Itunes Search

Today I spent many hours exploring itunes in ways I never imagined. Until a year ago when I bought my son an itouch, I believed ipods were only for music. After Connor starting downloading tv shows and movies, playing games and getting online I realized they had other uses. Now, I am once again amazed to see what itunes has to offer. I had no idea that there were lesson plan ideas and explanations for lessons. I began my search by first entering second grade lessons which yielded no results. I then tried k-6 lessons, which was also a dead end. The third time was a charm, math lessons. There were several hits to scroll through. I found that the Podcasts (Video Math Tutor), were all above the level I was looking for but some of the clips were beneficial. The two best clips came from Michigan's MI Learning and Florida Department of Education. There was a virtual math manipulatives clip which shared a screencast on how to utilize the Illuminations.nctm.org site. It had step by step instructions that could prove quite beneficial in a primary classroom. It had exploration lessons and activity sheets. There was also a link to edutopia.org that would be great for intermediate grades. When I tried searching for individual lessons such as money or inferring, I found the disappointing results. Once again the clips were above the grade level I teach but definately great for older grades or even adults.
Overall, I was very pleased with the beginning of my exploration of itunes.