Useful Technology for Teachers
Organizing Books
I use Library Thing to organize my classroom library. After signing up for an account, I just added my books, and tagged them with topics I thought would be helpful. The accounts are free for up to 200 books, but I bought a lifetime membership for $25. I use the LT bar code scanner to add my books (they cost $15), but books can be added manually if you choose. Personally, I think the scanner is well worth the money. Whenever I am looking for the books I have on a particular topic, I simply go to my tags page and click that tag. For example, if I need books that teach counting, I click that tag and I can see all of the books I have related to counting.
Organizing Favorite Links
I use Del.icio.us to organize all of my favorite websites. An account is free, you just sign up and start adding links. When you add a link, you can tag it with any topic you choose, for example, "math", or "science", or "assessment". Another thing I really like about Del.icio.us is that I can add other people to my network. I try to find other early childhood teachers to add to my network, and I check my network every now and then to see if my contacts have added any new links. It's a great way to find new sites. I also have a separate Del.icio.us account set up just for my students' parents. Any time I come across a site that would be great for the parents or students, I add it to that account, and parents can check it for updates. There are buttons you can install which make it easy to save websites.
Organizing Music
I use iTunes to organize my music. I sort my songs into playlists, for example "Alphabet", "Math", "Movement", "Rhythm Sticks", etc. It is much easier to find the song I need and I don't have to change out CDs. I play the songs from an iPod with speakers. Since I use an iPod, I can also make an "On-the-Go" playlist on the iPod, and I use that playlist just for the songs I'm going to use each week. At the beginning of the year, I put "iPod with speakers" on our classroom wishlist, never expecting to actually get one, but one of the parents donated their barely used iPod and bought the speakers to go with it.
Organizing Materials
I take a photo of each of my materials (mostly the hands-on learning games that are used for small group or centers). I organize the photos into folders on my computer. I have folders for Math, Literacy, Fine Motor Skills, Science, Art, Sensory, etc (see screenshot). Inside each folder are folders labeled with each skill (see screenshot). For example, the Math folder has folders labeled Sorting, Patterns, Shapes, etc. I organize the photos by skill (see screenshot). When I'm doing my lesson planning, it is easy to look through one of the folders for whichever skill I'm teaching and find what I need. I have this on my jump drive so that I can easily take it from school to home if needed. There are also services like Flickr, Picasa, Webshots, and others where you can organize your photos into online albums.
Calendars
I use Google Calendar to keep track of school and classroom events, and I can access the calendar from any computer. I have one account for my "personal" calendar and "school" calendar. I can view just one calendar at a time, or both calendars with the events color-coded (my school events are green and my personal events are red). The calendars can be made public or private. A public calendar would be useful if you wanted an online class calendar for your students' parents. There's also a calendar site made just for teachers called Assign-A-Day which looks neat, although I haven't used it because my school has it's own online system for parents to access classroom calendars.
Photos
I like using Flickr to find great photos I can use in the classroom. Photos can be useful for many
things: slideshows of a topic of study, PowerPoint presentations, photo file for the science center, photos for alphabet charts or beginning sound
pictures, and many more. Photos with a Creative Commons license can be downloaded and used for
personal use without asking the photographer's permission. Please do not download any copyrighted photos unless you email that person and they
give you permission. A word of warning: you never know what you may see on Flickr, so do not show any Flickr images to children online. Download them
onto your computer first. That way, you know what you're showing the children is appropriate. Be cautious about making direct links to Flickr
photos (on your website or blog) because Flickr members have the option of replacing a photo.
Here is a tutorial I made for finding Creative Commons photos on Flickr. It can be viewed on full screen on the Slideshare site.
Slideshare
Slideshare is a site where you can find educational slideshows people have made to share online. You can also upload your own slideshows to share or keep private. These slideshows can be viewed on any computer, and does not need the PowerPoint program installed. Join the Early Childhood Teachers group at Slideshare to share and view slideshows you can use in your classroom.
Resources
