Digital Presentations...

Digital Presentations...

Honestly, my experience with digital presentations is so limited. I was introduced to Prezi by a student teacher year before last, yes, I know that's kind of sad. I have never actually used Prezi, but at least I am familiar with it. I do like that they have a free membership for teachers, albeit limited.

I really liked Slidely. I think it looks really cool and easy to use. Easy for me, easy for kids! I also like that there are apps for phones and tablets so students would be able to access from home to create own presentations versus the tired old poster board! Being able to add music makes it very appealing to me as well. I think the video aspect of Slidely could be used in place of the costly Animoto, as both are easy, just drop in photos.

I would like to explore Blendspace with my team this year. I think it would be a useful tool to create units of study and be able to share with each other, as well as with parents. There would be no excuses that they didn't know what to do or what was going on in class!

Given that we have such a visual population that we are teaching, I love Thinglink. I had been previously introduced to this site during social studies training. It was suggested that we use pictures and maps and link content knowledge, vocabulary and even quiz questions to the photos. I like the way  the site demos linking YouTube videos. I look forward to more exploration of this site in the near future.

What are AR and QR, really?

Okay, I'll admit, I was pretty familiar with QR codes. I have used them some in my classroom and have even created a scavenger hunt for our faculty last year using them. But AR, it's not Accelerated Reader anymore!

I was playing around with some of the links in some of the articles in this week's sandbox.  I created this little beauty, which will take you to my website.



Here is another handy one that links to your Google or Android Calendar.   Would be great to add to newsletters for important dates you don't want parents to forget.



AR is not just Accelerated Reader anymore

So I had a little fun playing around with Aurasma. I created a funny little ninja that popped out of my iced tea glass. I know it's not very librarian of me, but it's been a long day and it made me laugh. I look forward to messing around with it a little more in the morning, after a good night's sleep. Here's hoping there are no ninjas in my dreams.

Grab the Popcorn! It's Movie Time!

I had a great time playing around with the video tools. Knowing how to use these will be a great asset, as kids are much more engaged by video than any other medium.

Powtoon was really cool. I could see students enjoying creating their own videos. I made my own video (just tweaked one of theirs) for an introduction that I may use next school year. I realize it needs more work, but it was fun to play around with.
https://www.powtoon.com/show/fl7OflOFlGE/ms-freemans-introduction/#/

Animoto is a tool that I have used in the past. It's too bad they no longer have a free version for educators. It's so easy to use and students and parents love it. It is a great way to culminate a field trip, unit of study, or end of the year. Here's a little video I made of my kiddoes from last year. Even though school is out, I have sent this link to my parents so they can view and show their students.
https://animoto.com/play/rqXqwGVnYTrrHs3UM2FyKg

Sock Puppets is a great app. Last year I had 4 iPads in my classroom. The kids loved using this app to create their own "puppet shows" using the sock puppets and their voices. We used them to retell stories, explain content vocabulary terms, and to read original writing. The app is very easy to use and kid friendly.

The Wonderful World of Websites

I am a little late with this post. Between my "Website ADD" - you know, when you start looking at one thing and follow all sorts of links down the rabbit hole, until you realize 45 minutes later what you were supposed to be looking at/for is not actually what you are currently seeing on your screen? Between THAT and trying to get things ready for my son to come home on leave from the Army (it's been 6 months!), I lost track of time. 

I did enjoy looking at some great websites. I did check out some for middle and high schools, but felt the pull back to elementary. Here are a few of my favorites:

http://elementarylibrarian.weebly.com/ I really liked how things were organized on this site. There were some great things for kids and parents. The authors' links were a neat idea, yes I bookmarked it. I am not sure what the "Morning Calm Award" really means, but obviously kids are voting on books. I think this would be a good way to get involvement and traffic on your website. If you haven't checked out this website, or if you did but didn't watch the video at the bottom of the homepage, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, I highly recommend. This was my favorite "rabbit hole" of the week!

http://neslibrary.weebly.com/ This website it very attractive and inviting. I thought the links were easy for kids to use and follow. I really like the Shelfari widget and would be interested in using this on my webpage. I especially liked the link for class projects. I think this would be a great buy-in for classroom and resource teachers. Plus, it could really help parents find appropriate materials when helping kids with  project or homework. 

http://lowelibrary.weebly.com/whats-new.html My favorite of the sites I visited. I liked the homepage a lot. I thought the graphics along with the information were presented in a clear uncluttered way. I like the slideshow of kids and teachers in the library. I wish the librarian had used her own voice on Voki, instead of the robotic voice. All of the links showing ways to find books is very helpful to the students, teachers and parents. I loved lots of ideas from this website. The Dr. Seuss Cafe (borrowing that one in the future), book fair tie-ins with grandparents, Genre Wizard (probably borrowing that one, too), connections for teachers by grade level, and there was even a tab for the librarian. I think this website must be very useful for the community it serves. 

Now, on to work on my own...

Podcasts and Vodcasts - a lot to chew on...

I really enjoyed sampling some of the podcasts and vodcasts that were available. One of my favorites was about Giant Pandas on untamedscience.com It's amazing how the panda is so appealing and well-loved by so many people, and yet it is on the verge of extinction. I found this vodcast to be very informative and I think my first graders last year would have liked seeing it, even though some of the information would have been a little over their heads.
http://www.untamedscience.com/biodiversity/giant-panda/

I was also pleased to find on their site that in addition to their blog and podcasts, they have video links to youtube. I found a fun little video about matter and one about the water cycle, which I will be teaching next year, in second grade.

I think using podcasts or vodcasts in the classroom would be a great idea. With the access to the internet at our fingertips with smartphones and tablets, and knowing that our kids are natives to this type of technology, it's kinda dumb not to use these tools! I love the idea of recording and posting some of those "back-to-school" things: supply lists, classroom rules, homework expectations, etc.
It could be something that parents and students have access to 24-7. I really want to try this at the beginning of the next school year.

I bookmarked most of the sites, so that I will remember how to get back there when needed later.

And on Saturday the caterpillar wanted some coffee...

So Saturday came, and I realized there was no creamer in the house, to go with that coffee. And even though I was not crazy about getting out of my pjs, I knew my desire for coffee was greater than my desire to stay "undressed", as it were. So Boaz, my dog, and I headed out to the 7-11. This dog loves riding in the car and will not give up a chance to go anywhere, even the 7-11. We took a selfie in the car, which I later decided would be fun to "Blabberize".

I have used Blabberize in the classroom with a bald eagle (Patriotic symbols) project last year. The students made bald eagle paper bag puppets, which we photographed, and added their voices to tell a few facts about bald eagles.  It was a huge hit!

I messed around with Audio Pal and thought it was very easy to use. It might come in handy when communicating with parents, teachers, or older students. I think the younger kids would prefer Blabberize or Voki.

I had been introduced to Voki during a staff dev session, but had never really tried it. Here's one problem I can see with using it with kids. There are too many choices. It took me 25 minutes to decide on my avatar and background. I can only imagine how long the kids would take!

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11544195&height=267&width=200

The Very Hungry Kids

This week's assignment, to create an infographic was challenging from the beginning. Butterflies might know all about them, but this caterpillar was lost in the weeds, at first. I had no idea where to even begin. Before I could start, I needed a topic. So while I was procrastinating, I checked my email. I had an email from www.nokidhungry.org and just like that, I had an idea. Hungry kids and the poor quality of school lunches are two things that get me going. There is no reason why kids are hungry in America. There is no good reason we are feeding our kids the crap that we pass off as a "nutritious" school lunch. I work in a school where most of the kids are eligible for free or reduced lunch/breakfast.

I used Canva to create my infographic. Some of the things I found challenging with canva.com were that I had a lot of trouble (spent a lot of time) resizing things. Everything from text boxes to images, to graphics. It just seemed very time consuming, which could be attributed to the fact that it was my first time using the program. Another challenge was that while I wanted to use their graphs, I could not figure out how to adjust them to the percentages that I needed to represent my data. I hope they have a way to do that, I just didn't figure it out. The HELP menu wasn't very HELPful when it came to that problem.

One thing that was super easy was dragging in my own photos from the web/my desktop. I would definitely explain that to kids, because the free graphics or pictures don't always match with what you want to show. Why pay even a dollar when there are tons of free photos to choose from on the web.