Book Creator PD

Ed. Tech Resources, , ,

We had a great afternoon of learning and playing at our Book Creator PD (Professional Development AND Play Date) Session.  The afternoon started off with a short presentation on the Book Creator app along with some examples of products created by students. Teachers were then put into groups and challenged to use the Book Creator app to create a book and:

Book Creator.008Luckily, we had some awesome fifth grade student’s from Mrs. Ah Hee’s class who were Book Creator experts and were able to help the teachers who were all focused on making sure they received the total number of points possible in the challenge.

As I walked around the room, I could tell the teachers were having fun and really enjoyed the app.  They were all surprised at how easy it was to use and were thrilled to have the student help.  After the challenge, groups shared the books they created as well as ideas for how they might use Book Creator in their class.  In the original presentation, there was a bonus points activity for teachers to use Wall Wisher, now Padlet, to share ideas on how they would use Book Creator to modify a current lesson.  Well, we found out Wallwisher isn’t a great tool to use on the iPad (but I still love it for sharing ideas) so I added a field in my Google form feedback survey and here are some of them had to say:

I could use it for recording student work done in social studies, use for story response, use in publishing.

 

My students could create books about Hawaiian artists…to match a series we have in class

 

Use it to assess, audio/verbal assessment.  Use it in the social studies curriculum, writing…not only to us statute but model and redefine the action in which is occurring in the classroom.

 

Making class books, Progress folios, Partner books

 

Make whole class books cooking activity and sharing students work

 

Using it as a interactive notebook where student can explain the lesson through text, audio and video.

 

Create a class book about Earth Day and have each child name something they can do to help the environment or reduce their Carbon footprint. It could be in partner pairs and they could write and draw or video tape an action… Like turning off the lights when not in use, or making sure the water is completely shut off…

 

The ideas above are great, but I really wish I would have recorded the discussion.  We made time for sharing at the end and the ideas kept building off of one another.  I was totally inspired by the sharing and can’t wait to see how this is going to impact student learning.

Overall, teachers rated the day as awesome!  They really liked the student helpers and the time to play and said they are looking forward to our next play date. They did suggest I bring food next time…maybe I will…If I conduct this PD again, I’d give teachers a topic to create their book about.

 

Create an eBook with Book Creator

Ed. Tech Resources

Looking for a way to EASILY create an eBook on your iPad?  Well, look no further!  Book Creator is the way to go!  Book Creator allows you to add text, images, video, audio, and music to your eBook and easily share to iBooks as well as other storage apps such as Google Drive and Drop Box.  EdtechTeacher writes, “This is by far the best app to create ePubs on the iPad” and gives it a rating of 5/5 for usefulness and “easy” for ease of use.  Book Creator is $4.99 and well worth it!

Mark Gleeson, blogging as “Mr. G Online“, has blogged extensively on Book Creator and has created some terrific tutorials on getting started.  He has posted both a PDF tutorial for those who prefer reading instructions as well as a two part video tutorial posted to Youtube.  Both of those resources can be found here.  When you download Book Creator, a tutorial is included in the app which is very useful and it has a help function built in as well.

Tomorrow we will be having a Book Creator “Play Date” at Kula Ha’aha’a.  I recently attended the Edtech Teacher iPad Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, and was inspired by many of the presenters, but particularly by the Key Note Speakers, Jennie Magiera, Autumn Laidlier, Anita Orozco Huffman as well as Reshan Richards and Darren Kuropatwa who add a little play to their PD.  Presentation is below and blog post coming soon on how participants felt about a little whimsy.

 

2013 School Leadership Summit

Ed. Tech Resources, ,

Tomorrow is the 2013 School Leadership Summit.  There are some phenomenal speakers, including Yong Zhao, Bill Brennan, and Eric Sheninger to name a few.  There will be twelve hours of sessions, and if you can’t make the sessions tomorrow, check out the recordings which will be posted shortly after.  Here’s where you can find the schedule of sessions.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on your time zone.  When you find a session that interests you, click on it.  As of now, it looks like the session links are available only for the keynotes and I’m thinking the rest will be populated shortly.

If you’re not a member of The Classroom 2.0 Ning, I would strongly recommend joining.  Steve Hargadon is an amazing educator who creates an abundance of FREE PD opportunities including the ISTE Unconference, another opportunity I would highly recommend.  ISTE 2012 was my first time to the unconcerence (Social EdCon) and the highlight of my entire ISTE experience (well, that and I was on the big screen at the opening Keynote…That was pretty exciting too!).

Attending a conference in person is pretty awesome, but also expensive (especially when you live in Hawai’i) so it’s nice to have opportunities like this one where you can take advantage of hearing from top notch educators from the comfort of your own home!

It’s Pi Day!

Ed. Tech Resources

It’s Pi Day!  What’s Pi day?  Pi day is celebrated annually on March 13 in honor or 3.14,  the first digits in the number Pi.  Pi represents the ratio of a circles circumference to it’s diameter.  Visual?  I like this explanation:

Here are some resources that can be used to celebrate Pi day:

Flocabulary’s Pi Day Activities
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I just love flocabulary!  This resource includes three videos as well as six lesson ideas.  My favorite is baking a Pi Pie!  Right now, Flocabulery is having a free, unlimited school wide access deal through June!  Now’s the time to check them out!

Cybrary Man’s Math Page
I like cybrary man because he does all the hard work for us.  He has a great list of Pi Day resources on his Math page.

TeachPi.Org
Click on the activities link for a great list of Pi activities!

Exploring Pi
This Scholastic resource is for grades 1-8 and includes the history of Pi and well as fun activities to use with students about Pi.

Pi Across America
Another great resource with activities and information about Pi!

#piday
Find resources and activities on twitted by using #piday.  Not on twitter?  No worries!  Just google “#piday” and you’ll have access to all the piday awesomeness!

Did you know that Einstein was born on 3/14?

Did you know that July 22 is Pi Approximation? If you use the day/month date format, July 22 is 22/7 and 22/7 is an approximation of Pi.  Who knew?

Thousand digits of Pi Image By Tom Murphy (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Animoto – Kapālama Tech Slam

Ed. Tech Resources

Resources shared at Introduction to  Animoto in the Classroom at the Kapālama Tech Slam

Presentation

Signing up for Educational Account

  1.  Go to http://animoto.com/
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Education
  3. Click on Apply Now
  4. In the upper right, look for Sign Up and click on it
  5. Fill out the form and click Sign Up

In the next window, an Animoto Application for Education will appear.  Fill out the form and click sign up.  Once approved, you will receive a code to use for up to 50 users.

Remember – sign up for the Education Account because it allows you to create unlimited full length videos.

Adding Students to Your Animoto Education Account

Create a “Master” Gmail Account to use with your Animoto Account.  This account will allow you to create different log ins for your student while having control of your student Animoto Accounts.  For details on how this works and instructions for setting up your student accounts, please click here.

This is what I received in my “Master” gmail account at the end of our workshop.  See how I can see what my “students” are doing in Animoto?

animoto inbox1

Hint – if you have more than 50 students, team up with another teacher(s) and create accounts you can share.

Additional Resources

Bloomin Apps
This post by Kathy Schrock includes the Web 2.0 Blooms Graphic shared along with other examples of Blooms in EdTech.  This page also includes the Gear Graphic I referred to in my presentation.

Creative Commons
Use this page to search for media licensed under Creative Commons.  Creative Commons is a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to creative work and indicates whether the work can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon. This is not only an excellent resource to use, but teaching Creative Commons to students allows them to learn how to share their work as well.

Copyright Free Image Resource 
I try to update this board when I come across free image resources.

 

Screencasting in the Classroom – Kapālama Tech Slam

Ed. Tech Resources

Presentation and Resources for Screencasting in the Classroom presentation at the Kapālama Tech Slam on February 15, 2013.

Tutorials Created for Workshop

Creating a Screencast using Quicktime

Sharing screencasts in Google Drive

Resources

Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything – Screencasting in the Classroom
This is the motherload of all screencasting resources.  It includes tools for screencasting (paid, free, and mobile), lesson plans, teacher samples, students samples, blog posts about screencasting and more.  I personally haven’t found a better resource on screencasting in the classroom.

11 Reasons Teachers Should Make Their Own Videos
An excellent post from Edudemic which includes explanations of why screencasts work in education, actually, 11 explanations.  Also includes a great infographic and sample videos.

Technology For The New Year
This post was written in 2011, but still relevant.  It’s a teacher’s reflection in creating screencasts and includes examples of his students screencasts along with the tool he used with his students.

Using Jing to Assess Student Writing
An excellent post on how one teacher uses screencasting to give his students feedback on their writing.  Includes examples.

Flipped Classroom Network
A professional learning community for teachers using screencasting in education.  Connect with other educators who are screencasting and find valuable resources for creating screencasts.

How to Make an Educational Screencast
An awesome tutorial that explains how to use Keynote, Omnidazzle, and Screenflow to create an educational Screencast.

Click here to download the instructions for uploading media to your KS website.

Google Forms in the Classroom Resources

Ed. Tech Resources

This post is still under construction….

Presentation – Coming Soon

Google Forms For More
This website by Google Certified Teacher, Allison L. Mollica, has everything you need using Google Forms.  From beginner to advanced, for teachers and administrators, this is the best Google Forms resource is I’ve found.

Interesting Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom
Looking for ideas for using Google forms in your classroom?  Well look no further.  This presentation, originally create by Tom Barret, is still growing with teachers contributing to ideas for using forms.  Got an Idea?  Add it to the presentation!

Innovative Ideas for Using Google Forms
Excellent Blog post by Molly Schroeder that includes tutorials and ideas/examples for using Google Forms.

Flubaroo
Instructions for getting started using Flubaroo to create quizzes to use in your classroom.

Tutorial – Coming Soon

Google Forms in the Classrom

Ed. Tech Resources, Workshops/PD,

Google Forms in the Classroom

When: Monday, 02/04/2013 @3:10 – 4:00
Where: Elementary Computer Lab
Who: K-8 Teachers
Sign Up: http://goo.gl/9QGxG

Google forms are a useful tool to help you plan events, send a survey, give students a quiz, or collect other information in an easy, streamlined way organized for you in a spreadsheet.  You will learn how to create, edit, and share forms, as well as learn different ways forms can be used in the classroom.

Teachers Sharing Their Edmodo Experiences

Elementary School, Middle School

Whatʻs better than hearing from peers about how an educational tool is transforming learning in their classroom?  That’s just what happened when a group of teachers from our Kamehameha Hawaiʻi Elementary and Middle Schools got together to “talk story” about Edmodo.  The group consisted of beginner, intermediate, and advanced Edmodo users as well as teachers who have never used Edmodo and wanted to learn more.  As I write this post, I am wishing I would have recorded the conversations, but since I didn’t, I’ll do my best to recap some of the sharing that went on.

Mr Bowman, 6th grade Social Studies teacher and team leader, has been using Edmodo for the last couple of years as a course management system.  This year he created a group for the entire 6th grade in order to communicate important school information.  In this group, small groups were also created for each advisory.  All 6th grade students, teachers, and parents were invited to join the group.  The planner is populated with school activities as well as special events.  Advisory teachers are able to send information to just their advisories or to the entire 6th grade when relevant.  The educational assistant posts to the entire group at the beginning of the week a “sneak peek” of events and reminders for the week.  Parents are able to access the calendar and see what’s happening at school.  But what is so cool about Mr. Bowman creating the group is it resulted in teachers experiencing how Edmodo can used and how easy Edmodo is.  Many of the 6th grade teachers who were not using Edmodo are now using it not only to send information to their advisories, but as a course management system in their classroom.

Mrs. Kirsch, 6th grade Art teacher, started using Edmodo this school year.  She wanted to start small and decided in August she would learn one feature in Edmodo.  She shared with the teachers her Edmodo group and how it’s transformed her class.  She’s set up her group so if a student sends her a direct message, she gets a text on her phone.  If the message is something that she feels needs to be addressed, she can respond right there and then.  If not, she knows the student has a questions and is able to provided individualized instruction when needed.  She also likes that she can access Edmodo from her computer, phone, and iPad.  It’s ubiquitous.  She shared how some of the artists students are learning about in Middle School have created pieces that might not necessarily be appropriate for students their age so she uses the Edmodo library to share the art that is appropriate.  One of the teachers who was not an Edmodo user came up to me later and said, “Wow!  I loved hearing about how [Mrs. Kirsch] learned Edmodo.  I think I can do that!”.

Ms. Richardson, Elementary Technology Teacher, uses Edmodo to collaborate with schools around the world.  Her class, and the class she is collaborating with, are put into a large group and then small groups are created that students use to get to know each other better.  Her 5th grade students worked with 12th grade students at our Kapālama campus last year.  The 12th graders created weebly websites based on questions posed by the 5th graders.  This was done using skype and Edmodo.  Her students also collaborated on poems with another class located in Baltimore using Edmodo and Google docs.

Mrs. Chang, Elementary Science Teacher, is new to using Edmodo and tried it out because she was out sick and had a sub that day.  She was able to put her lesson up in Edmodo and her sub plan was basically to have students log into edmodo and complete the assignment.  Luckily, Ms. Richardson uses Edmodo so the students already were familiar with it.  Even though she was home, she logged in during class time and was able to respond to student questions right there and then.  As a teacher, we all know how sometimes it’s just easier to go to work sick than to create sub plans, but through using Edmodo, not only are sub plans easier, but the day is not wasted.

Here’s some additional Edmodo awesomeness that was shared:

  • Sometimes students forget to press submit when turning in an assignment or they respond to the assignment and post their work for the entire class rather than submitting via the assignment.  Reminding students how to submit assignments is important.
  • Awarding badges is great incentive for students.
  • Using polls is awesome for formative assessment.
  • Create a fake student and parent account if you’re just getting started so you can see what parents and students see.  Their view is different than the teacher view.
  • Using Edmodo cuts down on paperwork and saves a lot of time
  • Using the library is great because you can add your own content but also pull content from other Edmodo users library and put it in your own
  • Edmodo communities are a great place to ask questions and for lesson ideas
  • Edmodo is a great way to teach students social network skills.  There are many lessons to be learned in a SAFE environment.

As far as a means for Professional Development for teachers, this Edmodo sharing was invaluable.  It was teachers learning from teachers.  Those non Edmodo users who were in attendance are now Edmodo users who not only have me, the instructional technology specialist, to go to for extra help, but their peers as well.  We’re going to continue this Edmodo Community of Practice.  Stay tuned!

Got Edmodo?

Workshops/PD

Come and join us as we start bi-monthly PD on using Edmodo in the classroom.  On Monday, November 19 hear how other Kamehameha Elementary and Middle School Teachers are using Edmodo in their classrooms.  Learn how to use the Edmodo Communities to connect with teachers to exchange ideas and recommend content that you can quickly add to your Edmodo library and share with students. Get your classes built right then and there.  Leave the session ready to start using Edmodo Tuesday morning!

When: Monday, 11/19/2012 @3:10 – 3:55ish
Where: Kainoa’s Room
Who: ES & MS Teachers
RSVP: http://goo.gl/vZJAN