Thing 11: My Friend Google Docs

I blogged on this topic earlier here, here, here, here, here, and here on my first personal blog Treasure Chest of Thoughts, yet I have only begun to touch the tip of the this glorious ice burg.

For Thing 11, I would like to share the following:

1. A collaborative document that I shared with my 21 CLC team as we reflect on our favorite "thing" about this PLN.
2. A collaborative Google Presentation from one of my English classes. They each signed up for literary terms and posted examples.
3. Cafe 16 Library: this consists of a form that I created in Google Forms, which feeds information into a Google spreadsheet that has helped me keep with who has what checked out of my classroom library.

Go, Google Docs!

Thing 10: Creating a Slideshow

First, let me thank Mrs. Ballard for her recommending PhotoPeach. On a couple of occasions I had spent some time looking at possible slideshow sites but never took the time to find and upload the photos I needed to create a slideshow I could use, for if I am going to spend the time creating one, it should be one that I can utilize in the near feature.

Based on Mrs. Ballard's review, I, too, chose PhotoPeach and quickly uploaded pictures, inserted photos, captions, and music, and then reviewed my show...in a matter of just minutes. This I like!

For my topic, I chose a preview of topics for a research paper each of my English 11 classes is going to write after Spring Break as background for our reading The Great Gatsby. Each student will be responsible for researching and writing one Roman numeral of this research paper; then, upon our merging all their documents into one Google document, the class, as a whole, via Etherpad, will write the introduction/conclusion

Now for embedding my show. Let me first, apologize for the picture quality. We have Hughes Internet at home, which happily shuts us down if we go over our daily download allocation. Thus, when I have the time at school, I will re-upload this pictures at a much higher quality.


The Rip Roarin' '20's Research Time! on PhotoPeach

Click here to see a list of the photo credits included within this slideshow.

You may also view this slideshow here where you may preview an awesome Flickr Photostream of the 1920's via print material...as in magazine covers. Coolness!

While I still prefer PowerPoint (shhh...), this Flickr Photostream was a great find. This must be what an antique junkie feels like upon discovering a rare piece. Surfing for Web 2.0 is much like that. So many of the tools are not for me, holds little value, but then I come across something that I can use within my classroom with a passion.

What "rare" Web 2.0 tools have you found? What ones work for you?