Thing 4 - communication tools

There are so many cool "tools" out there to use in the classroom, to make learning more exciting, and to meet all the "intelligences." I need to do a better job of integrating these resources into my middle school units. At times it just seems like there is so much out there I don't know where to start. I get going looking for one thing and end up totally distracted by all the neat videos etc. that so much time has passed and I don't have anything to use. Or, I just don't have enough time to find what I want in the first place.

I WILL integrate online video and audio resources into my classroom. I already downloaded a bunch of aesop's fables that I will use during the 7th graders myth unit. I will show some schooltube videos of student-created movie trailers and have my 8th graders do something similar after reading The Outsiders.

i-tunes U...I had never heard of this before, but when I watched the tutorials I got so excited! I spent quite a bit of time perusing all the FREE videos and audio files (while my 8 month old was entertaining herself in her johnnyjumpup) and ended up downloading and subscribing to several programs.