Monday, December 14, 2015

Using Google Drawing for Charts and Posters

Any time you want students to create charts or posters, try using Google drawing. I love the simplicity of this lesser-known Google app.  Its basic set of tools are great for introducing students to creation projects on the computer. Tech tools should never completely replace hands-on activities in the classroom, but there are advantages to creating digital posters for some projects. As with all teaching decisions, we want to consider the purpose for the activity and learning outcome before we choose the tool!

Here are some advantages:

1. Collaboration: Students can work together to create a poster even when they aren't in the same room together.

2. Sharing: Posters can be shared electronically by copying and pasting to a class blog or web site. This creates a much larger audience for their work than simply hanging it on a classroom wall or school hallway.

3. Creativity: Google Drawings can be inserted into a Google Slides presentation or other presentation tool. Students can add their voices to narrate or explain their drawing and a video can be created. 

Here are some examples of Google Drawing projects in various subjects:



Students can demonstrate their understanding of concepts by creating simple comic strips.





Making a digital poster can be a way to increase engagement for skill work.



Reading projects could be easily made with Google Drawing. Text can also be linked to outside websites to make the poster more interactive.


In social studies, students can create timelines or insert an image, such as a map, and annotate it.




Many science standards require students to make a model or create a representation of a science concept. Google Drawing could be a helpful tool for some units.


The shape tool contains operations symbols which could be used for math posters.





Here are some resources to help you get started using Google Drawing.






Saturday, November 14, 2015

Chatterpix Kids and Tellagami Enhance Literacy Instruction

I first learned about Chatterpix and Chatterpix Kids* at ITEC last month. I couldn't wait to spend a few days trying it out with students in my schools. It is a great free app that is easy to use and has many applications for enhancing literacy instruction. Since it involves using the microphone to record, the ideal way to use this in the classroom would be with individuals or small groups working at one time. I learned the hard way how chaotic a classroom can be when the whole class was attempting to record at the same time!

One day I introduced Chatterpix Kids with first graders as a way to share their published writing. They took a photo of their illustration, added a mouth, recorded themselves reading the narrative, then decorated their photo with stickers, filters, and frames. When they were finished, they saved the project to the camera roll of their ipad. This has great potential for publishing writing. Often, we teachers get stuck in a rut of publishing a certain way. It's nice to have a novel and engaging way to allow students to share what they write.



With another group, I helped some students create Chatterpix creations with non-fiction text they'd been reading. They took a picture of their Spider Book cover, added a mouth, then recorded themselves reading the text. This was a great opportunity to practice reading aloud for improved fluency.



A kindergarten class is also using Chatterpix Kids to practice their fluency. They practice reading a book, take a picture of the animal on the cover, add a mouth, and record themselves reading the text.



It only records for 30 seconds, but it's long enough for early primary grade books or short reading passages.

Chatterpix would also help when teaching point of view. Students could add a mouth to a picture of an animal or an inanimate object, write a script from its point of view, and record a Chatterpix.

Tellagami is another app that has a lot of possibilities to enhance literacy instruction. I think it is especially good for sharing non-fiction text. Students can use it for fluency practice and record a page from text they have read in class.

To use it, students simply take a photo for the background image. (We used a scene from a page in their book.) Then students record a "message" for their avatar to say-- in my case, reading the text.

Students could also publish informational writing pieces with the help of the avatar they create in the app. I can even imagine students creating short videos with Tellegami reporting about school events or explaining school expectations. They could take a photo of an area in their school and have the avatar/reporter explain the procedure.



The drawback to Tellegami is the number of locked features in the free version. It recently made severe limitations to the free version and requires 4.99 per user to unlock all the avatar customization features. I almost decided against using this with students due to those limitations. With a class of second graders, I decided to tell them the avatar was the "reporter" and they could pick a male or female, and make basic changes that the free version permitted.

The way the avatar gestures and uses facial expression really adds a lot to the quality of the project.

  * There is one main difference in the two variations of this app. Chatterpix includes links for sharing of creations on social media, but Chatterpix Kids does not. I prefer to use Chatterpix Kids with elementary students.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Making a Powerpoint or PDF into an Interactive Flipchart

Interested in starting to create flipcharts to make some aspects of your lessons more interactive? Have you been a Powerpoint or Google Slides user and think it's too late to switch over to ActivInspire? It's easy to import Powerpoints or PDF files into a flipchart and make it into an interactive white board lesson.

Open the Powerpoint presentation. Go to File and choose Save As.


In the next dialogue box, select the place you want to save it (I always choose Desktop for projects like this.). Then in the Format drop down menu, select PDF.



Then open ActivInspire and create new flipchart. Go to File and select Import, then PDF. Choose the PDF of the Powerpoint from your desktop.



Then select the file from your desktop and click Open.


Your PDF file will now appear in ActivInspire as pages of a new flipchart. Be sure to name and save this new flipchart.

Do you have resources that are PDF files? (Ex. practice pages you have scanned, basal resources in digital form, project ideas & templates you've downloaded from the web) You can also import those and make them into interactive activities.

Open the PDF file. If it has multiple pages, click the menu icon from the top left, then select Thumbnails.  Hold the Command key and click the thumbnail images to select the page/pages you want to add to a flipchart. Drag the thumbnail images to your desktop. 



You will see an icon like this .

Open a new flipchart. Click import and select the file from your desktop.


Consider making a page of text interactive by turning it into a cloze activity. Use the pen tool to color over a word. Students can use context clues to determine the meaning of the word, then a student can erase the coloring to reveal the word. This can also be accomplished with a small rectangle box placed over the desired word. Students can simply slide the box aside to reveal the word.



A vocabulary page can be displayed on a flipchart in order for the teacher to model the steps for completion. It can also be a shared activity. Just make a text box with each vocabulary word. Students can take turns moving the word to the sentence.




Sunday, September 20, 2015

Discovering Webmixes on Symbaloo

Many teachers know they can collect and share web links by creating their own Symbaloos, but many aren't familiar with the capability to browse and add public webmixes created by other teachers. Here's how to do it:

Click the icon on the left of the screen to open the menu, then choose Gallery.

From the gallery, you can search for a specific topic in the search bar, or browse through the pages of public webmixes.





Once you find a webmix you want to add, select Add this webmix.



The new webmix will appear as a tab on your Symbaloo page. If you have a webmix embedded on a school website, you will want to add that webmix as a tile. Find the URL address of the public webmix and add it as a tile.

Click the share button, then webmix details. Highlight and copy the URL address of this webmix.


Now add a new tile to your webmix and paste the address. Choose an icon to represent the topic of the webmix and add text to describe it.


The public webmix you discovered now appears on your webmix as a tile.




Sharing Web Resources with Early Primary Grade Students

When I was first grade teacher, I loved using technology with my students, but struggled for a good way to share specific bookmarked web resources with my students. Like many schools, classes in my school shared a cart of laptop computers. I found typing in web addresses to be too difficult for most young children. Manually adding bookmarks to each site was very time intensive and had to be repeated with each new site I found. in addition, early readers had a difficult time identifying the names of the sites without an identifying icon.

Working as a technology integration coach this year afforded a bit more time to consider the possibilities for k-1 teachers in my district. Recently, I found a solution that is working well.

I created a very simple website with a page on the site for each teacher in the building. I marked this website as the homepage for each computer in the cart. As a precaution, I also set it as a bookmark, and deleted all other default Apple bookmarks to clear away any confusing text.



Each teacher can create a Symbaloo (or comparable web page including links) containing the sites they desire for their class. Teachers send me the embed code for their site or Symbaloo webmix and I add it to the site. Any time a teacher finds a new site to use, they simply add it to their account. Once the changes are saved, it will be updated on all student computers instantly.


Students find the icons on Symbaloo easy to identify. They are able to click and find the desired website independently, which maximizes their learning time and simplifies the process for teachers!

Monday, September 7, 2015

Sharing Links with Students





Managing bookmarks and web links for students to use is always a challenge, especially for young students who aren't as proficient with typing in a url address.  Some teachers find themselves adding bookmarks and links manually to each device their students use. This is unnecessarily time-consuming and may prevent teachers from updating sites and trying new web resources. 

Symbaloo is a neat tool to save, organize visually, and share a collection of bookmarks with students. A teacher can add bookmarks to his/her account, and they can be displayed on all student devices (computers or ipads) Once a collection of bookmarks (a webmix) is created, teachers can share that webmix with older students or parents by sharing the url address. The feature I love is the embed function. Teachers can copy and paste the embed code in their class website for students to access. Once it's embedded, the webmix will update automatically each time the teacher adds a bookmark (tile) to their Symbaloo.

Here are some great resources to get you started setting up your account and making your first Symbaloo:

http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/fionabeal/get-started-with-symbaloo

http://www.symbalooedu.com/wp-content/uploads/Symbaloo-Manual-2014.pdf

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Communicating With Families

With the beginning of the new school year, it's time to start connecting with families to show them they are an important part of their child's education. Getting them involved in their child's learning begins with a welcoming environment at school and a teacher who communicates well. Here are a few ways to keep families informed of classroom events and their child's activity at school.

Remind: This is a way to send a group text to parents for quick reminders about class events. Click here to see how it works.



Class Blogs: Blogger is a great blogging tool from Google which is very easy to use and manage. Teachers can share events from the day and photos of class activities. Add a widget to the blog that enables followers to subscribe by email. Parents can receive updates in their inbox every time you post. Click here to find out more.



Facebook page: A class Facebook page is an incredible way to reach parents and community members to share the great things that are happening in your classroom and school. Because of the nature of the news feed, friends of people who "like" the page can also see a teacher's post which widens the audience.

Digital Journal: I am so impressed with the features of Seesaw, a digital journal designed for students as young as kindergarten. Students evaluate their work and pick their best work to add to their Seesaw account. Parents can sign up to receive notifications each time their child posts a school project. Teachers can use this as a way for students to showcase and share work with the class. One amazing feature is the way students can log in by simply scanning a QR code. Seesaw works whether students use ipads, chromebooks, or computers. Click these links to find out more:


overview
teacher instructions
tutorial video

Creating Email Groups in Gmail



Creating groups in your gmail contacts is an easy way to send emails to an entire teaching team, class of students, or group of parents. Having groups created makes sharing docs easier when using google docs. Here's how to do it:

Click the arrow next to Mail in the corner of your gmail window. Select Contacts.


Select New Group and give it a name.


To add new contacts,  (ex: parent emails) click the name of the group, then New Contact. You will see a new window to add their contact information.


To add someone to a group who is already in your contacts, find their name in your contacts list. Click the group icon near the top and select the group you want the contact to be added to.


To send mail to a group, click Compose, then begin typing the name of the group in the recipient window. The full group name should appear in drop down menu. Select it, and the names of the group members will appear in the recipient window.