I’m using our
IPads in all the different subjects I teach.
I’ve used a lot of the apps that have been mentioned in previous blog
posts and my favorite so far is a free app called Socrative. We have individual books about different historical
figures or events in our new Social Studies series. I’ve been using the books and writing two
sets of questions about each book. We
don’t have much time for Social Studies so we try incorporate it in our ELA
rotations. One set of questions I have
titled “Note-Taker” and the students read the book and fill in the Note-Taker
worksheet/questions as they read. They
really don’t know how to take notes yet and this has helped them a lot. I like writing the questions myself because I
try to use information from a lot of different text features and this a great
way for them to become more familiar with reading all the different text
features in a story. This counts as one
item on their menu board. I make up a separate
set of questions and I put those questions on a Socrative quiz. You have a choice of what kind of question
you’d like to write: multiple choice, true/false, or short answer, and these
different types of questions can all be mixed within one test. After you make and save the test, it will give
you an SOC number, I send that number to my teammates and other teachers in
Wylie who use it and they download that specific test and save it to their
Socrative account. The kids go to the
Socrative app, sign up for the test you want them to take (it will ask for
their name) and their results will go to your Socrative account. (Make sure you look under scores and not
progress) I started out giving them the
page number where they could find the answer since this was so new to them, and
now I no longer do this, they just have to read the book and find the
answers. The books that we have read from
the Social Studies series so far are written anywhere from a 2.5-3.0 AR reading
level. The books that are about
individuals have been AR testers so they can earn AR points as well. Some of our lower level readers are able to
listen to the book if you have a computer available to them, but we haven’t
figured out how to make that available on the IPad. (They can read it on the
IPad, there’s just not a sound file to go with it for the IPad) It would be ideal if we could load the Social
Studies series that comes on a thumb drive on every computer in the second
computer lab but Misty said that teachers don’t have the ability to do
that. I asked our Social Studies admin
person if they would give Misty permission to load it on every computer in the
lab and she is checking into it. We have
been counting the Socrative as a Social Studies grade and the Note-Taker as an
ELA grade. I’ve used Socrative for other
things as well, the kids seem to enjoy it and if you want them to redo it, you
are able to mix the questions around and let them retake it. I started using it here, and now Tibbals is
using it along with us. It’s a great way
to incorporate Social Studies and Science into ELA.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
This is my 30th year to teach and man, I've seen a lot of changes take place over those years. I have to admit... I was very concerned about all this "newfangled " technology we were going to have to do this year, but I've really enjoyed it! And when it works, it's even better!!
I don't really have any new student apps or sites to share with you that haven't already been shared. So I think I would like to share with you some tools I've used to help on the teacher side.
#1. Google Classroom - This is something that has MANY parts to it and I'm gradually learning more about it. Thank the LORD, that my daughter used it in her classroom last year! She, Lee Hattaway and Jacque Prather, have been my go-to people for help. I think it will take a while to master, but it's exciting to see the emails that pop up on my phone after students have worked on assignments or announcements that I've placed in Google Classroom. And when they come to school and say, "I watched the video on classroom last night" or they ask a question right there in the comment section, it's exciting!
#2. http://safeshare.tv/ - This is a great site to make those YouTube videos free from inappropriate commercials or viewing of those weird videos on the sidebar. You find the video you want on YouTube, copy and paste it into the safeshare site and it will create a new link for you to paste to whatever/wherever you need to put it.
#3 Facebook - I've created a class FB page called Bulldogs of 406. You can join if you'd like to see what I post there. This in mainly for parents, but I have had parents post pictures of science experiments they did at home with their child. I post pictures of the notes from my board for the day, calendar happenings from the SMORE Kellye sends us. I post videos to help parents understand how I'm teaching math, and from day-to-day I post pictures of students doing activities in the classroom.
#4 Showme.com - I have made videos of me doing and explaining how I am teaching a math concept, and then I send the link to the parents to watch. I've had many comments that it really has helped at home.
#5 Google Extensions - These are little things that you can place on the toolbar beside the address window. The one I use the most is called Ginger. It's a grammar checker. When something is not grammatically correct it will highlight it and when you hover over it, it will give you a correction and you can click on it and it will automatically fix it. I use it for parent emails, FB, this blog...
Go to the Google Store and click on Extensions on the left hand side. There are TONS!
Move It is one that you set the amount of time before a screen will come up and it will tell students what activity they should do. For example, you can set it for 20 minutes and every 20 minutes a red MOVE IT screen will come on and say something like "Move your arms in big circles 20 times forward and backwards." When you hit the finish button it will go away for another 20 minutes.
Here's a blog from a tech coach about some extensions. He even screen casts how to find the extensions: http://tommullaney.com/2015/10/21/8-google-chrome-extensions-for-students-with-learning-needs-and-everyone-else/
There you go... I'd say try safeshare for sure... It's easy! If you need any help with any of the others, I'd be glad to help. Just let me know.
Wow, you really CAN teach an old dog new tricks!!
I don't really have any new student apps or sites to share with you that haven't already been shared. So I think I would like to share with you some tools I've used to help on the teacher side.
#1. Google Classroom - This is something that has MANY parts to it and I'm gradually learning more about it. Thank the LORD, that my daughter used it in her classroom last year! She, Lee Hattaway and Jacque Prather, have been my go-to people for help. I think it will take a while to master, but it's exciting to see the emails that pop up on my phone after students have worked on assignments or announcements that I've placed in Google Classroom. And when they come to school and say, "I watched the video on classroom last night" or they ask a question right there in the comment section, it's exciting!
#2. http://safeshare.tv/ - This is a great site to make those YouTube videos free from inappropriate commercials or viewing of those weird videos on the sidebar. You find the video you want on YouTube, copy and paste it into the safeshare site and it will create a new link for you to paste to whatever/wherever you need to put it.
#3 Facebook - I've created a class FB page called Bulldogs of 406. You can join if you'd like to see what I post there. This in mainly for parents, but I have had parents post pictures of science experiments they did at home with their child. I post pictures of the notes from my board for the day, calendar happenings from the SMORE Kellye sends us. I post videos to help parents understand how I'm teaching math, and from day-to-day I post pictures of students doing activities in the classroom.
#4 Showme.com - I have made videos of me doing and explaining how I am teaching a math concept, and then I send the link to the parents to watch. I've had many comments that it really has helped at home.
#5 Google Extensions - These are little things that you can place on the toolbar beside the address window. The one I use the most is called Ginger. It's a grammar checker. When something is not grammatically correct it will highlight it and when you hover over it, it will give you a correction and you can click on it and it will automatically fix it. I use it for parent emails, FB, this blog...
Go to the Google Store and click on Extensions on the left hand side. There are TONS!
Move It is one that you set the amount of time before a screen will come up and it will tell students what activity they should do. For example, you can set it for 20 minutes and every 20 minutes a red MOVE IT screen will come on and say something like "Move your arms in big circles 20 times forward and backwards." When you hit the finish button it will go away for another 20 minutes.
Here's a blog from a tech coach about some extensions. He even screen casts how to find the extensions: http://tommullaney.com/2015/10/21/8-google-chrome-extensions-for-students-with-learning-needs-and-everyone-else/
There you go... I'd say try safeshare for sure... It's easy! If you need any help with any of the others, I'd be glad to help. Just let me know.
Wow, you really CAN teach an old dog new tricks!!
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Pic Collage struggle and SeeSaw love!
The first 9 weeks with the iPads have been a great experience. The kids and our team have especially enjoyed working with Pic Collage and SeeSaw. I have loved both apps, but I haven't been able to use Pic Collage to its full potential. Any tips and/or help would be appreciated.
When we introduced Pic Collage we used it initially in a whole group setting. Now we are doing it as a station in math and as one of my word stations; the kids love it! However, I feel like they spend more time trying to take pictures, sizing them, and several other tasks or even fixing accidental deletes than actually accomplishing the task. Often times it seems that when station time is over they haven't actually created anything.
On the other side of this problem, I have a couple of students that are the "experts" for Pic Collage and it seems the other students have picked up on this. The experts sometimes spend their whole station time helping classmates instead of doing their own work.
Am I the only one with this struggle?
The iPads are a great addition to our listening station. The student uses the iPad to scan a QR code which takes them to a youtube video of a book. They are really enjoying using this new technology in this station.
Seesaw is the app that rocks my face off! My favorite feature in SeeSaw is how we can integrate the students work progress and special activities into an extremely accessible format. It is a super easy and fun way to share with, and inform the parents. And it doesn't stop there, the students can do it on their own. The students have learned how to scan the QR code which takes them to our class list. They can post any of their work that they are proud of and want their parents to look at. And now, most of my parents have the app and have been regularly looking at what we post. I love that the students can post on their own
My absolute favorite feature is how the students can record and share video and/or audio messages. I have received great feedback on one activity in particular. We record the students reading their writing at different points in the year, share them instantly, and then also save them to show growth. It's a great way to keep parents up to date with their student's work without going through the time hassle of constantly sending a bunch of stuff home.
I have loved having the iPads and the kids are all over them. I feel this has made a positive change in my classroom and I can't wait to learn how to do more with them!
When we introduced Pic Collage we used it initially in a whole group setting. Now we are doing it as a station in math and as one of my word stations; the kids love it! However, I feel like they spend more time trying to take pictures, sizing them, and several other tasks or even fixing accidental deletes than actually accomplishing the task. Often times it seems that when station time is over they haven't actually created anything.
On the other side of this problem, I have a couple of students that are the "experts" for Pic Collage and it seems the other students have picked up on this. The experts sometimes spend their whole station time helping classmates instead of doing their own work.
Am I the only one with this struggle?
The iPads are a great addition to our listening station. The student uses the iPad to scan a QR code which takes them to a youtube video of a book. They are really enjoying using this new technology in this station.
Seesaw is the app that rocks my face off! My favorite feature in SeeSaw is how we can integrate the students work progress and special activities into an extremely accessible format. It is a super easy and fun way to share with, and inform the parents. And it doesn't stop there, the students can do it on their own. The students have learned how to scan the QR code which takes them to our class list. They can post any of their work that they are proud of and want their parents to look at. And now, most of my parents have the app and have been regularly looking at what we post. I love that the students can post on their own
My absolute favorite feature is how the students can record and share video and/or audio messages. I have received great feedback on one activity in particular. We record the students reading their writing at different points in the year, share them instantly, and then also save them to show growth. It's a great way to keep parents up to date with their student's work without going through the time hassle of constantly sending a bunch of stuff home.
I have loved having the iPads and the kids are all over them. I feel this has made a positive change in my classroom and I can't wait to learn how to do more with them!
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