Tech Tuesday 5-26

 

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Share the linky party on your choice of social media


This will be the LAST Tech Tuesday of this school year! I will be announcing a new linky and the summer dates next Tuesday. Be sure to come back and check it out! :)

I'm sharing about an app that I am guilty of trying to avoid for a while and eventually ended up using. Now, it has proved to be one of the most helpful apps in my classroom. It is one of those apps that you need to have in front of you in order to understand how to use it, but I decided to post about it because many of my students have been choosing to use it for their projects and have asked their parents to get it on their family iPad at home for the summer. That's when it really hit me - Not only does this app have many capabilities and purposes, but the students are also really proud of what they create using it.

App: Creative Book Builder (CBB) - (It does cost $3.99)

CBB is perfect for making informational books. CBB is a book-making tool that has different formats. Your students can choose the option that is organized by chapter. Then, they name their chapter, type the text, and can add almost any form of media they choose - images, videos, audio files, links, projects created in other apps, and just about anything else you can image. When the student is finished with the book, they click "generate book" and then "preview". The preview feature allows them to open their book in other apps. We always choose open in "ibooks" so then they have a published ibook. This is what they share with the class or their families.

 We also used CBB to make portfolios for parent-teacher conferences. On the cover page, the students put a short video of themselves that I was able to share with parents. It changes the whole mood of a conference to have the students' cute faces there speaking to their parents about their learning. The students made a chapter for each subject, then uploaded all the content from that subject that they wanted to show. They used the text box to share what they were learning, what they were proud of, and goals for next steps. Some examples - In their math chapter, they uploaded a recording of solving a two-step word problem in Explain Everything. In their Writing chapter, they uploaded an Opinion letter they wrote in Pages. In their reading chapter, they uploaded an organizer they used to show their thinking from Notability. As you can see, it is a great tool for "housing" projects completed in apps throughout the iPad. It takes out the step of having to go into each individual app.

 My school has also used this app for grant writing. They had students in multiple grade levels take videos of learning in action. They put all the videos together with other projects/information that provided the necessary information for the grant. They used the trailer feature in iMovie to create an engaging introduction/theme.

I feel like I have just gotten started with this app this year, but I couldn't live without it because I know it is always there to pull everything together for projects, portfolios, or other purposes.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 5-19

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I'm sitting outside as I write this post in 60 degree weather... It might slow me down a bit, but it's worth it!

I'm sharing about about an app that would be helpful for making an end of the year slideshow or sharing pictures from a fun classroom experience. Have you heard of Flipagram? I like to use it instead of iMovie if I am doing something short because it's so quick and easy from my phone or iPad. All you need to do is select your photos and videos. You can also easily edit little segments in a video. Then, it gives you the option of adding music. You can add music from your iPhone/iPad or search songs. It offers for you to put in the free 30 second clip or buy the full song. You can also adjust the speed - it even gives you the speed for Instagram. The last screen gives you the MANY options for sharing it!

This app would be great for sharing photos with students, parents, or on your teacher Instagram/Blog etc.

Here is a Flipagram video I made from our Camping with Common Core experience we had last week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 5-12

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Share the linky party on your choice of social media


I hope you don't mind me taking a spin on my typical Tech posts. Usually I post about an app or website that is improving engagement or student learning in my classroom. However, I can hardly resist but share about a fun experience happening in my classroom this week. We are CAMPING! It is so much fun AND so much learning. The students are so engaged and making lifelong memories in what we are doing. They truly feel like they are coming to camp each day. When setting up camp, I have used some basic technology to help add to the camp atmosphere. I found a free app called Relax which has multiple pages of nature sounds - You can even play three nature sounds at a time. Throughout the day we play frogs, campfire, rain, wind, river, bird chirping, and more sounds. It helps make our camping experience come to life!

I am also using a Youtube campfire to put on a campfire continuously on the smart board when we are reading at nighttime or singing campfire songs. When we play camping games, we use Kahoot. To find out how to use Kahoot, click here.

I will be back later this week to share out about our camping adventure this week including camping writing activities, reading skills, campfire stories, songs, math hikes, social-emotional activities, speaking/listening activities, and connections to home! Be sure to check back later this week! To get all you need for camping in your classroom, pick up Camping with Common Core. 

 

What apps, songs, websites, or other tools do you use to create special learning environments for your students? 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 5-5

Hi Everyone!

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I'm sharing about a site that is helpful for students to use for research. I don't know about you, but research for elementary students can be cumbersome. I present my students with a few helpful sites, but for some students, they just do not find much for the topic they are searching. It is way too risky to have students searching through Google. I even have found it to be too risky to have students searching through Pic Collage.

I recently discovered this new website: instaGrok.

On this site, students type in their topic, and it pulls up a web with key words about the topic.

It also pulls up a box with facts, photos, videos, and links to more info.

My favorite part about this FREE website is that it allows students to adjust the difficulty (see the top left corner). They can make the text and information more basic by moving the difficulty bar to the left, or if they want more information, they can increase the difficulty by moving the bar to the right. 

If students would like more info about one of the key words on the web, they click the word and it opens up new bubbles outside of that word with more information. 

What sites do you like to use for research?

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 4-28

Need a quick but meaningful Mother’s Day gift?

I am going to share an app my students will be using to create a Mother’s Day gift! However, as I share this app for a Mother’s Day idea you will see that it could have many uses. Students can use this app to provide information they have learned using key words from text/research. It could also be used before writing to help students think about details before they write.

The app is called Word Pack.

It's a really simple app to use. Just enter the text, customize, and share! You can save it to your camera roll, send it via email, facebook, and twitter. 

Something else I really like about the app is that the students can select a shape for their word collage. There are MANY shapes to choose from- animals, transportation, and many other shapes!  

The app costs $0.99. However, I have found it to be much faster and easier for students to use than Wordle or other similar sites. It saves and prints well and the text does not get deleted easily. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 4-20

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Leave a comment on someone's post

4- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I am enjoying this time of year with my second graders so much because it is just so exciting to see how much they have matured, grown, and the academic progress they have made.

I have mentioned in other posts how my class is doing inquiry projects we called “passion projects.” We were doing a class study on turtles. To bring our knowledge together in one place to teach others, we decided to create a movie. We used green screen technology so the students could reporters in front of turtle images/videos.

We used an app called Do Ink ($2.99). I found it really easy for the students (and me) to use.

Here’s how to use it in your classroom:

1-    Set up a green screen in your classroom. We use a large piece of green fabric, but you could also use green paper.

2-    Record your video clips. (It helps to have tri-pod because then you do not have to worry about the iPad moving and staying focus on the same space.)

3-    Open the app and you will see three bars along the bottom to upload your content. Press the plus sign for the second bar to drop in your videos.

4-    Press the plus sign along the bottom bar to drop in your photos.

5-    If you want to add animations, use the plus sign in the top bar.

6-    Watch your video and save to Google Drive or DropBox.

What I loved most about this project was that I could really step back and let the students complete this project. It was such a team effort, and they are so proud (and amazed) with the final product. A student served as the “recorder.” She stood by the tri-pod and quietly called students up one at a time to record their part. Meanwhile, other students were taking notes, searching for images, or working on other work. I was able to move around the room to help students.

A fun hint a student thought of in my classroom: If they are using a note card, use green or put a green paper behind it so it won’t show up if they hold it off the side in front of the green screen!

The students truly feel like super stars! It only took two days (about 35 minutes per day) for us to record our videos and make our green screen movie.

As students move into their individual passion projects, this will definitely be a creation option for them!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 4-13

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Leave a comment on someone's post

4- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I am sharing about a fun experience in my classroom last week: An Interview through FaceTime. This is not a brand new idea - one I am sure we all heard of before - but I thought I would share some ideas, and it might give you some ideas for your classroom.

My students were doing a class inquiry project. We call it a "passion project" because we are studying one of our passions. In this study, we were studying turtles. The students did research on our topic. Some of our favorite websites are:

Pebble Go
National Geographic Kids
Wonderopolis
Grolier
Brain Pop

Part of the research process was contacting an expert. We used FaceTime through an iPad in our classroom and projected it on our Smartboard to Interview an Exotic Veterinarian from an Animal Hospital. The children sat in partners. One partner asked the question (brainstormed in advance to today) and the other partner took notes on the answer. The questions were numbered so the students asked their question when I gave them the signal for the next one. The veterinarian showed the students her very own pet tortoise. They got to watch him eat and see his habitat. The students also asked questions about the vet's job and other animals. It was a 50 minute learning experience and something my students will always remember! At the end of the day, the students pulled their learning together and made a report of their learning to share with others in a Gami. (To find out more about Tellagami, link over to here.)

My students wrote her thank you notes using Pages for word processing on their iPads.

Other ideas that I have for using FaceTime with my students is to connect with authors of our mentor texts or favorite books they read. We always talk about how important it is for students to have an audience for their writing. They could share a writing piece with another class/cause through FaceTime. I also think students could discuss favorite books with students from other classes/schools. When our school was going through the state testing (PARCC Testing), our K-2 classrooms were supporting our 3-5 classrooms. One of the ways we supported them was by sending them brain breaks. Of course then you either need to get the video online or send a smaller clip. Students could lead another class in a brain break live through FaceTime. Finally, another way to use FaceTime in your classroom is to have students "teach" a skill or topic to another class via FaceTime.

What ideas do you have for using FaceTime or Skype in your classroom? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Please join in the fun and share a tech idea from your classroom.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 4-7

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Leave a comment on someone's post

4- Share the linky party on your choice of social media


Today, I'm sharing about an authoring platform my students have used to publish writing this year. It's called Wixie. You can access it as a website or an app on iPads. My students use their iPads and that works really well, but you can use it either way!

It's almost like working in Powerpoint, except it's easier to format and has more accessible features. The students can type their text and paint their images. They can insert photos/take photos from their device or clip art, stickers, and backgrounds provided by Wixie (love that this takes the searching for images on the internet out of the whole picture).

Then, they can also recorded themselves reading their writing. They can open all their pages and rearrange them, if needed. They can easily add background music provided by Wixie.

What I also love about using Wixie with my students is that they can log in at home and show their book to their families. This takes out the step of exporting, posting to another site, etc.  I also have found that this site works better than some other book-making tools my students have used, such as My Story. It is less glitchy and is much easier for students to see their text.

Above all, students love using this tool! It's highly engaging and motivates them as authors.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 3-31

I'm on Spring Break and visiting Nashville, TN right now but didn't want to miss out on a week of Tech Tuesday! Thanks to all of you who come even if you are on break and out of your usual routine.

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Leave a comment on someone's post

4- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I'm going to share about a FREE app that makes my life so much easier and one of my favorite apps my students use ... almost daily!

First, do you have Tiny Scan on your phone? I almost feel silly posting about this app, but it has been a huge convenience for me, so I thought that might be worth something for you. When you have Tiny Scan, all you need to do is open the app and take a picture of whatever you would normally scan. You can scan multiple pages into one document. From there you can email it to yourself as a pdf. This has saved me tons of time standing at the copy machine going through 10 steps to complete a scan. I scan a lot of Time For Kids, Scholastic News, and National Geographic articles so that there is enough for our whole grade level to read at one time. Tiny Scan gives you the option of choosing color/black white. I also have found it handy to have if I am a paper or two short on something while teaching and cannot run to the copy machine. Instead, just scan it, open it, print it, done!

You just click the plus size to take a picture of your document:

Tiny Scan has helped me keep my prep time down when having a more paperless classroom. In reading, I often Tiny Scan the reading passage (magazine, short story, text excerpt, etc) and also the organizer. Then, after sending it myself in the form of a pdf, I put it on our class website. Our class website is through Canvas, but you could put the pdf on whatever you use.

You have several options to send your document to:

Then, my students use iPads and open the pdf in Notability. In Notability, the students are able to type on the document, record, highlight, and more. What I like most about Notability is the students do not have to do anything with the document when they open it- It's ready to be typed into. The tools are not distracting.

Then, the students are able to export their work in Notability and send it back to me. My students have a place on Canvas where they turn in their work, but you could have your students send it to you through your site or through email.

Not only has it saved resources to use Tiny Scan and Notability, but it has made the reading work for my students more engaging. They have tools accessible to them and the ability to record.

Students are able to read, highlight, and record with the text. 

There are so many more ways you could use Tiny Scan and Notability. I'd love to hear an idea you have for these apps!

Also, I found a friend out there (Techie Turtle Teacher) also doing a Tech Tip Tuesday-- The more the merrier! Feel free to head on over to her blog to see more tech ideas! 

  

Thanks for visiting Tech Tuesday! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 3-24

Happy Tuesday!

There are just a few more weeks of this linky having a Tech focus before we change things up a little bit. Please be sure to join in with a tech idea this week and/or next!

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Leave a comment on someone's post

4- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I am sharing out about a fun app you can use with almost any age of students. It is easy and can be a great way for students to share information or explain their learning. Even better, it's super engaging! It's Telagami! Students are able to design an Avatar, choose a background, and record a message for the Avatar to read. They can take photos to use as the background or choose from scenes provided. They can choose to have the Avatar sound like their voice or sound like a voice provided by the app. Then, they can export and share their video clip!

There is a free version and a paid version of the app. The paid version has more background and choices when designing avatars. It will also allow you to create longer video clips. I've been able to get away with just using the free version for now, but I think the paid version could be really worth it!

They give you a step by step so you will know how to navigate the app:

I have had my students use this app when they are creating a video that we will send out to audiences beyond our classroom. For example, we were making a video for the community about a food drive and this enabled me to comfortably send this video out to parents without feeling like I am exposing my students. Our class created an avatar and recorded the necessary information. They chose to the food drive collection site as the background. They have also used this when reporting out information in research projects and reading writing pieces. This could be a fun way to send home classroom updates created by students. It does not take a lot of time!

Here is a Gami I made just now and will likely send home to my students next week over our Spring Break. Can you see the possibilities with your students?

Click Here to View My Gami

I hope you will link up if you have a tech idea and pick up a tech tip from a fabulous teacher below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Tuesday 3-17

Happy Tech Tuesday!

Here's How to Participate:

1- Write about your tech idea on your blog and grab the image above to include in your post. Make sure to link back to this post.

2- Add your link up below

3- Leave a comment on someone's post

4- Share the linky party on your choice of social media

I am sure many of you have had enough with tech this week with Assessing... I know many teachers at my school have PARCC coming out their ears!!!

Perhaps you and your students need to have some fun with a game as you press on learning... Wait a minute, don't we all need that?

I recently learned of a fun game, Kahoot! Students can answer questions, take polls/surveys, or answer more in-depth questions. My favorite part is that it collects data so you can see how each individual student in your class was able to do. It is more interactive than having students raise hands and engages all at once. I like how it gives immediate feedback for you and your students to discuss.

You can create your own Kahoot by creating a quiz. When you create, you can type your own questions, upload your own images, and your own answer choices. You also choose how much response time for each question.

However, you can also search through already created Kahoots. For example, we are studying graphs right now in math. I typed in 2nd grade graphing and found a Kahoot that is perfect for my students. I can use that instead of taking the time to create.

It's fairly easy for even young students to use. They just click their answer, so there does not need to be a lot of typing involved. In order for them to get to the quiz, they will go to kahoot.it and then enter a pin number that you were given when you created/searched your quiz. Then, they put in their name. And Play!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for visiting Tech Tuesday! I hope you learned something new from my post or one of the fabulously techy teachers linked up. All are welcome to link up!