Tips for Using Google Drive

If you're new to Google Drive or just looking for some tips to enhance your skills with using Google Drive, I highly recommend you check out this blog post my one of my favorite bloggers, Richard Byrne.

The Writing Process

Stacy, a 4th grade teacher, in the West Hartford Cohort created this Animoto on the Writing Process as a way to introduce her elementary students to the writing process: "The Writing Process." 
The Animoto video is a helpful way to get discussion going about the research process. Once students view the video, a teacher can then lead them through a discussion of how what they watched will apply to their upcoming project. Look at the video, and then think of ways in which you can use Animoto to introduce an upcoming project in your class. Share your ideas by leaving a comment.

Click on the picture or the hyperlink below it to access the video at the Animoto site.

The Writing Process

Do You Want to Encourage Your Students to Read More?

Pernille Ripp, a 5th grade teacher from Wisconsin and an avid blogger, shares strategies she uses with her students to engage them in the reading process. I invite you to check her blog post and to share here which ideas she offers that you would implement as well. Click on the picture to link to her post.

This image is from her blog post and attributed there and in the screen capture.

And if you want to see what her students are writing, check their KidBlog posts, to which we will be responding as an upcoming class project.

If you teach 4th through 6th grade, you also might want to connect with Mrs. Pernille to see if she would like your students to write replies on her students' posts.

Teachers Care

I usually don't create posts such as this one, but a colleague in a course I am taking posted it on Google+ in our class community. It was created by a teacher in her school, and it has already received over 6,00 hits on YouTube since it was posted there recently. Regardless of what age you teach or the work you do, this video should resonate. Let me know what you think of it. You can also visit the video at YouTube, and read some of the comments there.

Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck allows you to create visually oriented slide shows with some text. It is easy to use, and young children could easily create one. Recently, I came across a few that will illustrate how Haiku Deck works. I am posting one that addresses bullying, and which could be used to promote a discussion of citizenship and character building. If you use iPads in your teaching or own an iPad, you might want to download this app and start playing with it. It can easily be used by all age groups.
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

Need Photos for Your Blog Posts

Check Flickr's Creative Commons to find photos you can freely use on your blog according to the licensing restrictions. Some are free to use unaltered, whereas other can be altered. For most you need to attribute the source, and Flickr makes this easy. If you already have a Flickr account, and want to stockpile photos to use in the future, you can save them as favorites or in a gallery. You don't need a Flickr account, however, if you just want to grab some photos occasionally. Simply use the Flickr Creative Commons to get what you want on as needed basis.

Recently. Flickr wrote a post celebrating the 5th Anniversary of its Flickr Commons. Check the post for information on how to use the Commons to find photos. Here is an example of a photo I found there today that struck me of interest simply because it's eye catching. I used the embed code to place both the photo and attribution easily into this blog post.

 

cc licensed ( ) flickr photo shared by National Maritime Museum

Here is a photo that I found that spoke to my teaching philosophy especially when bringing technology into the classroom.

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by gcouros

Here is what the attribution boxes look like in Flickr for photos that can be shared with attribution. You have two choices.

• Method 1: copy the embed code (Attribution HTML), which will copy both the picture and the attribution into HTML screen (see the html option in the Blogger toolbar) 
• Method 2: Copy the attribution information (Attribution Text), which you can then simply copy in your blog after you have inserted the photo that you have downloaded and inserted. 

Illustrations below: Attribution (HTML) or Attribution (text)

Smartboard and Smart Notes Info

I recently came across two excellent posts on a blog about use of the Smartboard and some interactive activities in Smart Notes should you have that installed. Here are links to find the information:

• 5 Cool Tricks on the Smartboard--this is helpful even if you don't have Smart Notes installed.
• Interactive Activities in Smart Notes--describes 14 interactive activities covering a variety of subject areas.

Let us know if these two posts are helpful to you, and share any other ideas you have for using the Smartboard and activities on it that you find helpful to student learning. 

Thanks to Jen Deyenberg for posting this information on her blog.

Capturing an Image on the Screen

When you find an image on a computer screen that you want to capture (take a snapshot of), there are several ways to do it. For some fast advice, visit this blog post from Deb Norton's Sharing Tech blog post "Ways to Get a Screen Capture."

Do You Know Your State Geography?

This video is a fun way to review state facts and could be integrated into the classroom several ways. For younger students, you could play it through once, and then replay it and pause in places for discussion. For older students, you can figure out a variety ways to use the video. If you do state projects with students, this video might give students some ideas of how they might report back on what they're learning. After watching the video, consider how this video could be implemented in the classroom. What ideas do you have? What did you think of the video?

Tap Into Your Creative Self

I'm taking a course now, and the story of why is a story for another day. In the meantime, someone in the course shared this video on her blog, and thought I would pass it along to see if it inspires others. Let me know.

Who Doesn't Love a Comic?

There are lots of comic-making tools available to use with your students. Consider how creating comic strips in your class can promote creativity, storytelling, conversation, collaboration, and reading and writing skills. Bitstrips for Schools is part of the Bitstrips site. This component allows teachers to set up a class site. At the site,  students not only create comics, but also view one another's comics and write replies.

Check the site, specifically the Bitstrips for Schools, and set up a class account when you're ready. Experiment first yourself with the site, creating a comic strip you want to share with your class. Your students can view it on the website, or once you start a class blog, you can embed your creation there, as I am here. Use the arrow keys to move through the panels.




You can also do a screen capture and display the full comic as an image.

In the meantime, I've set up a class account, so just let me know when you want to start experimenting, and I'll give you the access code.

Young Children Creating Read-Aloud Storybooks

Storybird is a website and can also be downloaded as an app. Students create their own books by drawing, typing some text, and possibly recording their voice. Here is one example. To learn more about the tool, check this blog post by a kindergarten teacher, Mr. Gomez: Little Bird Tales--Digital Storytelling. After reading through his post, and possibly exploring the tool yourself, would you recommend this tool to teachers K-2? Why or why not? Make sure you have the volume turned up while viewing the story.

• Click to view my tale.
•