Techie Tuesday: Widgets, Widgets, Everywhere

You have finally selected a website name and maybe even found the perfect template. What now? Well, It's time to bring your site alive with the incorporation of widgets!

There are so many options, I think it is easiest to just give you a "get started" list. In no time you will be finding your own!  Many of these can be accessible right from your phone which automatically updates your website.

1). Clustr Map
This is a great way to track visitors to your site. You and your students can easily see traffic and all the countries visiting!

2)  Dropbox
Do you have files you would like to share with your students?  Dropbox allows you to uplaod files to make them accessible for your students.

3)  Google Translator
This is an easy way to make your website translate into another language.  A visitor just selects the desired language via drop down menu.

4)  Google Calendar
This widget allows you to embed your calendar right on your website.

5)  Photos
There are numerous ways to embed your photos directly on your site such as shutterfly, picasa, photo bucket, flickr, and more.

6)  Voki
A talking avatar for your website!  What a fun way to give announcements or welcome visitors to your site;)


There are so many out there from word of the day to measurement converter to a dictionary.  Honestly this list can go on and on and on.  But you dont have time to keep reading all this!  Get out there and try some out yourself;)  Visit Google widgets as well as widget box for more!

What are your favorite widgets?

Student Picks for Rule of Thirds

During this week's WOW time, students posted their favorite rule of thirds photos in our virtual classroom discussion board.  Everyone was able to "like" their favorites.  Are you ready to see the winners?

Taylor S

Claire C

Haley M

Can you pick out how these photos follow the rule of thirds technique? 




Stop back by soon for the leading lines student picks!

Will L

Techie Tuesday: Using Blogger to Create a Class Website

Are you looking for a free, quick way to create a class website and still have the ability to personalize the design?  Blogs are a great way to take your class online.  I recently merged my personal blog, student blog, and class website into one site~the one you are reading now;)

Before you get started, you need to think about a few things:

• Objectives for creating the website
• Know your audience
• Think of possible challenges
• Research

One of the best research avenues is having a variety of examples to get an idea of what you want.  You will also want to look at this as building your own website and follow those basic directions such as what not to do, gathering a list of items to include, plan, and evaluate. While evaluating, make sure you are think about the accessibility of the site.  I am honestly still working on this step, and the previous accessibility link is exactly where I am starting.

 I spent most of my time looking at sample class websites.  After I created a great doodle of what I wanted to include such as pages, column sections, and widgets, I searched and searched for just the right template. You would think this would be easy, but I soon found out that I was pretty picky...ok, I actually knew that, but finding the right artist was a challenge.  Here are some of my favorites:

• http://www.giselejaquenod.com.ar/blog/blogger-templates/
• http://shabbyblogs.com/
• http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/

My absolute favorite was Louise Franks Designs.  She has an awesome collection of free blogger templates, scrapbook kits to make your own, and  even Blogger tutorials.  If you have seen my classroom, you know she has "hit the nail on the head" with the design she created for my class website!!

Well, it's time for you to go get started! My class would love to visit your site when finished or as it evolves, so post a comment with it's link.

Pictures Can Say a Thousand Words

The following post is by our student guest blogger, Anterrica M. 


Photography can be a very interesting thing!  Most people think photography is capturing things that are happening at the moment, something people do for a living, or even just picking up a camera and taking a picture of themselves.  This is all true, but photography can be way more than that.  Photography is a type of art.  Most people do not realize that photographs and paintings are very closely related, and pictures can say a thousand words.

Photography is more than just picking up a camera and aiming at something.  There are many techniques that come along with the art form of photography.  The "Rule of Thirds" is one technique where you imagine that the image is divided into a tic-tac-toe board.  This tic-tac-toe board consist of two horizontal lines, as well as two vertical.  These lines can be used when capturing a picture of a person.  You should line their eyes up on one of the horizontal lines.  If you are capturing some type of tall object, you should line it up on either of the vertical lines.

By the way, have you ever noticed that all of the parts in a picture go together? I thought this was a very cool concept.

Organizing Your Wire Chaos

Are you suffering from wire choas? For some of us, the more geeky we become the more our life is taken over by masses of crazy cables for each gadget we own.  In a 21st century classroom, this can be especially true due to buildings not equipped for all this fabulous technology integration.  You can only imagine the crazy chaos of cables being magnified with the addition of extension cords, surge protectors, and more extension cords.

As teachers, we search for the most cost effective solution for our everyday issues, so why should wire choas be any different.  Here are a couple of free ways to organize your technology cables with ease:

1)  Bread Ties Labeling 

2)  Binder Clips organize the cables to stay off the floor

3)  Paper Towel rolls, swimming noodles, or zip ties organize the cables in neat sections.

4)  Create your own charging station from a shoebox wrapped in your favorite scrapbook paper.

Even though it is great to find free ways to organize your cables, there are two that are worth mentioning that are relatively inexpensive.

1)  USB Wall Socket

2)  Hidden Surge Protector





Of course this is just a quick view into the multiple ways you can organize your wire chaos.  What are your favorite ways to organize your geeky gadgets?