Quizliet Has a New Feature

Quilt came out a few weeks ago with a new feature. You can now have teams, which Quizlet sets up for you.  The kids do not have to sit together, but watch on their own devices to see if they have the answer. My class LOVED it.  Here's a link to the post explaining the new feature
Quizlets new feature

VIDEOS!!!!

My students worked last week and first part of this week to create scripts about a body system in health. I had district download DO INK onto our team iPads.  Today we video taped with the green screen.  The kids had a  blast and learned so much about health and producing videos that are meaningful. I learned a lot about video taping myself.  I had purchased some plastic green table cloths to use, but they wrinkled and in some videos you can see the wrinkles distort the images imported. I think I'm going to invest in a green sheet that hopefully will have more weight to it and will not wrinkle as badly.  The kids learned about having to stay in the confines of the green screen when videotaping.  They figured out many options and things to do with the program that I hadn't figured out on my own.   I hope to do another video project before the end of the school year.  We are going to use Storyjumper with our Biographies, and I'm wondering about trying a video with the kids on their research as well.  It was great to see the kids get excited about a project and be so creative, each video production was completely different.  I need to figure out how to share it with parents, so they can see it as well.

My class is going to Kindergarten with their buddies on Friday afternoon to help them write poetry and create a Google Drawing.  Both classes are excited, always fun to see different ages working together.


I took the online ORCA exercise. To be honest I found it not be very engaging, I think there is too much to do, but I'm looking at it through the lens of a 4th grader. They are only now beginning to learn to cite sources. We have been using Noodle Tools to cite our sources for our Biography research.   I think there is too much text for kids to stay engaged. I think that having students take reading assessments online is okay, it gives us immediate feedback and data to know what our students need to work on and what they have mastered. LPS Wonders assessments are all taken online, and kids are used to taking it that way. My students graph goals and actual results each week for their assessments.

Graphite Review (Common Sense Media)

I browsed what I could through Common Sense Media, but unless I did something incorrectly, it seems there is a charge. You can have a 6 month free trial, but from what I could tell then you are committed to pay for a year after that.

Anyway, I did go into Graphite and was looking around and noticed Noodle Tools which is great because, on Friday I worked at the district office to write our Research writing unit on Biographies. We had explored Noodle Tools as an option for our students to create their bibliographies for research. Our Library Media Services are on board to make it easy and available to our kids. They have also encouraged each building to purchase a subscription to Factcite. I have been in touch with our Media Specialist this weekend and she is going to purchase it for our building. It's a great site for students to find vetted materials for research topics.


I also tried https://www.quizalize.com ( Quialize) this week. Similar to Kahoot and Socrative. It is similar to Kahoot in that it can be a race against other students and is timed. Similar to Socrative in that the questions and responses are right on each student's device. There is no looking up at projection and then back to device to choose answer.

My kids liked things about both, but agreed they didn't want to do Kahoot it again.

I taught a lesson on Digital Citizenship using feedback tools on our persuasive writing. We had a great discussion about how to use the comment tool in Google Docs to provide quality and helpful feedback on a peer's writing. I used a powerpoint that my friend and I worked on together. It gives kids specific things to look for in each other's writing and how to give correct feedback that is useful to the writer.

The readings and videos about Flipping the Classroom are intriguing. My only obstacle would be that not all students have access to devices at home or access to internet at home. I am going to try to create one and just have my kids watch it during work time and see how it works for the next day's lesson. Will probably have to try it next week.

SOCRATIVE

Had to come home and try out this site that I had heard about, but had never tried. Laurie you do such a great job of explaining and showing us how to us so many amazing tools to enhance learning in our classes. I made a quick review for area and perimeter, can 't wait to try it with my math class tomorrow. Is there a way to share the quizzes you've made so that teams could take certain ones and divide up the job? I see the share button but does the person just use that code or do they make a copy?


Socrative

Reflection on readings
What is the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge?

I enjoyed reading this article because the visual really put into view just how balanced instruction has to be while using technology integrated into lessons.  One of the issues I have worried about since hearing about the one to one devices, is that it could become a babysitter for teachers who a). don't know how to effectively use it, or b). they use it as busy work to occupy students.

Teachers and districts  are going to need to be proactive about training teachers to use technology effectively and purposely in their lessons. Teachers will need to weigh the option of using technology as opposed to paper pencil. When does it make more sense to go paper pencil. If lesson takes twice as long to do on computer, may not be a good use of technology intergration.

This week we tried out the Google Tour to build our Oregon Trail 3D across Nebraska.
Here's a link to see a student example.
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAheik_gkM

Plickers and Emaze

This week we got out Plickers again to use for reviewing synonyms.  I noticed from an email, that they have added a spreadsheet to make getting the formative data easier on students.  The kids loved getting back on Plickers and seeing how much they remembered about synonyms.

We also tried Emaze this week for our Ag Fair. Some students have created an Emaze presentation about their Agricultural commodity.  The group researching Dairy really got into it.  Other groups decided to stick with Google Slides because of limited time and the comfort level with it.

In Math we have been studying Geometry, so the kids did a Kahoot.it review today on angles.  I also created a FlipQuiz review for them to study from. They practiced in partners and kept score on whiteboards.


We had to back burner Aurasma for awhile, the district is still deciding if this app will be approved for usage with students.

Here's a screen shot of what flipquiz board looks like and link.        http://flipquiz.me

Reflections on readings

Creation vs. Consumption

After reading this article, I began thinking about how I use my own Ipad. Totally just a consumer. I use it mostly to surf net, map directions, play games, and check emails. I use my laptop more for creating things on Drive or elsewhere, part of it is the ease of having a keyboard as opposed to typing on the Ipad. My team at school has 6 Ipads for our team as well as one for each teacher, for a total of 10. I have had my students use them for QR scavenger hunts for math and for reading/vocabulary activities. I would like to have my kids us the Ipads more to create, but our district has become pretty tight with apps so will have to wait until they get some approved before moving into the creation phase with students.

Making Chromebooks work smarter in the Classroom

I totally agree with idea 1 on this article. By letting kids play first they have the chance to explore what their Chromebooks can do for them.  My students found all kinds of things that even I had no idea about. They have taught me a lot in the last few weeks.  My students have been collaborating on documents and slides since the beginning of the school year.They enjoy giving each other feedback and we have spent a lot of time before I released them to do this talking about appropriate feedback.

The role of an accountability partner in goal achievement

I really like the points this article made about accountability in having a partner. I find this is true in most goals. For instance, having a work out buddy makes me more accountable to going to the gym for workouts. I am looking forward to working with Cortney on  exploring things to do with more technology.