Tech Bytes - February

Hey, Guys! I have so much to share with you this month! I'm excited to share some grant and growth opportunities as well as some tools to use in your classroom. Let's get started!

Static Flickr Image

Be In the Know

Association of American Educators Classroom Grants (K12) - These classroom grants of $500 or less can be used for a variety of projects and materials, including but not limited to books, software, calculators, math manipulatives, art supplies, audio-visual equipment, and lab materials. Funds must be used within one year of the application deadline. Application deadline is March 1. You can find more information here.

Carton 2 Garden Contest (PK12) This contest rewards preK-12 schools that creatively repurpose at least 100 milk or juice cartons for their gardens. Schools don't need an existing garden to apply. There are 14 award packages and the Grand Prize is $5,000. Deadline to apply is April 16. You can find more information here.  

Want to go to ISTE in Chicago this summer? There are two Award opportunities that can help get you there! Check out ISTE Outstanding Young Educator Award and ISTE's Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for details. 

Penn State Interdisciplinary Materials Research Experience for Teachers K12 - Teachers selected to participate in this six-week program will receive hands-on nanoscience and technology experience through research, with applications to bio-engineering, chemistry, electronics, materials science, optics, optoelectronics, physics, and life sciences. Teachers will engage in a week's worth of seminars, demonstrations, workshops, and activities geared towards connecting state-of-the-art research with K-12 education. Teachers will earn a $6000 stipend ($5000 for pre-service teachers). Housing is provided if needed, and reasonable travel expenses will be covered. At the end of the summer, RET fellows will present their projects at a scientific mini-symposium to their research collaborators, peer teachers, and undergraduates. Interested? Check out details here. Deadline is April 15. 

iPad App

Adobe Spark provides an easy way to make video stories in minutes. The good news is they recently announced students under 13 can now use this tool and sign in will be a single sign in with Google. And for more good news, it is also available for use on Chromebooks, so iPads are not needed.

Cool Tools Corner

With so many of you 1:1 with Chromebooks, I want to share a few tools that you can explore for using with your students.

Classroomscreen is an awesome one-stop shop for many tools that teachers and students can use, tools such as random name selector, timers, noise meter work symbols, and more.  Click on the menu in the upper left to see Tips and Tricks and other options. Students can use the site to self-monitor group work. 

Nearpod & Interactive Reading Lessons - This past week one of the large state technology conferences was held in Florida - FETC. One of the presenters did a session on using Nearpod with reading. (By the way, Nearpod is also available as an iPad app.) She uses this tool from Kinders all the way to adults. I truly recommend taking the time to read her post and give this a try in the classroom. 

You know I love Book Creator and I have blogged about the Chromebook app for it. There is a similar tool for young learners called WriteReader that allows students to publish books with their spelling (no underlines for incorrect spelling) while providing a space for the adult to write the correct spelling. This makes it totally collaborative between teachers and their students. Students can use embedded images, upload images, and use the camera on the Chromebook and record their voice. Completed books can be shared online, saved as PDF, and/or printed. 

And last, but not least! I've told you about Flipgrid too. Well...Starting February 12, there is an opportunity to follow along with a marine biologist during a two-week exploration of diving with sharks. AMAZING! And, wait for it....there is a hyperdoc that goes with it!!!! Can you tell I am over the top excited about this one? Check this link for more information. 

Elementary Students - Citing Sources

The Keep Calm-O-Matic

Standard 3 of ISTE Technology Standards for Students focuses on research and information fluency. The expectation: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information. Our state standards for information and technology skills expect learners as young as 5 to "recognize the importance of respect for the work of others." By 5th grade, the expectation is for the student to "understand ethical behavior (e.g., copyright, not plagiarizing, netiquette) when using resources." The expectation isn't that the students will cite in APA or MLA style. Thank goodness!

So what's an elementary teacher to do when faced with helping young learners from K - 5 cite sources when writing non-fiction texts, reports, presentations, and even producing video content. We do what we do best, we teach.

Beginning with kindergarten, we teach that everyone's work belongs to that person and we shouldn't use it without permission and we should tell how we found the work. Begin with something as simple as having students ask permission of others before taking photos with those iPads. Maybe even have a paper the student must have signed by their buddy before snapping that pose. When using Internet resources, keep it simple by allowing them to copy and paste links at the end of their work. Model for students when you are writing in front of them or even when you are finding resources and sharing with them, include where you got the information.

Fortunately, in our district there are tools to help us during this teaching journey. For example, Discovery Education provides appropriate citation for any item the student uses, all they need to know is where the citation is located and how to copy and paste.

We are are Google Apps for Education district, so utilize the research feature in Google Docs that will help automatically cite...complete with footnotes.

And don't forget to use resources available to us for free such as an easy site to use to help students come up with a copy and paste citation - Easybib.com.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the awesome, free lessons for grades 3 - 5 available on this topic from Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media is a great partner to enhance digital citizenship for all ages.

Do you have other thoughts or ideas of how to help teachers with this topic? Please share!

Writer's Workshop: Small Moments & Google Docs

Retrieved from Can't Stop Smiling

Across our county this month, teachers and students are launching writer's workshop Lucy Calkins style. The first unit for writing is about small moments. The goal is to help students grow as writers as they take everyday events from their lives and turn them into stories. Stories that communicate through pictures and lots and lots of writing. 

By the time they have finished, they want to publish their work so others can celebrate the writing with them. Since we are a GAFE district, Google Docs often becomes the first place students learn to publish their writing online for the world to read. Elementary teachers are somewhat hesitant to start the typing process with our young learners because their lack of typing skills makes the process long and laborious. 

Google has been working hard at releasing some updates and they are releasing several that are perfect for the educational setting. I mentioned templates in this post and linked to several other updates.

One of the linked updates is about Voice Typing. Yes, dear teacher friends, your students can read their story and Google will take the dictation and type it for them!

You can find this wonderful gem under the Tools menu. Check out the video below to see just how easy this is. 

StoryJumper

I have just found another neat site that I have to share! It is called StoryJumper and it is a website that allows students to create their very own books. Once the story is complete, it can be shared online, printed, or parents can order hardback books starting at $25.00. But you can create more than just stories such as calendars, adventure maps, photo journals, book reports, and more.

The interface is pretty easy to use. Students can choose a book that is already started and finish the story, or they can start a story from scratch.. You can use StoryJumper's props and scenes or you can upload and use your own photos. Their work saves, so this could be a project that continues over time.

As a teacher, you set up your class. At this time, there is no limit to the number of students you can have. Your class is assigned a class ID and you provide a password. Students then use the class ID to log in, select their name on the screen, and type in the password. They are then ready to go.Of course, as the teacher, you can see all of your students books.

As a former fourth grade teacher, I wish I had had this in my classroom. There is a downloaded lesson plan that uses seven steps to help students put together their story. Each of the seven steps include guiding questions to get students really thinking about the story elements. Lots of prewriting takes place before you ever step in front of the computer and begin using the site beginning with a graphic organizer. I know some of the provided props are elementary, but I think this site could be easily used with high school students as well. Check it out and let me know what you think!