Charlotte's Web ThingLink

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Pechaflickr




The concept of Pechaflickr is based on the Pecha Kucha presentation style that utilizes 20 seconds to present each of 20 slides. http://pechaflickr.net/  generates random images from a keyword search of flickr.com. Your students create a story from the images. The storyteller(s) do not know what images come up.
While Pechaflickr pulls images tagged as "safe" from Flickr, inappropriate images may slip through. There is not a 100% effective way to prevent a questionable image from popping up.

You can set up your own version of this using Google Slides with images you choose ahead of time. By publishing your slide deck and setting an “autoadvance slides” time, you can achieve the same type of storytelling tool. Below is a link to a template with directions.


Below is a link to a template with directions.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Prodigy Math: Game On! from guest blogger, Lynne Anderson


What Is It?

On a visit to another school, my colleagues and I asked both students and teachers about their favorite new tech activity. The number one answer by far was “Prodigy.” A student in my 3rd grade classroom had been asking to play Prodigy for quite some time. Not knowing what it was, I kept putting him off until I could take a look at it. Apparently, this hot new game warranted my immediate attention.
So, I looked into it, and I’m glad I did. Prodigy is pretty awesome. It’s engaging, interactive, and my kids are practicing old math skills and learning new ones every time they play. They beg for “Prodigy time” every day, and I’m hearing of the same phenomenon from other teachers. Who knew that a math program could be so much fun?
Prodigy is a free, adaptive math game for students in grades 1-7. It integrates California Standards based math into a Pokemon-like role playing game. Students must correctly complete math problems in order to battle, level up, and eventually beat the game’s main antagonist, Crios. The game is self pacing, with the appropriate balance between math problems and “battles” to keep kids engaged. Students can interact with their friends in different “worlds,” but they do use fictional names in order to protect privacy.
During the initial tutorial, the game runs an invisible diagnostic test to place students at appropriate levels. However, teachers can override these levels or assign specific skills practice at any time, (including SBAC practice). Teachers can also access several different reports to monitor student progress.

Benefits

The obvious benefit to playing Prodigy is that students are happily practicing math skills. However, there are some unexpected benefits, as well. One is the self-teaching that occurs. Students can’t battle and level up until they give a correct answer, and the math gets harder as the program adapts. If students give a wrong answer, the correct one is shown, but the battle has to wait. It’s incredible how this motivates students to teach themselves by using the information on the screen.
Another unexpected benefit is the peer-to-peer teaching that occurs. In the beginning, some of my students were sharing answers with others in order to battle them. Before long, these same students were teaching instead of telling.

They wanted to battle their friends, but doing their friend’s work was slowing them down. They found it more efficient to teach their friends when they got stuck; it saved time in the next rounds of battles.  In fact, a few of my students asked if they could make and share a Google Slide Tutorial Presentation to help their struggling classmates! One even made a short screencast video!


Avoiding the Summer Slip

Prodigy can be a great way to help students avoid the “summer slip,” while being easy on teachers. Once you’ve set up your class, you can continue to monitor student progress and assign lessons if you want to. If you have already set up Prodigy, here are a few tips for preparing your students' accounts for summer learning and fun. If you don’t want to, Prodigy will do all the work. It will keep track of progress and increase rigor. Kids will be happy to spend summer vacation time playing Prodigy; it’s fun, it’s a great way to socialize, and it’s a parent-teacher approved computer game!

If you haven’t yet introduced Prodigy into your classroom, I highly recommend it. Give it a whirl yourself before pushing it out to your kids. Just be careful; you might find yourself addicted!

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Dip into Something New This Summer


“So much to do, so little time,” is most teachers' mantra during the school year. Summertime gives us time to relax and refresh, but also the time to dip into something new. Here are a few suggestions for things you might like to try.

Podcasts
Podcasts can be a great way to keep up on what is new in education. Whether you are doing chores around the house, getting some exercise, or driving, listening to a podcast is a good way to squeeze in some personal PD.

There are lots of podcasts that inform and entertain out there, and you may have some favorites already (share them on the Padlet below), however you may want to give a new one a try over the summer. You can find a number of interesting podcasts at Education Podcast Network. Two of favorites are:
Screen Shot 2017-05-24 at 11.02.33 AM.png
The Cult of Pedagogy hosted by Jennifer Gonzalez. Podcasts cover a number of topics in education, including instruction, classroom management, and technology.



Screen Shot 2017-05-24 at 10.50.46 AM.pngGoogle Teacher Tribe, hosted by Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook) and Kasey Bell (Shake Up Learning). This podcast will keep you up-to-date with the latest announcements from Google, and give you ideas on how to implement the newest features into your curriculum.


Screen Shot 2017-05-24 at 11.08.48 AM.pngSome of USD’s favorite outside presenters also host podcasts.

Check This Out is hosted by Brian Briggs and Ryan O’Donnell. They chat about the latest in education news, often including the newest Google tools, and talk about creative ways to integrate new ideas into your classroom.


Screen Shot 2017-05-24 at 11.44.00 AM.png
Bedley Brothers hosted by Tim and Scott Bedley interview leaders in education to talk about “what works” in education.

If none of these pique your interest, here is a Podcast Directory with lots of suggestions in and out of education.  

Listening to a podcast episode is easy from your smart device or computer. If you decide you like one and want to subscribe, there are a few options, partially dependent on which device you would like to subscribe to the podcasts on. This guide will walk you through the steps.

Blogs

Other way to keep up with what is new and a way to get great ready-to-use ideas is through blogs. When you find a blogger you really connect with, it is fun to read their musings, thoughts, and ideas. Todd Sinclair, fifth grade teacher at Oster, shared some of his favorites.

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 10.14.22 AM.pngMatt Miller (also of the Google Teacher Tribe podcast) is a Spanish teacher who writes a, Ditch That Textbook, blogpost twice a week with proven classroom suggestions and tips on how to provide engaging classroom activities that support student learning.


Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 10.16.22 AM.png“Coming to you from the Canadian Maritimes ( Halifax), Educational Technology and Mobile Learning is an educational blog dedicated to curating, reviewing and sharing EdTech tools and mobile apps. The purpose is to help teachers and educators effectively integrate digital technologies into their day-to-day teaching, learning and professional development.”

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 10.18.08 AM.pngRichard Byrne’s Free Technology 4 Teachers offers tools, with an easy to follow, how-to slideshow or video. Daily posts can be delivered to your Facebook account.


Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 10.18.51 AM.pngTeacher Tech with Alice Keeler. Like Richard, Alice posts pretty much daily. Her posts always include easy to follow step-by-step directions and ideas on how to implement the tool(s).

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 10.20.10 AM.pngEdSurge covers trends and news in edtech. Not only a tools blog, you can read about what startups are doing, as well as legislation and studies that affect grades K-12

Blogs can be delivered to you by email. Check each website to subscribe.

Looking for something else, check out The 2017 Honor Roll: EdTech’s (50) Must-Read K-12 Blogs.


EdChats

Familiar and comfortable with Twitter and ready to grow your PLN(Personal Learning Network)? Summer might also be a time to check into Twitter Chats. With the large list of chats, you are sure to find one in your interest area and/or that fits into your schedule, anytime, day or night.

Many people who participate in a Twitter Chat will use a tool like TweetDeck to follow the hashtag and be able to respond quickly. Learn more about how to manage it here.

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 10.21.53 AM.pngTwo favorites you might want to explore are #CAedchat which meets on Sunday evenings at 8:00 and #TosaChat which meets Monday evenings at 8:00. Joining one or both of these chats is the easiest way to make connections outside the district. You’ll find it fun to connect with folks you “meet” at local and state educational events.

If your favorite podcast, blog, or Twitter Chat was missed, please share it here in this Padlet.


Made with Padlet

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Take Your Students on an Odyssey of Discovery by guest blogger, Mary Pat Vargas


Screen Shot 2017-05-11 at 10.42.19 AM.pngWhen I began teaching in the Union School district over 20 years ago, I taught children in the district's gifted and talented education (GATE) program. Today I find myself in a very similar position as a STEAM ToSA. Of course, the curriculum is different, but the GATE and STEAM programs share a common goal: to provide opportunities for problem-solving activities, design thinking, and collaborative discovery.



Today, sites devoted to providing problem-solving activities seem limitless, and so many of them are excellent.  I would like to share an organization that I used quite often in the GATE program. If you investigate the methods described by the Odyssey of the Mind program, I’m sure you’ll agree that it is a wonderful way to encourage creativity, teamwork, and divergent thinking in your classroom.  Odyssey of the Mind problems follow a script; the procedure is the same every time you introduce a problem.  Students learn to listen, encourage, and to wait patiently - all important considerations when fostering the creative mind.


“Odyssey of the Mind is an international creative problem-solving program that engages students in their learning by allowing their knowledge and ideas to come to life in an exciting, productive environment.”
Although Odyssey of the Mind exists as an organization where students compete, they generously publish problems from previous competitions, and these are downloadable on the Internet. If you have a just a half hour – use spontaneous verbal problems to provide opportunities for students to work as a team and to think creatively. Here are a few to consider:




You’ll probably want to try a few hands-on spontaneous problems:

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Energize for the Coming Year with a Good Book

Break is coming up soon! Summer gives teachers an opportunity to relax and refresh, but it also gives us a chance to learn and explore. Many a teacher spends many an hour thinking about the next school year and the changes that the next school year may bring.

Some teachers use the time to take professional development classes, either in person or online. Or, they may finally get to one of those many books on education and changing pedagogy.  This summer, Gena and Mary Fran thought they wanted to share reading one of the many books on their long list with other educators. Sound intriguing?  

Here are the five books to consider as part of the USD Summer Book Club:





If any of these books pique your interest, fill out this Google Form. Vote for as many as you like. We will chose the two that gather the most votes, then L&I will buy the book for you. If interested, please fill out the form by Wednesday, May 17th. It'll give us a chance to order the book for you.

We will create a Google+ community where we can share thoughts, sketchnotes, and/or audio notes with each other. Those who want to try something new can share voice notes on Voxer. We’ll set up a schedule to read different chapters of the book and starting the week of June 18th (or thereabout), we’ll begin to read and share how the ideas in the book might impact our teaching and student learning. Keeping with “summertime and the living is easy,” the schedule will be a general guideline. Post when you want!

The final discussion/celebration will be held at one of the local coffee shops - L&I treating. The group will decide on the day and time.

Any questions? Contact either Gena or Mary Fran. We hope you will join us in delving into one of these insightful books.

photo by Ben White from https://unsplash.com/search/reading?photo=7BiMECHFgFY

Friday, May 5, 2017

Reach Out and Meet Someone

Educator Alan November talks about the importance of connecting our students to students from across the country and around the world that might be unlike themselves. This same belief inspires some of our teachers to search for projects to help their students build a broader view of the world, and to invite experts into their class their students would not have had access to otherwise.


Google Hangouts

One of those teachers is Todd Sinclair, 5th grade teacher at Oster. “My class has had digital pen pals since early February.  We kicked it off with a Google Hangout (GHO) and then jumped into a shared Seesaw account that I share with my counterpart in Virginia.  We have shared out our state reports and other projects with our digital pen pals which has allowed my students to get some authentic feedback from outside of our immediate classroom community.  Students correspond and share about vacations, science camp, and other student interest items.  We have slowly expanded beyond penpal letters.  We are currently writing chain stories where a student writes a paragraph to a story and then hands it off to their pen pal for the next paragraph.  We started using Google Docs for this prior to Seesaw updating their site to allow easy uploads of GAFE tools.  We have shared My Maps of vacations, Google Slides of book recommendations, and created Venn diagrams with Google Draw to compare penpals and states.  The students' favorite activity was filming locations on campus with the iPad and sharing them with their penpals.  I have since loaded these into a shared map where we are also slowly loading up 360 videos to share (they were the inspiration for my DonorsChoose 360 camera project).


Creating a space for the students to share their experiences with students from across the country has been a valuable and unique experience for my students this year. I look forward to expanding these lessons and building on the lessons I've learned this year getting it started. I'm actually taking a family vacation in VA this summer.  I am planning to meet with my tech/teaching peer while we are there to plan out a few our adventures for next year.”


Another 5th grade teacher at Oster, Jason Tarshis, reached out to Lauren Tarshis (no they aren’t related), author of the I SURVIVED series of books. “We did the hangout back in the fall and it was great. She was in her Connecticut office and talked about how she picks a topic, does the research, etc. She inspired my kids to read and write more and the next day more than a dozen kids had one of her books. She talked about publishing and New York  City too.  It was super cool and the kids loved it.”


Reaching out does not have to be confined to upper grade students. As early as Kindergarten, ELA standards require students to “Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners…” and to “Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.”
Through the Connected Classrooms Workshop G+ Community, Nikki Grist and her Alta Vista Kinder class “Connected with a kindergarten class in rural Vermont that was studying communities and wanted to connect with a more urban classroom. We had a great time learning about life in rural Vermont because it was very different from life around here. For example, many children lived on farms and went home after school to help around the farm. The local farms provided the food for their school lunches. They only had around 12 students in the class. We discovered many differences between our school and their school.


To prepare, I had the students make a list of questions that they wanted to ask the students at Lakeview School. You can see the list of questions in the pictures. We also took pictures of our school and area and put together a digital photo album to share with them. It was really fun and I'd definitely do it again!”


Facetime

To help her students learn more about community helpers, Helen Kamali, Kinder teacher at Noddin, had her students make a list of what they would like to learn about. Then, she recruited parents to help her find people for her students to Facetime with. Each week, students meet someone else on their list. Students meet in groups to write questions they would like to ask. Each student uses a different color pen making sure everyone contributes. Then, the groups take turns Facetiming and asking their questions while the rest of the class tunes in. “My students learn there is a whole wide world out there. One time we met a class in Florida. They wanted to see our mountains; we wanted to see their ocean. Then, we compared and contrasted our two schools.”



Mystery Calls

A number of teachers have tried Mystery Google Hangout or Mystery Skype calls this year. Through a series of yes-no questions, students narrow in a the state the mystery classroom is from. But younger classes do mystery calls too. Jackie Knudson, a kinder teacher at Noddin, has a sister who is a kinder teacher in another school. They spend a lot of time honing skills with Mystery Number or Mystery Letter calls. “The students find it so engaging, and I have really seen a growth in higher level thinking skills.” Hoping to ease the transition to first grade, Jackie plans to GHO with a first grade teacher so her students can get an idea of how first grade compares to kinder and the changes they can expect.

When doing a Mystery call, it’s best to have students prepare questions and have roles. Here is a resource from Pernille Ripp to use as a guide.

Virtual Field Trips

There are lots of other resources to use to invite experts into your class. One is the California Parks Dept. PORTS program. Rangers will tailor the interactive presentation to students from K-12. Some of our 6th grade classes have learned about Roman and Greek mythology through the art at Hearst Castle.


Another is Exploring the the Seat of Your Pants (EBTSOYP). They bring “researchers, daring adventurers and innovative conservationists, and to give them the chance to ask big questions.” Every Virtual Field trip offers five classes from somewhere in the world to have an “on camera” spot. Those students get to ask the scientist questions.

Global Read Aloud 

There are so many ways for you and your students to reach out and meet someone new. At the beginning of this school year, many USD teachers and students took the first step in sharing experiences with students from other states and even other countries through the Global Read Aloud project. We hope that you will join the 2017 GRA that begins in October. Look for the Google Form to poll teachers for interest in August. We’ll begin matching classes then.

However, no need to wait until next school year. There’s still time for a mystery GHO or Skype call or to arrange a PORTS or EBTSOYP virtual field trip. You might want to practice a Google Hangout with another class in the district or your school. Dianna Talley and Carole Lynne Brasher at Guadalupe plan to do just that. Jackie, Kevin Deaton, Kay Flodquist, and Sharon Victorine put together this Hyperdoc of K-5 grade level ideas.


Just follow the links to get started, or call on one of your Tech Integration ToSAs, Gena or Mary Fran, to get started.