Tool #9:

Incorporating technology into the concepts within the classroom in invaluable.  As we all know, this is a technology-based world, and our students at BHE have grown up with technology at their fingertips in many different forms.  However, for the most part, teaching is very similar as it was when our parents were growing up.  Teaching has to evolve with our society.

Furthermore, while using technology in centers it is vital to hold students accountable.  Although most students are very familiar with working with technology, they aren't as used to using it in school where expectations for learning and behavior are high.  We, as teachers, must hold students accountable and teach them at this young age how to appropriately use technology in the classroom for specific tasks.

Mangahigh.com looks like an awesome math game based website!  I love that they make the concepts and games in a comic book style which would be highly engaging for fourth grade students.  It appears that they have games for many, many math concepts, and the online scoring/data pages would be incredibly valuable and time-saving.  I can't wait to get my students onto it!

TES iboard is an awesome website!  I explored the adding of fractions with mixed denominators activity:

http://www.iboard.co.uk/activity/Add-Simplify-and-Convert-to-Mixed-Fractions-369

It is such a fun, cutting-edge way to explore finding least common denominators and add fractions, but teaching would definitely need to take place first.

Both of these activities include some sort of data driven assessment at the end of the activities.  I feel that if the students knew there were such tools for teachers to use to assess the learning/focused working that took place, students would feel more inclined to follow directions :)

Two apps that I found are : 2DOKU and ABA Flashcards-Earth Science 
These are both great opportunities for centers, and would require a type of assessment tool to ensure focused student learning.  Procedures for using these tools will need to be outlined and practiced regularly, and student definitely need to know the high expectations I would have for use of these tools.