Sharing the Love on Digital Learning Day!

February 16 was Digital Learning Day! It just so happened to fall right after Valentine's Day. So we couldn't pass up this opportunity to share the love with other staff at our school. The students created Virtual Valentines.  We used DoInk Green Screen App to capture our video messages and of course, Seesaw to share them. Seesaw makes it so easy to create QR Codes to share your work with others.

     

                   

We used Padlet to make connections and send Global Valentines.

We also made Heart Idioms and shared them with our friends far away using Flipgrid. This was the first time I used Flipgrid.  It was pretty easy and the kids had a ball. I got this idea after reading a tweet from @YollisClass.  If you are not connected on Twitter, you are definitely missing out. It is the BEST PD around. Take a look at some of our Heart Idioms.

Take some time to share the love!

Global Learners

Are you a global learner?  Are your students? Technology can connect people who under normal circumstances would never cross paths.

This year I have had the privilege of introducing my students to students across the globe through Mystery Skype. What is Mystery Skype? Check out this post by Mr. Solarz for a great explanation.

When I look back, I think it all started a few years ago with The Global Read Aloud. I saw then how my students looked forward to using technology to connect with other students. This year (through Twitter and Mystery Skype) I was introduced to World Read Aloud Day by a wonderful teacher in Wisconsin, Jackie Trebiatowski.

Together our classes created a book using the app Book Creator. Students worked to photograph their school and interview staff members. Once each class had their portion of the book completed, I compiled the two books for our final book, A Tale of Two Schools. We each read the book to our class and then met via the Internet to learn more about our new friends. What were the most surprising things we learned about our new friends? Our class was surprised to find out they have recess unless it's below 0 degrees AND they have recess twice a day! They were surprised to find out we have a pet snake and our school has over 1,000 students!


If you have not tried Book Creator, I would highly recommend you try the free version. You can create 1 book with the free version, but you will need the paid version to combine books or create more than 1 book. Students can create their own books to share with others.

This year we created our Reading and Math Journals using Book Creator. At the end of Reading Workshop, my students add a reflection about what they have read independently. I originally gave them a template to get started, but now they are free to use any format they want as long as they include the date, title of the book, author, and their reflection.


We were working on figurative language.


I just recently learned about #BookSnaps on Twitter from Tara Martin. What an awesome way for students to document their reading comprehension!

For our math journal, I Airdrop the Global Math Task Twitter Challenge (GMTTC24) each week.


I also send them grade specific Global Math Tasks throughout the week for them to solve. After my students solve the challenges, I share their solutions on Twitter. This year our class had the privilege of contributing math problems for other students to solve. They got a kick out of seeing how other students solved their problems.





Students share both journals with me and their parents on Seesaw. Parents love seeing their child's work and students love the feedback they get from their parents and peers on Seesaw. Like it or not, we are all global learners. And as educators, we owe it to ourselves and our students to make those connections.

The world is waiting!

Awesome Apps

I wanted to share 3 awesome apps that I started using towards the second half of the school year: Book Creator, Seesaw, and Shadow Puppet EDU. All of these apps were easy for my 3rd grade students to use, but are also appropriate for older students. Basically, I made the apps available and they did the rest! I'm calling them "take it and run with it" apps! I have been able to learn more about the features of each app by following them on Twitter. For that reason, I am including their Twitter handle.

Shadow Puppet EDU

Twitter: @puppet

This app was a great way for my students to share what they learned with others.

The only prep on my part was to give my students a storyboard to help them plan their slideshow. They used the storyboard to record their voice over. At first, they wanted to include a lot of text on their slides, so I had to back up a little to talk about making more effective slideshows.  You can use Shadow Puppet's storyboard or you can easily create your own specific to your task.

flippinginfifth.com

Students can easily find photos with the image search options without even leaving the app. We first used Shadow Puppet after our study of Georgia Regions.

Seesaw

Twitter: @Seesaw

Seesaw is a great learning journal.  Students do not need a username or password.  They can simply scan your class QR Code to log in.  As a teacher, you can decide how your kids log in based on the availability of devices in your class.  I have a class set of iPads, so we use the "individual student sign-in" option.  For classes with limited devices, there is a "classroom sign-in" mode.  You can then choose to allow students to view their classmates' journals or just their own. You can add folders for each subject, if you choose, making this the perfect digital notebook.

When I say this is easy for kids to use, I'm not kidding.  When I first met Seesaw, a kindergarten teacher shared it with me and at first glance, I thought it was a little primary for my students.  Boy! Was I wrong!  The expectation of the teacher is what determines the students' end result.

Why aren't these magnets touching?

flippinginfifth.com

Student Reflection

Imagine a student showing a solution to a math problem and then explaining how they solved it with a voice recording. Awesome! 

A voice recording explains how they solved the problem

Parents can be invited to join and they can like or leave comments on their child's journal post. This is a great way to share the happenings in your class.  Students and teachers can add videos, files, pictures, audio recordings and drawings with a simple touch! I forgot to mention--Seesaw is now available on Chromebooks and Android devices as well as Chrome and Firefox on desktop computers! Awe--some!

Book Creator

Twitter: @BookCreatorApp 

Both of the apps I just mentioned are free.  Book Creator also has a free version so you can try it out.  But believe me, you will definitely want to purchase the app.  Why?  Students can create an unlimited number of books with the paid version. It is so easy to use this program, even I could do it! My kids were so excited to become real authors and share the books they created with others. Students can upload their books to iBooks or export them as a PDF file to print or as a video to post to the web.

flippinginfifth

Everyone was busy adding books written by their classmates to their iBooks shelf. The next day it was no surprise that everyone wanted to read books written by their classmates during independent reading.

Sharing Books using AirDrop

I haven't even begun to tap into the power of Book Creator. Students can collaborate on books. They can work on their own section and then combine the books for a collaborative effort.  You can create class books by assigning a section to individuals or small groups. A few weeks ago I realized that I could use this app to write (for lack of a better word) "textbooks" for my class and then share it with them using AirDrop.  Hummm, that sounds like a good summer project!

Like I said before, you will definitely want to follow these apps on Twitter. Just enter their Twitter handle in the search and you will find tons of resources and ideas to help you use these tools in your classrooms.   I'm so excited about the possibilities!