A Little Holiday Spirit

December is upon us already!

In the spirit of the season, I thought I would share a couple of resources for fun stuff to keep the fun alive this month.  (Office parties, and school parties can get stressful!)

Message from Santa

Our first offering comes from the folks at Portable North Pole.  They have set up a service that will allow you to send a video message from Santa to anyone that you know.  The message is customized to the person by answering a few questions.  Santa will then incorporate your answers into the message, and surprise the recipient.  And yes, for those who are curious, you can send both naughty and nice messages from Santa.

Create a Snow-Flake


This is a classic for this season!  The website is called Make-A-Flake.  In Make-A-Flake, students can use virtual scissors to cut up a piece of paper into a snow flake.  They are able to cut, check, and then cut some more.  The kids get a HUGE kick out of this site!  Snowflakes are then printable, or you can email them to someone.

What better way to do this activity without all of the mess?!?

To conclude, I found a funny clip that fits the season perfectly!
















Have a happy holiday season!





 

Remind101: Awesome Free Tool for Parent Contact

One of my newest discoveries on the net that has me really excited is remind101.com!  Remind101 is a site that offers teachers an easy way to send text message reminders to both parents and students.  The service allows them to register for your updates, and keeps theirs (and your) cell phone numbers private.  When you need to send out a reminder, all you have to do it log on to the site, and enter your text.

While I just discovered this service, I can see myself using it to remind parents about upcoming events at school.  In terms of technology, it is more common for parents to have a cell phone that does text messaging than it is for them to have a computer with an Internet connection.  It is our responsibility as educators to ensure that parents can get reminders in a convenient manner.  Think of the up to the minute info you could share that a traditional newsletter doesn't allow you to do...

The other great feature that it offers is the ability to pre-plan texts to be sent on a specific day.  The possibilities are endless for this feature!  You could remind parents of field trips right before they happen, and you don't have to remember to send out the reminder.

It's simple, it's a very simple interface, and the best part is that it is FREE!  Go check it out!  I would love to hear how you could see this used in a classroom...

Greetings World!

Well, here I go again! Another attempt at blogging and it couldn't have come sooner!  This is my second endeavor at a blog that isn't required for a class. (If you are interested in my Master's work blog, it can be found here) The posts on the above mentioned blog are very academic and don't often reflect the relaxed tone that I plan to maintain on this blog.

For those of you who don't know me, feel free to explore my professional portfolio to learn about me and my academic background.  I am very excited that you have decided to check out my blog, and hope that you will be entertained with my posts.  I would like to thank @bcteacher for encouraging me back into the blogosphere to share all of my knowledge and new discoveries with other educators.

Hope you enjoy!

BcGeek