Thing 26 Note Taking Tools

I read this information about a week ago and didn't have the time to post my blog.  I was interested in this topic as every year I do a research report with fourth graders.  It is a common core requirement that fourth graders collect information from a variety of sources.  For this assignment the fourth grade students work with me on note taking and then they use their notes in class for a writing assignment that is spearheaded by the classroom teacher.  The fourth grade teachers are more than happy that I do this part of the assignment as it is like volunteering to do a spring cleaning of the yard when you have a couple of dogs; it is messy, hard work and not very pleasant.  So, I was interested to see if there were any note taking apps that would be useful for this assignment.  There were not.  However, personally, I think I will a great deal out of google keep.  I will be staying with my current method.  I use excel to generate cards, two for a book, one for an encyclopedia and one for a database.  I have questions on there that will help the student refine their focus when they get to writing the assignment.  I actually  have the cards in publisher.  Here is a copy of an example that I show the kids:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LecGmjarrtsBse6YlR47_Hr3DYWaNVUeWlw61uz4mP8/edit?usp=sharing

THING 8 DATABASES

I am a big fan of databases.  This week in library for third grade we have been studying Australia and will be moving into books about Egypt.  I read the book, The Sandwich Swap, to the students and we talked about how different countries have different foods.  I then showed students that they would be using SCHOLASTIC GO and would find another thing that was different about the two countries.  They also had to match up two pictures, The Great Sphinx and Ayers Rock and determine which of the two countries it was located in.  My students are used to using Pebble Go and I always make my research projects from scratch because what Pebble Go has to offer is the lowest level of Bloom's.  Still I was surprised how many students found this assignment to be difficult. 
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rGApsR2vUeUCrj8iQXsi0_AUoWl0Hgw7Gr64X6t4788/edit?usp=sharing

I came across this idea for this particular assignment when I was checking out NOVEL's Brittanica.  There is a feature where the names of two countries are typed in and comparative data is shown.  I also like the geography game that they have for younger kids.

I read the articles and especially liked the piktograph and the comparative chart of databases versus the general internet.  I sent them both on to colleagues who hare going to present to faculty on databases.  This year the three of us are polling our respective faculties to see what databases they are using and/or would like to use for purchasing decisions.  Below is a copy of my survey:

https://goo.gl/forms/dCjkK0jzm0J3oVmm1

Thing 7 Audio Tools

This past week I used seesaw with kindergarten and the kids loved the audio part of that.  They made on-line valentines and then added the audio that was sent home to mom and dad.  I wanted to follow up using seesaw and I plan to do something with 100 Days.  I made a template where the student could in theory, click and drag to their picture to add to it but that is not possible in Seesaw.  This led me to think about how I often mistakenly click on the record feature in slides/documents.  I designed a Choose Your Own Adventure where students can pick a character, pick a setting and then type in a problem and the solution.  Afterwards they record their story and submit it to me.  I will probably do this in Schoology because it organizes submissions and I will probably do it with fourth graders. Skills to practice are clicking and dragging, the audio portion, typing as well as the creative side of story making.  I think they will have a lot of fun with this.  I know I did!  Here they are:

Template
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U0IUWTR6uq4k_I94bPopqsh3CVlJcULaRxSmEUQTOB0/edit?usp=sharing

My Example

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1feVuLHjspK2zPl1cbd7AmSONxtvyzhVkPoHqEsAGJhc/edit?usp=sharing

I plan to refine this page, make the girl as big as the boy, have more room for the pictures and less for the text as needed but my home computer was not cooperating so I will do that at work.

Thing 25 Student Assessment and Feedback Tools

There is so much here to explore. I did use padlet to introduce myself. It was quick and easy.  I have used flipgrid myself but have not used it for any of my classes yet.  I know that many teachers in my building use RemindChat and find it very helpful.  I have been looking for a platform that I can use for my kindergarten tech class. We tried WIXIE which is a paid subscription.  We use clever and couldn't use it with a trial so that was an added step that made Wixie not really workable.

 I have heard about SEESAW and checked it out to see if I could use it for my K-tech class and we will be using it next week.  It is very easy to upload students names and the QR code that can be used for the students to log in is ideal.  I have added one class (five more to go). I also added a template of a heart.  Our first activity using Seesaw will be for the students to decorate a Valentine and add audio to send home

https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?share_token=ksIKAvmWSEumdyu8JhT_IQ&prompt_id=prompt.7e24a027-59db-4877-8b6a-1058b66dab6c

Thing 6: Curation Tools

I like the idea of content curation.  However, I don't ever typically get to that point.  For example, I start summer vacation saying to myself that this is the summer I will get my google drive in order, but it has yet to happen.  I definitely see the need for content curation and if you are starting in the digital world now, it is probably something that will keep you sane.  I read through these materials and I am thinking about how I could implement a start with my third and fourth graders, or at least get them thinking about how to stay organized with all of the information out there.  With that goal in mind, I started myself by signing up for Diigolet.  I think this will be a useful tool for me to keep the information that I encounter over different platforms that I want to refer back to. I successfully saved an article that was posted in Facebook on one of the librarian groups. Facebook too now has a new feature that lets you save articles which is where I saved it first and then moved it over to the Diigolet account.  It does make you sign back into facebook when accessing from Diigolet.  If you are not familiar with this website: https://www.understood.org/en it is worth checking out.  There is even a simulator of how it feels to have certain disabilities in school.

Update on the 360 goggles - So far I have used them with three kindergarten classes.  The first one was a little rocky but successful.   It would have been better to start with a more docile class but schedule wise sometimes that just can't be controlled.   Since I have the K students before or after tech for library, I also made my library lesson applicable.  We read the story, What Do You Do With An Idea along with a non-fiction book about skyscrapers.  I showed them a clip from brainpop on how they are built and a five minute youtube video on the Top 10 Skyscrapers you should use before you die.  I also had some third graders create a process video using screencastify  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V9Too9dQmbtgCDIKEXl0bIAwReegn1J7/view  I also had bags of materials for kids to build their own "skyscraper" but the kids were so enthralled with the glasses that they were not needed.  I will use them for the STEM session I host with the middle
school for fourth graders on Thursday.

Thing 15 Augmented and Virtual Reality

We have something in our district called and IDEA grant and teachers can write a proposal for a special project.  One of the teachers at our school did this and got a class set of google VR viewers.  I am using the viewers the week after next for our monthly STEM session with fourth graders.  I run this event monthly with the middle school librarian, Linda Fasano and her middle school students.  Typically, what her kids do in her maker space Monday we do on Tuesday with the fourth graders.

I read through the information posted for this assignment.  I especially liked the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast that talked about the distinctions between AR and VR and future applications.  I went to ISTE this past summer and went to a workshop on aurasma.  The facilitators had loaded historical information about different buildings in downtown San Antonio and using our phones we took a walking tour of the sites that had been aurasmafied. 

What I am going to do next week with the google expedition glasses is I downloaded a whole bunch of different towers from around the world.  Students will select 2 or 3 of the towers to look at and then with a partner and some materials, recreate the tower.

I am going to try this with kindergarten too.  I'll keep you posted on how they went.

Thing 5 Presentation Tools

I am quite familiar, thanks to your class last year, with many of the items listed under presentation tools.  In fact, we had a lot of fun last year with screencastomatic.   I had some kids who would come in to hang out with me during lunch.  Every spring I have a celebration reading assembly.  Typically, the principal or myself or sometimes we team up and act out some books.  I decided why have all of the fun when the kids could do it using screecastomatic and then I didn't have to worry about them remembering their lines etcetera.  So they picked a few picture books that I scanned in and then the practiced, practiced practiced reading the parts and at the assembly I had the books playing on the big screen while the students acted them out.  I will probably use this tool again at this year's spring assembly. 

I messed around with tellagami before I realized that it is an iOS app which I can't use at my school.  I took a look at Sutori but didn't think it was a fit and then finally I took a closer look at Buncee.  Buncee is perfect for a kindergarten tech project that I will do around Valentine's Day.  I will have the kids make an audio/visual valentine to send home.  Here is my very scary example:

https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/fc125d69fbd04104990ba3970d643fad

Thing 4 Digital Story Telling

I have been thinking about using story bird for some time so this assignment gave me the excuse to look deeper and see which class I can use it with.  I am going to start with the poetry assignment and third grade.  We have been looking at Australian animals so the directive will be to look at a picture of one of the fictional animals on there and create a poem about it.  I like how the poetry part of story bird gives you the words.  Having words to select from will help the kids get started.  It helped me get started.  I also wrote to the Tech person at my school to see if she can just upload a CSV file for me so that I don't have to type in all that information for my 300 plus students.  If she can't, I'll have to go to plan B.

Here is what I created as an example to show the kids.


https://storybird.com/poetry/poem/6kggtz3csy/