Donors Choose

It's a hard thing to ask for help. Sometimes. Well…a lot of times. I especially hate to ask for help financially.

Earlier this year I took a risk and set up a Donors Choose account in hopes to raise enough money to get a iPad for my classroom to increase technology use. My biggest hopes for an iPad was to utilize many of the educational apps I've been testing out on my daughter with the students in my classroom - apps that read with students, work on phonics, and could basically serve as a virtual tutor mainly for my non-English speaking students. 

With 28 days left I've decided to finally put it out there and ask some of you to consider donating to our classroom. 

Here's the link. Check it out! Any support is appreciated!  Thank you!!!

Donors Choose Project

More Technology Tips for the Classroom!

I mentioned in my last technology tip post last week that I attended a staff development through my county regarding technology.  Sometimes I think some of the best stuff we get out of these staff development classes are the resources!  Those are the things I want to share with you.

For those of you who use your iPads in the classroom here are 4 apps that might come in handy!

1- CommonCore
This app gives you quick access to the Common Core Standards.  Enough said.

2-  Rover
This is a FREE Educational web browser that is Flash enabled!  That's right . . . you can actually utilize websites that use Flash!  (I don't know about you, but this used to be a big bummer for me regarding the iPad.  I even debated whether it was worth getting an iPad before since you couldn't access Flash.)

3-  Puffin
This is another web browser that is Flash enabled!  Puffin is great in that it enables you to get the full version of web pages on both smart phones and tablets and uses cloud servers.  Puffin is normally $2.99 for the iPad but it's currently free as a 2012 Olympic Promotion, enabling Flash support for users from July 22 to August 12 for the London Olympics.

4-  Penzu
It's a FREE online notepad/journal/diary.  You can actually just do it on the internet giving you access to your entries from anywhere through the web.  If you choose the app for your iPad/iPhone, however, you would need to purchase the Penzu Pro account in order to sync your iPad/iPhone to your web account for $19/year.

More tech tips to come, but until then here's a question I'd love for you to weigh in on.  I see plenty of pros and cons, so I want to know what you think!

Do you let your kids use your personal iPad for instruction in the classroom?  Why or why not?