Tech Bytes - December

It's December, and to borrow a line from Silver Bells, "in the air there's a feeling of" excitement. In the midst of the wonder of the season, try out these ideas for technology integration.

Be In the Know:

Seesaw released Activities earlier this year. Just a couple of weeks ago, they added the ability for teachers to share their created activities with each other. Here is an example I made for understanding characters and one for a word sort. A fellow educator shared a fabulous creation of templates that can be utilized for the activities. And educators are sharing links to their creations that can be added and edited from your Seesaw Activity library. I hope you take advantage of this ability to layer student thinking over their Seesaw submissions. If you want to learn more, please ask your ITF, we will be happy to assist.

iPad App: 

Scratch Jr for iPad - We are ending the Hour of Code week today, but my hopes are that our students continue to code. I was fortunate this week to be in classrooms where students were coding. I had the privilege of introducing a class of second graders to Scratch Jr. This app allows students to snap together programming blocks to make their characters move and talk. While programming, they are solving problems, designing projects, and expressing themselves creatively. They are using math and language skills in a meaningful context allowing them to not only learn to code but "code to learn."

Our lesson this week was on understanding characters in the story by knowing what the character thinks and feels throughout. So what better way to show understanding than to recreate the story's beginning, middle, and end through coded characters. Check out this lesson for the details. 

Cool Tools Corner:

Escape Rooms are a great way to have some fun with friends and family. Perhaps you are thinking about participating in one over the holiday break. You can bring that excitement into your classroom tied to your curriculum. BreakoutEDU has physical kits with locks for boxes or you can do a digital breakout using Google Forms. You can create digital breakouts that use Google Apps to create and share a series of critical thinking puzzles to open the virtual locks in the Google Form.  The ITFs have created some for the district and will be happy to help you create one specific for your standards.

If you want to give it a try before Christmas break, check out these options for elementary students. K-2 would need help and hints, but 3-5 could probably solve collaboratively. For K-2, perhaps you could do the breakout as a class activity. You are only allowed 30 minutes to solve the clues.

Finding Frosty

Save Christmas

Elf Panic

Merry Christmas!

Tech Bytes - November

Welcome to the busy holiday season and time spent with family and friends. As you are gearing up to head out for Thanksgiving, ponder these technology integration ideas. How can you integrate them into your upcoming units and standards?

Be In the Know:

Image from Pixabay

Emojis and Educators...Oh What Fun!

Students and teachers alike love Emojis right? So why not incorporate them into your content? For example, did you know that you can insert emojis into Google Docs? Yes! From the Menu bar, choose Insert > Special Characters. Then click the drop-down and choose Emoji. If you are having your students publish writing in Docs, let them use emoji's to enhance their story. They can even draw their own Emoji (I'm thinking character, self-portrait...). Eric Curtis has published a blog post on 5 Emoji Learning Activities complete with screenshots and directions.

My latest find that I LOVE is using emoji's to help organize files and folders in Google Drive. Did you know that you could use special symbols to group and organize your Drive? Well, thanks to an extension called Emoji For Google Chrome, you can organize with Emojis! Check out information on how that works here.

Share any ideas you have or have found on using Emojis in the classroom.

iPad App: 

Notes App for iPad - The native notes app will do so much more than just keep a list for you. Notes provides a way to include photos, videos, drawings and text all in one place. Of course, it saves to your camera roll, providing an opportunity to upload into another app to continue creation and learning. With iOS 11, you can even scan a document in Notes. The Document Scanner automatically senses it is a document, cropping the edges and removing tilts or glare.

Cool Tools Corner:

20 Questions is a favorite of children, parents, and teachers alike. It's a sneaky way to get some critical thinking skills past the students! 😉 Google is using its Artifical Intelligence interface to bring the game to you today called Mystery Animal. You can play this game on the Chromebook. Check out the video below for more information. Have fun guessing the animal!

A Little Something Extra:

Looking for templates to use with Chromebooks? Then check out these two sites for a jackpot of resources!   Technotes Blog   and    Engaging Students Google Resources

Happy Thanksgiving!

iPad Accessibility

Scanner & Translator App

I recently had a teacher asking for resources to scaffold instruction for students who are having difficulty reading. She was using an iPad app called Scanner & Translator which allowed any text to be digitized and then read aloud. It's a free app, but the drawback was it would start back at the beginning of the text when students really were needing to be able to select where to start.

So I immediately begin to think about the built-in functionality of iPads for accessibility. There is a plethora of accessibility features and one is called Voice Over. As long as the documents are true PDFs and not just a photo, the iPad will read the text. And yes, you can tap where you want it to read!
My thoughts are to encourage sharing of the PDFs with students through Google Classroom or Google Drive. Students then can open that PDF in iBooks and use Voice Over to read aloud.

I found this great resource online to show how to access it and how it works. It does change the normal touch features of an iPad, but I'm sure students can handle the changes.

Blog Challenge: Day 19 Favorite Tech Tool

Blog Challenge: We are sure that you have some favorite tech tools and gadgets. Choose your favorite (or two) and tell about it. Don't forget to include ideas of how it can be used as a teacher time saver or as an instructional tool. 

My favorite tech tool is my iPad. I love the iPad because of its size, portability, availability of apps, and ease of use. I can consume information and I can easily create content, all from the same device. I recently did a presentation for one of my schools that have iPads as teacher devices to hook them on the device too.

Blog Challenge: Day 10 Cool Tool

Blog Challenge: Share a topic/idea from class this week. What's one thing that can be used in class with students?

ReadWriteThink.org has created a very nice iPad app called Trading Cards. This free app allows you to create trading cards on any of the following broad categories that are applicable across multiple subject areas and grade levels:

• Fictional person
• Real person
• Fictional place
• Real place
• Object
• Event
• Vocabulary

Depending on the category that you select, each card provides certain subcategories for students to enter information. For example, the vocabulary trading card has:

• Definition area that includes meaning and part of speech
• Similar & Opposite Words include a spot for synonym and antonym
• Associations area contains a place to add other words and word clues
• Everyday Use subcategory has Where & People
• Finally, there is a Personal Connection subcategory for students to add a sentence and a personal reaction.

You can have multiple users on the app, so this works for classes that must share iPads. Another very nice feature is the ability for students to organize their cards into collections.

The completed cards can be shared to the camera roll, sent via email, or printed wirelessly. It is a pretty awesome app and very easily used as part of app-smashing activities. 

Do Ink App

My next favorite item from the Boston iPad Summit is a paid app, but I totally think it is worth it! Thanks to Greg Kuloweic (@gregkuloweic) for introducing us to this app during his App Smash Session.

What app am I talking about? It is a green screen iPad app called Do Ink. Green Screening allows you to put images and videos behind any person and make it look like they are right at the scene (or in the movie clip). Seriously, Do Ink is a very intuitive app so I suggest you give it a try. It is currently priced at $2.99 US.

Leigh Herman and I tried this app while she was working on a community iBook project. She wanted to create videos of her students doing the weather for our area. Hince the green screen app. We actually put student drawings of the four weather seasons we have while they stood in front and talked about weather. It was so much fun watching the students do this and so super easy! You can check out Leigh's post here if you want to see examples of the project. 

Newsela

As a continuation of a few of my favorites that I learned about while at the iPad Summit, Newsela is at the top of the list. A huge component of Common Core Standards is reading nonfiction text. Sometimes it is hard to find relevant nonfiction text that your students can read, let alone want to read.

Newsela steps up to the plate by providing daily news articles in a variety of Lexile levels. Teachers can create an account and then set up a class. Students join the teacher's class by going to the site and joining by entering the class code. Both teachers and student have binders that will hold articles and quizzes assigned to the class. Teachers can see the student results right within the binder. Not all articles have quizzes, but many do. They even provide a daily email highlighting some of the daily news articles. You can simply click within the email to assign the article to the class. Sweet!

Even though I first learned of this at the iPad Summit, Newsela is web based, so it will work on any device.

You really need to check it out! Let me know what you think.

Favorite Session from iPad Summit, Boston, MA 2013

Greg Kulowiec

I developed an interest almost an year ago on helping teachers develop "app-tivities" for students. You may know it as "appsmashing." Basically, you begin with what you want your students to learn and then combine (or mash) content and apps for them to use to create a product showing their learning which is then published on the web. So naturally, one of my favorite sessions was with Greg Kulowiec called "App Smashing--Unleashing Creativity."


Of course his session was focused on iPad apps (it was an iPad conference), but the concept is not limited to a device (think of all the great Chrome apps available for those Chrome Books!) A couple of big take aways for me were:

1. Limit the apps to a one screen of core apps that are content enabling. We get so caught up in the fact that there are so many apps out there, that we clutter our devices and narrow our minds to what the iPad (or Chrome Book) can be used to do. So think along the lines of iPad apps like Explain Everything, Tellagami, iMovie, Skitch, Book Creator, DoInk, Google Drive, and GarageBand. Google Chrome apps such as PowToon, Google Drive, WeVideo, PixlrEditor, and Loupe Collage would also be content enabling apps.

2. For the iPad, the camera roll will serve to be the hub as content gets saved to the camera roll where it can be pulled into images for the next app. For the Chrome Book, the hub would be using Google Drive to store images that can be pulled into the next app. And don't limit yourself here. Real world applications such as crayons, clay, etc can be documented with a camera and used as well.

I like to put into practice things like this especially when I see the sound pedagogy behind it. So this summer, we introduced the idea of apptivities to our year 2 Pinnacle Leaders. We used an elementary example for our curriculum since our students study about our community. Click here for the example apptivity we created. Feel free to use it or modify it to suit your needs, but let me know how it goes.

Overloaded Mind

After a huge Student Information Management System rollout in our state and district, I am finally turning my focus back to where I feel like it belongs...seamless instructional technology integration. I find my mind so filled with thoughts and ideas that I am almost at a loss at where to start and what to do next. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the possibilities that are before us in education today?

I am sure that you guys are not ones to sit back and do the same things that you have always done in your classroom with the students today. Neither am I. Even as an Instructional Technology Facilitator, I am always reflecting, thinking, analyzing about what to do to infuse technology within my schools, make things easier for teachers, but most importantly, help our students succeed.

I just returned from EdTechTeacher's awesome iPad Summit in Boston focusing on Transforming Classrooms with iPads. I was privileged to spend three wonderful days surrounded by the energy of educators that are excited and understand how to take the focus off of a device for consumption of information and into one for creating content. Oh the possibilities! Even for our young learners in Kindergarten, we need to move away from having the iPad as a center for them to practice kill and drill apps. They can and will create some amazing content if given the chance.

I have also spent some time the past couple of days catching up on my blog feed and twitter posts within my PLN. Hence the tingling excitement and the swirling thoughts in my head that just. won't. stop.

So I thought I would talk to you guys and start to get these thoughts out, into the open, where we can share and talk and make them viable options for our classrooms.

So I will choose nuggets of awesomeness and share them over the next few blog posts. Starting today, with an awesome opportunity to connect your classroom to a teacher that presented at the iPad Summit, Kristen Wideen. Her class is studying about communities and her students, yes her students, came up with the amazing idea to collaborate with students around the world to create a book. Students are asking that audio, maps, drawings, pictures be included to answer questions such as what continent do you live on, what country are you from, what do you like to do after school, and what is the population of where you live. Ms. Wideen will collect the material from all classrooms and then share the completed project back out to all involved. How cool is that?!? And yes, I am already talking with at least two of my teachers to take the project on, hopefully one will focus on Gastonia, and the other on the little town of Bessemer City. You can find out all the information here to connect with Ms. Wideen and possibly take part in the project.

In the meantime, I will deal with the swirling in my mind. Please share your thoughts and ideas as well.

Classroom Strategies That Work: Identifying Similarities and Differences

As educators, we are probably all familiar with Robert Marzano and his work with Classroom Strategies that Work. In the book, Marzano presents nine strategies for teachers to use in the classroom to improve student achievement in dramatic ways. When you look at the results from using the strategies as seen in the table below, you may ask yourself, "Why use technology?"

That would be a good question to ask. According to research, when applied effectively, technology implementation not only increases student learning, understanding, and achievement, but also provides motivation to learn, encourages collaboration, and supports the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. (Schacter & Fagnano, 1999)

So you may be wondering what technologies can I use for these strategies to improve the initial percentile gains?

Jason Mammano and I presented a session at Gaston County Schools Teaching & Learning Conference on this very topic. I hope to share some ideas on the strategies over the next several posts on this blog.

Today, I want to cover the strategy of "identifying similarities and differences." There are four processes that can be utilized with this strategy: compare/contrast, classify, creating metaphors, and creating analogies. Graphic Organizers are the easiest way to help students with these processes. In my previous county, we used the same mind maps or graphic organizers from K--12. Of course, the early grades focused on teaching students the thought processes behind each map and how to know which map to choose, but by the time the students got to third grade, it became second nature.

Students love technology and by combining the use of free programs, the four processes for identifying similarities and differences will become second nature to them as well.

What programs can you use? I have written about mind maps before, but I have added a couple new ones here.

Mindmeister is a free online mind mapping tool that basically walks you through creating the graphic organizer. You do not even have to sign it to use unless you wish to save the creation. It also has an app for your Android or Apple device.

Bubbl.us is another free online mind mapping tool that works better for upper grades than elementary. Again you do not need to create an account unless you want to save the map.

Linoit is a digital corkboard for sharing ideas using digital sticky notes.  What we like about Lino.it is that you can upload documents, pictures, and even, video. Although you do not have to have an account to use, you can use your Google log in for the account.

I just learned about MindMaple recently. They have a pay version, but they also have a Lite Version that is free. This is a program that you download to your computer. The interface reminds me of Microsoft Word, so it would be pretty easy for your students to use. They are also have an IOS app in which you can view the maps, and are moving toward creating the ability to edit within the app.

Popplet is the final online mind mapping tool that I am going to share, but it is definitely not the last one available. However, it is super easy to use. It literally walks you through how to use it and provides the ability to upload files. There is also an IOS app for that!

When students understand the how things are similar and how they are different, it allows them to use that knowledge in other ways and move up in the higher order thinking skills. There is so much information at our fingertips today due to the technology we have, let's teach our students how to map the information so it is easily assimilated and used.

Let me know which tools you like and don't forget to check out Jason's blog for lots of great information.

Using iPads or iPods in the Classroom

There were several sessions at the ASCD annual conference on using iPads and/or iPods with students even as young as PreK. I want to share a few of the apps and ideas for their use in the classroom.

Sock Puppets: This is a free app for iPod and iPad. It publishes the finished video to YouTube which could be put on a teacher channel for the class to view. Great for kids to publish book reviews, science experiments, public service announcements, biographies, autobiographies, debates. Let them use the app to explain math problems, practice fluency, or a new way to publish their own writing.



Storykit App: Another free app for both iPod and iPad that provides stories from the public domain. The cool thing is that it allows you to edit those stories as well as create your own books. So make those stories modern by changing up the characters and language. Let students create their own biographies at the beginning of the year as a cool way to get to know everybody in the class. Start a ABC book and add letters as you learn them because the stories can be edited at any time.


BrainPop Featured Movie App: Free for both iPod and iPad. School subscription is not need to access a featured free movie every day. Questions are asked after each video to check comprehension.




StopMotion Recorder ($ .99): It is an iPod app that will also work on an iPad. A toy video camera that allows you to make stop motion video like those claymation clips you have seen before. Allows you to edit as well as share on YouTube (again think about saving to your teacher channel.)






Songify: This iPod app turns speech into music, automatically. Kids love it and can be used for storytelling, spelling lists, water cycles, life cycles, math facts, and more. Also works on an iPad.




Show Me: The iPad only app allows you to record voice over tutorials and share online. Let your students use the app to create their own Kahn Academy like tutorials to share with each other and online. Maybe create tutorials for your school or district. You can also insert pictures and have students voice over information about the photo. Think of a new way to label the parts of a plant for example complete with the purpose of those parts in the plants growth and survival!



A couple of things to keep in mind when choosing and using apps in the classroom:

• Mobile learning allows teachers to layer learning which is a requirement in Common Core.
• You can't rely solely on the apps for higher order thinking skills, it is the teacher's responsibility to use multiple apps if necessary so students can analyze, evaluate, and create.
• You can't teach the same way with the new technology. Pedagogy has to change by integrating the device into a sequence of activities. 
• Take advantage of the social aspect of the device. 

What are some of your favorite apps for classrooms? How are you changing your teaching as a result?