteer opportunities. You can specify if your need is a supply that needs to be brought or donated, or the need for a helper. Did I mention this is a completely FREE service?
How to integrate Volunteer Spot into the classroom: Volunteer Spot is an excellent time saver for your classroom or school events. It makes communication with potential volunteers simple and keeps you from back and forth communication that can zap your time. Setting up activities and volunteer events is simple and intuitive. It is much like setting up and sending an Evite. Volunteer Spot will even give you a unique URL that you can display on your classroom or school website. Inviting parents and community members into the classroom can be extremely enriching. It gives your students a sense of the importance of education when others are involved. Using Volunteer Spot makes it painless to coordinate volunteers in your classroom, no more excuses!
Tips: Be sure to tell your homeroom parents, coaches, and office staff about Volunteer Spot. It has the potential to make their lives easier and makes you look good in the process! 
Leave a comment and share how you are using Volunteer Spot in your classroom.
What it is: Live Binders is a website that allows you to view links like pages in a book instead of URLs on a page. PDF’s and Word Documents can be combined with links within a binder. Links and documents can be organized into tabs and subtabs. Live Binders are easy to share from the Live Binder website, on desktops, or embedded on blogs or other websites.
How to integrate Live Binders into the classroom: Live Binders can be used as online digital portfolios for students. Any Word or PDF documents that they create can be added to a binder along with any web content that they create. The binders are easy to keep track of and share. Each tab can represent a year in school and each subtab can represent a subject within the school year. The Live Binder can easily be used from year to year creating a digital portfolio. Live Binders can be placed on desktops so that students don’t have to type in long URL’s to access a website. Everything can be organized and easily updated in a Live Binder for students to access the web through. This is a great time saver for the computer lab or classroom computers. Create your own ‘textbooks’ for students to access as a Live Binder. You can easily add content to it and students can access the materials from any Internet connected computer. Create an assignment Live Binder with all worksheets and classroom materials. Students can access any classroom materials from home, no more lost papers! Students can create Live Binders to keep themselves organized as they complete research projects. Students could turn in a final project as a Live Binder that includes all of their web research, notes, and final written work. Live Binders would be a great way to go paperless at your school. Create a binder with important school information, meeting notes, calendars, etc. for school staff to access.
Tips: I learned about Live Binders from @McTeach on Twitter, she uses Live Binders to keep recipes organized, thanks Karen! Karen is one of my favorite educators to follow, she is always tweeting great edu tips and ideas!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Live Binders in your classroom.
What it is: Simply Box appeals to my inner organization enthusiast. Simply Box is a web tool that allows users to capture content from any web page and put it into a box. I love the visual interface of Simply Box. Inside a box is the collection of resources that you have collected from around the web. You actually see the website (this is a huge deal for people who see a lot of websites each day), I may not remember a website by its title or description but I will most certainly remember it by its picture. Within a box you can rearrange websites by clicking and dragging them to a new place on the screen. Boxes can further be organized into containers. For example I may have a math website container with boxes inside such as virtual manipulatives, games, videos, etc. Simply Box has a very user friendly interface that lets you drag and drop to organize containers, boxes, and materials. Simply Box makes collaboration easy. Send your Simply Box to another Simply Box user and each of you can comment and add to boxes. A non-simply box user will be able to see all of the content but will not be able to add to it.
How to integrate Simply Box into the classroom: Simply Box is an outstanding way to keep the online classroom resources you find organized. Share your boxes with colleagues and collaborate about resources you find and how they might be used in the classroom. Use Simply Box to build guided lessons for students. Collect all the resources (websites) they need to complete a project. Create an Internet scavenger hunt for students to complete in a safe, more controlled online environment. Students can also use Simply Box. Students can work together on class projects, collecting research and other materials together. Assign Simply Box as homework and include students in the creation of the next-day lesson. Assign a topic, the student’s job is to find a few quality websites on the subject and add them to the class Simply Box. The next day go through the students finds as a class to learn about the new topic. As you continue learning about the topic, new finds can be added to the Simply Box. When it comes time to complete a project or study for a test, all of the resources are gathered in one place for students. You could essentially create your own ‘textbooks’ with the help of students.
Tips: Simply Box requires an Internet plugin to work. If you need a tech admin to install a plugin on classroom computers or your work computer, get the request in so you can organize your school year from the start.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Simply Box in your classroom.
What it is: Scotch Science Fair Central is a website collaboration between Scotch brand products from 3M and Discovery Education. The site is a wealth of free resources for creating innovative science fair projects. The site leads students step by step through creating a science fair project starting with choosing a project idea. Students can search through multiple science topics in life sciences, earth science, or physical science. Within each of these topics is several subcategories and then ideas based on a testable question, what is tested, and what data is collected. This site is very comprehensive and will have your students thinking like a scientist in no time! The site then leads students through the steps of differentiating their project between investigations and inventions so they can choose the appropriate project type. Step two actually leads them through the investigation or invention process depending on which project type was chosen. Step three takes students through the process of creating the actual presentation portion of the science fair project. There is a great section of parent resources as well as a section for science fair coordinators.
How to integrate Scotch: Science Fair Central into the classroom: Science fair projects have the potential to teach students a lot. They learn organization, responsibility, the scientific process, observation, testing, inquiry, problem solving, and critical thinking. Science fair projects are extremelly worthwhile when they are accompanied by a quality process that students can follow. I remember years when the science fair meant quickly pulling something ‘scientific’ together (two cans with a string in between to show sound travel) with very little gained from the project. This was due in part to being assigned a science fair project without understanding the basis of how scientists work and think. Scotch: Science Fair Central solves this dilemma because students are led step-by-step through the scientific process and along the way learn how a scientist thinks. Before you assign a science fair project, spend a day in the computer lab with students and let them go through this site and begin to plan their science fair project. I love how this site is organized into different types of science because it gives every student the opportunity to find a project that they are interested in and motivated by. If you don’t have access to the lab, set up a science fair planning center on your classroom computers or guide your students through the site with a computer and projector. If you are a science teacher, take a look at this great resource and use the planning guide to plan a school science fair.
Tips: Be sure to send this site home to parents, they will appreciate the parent section as they help their child at home.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Scotch: Science Fair Central in your classroom.
In an effort to clear out some bookmarks (I am up to about 890) I am going to do a marathon of posts today. I don’t usually like to load you up with too many in one day because I know how busy you teachers are, and I want you to have time to really look at the cool tool I have found. My hope is that with the 3 day weekend you will get a chance to shuffle through these!
What it is: Soshiku is a web tool for students that helps them manage their assignments. Soshiku keeps track of when assignments are due and can notify them by email or SMS. With each assignment students can save notes, manage tasks, attach files, and share messages with assignment partners. Soshiku is perfect for partnered assignments because it gives students a place to share files, chat, and more.
How to integrate Soshiku into the classroom: I think that organization is one of those important life skills that we don’t teach enough of in schools. Introduce your students to Soshiku as a method of school orginization. The email and text messaging features to notify them when assignments are due will appeal to your students. If you have younger students, secondary elementary or middle school, encourage parents to be there Soshiku partner to help them keep track of assignments.
Tips: Use a day in the computer lab to sign students up for Soshiku and teach them how to enter assignments, add notes, attach files, and share messages with a partner. Your students are on their way to a more organized school life!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Soshiku in your classroom.
What it is: Only 2 Clicks is a bookmarking website that lets you store and categorize websites so that you can get back to websites in only 2 clicks. What is great about this bookmarking site is the picture preview of the page. I don’t know about you but I collect so many great sites that even my clever little descriptions don’t always jog the old memory. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words and generally I remember the site as soon as I see it. With Only 2 Clicks you can access your bookmarks anywhere anytime…even from your iPhone woo hoo! If you set Only 2 Clicks as your browser homepage, you always have your frequently visited sites in one simple place. Only 2 Clicks is very user friendly, rearrange your sites by dragging and dropping (how very Apple of you!) If you add search engines to Only 2 Clicks you can search directly from that page! You can also add a handy dandy bookmarklet to your browser so that when you find that great new reading site, you don’t have to leave it to add it to Only 2 Clicks. Equally awesome is the little tool that lets you import bookmark collections that are currently stored in your browser…so handy and making life easier. And, the cherry on the top? You can customize the look of Only 2 Clicks to match any great new pair of shoes you happen to be wearing! You have to love that!
How to integrate Only 2 Clicks into the classroom: Only 2 Clicks is the perfect solution for keeping yourself organized. You find a lot of great educational (and other sites) all the time. Why not keep them all organized in an easy to use place so that you can get back to that stellar math website you found last summer when you start your money unit? Not only is Only 2 Clicks the perfect place to keep yourself organized, you can make Only 2 Clicks the homepage for your classroom computers. Store all of the links of games and learning sites that your students use throughout the school year. Students won’t have to remember hundreds of web addresses or try to remember the name of their favorite reading website…they will know it when they see it. Students can use Only 2 Clicks as a place to collect research for projects they complete throughout the school year. Does it get any better than this? Did I mention that it has an iPhone (and iPod touch) interface?!
Tips: Only 2 Clicks also offers the ability to share your links with students or colleagues without logging in. Just choose a public web address and start sharing your categories. Is this cool or what?
Leave a comment and share how you are getting organized with Only 2 Clicks in your classroom.
