Tech Tips Linky Party

My first LINKY PARTIES!!!  I feel like I may have broken the rules by linking to an old post but my blog has a will continue to have tech tips.  Link to old post

 Thank you to The Teacher's Chair for hosting and appealing to my true side, the techie side.

Check it out:

 

Summer Time

This summer I thought I would really get my blog off the ground. My plan was to post more, join linky parties, and get more followers but it's already the end of July and that has not happened. The reasoning is a good one.

This summer I am working at a creative arts camp.  Over three periods I teach, Comic Book Creation, Digital Art, and Movie Making a.k.a. Lights, Camera, Action! My students are amazingly creative, kind, intelligent, and genuinely fun to work with.  They have taken up much more of my summer that could have ever suspected. Below is a brief description and examples.  A lot of work contains my students' faces and could not be posted but below are some examples and more can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/kpssummer13/

First is Comic Book Creation.  We use Comic Life to create a final product but the steps to get there are tons of fun.  Students develop a story and either find images, take images with a camera, or draw images to add their comics.  Many of my students are use very basic Photoshop skills to put their stories together.  Some of my students created well developed stories while others were quite silly and everything in between.  Find examples below and at my camp site.

In Digital Art students learned Photoshop skills and some basic photography.  Some weeks were different than others but we always focused on selecting using the Quick Selection Tool, or Color Selection, manipulating layers, filters, text/paragraph, and the blur and smudge tool.  One week we focused on artists and recreated the works of Andy Warhol, René Magritte, Roy Lichtenstein, and Salvador Dali.

Last, during Lights, Camera, Action! the students create movies using either live action, stopmotion, or claymation.  Surprisingly in this class most students wanted to work alone. The movies were FUN and students helped each other out with voices. Check out my kids movies: https://sites.google.com/site/kpssummer13/lightscameraaction

Lesson Planner Linky

One of my first linky parties is parties is perfect because this summer I've decided to revamp all my lessons and planners this summer.  Since I teach both computers and library to 5 different grades it is hard to keep organized.  Below are the files I have already revamped.  The following are still left to work on: class list, seating chart for library and computer lab, student observation checklist, and curriculum overview.

 

Here are my lesson plans which I hand in every two weeks.  It is modeled after the Busy Librarian's layout.

I plan months ahead of time because I teach through project based learning. With schedule changes, meetings, and coverage, I do not see every class each week, Each week I plan to complete the chart below so I can keep track of which class is where is in the project.

The last new page I've completed so far is also a double page for long-term planning.  I've read about this Frixion Erasable Pens and this page will definitely need them. 

What are kids reading?

One of my favorite parts of being in the library is book report time. It is not because I like to see students being tortured but because I get to push students into reading some of the best books in the library, books they would not normally take out.  For example, in May when the fourth graders were selecting books for their fantasy books reports one of best readers came to me with the book that had a brightly colored paperback cover and an author I've never heard of. While I love reading new things there are so many great fantasy books for her. After sitting with her for less than 5 minutes she could not decide between "James and the Giant Peach", "The Borrowers", and "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh". 

While I touch many students each school year this way, I always wonder what they reading. Hey my motto is "as long as you're reading". While I don't like them to take out 2 World Record, Lego, Captain Underpants, or similar books at a time, they know I just want them reading. 

This week a read a related blog post on NPR's Monkey See blog, "What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out". The article was easily relatable even with its issues. Are we as teachers hindering the students by allowing them to read whatever they want. No! 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/11/190669029/what-kids-are-reading-in-school-and-out

First, accelerated reader is not the best source. While my district doesn't use it, yet, I can't imagine it being an accurate representation of a students comprehension level. If/when we do adopt AR, I will not level my library in fear of students coming in looking for leveled books instead of "good" books. "The Hunger Games" on a fifth grade level?! Maybe for vocabulary, sentence length, etc., but what about content. Clearly AR doesn't factor that in. 

The article should have focused on the fact that students aren't reading outside of school! If I can student interested in reading and its at a book below their level I'm encouraging them to take it out. Every year I do a battle of the books with second graders using advanced picture books and I read Chris Van Allsburg's "Just A Dream" to third graders to remind the students that picture books are for all ages! Just keep reading I tell them!

As teachers it is our responsibility to introduce students to the classics books and help them decipher, understand, and relate. If schools really have stopped assigning these books then the article does make a good point. Maybe I'm being naive or maybe I'm just optimistic but I find it hard to believe a student can go through a public school system without reading Shakespeare and the classics.  

One of my summer reading books is "the Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller. (My summer reading list will be a different post.) I'm sure ill have a lost more to say after I read the book but my summer just started today. 

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