Staff Developer for a Day + Links

I have been going round and round with my school based Staff Development teacher on the proposed track for our S.D. meetings this year. I want to use this precious time during the school day to collaboratively create practical lessons, projects, etc.. that engages our students. The proposal is to read articles and write reflections, I agree that there is value, but its just not practical and feels like a homework assignment. If we want our students to think creatively we must be creative, why not use this time to be creative? Here is a few of the most recent sites that I have been looking at.

My day of Staff development would include the following:
13 Fantastic and Fun Image Generators - create your own
Wiffiti - make your own real time Wiffiti Wall
My English Images - great for your ESOL or RELL students
Revolutionary War Animated - a great resource for 8th grade Social Studies
Masher - create your own mashup using video, audio, and music clips
Map Puzzles - teaching geography
Learning Menus - A huge resource of menus used as extension activities
Designs for Democracy - the new exhibit at the National Archives
Tessellation Creator - easy to use on your interactive whiteboard

A few quick facts to chew on: (read more here)

• Google announced that it has indexed 1 trillion web pages.
• Facebook now has 300 million users - almost as many as the population of the United States.
• Youtube has 70,000 videos being viewed every minute of every day.

Start of School + Links

Back at it! After giving my "Cool Tools" presentation last week to staff I saw a fair amount of technology being used as we grind through the first few days. Wordle seems to be the the most popular so far, along with Animoto videos. I also have an administrator who is going to use one of the new technologies at each staff meeting to re-enforce the importance of technology in the classroom. I feel that the presentation was successful in opening some eyes to the simplicity of the technologies and their implementation into their curriculums. Time will tell.

A Few Links to chew on:
Wiffiti
12 Free Social Studies Resources
My English Images
NEA Top 20 B2S Resources