I'm baaack...with Two Tech Tuesday Tips!

Okay, yes, it's been 5 months.  Where has the time gone?  Where are the posts?  Well, it all started when I all of a sudden became extremely exhausted this summer.  We went back to school on August 1st, and my first contract day was July 15th.  Well, I soon found out I was pregnant with my 1st...never in my life had I felt so exhausted.  I didn't care about the laundry, the dishes in the sink, let alone blogging.  So despite the great, amazing news of expecting our first, RunTeacherRun suffered!  But now I'm baaaack!

So I've been in and out of classrooms a lot thus far this year, and I continue to learn about great new things that I wish were out there when I was still teaching.  For Tech Tuesday I have 2 items to share:

1. Wonderopolis

This is an awesome website that is sponsored by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and posts questions that relate to normal everyday occurrences.  There is a Wonder of the Day that posts a question, a video, and a text response to the wonder.  Wonders that you might find interesting:

 • How are Books made?

 • Why do you sneeze?

 • What gives you the giggles? 

 • How does mail find you?  

What I like about this website is that students can use it for Read to Self, Read to Someone, as an intro to a new unit as a "hook" to get them intrigued, or even to pose their own wonders to the website.  A simple click of a button will even read the text aloud to students!  Students in my building love this app, and I've even heard parents who talk about family conversations about the daily wonder.  

2. Popplet

Popplet is a great website (or app on an iPad) for creating graphic organizers or visual representing a topic or concept.  The interface is extremely easy to use and the kids love to move and organize their thoughts to reflect the message they are trying to convey.  

Well, that's all for me tonight!  I'll be seeing you all sooner rather than later this time!  Gotta run!