Word Clouds -Technology Thursday

It is the last week of school. My students have been antsy for 3 weeks. Thanks to the snowy winter we are just going too late this year.  I needed a simple activity that was fun, still educational, and would not lose their interest.  A word cloud.  My first year, 6 years ago, was the last time I made world clouds with students. Why... while fun there a bit too simple. I love word clouds I just never create them with students, I always... go "bigger".

This year I had the perfect project.  I'm always looking for a way to keep students MOVING in the computer lab.  YES MOVING.

First, we opened up Wordle, http://www.wordle.net/ (but you can easily use Tagxedo, http://www.tagxedo.com/) and I had the students type their name THREE times.  This means when we create the cloud their name will be bigger than anything else in the cloud.

Next, we began to move around the room.  We moved one seat at a time and students looked at the name on the top of the screen.  They thought about what they know about the person and wrote an adjective. (I walked around the room and fixed spelling)

In the end students rotated back to the seats and were so excited to read all the words their classmates had written about them.  We pressed GO and began customizing their world cloud.

Each student printed and was able to take home a word cloud all about what their classmates thought about them. It was such a nice end of year activity and gift.

New (to me) Technology

This year I am trying a modified version of Genius Hour with my four 4th Grade classes.  Each class has 23 or 24 students and I see them once a week for 45 minutes pending any schedule changes, meetings, or workshops.  Genius Hour is when you give your students time to become a "genius" about anything they are interested in and allow them to share their new knowledge with their classmates.  While I plan to post more about my modified version in the future, if you want to know more about Genius Hour, check out, http://www.geniushour.com/. My students will be required to present using some sort of technology.  I want to be able to give them as many options as possible so I've learned a lot while researching options for them.

1. Brainybox- http://www.classtools.net/brainybox/

This tool is a cube creator. The user can take any content, text, images, a slideshow, or video, and add it to one side of the cube.  The user and viewer and choose to view any side of the at any time. It is easily edited and is shared simply through a link.  This would be great for book reports, social studies reports, science reports, in fact any presentation.  Students could grab videos from YouTube or TeacherTube or create them on their own.

The problems I see with a student using BrainyBox are that is will need to be created in a single sitting.  It does not look it can be saved and then continued in the future.  If students choose BrainyBox as tool for presenting they should plan out all six of their sides in a word processor first and then create their cube.

2. Tellagami- https://tellagami.com/ 

Tellagami lets your create short animated videos called Gamis.  The app is free and tons of fun.

First you start by creating your own avatar. Students will enjoy creating themselves. Then you choose a background from their choices or your own camera roll.  After you can have your character speak by recording your own voice of using their text to speech option.   The text to speech has a variety of accents for both male and female voices.

The students can use this to pre-record presentations on any topic.  It would be great for biographies, book reports, poems, famous speeches, and science concepts.   If your students are adventurous they can set it up to have a conversation with someone while they are presenting.

Animating instead of getting in front of a video camera will be a great opportunity for some students.  Being in front of your peers is hard but if your an animated avatar you are freed from many of your nerves.

As a teacher this is great as an introduction to a topic or way for students to listen to something you already taught again.  Using QR Codes or Augmented Reality, this can be used to give directions to different stations around the room.  The possibilities go on and on.


(Since the Gami's are short, my students will also use iMovie to piece them together. You can too.)

Newesla- Techie Tuesday Link-up

That last few years, with Common Core  and PARCC*, I feel I am always looking for ways to have my students read more non-fiction and read more on digital devices. This great new website combines my two needs in one. Newsela, http://newsela.com, describes themselves as "an innovative way for students to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news."  They offer news article under a variety of different categories for you and your students to read.  Each article comes with different Lexile levels so every student in your class can be reading the same article but on their own reading level.  After reading the article there is a quiz to accompany the article.

Go and create a free account on Newsela.  Then add your students so they can also access the website and news artciles.  Students do not need an email address.  Once on the website your students can access articles of their choosing or you can assign an article to your class at a certain Lexile level. 

The quizzes have multiple choice questions as select the paragraph to show your answer type questions.  This is great as it matches the PARCC sample questions.

*PARCC-The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.  It is a consortium of 17 states and D.C. that are working together to develop a common assessment for math and language arts.  New Jersey, where I live and work is one of the 17 states.  

This test is taken online which means my students have needed to develop a new set of technological skills.  While they already use a computer to complete many tasks, there are many things they will need to do for the PARCC test that they do not regularly do on the computer: type out math facts, fill in arrays, use digital rulers or protractors, highlight text to show evidence, type without a pre-write, and so more.  Newsela will be an excellent for students to continue adjusting to computer based reading assessments. 

Back to School and QR Codes

While I do not head back to school until after Labor Day, I know many teachers around the country have started heading back this week.  Each year I wonder how to start the school year.

Being in the computer lab and the library my students have me each and every year.  The rules and procedures stay pretty much the same.  My problem is clear, how do I go over the rules and procedures with students who have now had me or two, three, for four years already and keep both of us interested.  In past years I have tried using a video.   The video was interesting to the students but I found myself wanting to stop it and expanding on what I already said in the video.  In younger grades I tried a PowerPoint game but the game took longer than expected and students were fixated on the score and not the content.

The last two years I had third graders create signs to hang around the library and act out parts of the rules and procedures.  The skits were adorable and humorous. While that seems to be the best method for that age, months later, each group only remembered their assigned rule or procedure.

Last year I tried QR codes with the fourth graders.  Using http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ I created QR codes and spread them around the computer lab and library.  In groups students used iPads and the app Scan to scan and read the rules and procedures. They wrote the rules on a worksheet that told them the locations of all the codes. The students learned what a QR code was and were encouraged to bring them in when they found them.  Students mostly brought in ads but I did get a Heinz Ketchup bottle and a Taco Bell wrapper. FUN.

This year I've learned.  Students will have a worksheet with questions like the one below.  (Theirs will not have the answers.)  Instead of just seeing the location of the code they have a question to answer. Instead of Kaywa, I used http://qrphoria.com/ to create my QR codes.  QRPhoria is an amazing site with a lot of options for customizing QR codes though it is still SIMPLE to use.  With technology, I often feel that is the key.  Keep it simple but make it look amazing.

First you choose the context you want to show once the QR code is scanned.

Next add the information. It may be text, contact information, a url, etc.

Then you get to choose a style.  There is the traditional QR code if that is what you want, but you can get more creative and have scribbles, tile work, or one of the 13 other styles. Here you pick colors too. 

::It is here I usually have my iPad or iPhone and I scan to make sure the QR code colors and style work easily for my students before moving on::

If you are not sure, QRPhoria will give you some ideas, so do not worry.

If you are trying to keep it simple skip down to save.

 The next step, encoding is for redundant data.  As the creator you must decide how much redundant data you want in your code. The lowest is L, which allows the code to be read even if 7% of it is unreadable. Then M at 15% and so on.

 If you have a certain look for your code you can draw and erase but I warn you, be careful!

Last SAVE! The size depends on how big you plan to make it.  I always save big, just in case.

As with last year I will use QR codes again for teaching the Dewey Decimal system and I hope to come up with more ideas throughout the year.

If my students were older they would have their own cell phones or iPads and I would put QR codes on the books leading to book trailers, author's websites, lists of new books to our library, and so much more.

Wonderopolis

A few weeks ago I wrote about a some things that were new to me.  Wonderopolis.org was one of those things. (past blogpost)

With the year winding down my students are finishing their projects and some groups are finishing before others.  Most years I have them practice proper typing but this year I pulled out the iPads and had the students look into any wonder that interested them.  They were then responsible for creating a "Did you know?" paper that I would hang up near the related non-fiction section in the library.

The students had so much fun.  They asked to do it again the following week.

Stixy

Recently I was introduced to Stixy (http://www.stixy.com/), and online collaboration tool.  You need to sign up for a free account but your users, your students do not.  If your district worries about privacy, you can password protect your Stixyboard.

When setting up a board you can add a note, a photo, a document, or To-Do as a prompt.  Students will use the link you provide them to respond.  Students can respond with a note, photo, document, or To-Do just as you set your prompts.  Each student can respond to you and/or other students.  Responses are posted in real time so a simple refresh of the browser shows you and your users what is currently being posted to your board.

Stixy is a website so nothing has to be downloaded.  It can be accessed in school, as a center, or assigned as a homework assignment. 

My example is set-up to have the students respond to a fractured fairy tale.

New (to me) Tech

I'm always patrolling the web for new tech. Usually I'm looking for new ideas for the classroom but sometimes I come across things that just entertain me.  Here are a few new ones, at least to me.  I'm sorry if I'm late to the scene.

Artisan.com Picture Book Maker

This is the best picture book maker for the younger students I have found so far. With a cover, back cover, and 6 pages, the students writes and design their own story.  This website has premade images

and backgrounds for the students to choose from for their pages.  There are 8 backgrounds, 4 different characters that can be scaled and switched to look like it performing a different action, and 20 extras such as fences, trees, clouds, skateboards, soccer balls, and more. With the pencil tool students type in their words and can scale those as well. While I do not love the typing part, the illustrations are fun and in the end you can email a link to the final book.

Take a look at my sample book: http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/picturebookmaker/captures/stf/index.php?incomingNum=17299

Croak.it

This is a free website that allows you, the user, to record up to 30 seconds of audio.  This user interface is one of the easiest on the web.  Click the large croak button on the page, record 30 seconds or less of audio, and select Proceed.  Name it, Tag it, and tou can share via a link, directly share it to Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, OR you can get an embed code to put it on your website.  They even have a mobile version for iPhones and Androids.
Coming soon: the ability to mix to croaks.

For the classroom this could be fun to download on the iPads and have students work on quick facts to add my website.  Or book recommendations to add to the website.  As I mentioned before I LOVE using QR codes and so do the students so I can have students record information/recommendations about books, link the croak with a QR code and add it to the cover a book.  As a classroom teacher students could record answers in groups and record quick answers for me to check later.

Wonderopolis.org

This is fun and great for getting students more interested in Information Text.  Wonderoplois is a website where the answers to things you are naturally curious about are answered.  There are short passages of non-ficiton text as well as video and interesting topic to keep any students interest.
This would be fun for a quick research project in between the large projects. 

Todaysmeet.com

The last few large meetings and conferences I have attended have had Today's Meet up and running. It is a great tool for backchannel talking in large groups.  Once a room is created people with the link go in, and with no registration need, can post ideas and questions.  The entire conversation can be saved.  This is a great way for students to interact with each other in the classroom as well with students in other classes nearby, in another state, or anywhere around the world!

a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery - See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/about/#sthash.Dg7X2GPB.dpuf

a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery - See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/about/#sthash.Dg7X2GPB.dpuf

a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery - See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/about/#sthash.Dg7X2GPB.dpuf

Evaluating Websites- fourth grade

The fourth grade students are in the middle of a big research project.  They are going to be allowed to use websites to fill finish finding facts but first they must learn how to evaluate websites.

The first thing I did was go over the ABC's of Website Evaluation. I cannot recall where I orginally saw this but I would like to give credit where credit is due:

Students and I evaluating a website together so they can learn some of the new vocabulary such as "bias" and "coverage".

Then I let them go on their own assigning each group one of the following websites below. Take a look, they are great:

1.  http://www.peepresearch.org/surgery.html
 
2. http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html
 
3.  http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/fisher/
 
4.  http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
 
5.  http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/bread.html
 
6.  http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/ 

Students present their findings to the class in the end.

Update
I have since found a few more haox sites 
- http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html- (to advanced for my 4th graders I think)
- http://zapatopi.net/afdb/ -(love it! because it has links, a how to, and more)
-  http://www.brookview.karoo.net/Stick_Insects/Care/care.html- (this too has pictures and links. Great!)
- http://www.thedogisland.com/photos.html- (You just want to believe it is true as a dog lover) 
-
 


And All About Explorers is full of lessons on how to evaluate sites, compare websites to book, and much more. Be sure to check out the teachers' page first.  http://allaboutexplorers.com/