We are learning about action words this week. We watched a short You Tube video about action words. This required students to get out of their seats and mirror what was happening in the video. In addition, we used a the Word Play game on Between the Lions website to learn more about action words.
After our introduction to action words, we decided to put our understanding to the test. It was super nice weather and decided to take our iPads outside for some action word adventures. Having 5 iPads, I put students into groups of five or six. They had to use the playground and model an action. When they were modeling the action, another group member would snap a picture. Once each member of the group had a picture of an action, they used the Pic Collage app to assemble their collage of action words. Once the app was opened, students were able to import all their pictures at one time form the camera roll. After imported, they worked to move them around for their collage so that all of the pictures could be seen. The last step was to add a label to each picture with its corresponding action word. Our collages will be printed and hung up in our classroom as we continue to study action words. In addition, we Tweeted out some of our final collages to see if other classes could add their own action words. *Our class Twitter is @fenstysfirsties
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As my 1st graders continue to learn about short vowel sounds, I try to find different ways to enrich their learning experience using the 5 iPads that we have in our classroom. We have talked about the short "a" and "i" sounds so far this year. In our previous exploration of building words, we used the Educreations app and picture cards to build words. Read about it here. Our goal with our new activity was to hone the skill of differentiating between the sound represented by the short "a" and the sound represented by the short "i." Furthermore, I wanted them to practice their collaboration skills by working in small groups to sort pictures. There is some initial prep, but the kids loved this activity. I created a screen cast about this process which may help clarify some of the steps that are listed below the video. Step 1: finding pictures with short "a" and "i" The first job I had was locating numerous images that could be used to represent the short vowel sounds of "a" and "i." Luckily for my district, we have access to iClipart for Schools. If you do not have access to clip art, check out my clip art resource page to find resources for finding royalty free clip art. Step 2: Saving pictures to the cloud After you have found the pictures you want to use, you can save the to a cloud service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Box, etc. I used Google Drive for this step. There are a couple reasons I saved it to the cloud: 1) I can reuse this or tweak it year after year instead of reinventing it each time, 2) I can get a URL for my image stored in the cloud. Step 3: Create QR Codes Now that you have your images saved to the cloud, you can obtain the URL for your image. In Google Drive, you can choose to share your image and change the option to "anyone who has the link can view." By doing this, you are given a link for your shared image. If you are not familiar with QR Codes, check out Common Crafts explanation. You can use any QR Code generator you would like to create QR Codes for your images. I used QR Code Generator which I have as an app in Chrome. I copied the link of each image, and created a QR Code for each image. Step 4: Save QR Codes As you are creating a QR code for each of your images, it is a good idea to save them into a document or spreed sheet. Since I was using Google Drive to store my images, I just created a Google doc to house the QR codes for this activity. I inserted a table and began adding my QR codes. This allows me to have them for future reference as well as label them so I know what the QR code represents without having to scan it. Step 5: Print, Cut and hang QR Codes Once you have all your QR codes created and saved, you can print them out. I printed out two copies. One that I could cut up and then one that I could keep as a master while students were doing the activity. While I was cutting, I put a "1" on the first QR code that was to get hung up and then put a "1" on my master copy. *Remember the master has a caption telling what each QR Code is without scanning it. However, I don't want my students to see what the QR Code is unless they scan so I just put a "1" on it so I could compare it to the master. This was repeated for all of the QR Codes as I hung them around the class. I had a total of 12 QR Codes hanging around. STep 6: Groups, Pic Collage and have fun! The final step is to put your students into small groups. Also, if your kids haven't used the Pic Collage app, it would be good to go over it first. Basically, the Pic Collage app lets you insert multiple pictures onto one "poster." You can resize, crop, rotate, layer and much more with your images. In addition you can add text to your "poster."
Each group chose either short "a" to "hunt" for first or the short "i." They set out scanning QR Codes using the Qrafter app. Once the QR code was scanned, the correlating image would be displayed on the iPad. If it matched the short vowel their group was "hunting" for then they would screen shot the image (home/power button simultaneously). After the students found all the corresponding pictures for their chosen short vowel, they opened up the Pic Collage app. Once inside the pic collage app, students were able to create a new poster. One option is to add images from the camera roll (this is where all their screen shots saved). After they loaded all their images from the camera roll, they could add text telling what the pictures represented and move onto the next short vowel hunt. Today we put a twist on our whole group reading instruction block. We use HMH Journeys as our reading curriculum. This week we are learning about the short "i" sound. As a component of our daily routine, we work on breaking words into pieces and blending their sounds together. This has been an activity that we do as a whole group. Even by having the students orally participate, this has been a teacher-centered activity (in my mind). I tried something different today to hopefully make the learning more meaningful. I wanted it to be student driven, provide choices and build some collaboration skills in the process. Below is what I came up with and tried out today. The curriculum has some picture cards. I went through and found some pictures similar to the ones above. Once I had these picture cards, I spread them around the room. I then modeled the process for my students for using Educreations to build words. After the first student had done his/her picture, the iPad was given to the next student. Once all the students in the group had finished, they saved it to share with the class. See the finished product by clicking the links below. Group # 1 Group # 2 Group # 3 Group # 4 Since they all finished at different times, I wanted something for them to do as a group when finished. Another part of our curriculum is high frequency words. Each week we have a new list that we work with. I had my students use the Doodle Buddy App to practice their words in groups when they finished building their words with Educreations. Below is an example of what they had to do to practice their high frequency words in groups. They played tic-tac-toe. FUTURE CHANGES
One of the things that we didn't talk about prior to this activity was group expectations. After all the groups had finished we brought up the videos via the Educreations website. We watched each video together to talk about what was good and what we needed to change for the future. Here is my takeaway: 1) After done recording, you are to stay with your group and work together on spelling the word correctly as well as ensure that the words are blended correctly. *One person blended a word wrong and we talked about how the group is working together to make sure all words are built correctly. 2) When recording, make sure to hold the iPad close to your mouth and talk loud. While some students did this, there were some that were far away from the iPad or talked very quietly. I explained it was okay to chat with each other during this process because it was a collaborative project. I didn't want to tell them they all had to be quiet unless it was their turn to record. 3) When playing tic tac toe, model how to pick teams. We did this after we talked about the videos. We practiced numbering off in our small groups (1,2, 1,2, 1,2). Overall, I thought this activity went well. It was great to see the kids working together to build words rather than having a teacher direct the activity. While there were some bumps, the students still were able to showcase their ability to build and blend words with the short "i" sound. Help!!!! Every time I blink there is a new tech tool or app. How do I stay in the loop? How can I organize them? I don't have enough post its to track it all!!! Ugh! As a teacher it can be mind boggling to think about all the tech tools available. Even more overwhelming could be understanding how to integrate it into the curriculum to transform learning and not just using tech because it is cool. While I am no expert, I wanted to share my method. I hope you may find one tool to assist your continued exploration of tech tools and apps. Evernote At the center of my organization is Evernote. The big reason is that it works across all platforms so whether I am on my phone, computer or really any device that has an internet connection, I can access my content. You can tag notes, create notebooks and easily search everything. In addition, there is a web clipper that you can add to your browser to easily clip sections of webpages to your Evernote account. Below is a screen shot of my Evernote account. Feedly Since Google Reader is no more, I use Feedly to manage all the blogs/sites that I follow. To see a list of blogs/sites I follow, check out "My Feeds" note in Evernote. Feedly is a great tool for me to catch up on the latest tech ideas without having to navigate to every website/blog that I like to read. Another great feature about Feedly is the other apps that seamlessly work with it. You can see the options in the image below. The three options that I use most often are Pocket, G+1 and Buffer. Pocket is a tool that allows you to save articles for later reference. I created a Pocket account so that I could use an IFTTT recipe to automatically create a note in my Evernote account. This recipe is triggered anytime that I add an article to Pocket. When I am browsing articles in my Feedly stream and find one that I want to save, I click the Pocket icon. The IFTTT recipe does the rest for me. It takes that article and automatically creates a new note in my Evernote account. Buffer Buffer is a tool that lets you schedule Tweets as well as Google Plus posts. When I am looking through my Feedly stream and find something I want to Tweet or +1, I choose to Buffer it so that they are spaced out instead of blowing up my Twitter/Google Plus feeds. Putting it all Together This may sound like a complex process but the big part would be creating accounts for Feedly, Evernote, Pocket and IFTTT. These are all free services. Once you have your Feedly account, you can add blogs/sites to follow. When you find interesting tech ideas in your Feedly stream, simply click save to Pocket. IFTTT will follow the recipe you created and create a new note in your Evernote account. You can then move your notes around in Evernote and put them into notebooks to keep them categorized for future reference. Check out the short video below. I used my phone to show the steps that I just outlined above. ***One thing to note---If you use the web version of Feedly, you have the option to connect your Evernote account and save directly to Evernote from Feedly. Also, if you have the Evernote Web clipping tool installed on your browser, you can quickly clip blogs/websites directly to your Evernote account.
Evernote may not be a familiar tool for some. As a matter of fact, I only began exploring Evernote last school year. I heard lots and lots of talk about it but had a hard time figuring out how it could fit into my classroom. After a year, my entire workflow is driven by Evernote. My students use it to create digital portfolios for the school year. In addition, we have used Skitch for simple annotation of images. Evernote offers a free plan. In addition, their is a desktop client, web version as well as apps for about every device. They also offer a monthly or annual plan as well. I pay for the monthly plan which is $5/month. Lesson PlanningAs much as I would like to say that I only do planning at school, it is never a reality. There are times when I am at home, on the go or in a meeting that I remember something or find a resource that I want to add to my plans. With Evernote I am able to add to my plans wherever and whenever. Below is a sample template that I have created for my weekly plan. I just copy this template into a new note for each week. Sub PlansWith the increase of technology in my classroom, I am never sure how familiar or comfortable my subs will be with the tech tools. One of the nice things about Evernote is attaching files to your notes. You can also share notes. When I have subs, I make a new note specifically for the sub. Once my note is created, I will copy the URL and send it to the sub ahead of time if possible. If not, I open it up in my web browser, book mark it, then drag the book mark to my desktop to make a shortcut. All the sub will have to do is turn on the computer and open the shortcut on the desktop. All the files needed will be displayed via the shared note. The sub will be able to click on any attachments and have them open. No more explaining how to navigate where you saved files on your computer. You can click here to see what a sub would see.
During our reading rotations today, students used the Educreations app on the iPads to model 1 more or 1 less. This was to provide some practice with our math lesson from yesterday. In math we had talked about and practiced problems with 1 more and 1 less. To get this set up this morning I began by taking some pictures with my iPad. I have little tubs of pattern blocks that I planned to have students use for this activity. Using a dry erase marker, some pattern blocks and a slate (white paper with plastic sheet protector) I created a total of six problems for students to complete using the Educreations app. Below are the six problems I created using my iPad. I took these 6 images and uploaded them to a shared folder in my Dropbox app. I have my own personal Dropbox account and I created one generic Dropbox account that my student iPads are signed into. Since I have a shared folder, I can put items into it and those items will automatically show up on the student iPads. This saves me from having to load the pictures onto each iPad individually. **In the picture below you can see that each picture was labeled for it's corresponding page. This helped students know which picture to put on which page in Educreations. After I had all the pictures in the shared folder, my work was done. All that was left was explaining the steps to my students. Below is what I explained to students for completing this task. If the presentation doesn't load try clicking here. What I learned **I got my iPads for my students in the spring of last school year. I got spoiled by my 1st graders being able to follow multiple step directions and being more independent.
Just as we encourage students to fail and learn from their mistakes, today was an epic failure on my part. After modeling and modeling again about the Educreations app and what I wanted students to do, it was one hot mess. "What do I do again?" "How do I add a picture?" "Where do I press to record?" "How do I get a new page?" "How do I save?" I now know what my students feel like when something doesn't work that they tried so hard to master! As with all technology in the classroom, you have to take risks and learn what will work. We will be revisiting this assignment and I will be remember to---KISS (keep it simple stupid). My goal tomorrow will be to require only one picture inserted, recorded and saved. The following day we will require two pictures. While I felt like a failure, check out this student sample for what I was hoping to accomplish. Today during our grammar lesson we were exploring nouns. We began this lesson by watching a Brain Pop Jr. video. After watching the video and discussing different types of nouns, we introduced a new app for our iPads. I hooked up the iPad to our projector and modeled how to open up the Skitch app. Below are some images highlighting this process. **Our internet was not working so we had to save the images to our camera roll instead of syncing to our Evernote account. After all students had saved their images to the camera rolls, I had them open up Dropbox to upload the pictures to our Dropbox account. Once school was out, I took the images and downloaded them to my desktop. I then put them into PhotoStory and added some music. Below is our final mash up of our noun hunt. **In the future, I would like the groups of students to use the Animoto app to turn their photos into a short video. Another idea would be for students to put all the images into the Pic Collage app and share their group "noun hunt" images with the class or post to their blog. In our social studies lesson today we wrapped up our conversation on “cooperation.” As an activity to help students better understand this concept, we had students partner up. In pairs they had to sit on the floor with their backs to each other. When sitting they had to lock elbows. When I said go, they had to stand up while keeping their elbows locked. After our first try, there was only one group that was able to make it up while keeping their elbows locked together. We then talked about how it felt when trying to do it on our own instead of cooperating together to stand up. I gave them some suggestions and then we tried it again. After the suggestions, many more students were able to cooperate and stand up. The kids were really able to understand what cooperation means and how it can help us get along.
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Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |