Using Padlet to Share Code Studio Creations

Primary grade students are full of creativity, but it's not easy to find ways to share their digital projects without requiring logins to accounts. Padlet is a handy and versatile tool for sharing created content. I recently used Padlet to share creations from Code Studio.

Start by creating a new Padlet. For easiest arrangement, go to settings and arrange the Layout in either a Grid or Stream.

In the Privacy area of Settings, choose Hidden Link and Can Write. This  enables students to add content to the Padlet you create.

Double click on the Padlet to add a post. Repeat for each student in your class.

Get the link or QR code to share this Padlet with your students. Adding it to a class Symbaloo or Dropmark page is an easy way to share links like this with students.

When students open the Padlet, they click on the green pencil to edit and add content.

They click on one of the icons to choose a sound file, video, photo, link, or type text. For my recent project, I used the plus to add a link.

Paste the link for the project, or add a photo from a screenshot. (With this group of first graders, I had them raise their hand when they had completed their projects. It was quick and easy for me to copy the link from Code Studio, open the Padlet and paste the link in the post with their name.)

The students really enjoyed looking at each other's projects, and the teacher was able to easily share this link with parents. 

Once all the projects have been added to the Padlet, go back to Settings and change the Privacy Permissions to Hidden Link and Can View. 

This is just one of the ways Padlet makes collaborating, communicating, or sharing content easier for teachers.

Personalize Student iPads for Easy Identification

Have you heard yourself call out, "Who is Top-6?" In a busy classroom, it can be tough to keep track of student ipads, and challenging to continually identify them with the district's number on the device or the location of its shelf in the charging cart. Stickers fall off and marked numbers wear away. Students forget to put their device away in the correct spot. It would be much easier if the teacher could click the Home button, glance at the lock screen and instantly identify the student-owner of the ipad.

Some creative teachers are now setting the ipad's wallpaper to reflect the student-owner of the device. In a 1:1 classroom it might have only 1 user. In classrooms with only a few ipads, the teacher may want to assign an ipad to a certain group of students. 

The secret is remembering that anything saved to the camera roll can become the wallpaper. Many apps include the option of saving a project to the camera roll, but taking a screen shot of the creation will also save an image to the camera roll. (Hold down the lock button and home button at the same time until you hear the click. ) Then go to the photos app, choose something in the camera roll, click the share icon, select Set Wallpaper, and then select Lock Screen. The photo then becomes the first thing you see when you click the Home button to wake up the ipad. 

Here are some ideas for personalized lock screen wallpapers:

You can download numbered wallpaper backgrounds for a uniform look. 

Students could take a selfie and make that their wallpaper. If you use Skitch or Seesaw, have students annotate and write their name with the photo. Another idea is to have students write words around their photo that describe them.

Use each student's ipad to take a photo of them with their name tag.

Have students take a photo of their name written on paper with their best handwriting, or use a whiteboard app to have them write and display their name.

Use a photo of a favorite project or class activity.  One clever teacher I know decided to use the photos taken of her students on the 100th Day of school with the Aging Booth app. 

Have student spell their name with letter manipulatives and take a photo.

Let the student owner of the device creatively design something that identifies them. Using a whiteboard app or any app with art tools like Doodle Buddy or Drawing Desk, the student could write their name and design a customized screen for their ipad. 

With a little imaginative brainstorming, identifying student iPads can go from problem to creative class project, which can lead to improved student responsibility for their devices.

10 Things I Love About Seesaw

If I could only have 1 ipad app for students in my school district, I would choose Seesaw. Here are 10 things I love about it!

1. Students can dictate to publish their writing by clicking the iOS microphone feature to the left of the keyboard. This should not be in place of developing important handwriting and mechanics skills, but it could be a real time saver for primary grade teachers on progress-monitoring day. The class can be busy writing and publishing on Seesaw while they get important assessments completed. 

2. Parent engagement in their child's education is increased! They can easily download the Parent Seesaw app and receive updates when their child uploads work. Parents can add comments about their child's work.

3. This is one free app that takes the place of several apps: interactive white board, voice dictation, digital portfolio, and blog.

4. Easily customizable access- teachers can open up features gradually and use it to best meet their needs. Some teachers may only want to use it as a work-flow tool to get projects from shared class ipads to student laptops or the teacher computer. Others may select features that give students permission to view and comment on each other's content. Some may choose to add parent access. Flexibility and options make this app ideal for almost all elementary classrooms. My one reservation about using it with upper elementary students was the animal cartoon avatar images. Once I found that they can be replaced with a photograph or other image, I knew that Seesaw would be welcomed with older students as well.

5. No logins; scanning with QR code is easy enough for preschool aged children. Older students can login with emails and passwords if the teacher chooses.

6. Great way to practice and save reading fluency samples. Students I work with regularly snap a photo of their reading passages, then record themselves reading. I can add a comment to share their words per minute rate from that week.

7. Annotating photographs- students find examples of their learning (ex: shapes, plants) take a photo and label it. Authentic, real world examples of learning!

8. Students can reflect and explain their thinking. Something every teacher wants them to do more of.

9. Students can reflect on their week's work, and self evaluate to choose a piece of work to add to their portfolio. Many teachers have students add one writing project per week and students must carefully evaluate to determine their best work.

10. This introduces students to early digital citizenship skills. If teachers allow students to see each other's work, they can discuss ownership of original work. If teachers choose to allow commenting or open the blog feature, they can teach skills like participating in an online community and conversation threads.

Seesaw's blogging feature is  a safe, controlled way to publish student writing. Teachers can opt for writing to be shared with only classmates, parents, or even students in another classroom! This may be the next best thing to Kidblog!

11. It is a perfect portal for collecting students' work from any app, which is the main obstacle for most teachers who try to integrate technology! Anything the student creates that can be saved to the camera roll can be uploaded to Seesaw.The teacher can later download and share student work on a class blog or Facebook page if desired. This is a great tool, whether the student share a few ipads or have a 1:1 classroom.

12. This app helps teachers transform the way teachers use technology in their classrooms. Instead of only being used during centers and inside recess, where they become digital busy-boxes filled only with skill based apps and games, ipads can become learning tools that play an important role higher level thinking. The features help develop students' skills with communication, critical thinking, and creativity!

That was 12 instead of 10. I have a feeling I could keep going. The more I use this app, the more I love it. Thanks Seesaw!

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wTnrhLgug4

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/10/great-guide-on-google-draw-tips-and.html

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.

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.

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.