Using Socrative with 6 iPads

This post comes to you from 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Elley. Read on to see how she’s used the app Socrative in her classroom!

Assessing with Socrative…some great discoveries!

I was inspired by recent posts to the Socrative website (garden.socrative.com).

 

Thank you note to Zach Paul for field trip.

1. Send Quick Question to students
2. Orally ask, “What was your favorite part of the trip?”
3. Students respond individually
4. Copy and paste answers into Word Clouds app
5. Adjust colors, etc
6. Add as an image to printed message
7. Email thank you note.

Cloud types assessment

1. Find and save images of clouds
2. Create quiz and add images of clouds
3. Send quiz to students
4. View real time results
5. Get spreadsheet of all answers for data analysis
6. Get individual student pdf for grading and sharing

Data analysis of test

1. Show students graphs of test scores
2. Send Quick Question “What does the data show?” to students
3. Student teams discuss and type in their thoughts
4. Project teacher screen onto SMARTboard using airserver (this pic is the report you get later; I didn’t think to take a screenshot)
5. Discuss common themes in analysis.

Exit ticket

1. Just send Exit Ticket to students.
2. Give them question #3 on board.
3. Used after the unit intro to see what questions they still had.
4. Results in real time and printed later.

But I only have 6 iPads……

• Have students give quick answer, submit and then pass the iPad
• Have student teams discuss ideas and then write one down
• Take a sample of the class. Using some one day and then some the next
• Have an alternate activity while some are on the iPad.
• Get keyboards…they type faster that way
• Borrow iPads from another teacher who is not using them 😀

Try Socrative, you’ll like it!

Using iMovie in the Social Studies Classroom

In Social Studies, we have been busy producing iMovies about early explorers.  Groups of students chose an explorer to research.   They spent several days finding information about their explorer’s life and discoveries.  Then they planned their iMovie.  The only objectives I had for the video was to include all the information from the research sheet and a time limit…and BOOM—off went the creativity of fifth graders.  I have videos that are reenactments of the explorer and the discoveries they made.  I also have videos that are newscasts where a news team is interviewing the explorer.  It was an incredible thing to watch how much they actually did learn while researching come through in the iMovie.

Some of the explorers students created iMovies about are:

Marco Polo

Francisco Pizzarro

Christopher Columbus

Ferdinand Magellan

John Smith

Hernando Cortez

Ponce De Leon

James Cook

Humphrey Gilbert

Entry by Mrs. Musick, 5th grade

Missouri Grade Level Expectation (GLE):Outline the discovery, exploration, and early settlement of America

Photography Inspired Writing: One Best Thing Jigsaw

Mrs. Musick recently finished reading the iBook “Photography Inspired Writing: Using iOS Photography to Inspire Struggling Writers“.  Below you will find her summary and thoughts on the iBook and how it can be used in our 5th grade classrooms.

Snapseed App

Formative Assessment with iPad: One Best Thing Jigsaw

Mrs. Elley just finished reading “Formative Assessment with iPad: Representing the Process of Learning” through the iBooks store. Connecting directly with one of our indicators for NEE: formative assessment! 

Here are her thoughts and questions on the book summarized using the iBrainstorm app.

“One Best Thing” Book Study & Jigsaw

Recently the SOTO Tech Team submitted a proposal to the School of the Osage School Board recommending technology improvements for the entire district. You can read more about the proposal here. <—-click the word!

A part of that recommendation included replacing the 5th grade laptops with iPads. In turn, our laptops will then be reissued at the high school. Each 5th grade classroom will have 6 student iPads and one teacher iPad.

Because all seven of us are new to having iPads in our classrooms, we are jumping in headfirst and learning the most we can about using iPads effectively for our instruction. One way we are learning together is through a Jigsaw of the “One Best Thing” collection in the iBooks store. “One Best Thing” iBooks are written by Apple Distinguished Educators. Apple describes the collection of books: “Discover innovative classroom strategies and activities in these Multi-Touch books by Apple Distinguished Educators. Each guide in the One Best Thing collection highlights a specific use of Apple products, apps, and other content to transform teaching and learning. From effective assessment practices to exciting student projects, this professional learning series – devised by outstanding educators – provides practical tips and a lot of inspiration.”

As a group, we have selected which book (or books!) we would like to read and share the information on. The summary and information collected from each “One Best Thing” book will be posted on our blog.

Stay tuned!

APPally Ever After!

Our library is now the proud owner of TWO iPads!

Source: Apple Store

The bulk of our non-meeting was centered around establishing the purpose for the iPads in the library. We settled on making a list of apps for teacher use and student use. It’s quite overwhelming once you get started.

Apps to Consider:

• iMovie
• Haiku Deck
• GoAnimate
• Vine
• Vimeo
• Flickr (a challenge below!!)
• Book Creator Free
• Fluency Apps (ex: Read with Me)
• Scholastic News
• Motion Math
• Sushi Monster
• Concentration
• States Games

The plan from here is to start loading apps on the iPads that can be used for both teachers and students. As we add apps, I will update the blog with suggestions for using these apps/programs in your classroom.  Pam will be with the gatekeeper of apps, if you have a suggestion for an app you would like to use/try – run the idea past Pam!

For example, with iMovie students can shoot film, edit, and publish a video to YouTube quite quickly!  It’s very user friendly and won’t give you  that MovieMaker-headache we’ve all endured at one time or another.

A few app-related resources to check out:

12 Apps for Every Elementary iPad

50 Fab Apps (Scholastic)

When Considering Math Apps…

Lastly, I have a challenge for you.

If you choose to accept it…

We spent a chunk of our non-meeting discussing using Flickr in the classroom. Shaundra shared information and classroom application strategies regarding Flickr from a professional development conference. Melanie shared how she and Merrie would like to use Flickr to introduce photo-a-day challenges. The question is… how? That’s where my challenge comes in – I challenge you to test our Flickr with your students in some way, shape, or form. For example, I’m going to piggy back off of Mel and Merrie’s idea with the field trip and have my students snap photos with their smart phones on our field trip next week and add to our “group” Flickr.

That being said… I’m still figuring out the kinks with Flickr as of 8:32 this morning.

(This gif describes accurately my thoughts about Flickr right now…)

Here’s what I’ve narrowed down:

• You need an account to join Flickr (you can start one through Yahoo, Google, or Facebook)
• Per advice from a fellow Twitter user, it’s best to create a “group” in your account for students to add to.
• Another suggestion: have students put picture taken in a common place and have one master uploader to Flickr at school

So, there you have it folks! A little run down of our Tech Tidbits non-meeting. I’m excited to see where these new tools take us. Keep me in the loop of your Flickr experimentation!

 

No Foolin’ Here

First, I’m asking you to trust me and bookmark this link: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/ueresourcesandpd

Our Tech Tidbits session was filled with great conversation and collaboration. Keep reading to find out more! (Maybe I can find a way to include more Frozen gifs too)

Google Drive Add Ons

How do you use it? If you’ve jumped on the bandwagon of using Google Drive (Google Docs) for personal or educational use, you may find these new tools quite handy. When you’ve created a new document or spreadsheet, you have the opportunity to download “Add Ons”. My interpretation of this is making Google Drive similar to Microsoft Office. Some of the add ons include: voice translation, diagram maker, chart makers, mindmapping, and highlighting tools. There’s even a Signature add on! No more faxing documents back and forth to get a signature. You can sign from your computer! Erin shared with the group how she is using MindMeister with her strategic team. Once you download/install an add on to your Google Drive account – it’s there to stay (or we think so…). Let me know if you try out some add ons!

Symbaloo

How do you use it? As the video describes above, Symbaloo is a visual way to collect all of your favorite links in bookmarks in one easily accessible location. Karrie is currently using this as her classroom webpage. Check it out here: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/mrsdenbows3rdgrade?searched=true  We spent the majority of our time clicking around and finding out how Symbaloo works and stumbling upon oodles of great “webmixes” created by other teachers around the country.  You do not have to have an account to explore Symbaloo, but if you do have an account you can choose between an EDU account or a regular one.  I signed up for an EDU account during our session. With an EDU account, your Symbaloo is automatically loaded with popular educational websites (Khan Academy, Edmodo, Skype, Moodle, etc.) that are updated frequently. Below you will see a screenshot of my SymbalooEDU homepage. I haven’t added any of my own links (yet), but I’m excited to get started!

Lastly, Karrie has created a Symbaloo for our school PD resources. The link I shared earlier – see? That trust exercise is coming full circle now.  She’s been collecting links and documents sent electronically post staff meetings and adding those to a Symbaloo for us all to use. The links Merrie and Anna sent out last week are bookmarked and ready for you at this link: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/ueresourcesandpd

Until next time!

Working Backwards

This week we shared our favorite websites – these ranged from teacher tools to student favorites. Plus! We learned something fascinating about the copy machine… read on!

Backwards EdTech Tool Flow Chart from “Talk Tech with Me”

http://www.talktechwithme.com/uploads/2/2/1/1/22115906/backwards_edtech_flow_chart.pdf

(I haven’t figured out how to embed the image – but I urge you to click the link!!)

How do you use it? Most of our time was spent clicking through this EdTech flow chart and gawking at its wonder. Basically, you start with the question, “What do you want your students to do?” From there, you’re led through Yes/No questions to help identify a web 2.0 tool to use with your students. I highly recommend printing a copy for your desk AND saving the link to your favorites. All of the tools are hyper linked from the online PDF. Score!

Visuwords

Visuwords

How do you use it? This is an online visual dictionary and thesaurus.  After we spent some time plugging in words, we found that this would be a great tool for our higher students and older students as well. Or! You may find it useful if you’re writing a paper.

Kahoot!

How do you use it? Kahoot! is a game based classroom response system. You can use the program with laptops, tablets, or any device you have! Check out the graphic below to see how it is different than other response systems:

JeopardyLabs

How do you use it? A quick (free) login leads you to creating Jeopardy games to use in the classroom. We even thought it would be great for students to create Jeopardy games for their peers. There is also an archive of pre-made Jeopardy templates. We tested our knowledge on Pocahontas last night!

Copy Machine

Hits a little too close to home…

Yes – our fancy paper distributor does more than make duplicate copies of your teaching materials. In fact, Shaundra shared with us the scanning and hold print options. If you want to scan something, the copy machine can read your image in black and white and email it directly to you. Fantastic! If you wish to send the printer jobs and have them print when you arrive to the copy machine – this is an option too! Find Shaundra and she is our resident copy machine professional!

Our next non-meeting will be focused on… blogging in the classroom? Each week, we’ll have a focus for our session to guide our sharing. If you stumble upon great resources to share, but can’t make it to the meeting… send me a link! We’ll check it out for you!

Happy Spring!

Hashing Out Hashtags & Twitter

Our second session of Tech Tidbits revolved around Haiku Deck, Twitter hashtags, Twitter chats, and Weebly uses. Take a look at some tools we discussed…

Haiku Deck

How you use it: Haiku Deck is another option for creating presentations online. The program is web-based and user friendly. Their mission is to help people make simple, fun, and beautiful presentations. It’s been kid-tested in my room and they approve! Below is an example three of my students created.

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/L3ndPyB0Tw/how-does-hersheys-syrup-effect-the-growth-a-plant

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app

TweetDeck

How you use it: TweetDeck is a web-based application you can use to monitor your Twitter feed and Twitter chats easily (and kind of aggressively). If you wish to jump in on a Twitter chat like @ReallyGoodStuff’s (yes! The magazine!) weekly #TeachChat convo, TweekDeck is a great option to view the entire conversation happening in the Twitter world.

Hashtags

How you use them: Hashtags and Twitter go hand in hand. A hashtag collects and filters similar tweets. As The Complete Guide explains, “Picture it like a magnet that attracts all messages categorized by that topical word or phrase.” While tweeting from the Upper Elementary account, I’ve used our Osage tagline #AllInAllOsage as a hashtag. If you were to click on these tag, it would attract all the tweets with that tag. If you want to add a hashtag to your post, type the pound sign # followed by your phrase.

The Complete Guide to Hashtags for Education

Weebly (a free website platform!)

How you use it: Merrie shared how she’s transformed her classroom webpage through Weebly.

In addition to this….

Merrie and Mel shared how they have students write book reviews for their SOTO 4th Graders Read blog through Weebly. Check it out here!

Feeling inspired! Hope you are too.

Until we meet again!

February 19, 2014

Here’s a snapshot of the resources we talked about this afternoon. Great things happen when ideas are shared!

(Click on the actual resource and you will be linked to the website to login or search further)

Khan Academy

Screenshot of “Visualizing Equivalent Fractions”

• How do you use it? Heather, Melanie, and Todd shared about using Khan with their math curriculum. Provides an enormous amount of videos and tools for teachers.

LearnZillion

• How do you use it? Heather, Merrie, Ashley, and Melanie shared with us about using LearnZillion to supplement their math curriculum as well. While there are more CCSS Math resources available, you can access ELA videos and content as well.

Dropbox

• How do you use it? Dropbox is a great place to store documents at home or at school. Instead of emailing yourself 10 times at night (as I often do), you can add items (documents, videos, PDF, etc.) into your dropbox and access it at school. You can also share these items with other Dropbox users. Have a file to large to send through email? (I see hands up in the air…) Share it through Dropbox!

Google Accounts: Google Drive (Google Docs), YouTube Channel

Notice “Booger Soda”?

• How do you use it? By creating a gmail account (e.g. furnell5thgrade@gmail.com), you can access all of Google’s “Apps”. This includes Google Drive (Docs), YouTube, Google + (Hangouts), etc. In my classroom, we utilize the Google Drive (Docs) option for our word processing needs. Instead of having my students type their projects in Microsoft Word, they use Google Drive. Each student knows the login information and can simply log into our Google account from ANY computer (home or school) and easily access their documents or presentations.

TeachersPayTeachers

• How do you use it? Ashley shared with us different resources and teaching activities/lessons she’s purchased or downloaded (for free!) from TpT. After creating a login, you can access tremendous amounts of resources in all content areas. Prior to purchasing, you have the opportunity to preview the document before taking the plunge and making a purchase. Erin pointed out that TpT sends weekly emails with 10 free resources for the week!

GoNoodle

• How do you use it? GoNoodle is an interactive website (requiring a login) for classrooms full of break breaks for students K-5. Breaks range from breathing/calming exercises to the javelin throw and competing in the 100-meter dash – all before lunch!

BrainPop

• How do you use it? You may be using BrainPop’s educational videos in several areas of your classroom already and Melanie suggested a way to make it even better – click CC for closed captioning. Now, students can read the words while the listen to Tim and Moby.

Shameless Twitter Plug

• How do you use it? Hard to pinpoint the one way Twitter can be used. For me, it’s a combination of personal, social, and professional collaboration 24/7. Really, it’s the best and cheapest (cough, free!, cough) route for professional development. There’s a spot for everyone on Twitter: teachers, admin, music, coaches, Donald Trump… everyone!
• After the meeting I shared my feelings of inspiration via Twitter and received great feedback. See?

Look! Even Dr. Depee’, Dr. Nelson, and Mrs. Sallee are tweeting away….

Other tools mentioned and tabled for next time…

• Prezi
• Haiku Deck
• Weebly
• Zoho
• Mystery Skype

Come to share! Come to learn!

ALL IN!