danita.cobble@bullitt.kyschools.us
1/12/2022
Are you looking for a way to change your student notebooks that you have been using for years into digital notebooks? Matt Miller has some great ideas for using Google Slides as an interactive notebook.
Click HERE for the short video.
Click HERE for your copy of his template.
Another great post from Matt Miller!
Social media grabs many students' attention. You can capture some of that excitement without using the social media apps in these templates and sites! So how do we create the experience without using the REAL app? (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and more!)
Here are 10 ideas including templates and resources for using various social media platforms in any class. Note that you can certainly use almost all of these ideas with the actual app itself if you have older students or a class account.
Click HERE to access the templates and the article.
9/26/2019
Screencastify is a great tool and can be used in many creative ways! It's NOT just for teachers!
Below is an eBook with 25 activities you and your students can do that will marry Screencastify and Google Apps:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WybCEjH_xfTkIOEmIKZktPgxdhQL0hyS/view?usp=sharing
If you are a newbie or have forgotten how to use Screencastify, here's a link to get you started. You can also share this with students to get them up and running with Screencastify:
https://www.screencastify.com/blog/beginners-guide-educators
Looking for more ideas? Take a look at this eBook that has 50! ideas for using Screencastify in the classroom.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l_WiZLG7EImpXMI4iyHhqKOUcXhQlHVm/view
I would love to sit with you and show you how you can use Screencastify in your classroom. If I can help you in ANY way, please don't hesitate to contact me!
9/24/2019
Thanks to Julie Smith from The Techie Teacher for the tip!
Classroomscreen.com: Two years ago I blogged about this amazing digiboard created by Laurens Koppers, an educator from the Netherlands who wanted to find a way for students to focus on their work. Laurens continues to add and improve this tool so definitely check it out if you have never used it.
Wheel of Names: This digital spinner is simple yet so amazing. It was created as a random name selector but can be used for a variety of purposes. What sets it apart from other digital spinners is the ability to add images.
Headspace: My latest blog post is about the free offer Headspace is giving to all K-12 educators, administrators and supporting staff in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Headspace is an app that provides guided meditations through audio sessions, animations, articles and videos. Only a few minutes a day can help increase focus, decrease stress and help you sleep better. This tool is sweeping its way into classrooms helping both teachers and students learn how to become more mindful.
Vooks: I sent you an email not too long ago about Vooks offering a free year-long subscription to educators who sign up before September 15th. Guess what? They eliminated the deadline and now educators can get a free year indefinitely! Vooks is the first-ever streaming service that brings children's (ages 2-8) books to life with illustrations, read-along text and animations. Be sure to grab your free ONE YEAR subscription if interested. No credit card required.
Novel Effect: This app contains music and sounds for over 200+ children's books and poems and they add to it weekly. This invisible technology follows along as the user reads a story aloud. It plays music and sounds throughout the story turning the reader into a master storyteller. Smart voice recognition stays in sync with your reading style even if you skip ahead or reread a certain part. Head to this Facebook post to see me read a book using Novel Effect. *We received permission from the publisher to record this.*
Kasey Bell, from Shake Up Learning, is offering a free eBook with examples, templates, and directions on how to make your own digital choice boards.
Click HERE to get the directions and your free book. While you're there, why not sign up for her free newsletter? It is packed full with ideas and suggestions for all curriculums and grade levels!
ClassroomQ is a quick and easy way for students to ask questions without disrupting the classroom or a teacher helping other students.
Blended learning models afford teachers the time and space in class to work side-by-side with students. As a teacher works with a single student or a small group, other students will inevitably hit bumps and have questions that require the teacher’s attention. To avoid interruptions and distractions, teachers need a quick and easy way for students to ask for help or additional support.
ClassroomQ.com has designed a simple solution to solve this problem for teachers. Teachers create an account (free version available). They can start a “session” anytime they plan to lead small group instruction, conference with individual students, or move around the room during a self-paced lesson. Students can access the session with a class code and enter their names and comments to the queue.
Once the student has entered her name, written a brief comment, and pressed the “Assistance needed” button, the teacher will receive an alert and the student’s name will appear in the queue. The student can also see what number they are in line, so they can decide whether to wait for help or move onto something else until the teacher gets to them.
The free version allows up to five students to join the queue at any one time. Once a teacher has finished helping a student, he can simply click on their name and they are removed from the queue.
Yo Teach App is a new backchannel that allows students to ask questions without disrupting the class. This is similar to Today's Meet which closed last year. Yo Teach gives the teacher to ability to create easy to remember classes, can add pictures and drawings, mute students, share the room via a QR code, download transcripts, and much more!
Here are two short videos on Yo Teach App:
20 sites for students with free time on their hands
1. Freerice.com is a free website that is educational and helps students give back. Each time you answer a multiple choice vocabulary question right you generate enough money for the United Nations World Food Programme to buy 10 grains of rice to help reach Zero Hunger.
Note: Freerice.com is still working, however, they are working on some technical problems with the website. You can try their beta version and sign up for a new account there.
2. The Blood Typing Game — This site makes the idea of blood typing (and how different blood types interact with each other) crystal clear. The game, housed at NobelPrize.org, places you in an emergency room. There’s been a car crash, and patients need a blood transfusion. It walks you through drawing blood, deciding what type it is, and completing the transfusion, making science connections all the way.
3. GeoGuessr — GeoGuessr uses Google Maps Street View to place you on the ground somewhere in the world in full panorama. The problem? You have NO idea where you are! You must use context clues to guess your location and pin it on a map. Choose to be dropped in certain continents, countries, cities, etc. … or make your own GeoGuessr game with GeoSettr!
4. Smarty Pins — Smarty Pins is kind of like GeoGuessr’s cousin. It asks questions from categories like arts and culture, science and geography, and history and current events. The answers are locations, and you must pin them on a map to answer. It makes geography a game, and the closer you guess, the better your score is.
5. iCivics — This site puts a flashy twist on civics-related topics, puts a ton of resources in teachers’ hands and lets students play REALLY fun games. My favorite is “Win the White House,” where you take the place of a candidate for U.S. president. Fundraising, platform issues, the electoral college and more are part of the game. I’ve played it and really enjoyed it myself!
6. Quiver — If coloring sheets are part of your life — with your students or with your own children or grandchildren — you MUST know about Quiver. Print coloring sheets from the Quiver website and color them. The Quiver app (iTunes) (Andriod) uses your camera to scan the coloring sheet and bring its characters to vivid, 3D life!
7. Wonderopolis — Kids are curious. They love to ask questions and we might not, ok we often don’t, have all of the answers. Wonderopolis is a site that asks and answers interesting questions about almost anything. Searchable and categorized by subject, students can explore over 2,000 wonders and even ask questions of their own.
8. A Google a Day — Most of us search the internet daily, if not multiple times per day. But effectively searching for something is a skill. A Google a Day challenges users to put their searching skills to the test by asking them to answer a question using Google search. With Google’s search education lesson plans you can take this game even further and begin teaching search literacy in your classroom.
9. Code.org — Coding is a skill that gives students a huge advantage for the future. For so many of us teachers, the problem is that we know little to nothing about coding or computer science. Thanks to Code.org, students can find self-guided coding activities and tutorials. They’re leveled for all ages, from elementary school up.
10. Street View Treks — Google Maps Street View lets its users see what life is like from the road, in full panorama. Street View Treks take that same technology to some of the most spectacular locations in the world, from Mount Fuji to the Grand Canyon to the Taj Mahal in India. Swim underwater at the Great Barrier Reef or climb the El Capitan rock face at Yosemite National Park.
11. Duolingo — As a world language teacher, I may be a bit biased, but I believe that there are huge benefits in learning a second language. Duolingo works a lot like Rosetta Stone, guiding students methodically through language lessons. But it’s free! They can earn “lingots”, and in-game currency to unlock new fun lessons.
12. The 5 Clue Challenge — Michael Soskil has traveled the world working with teachers and students. In his travels, he created short videos where you get 5 clues to guess the animal, location or person. Students will simply play the video, pause to do some research then take a guess. After the 5th clue, students will get to see how quickly they got their answer. Students can even create and submit their own videos to challenge others.
13. TED-Ed — TED-Ed is filled with tons of short video lessons on a variety of topics. Students can watch anything from “How Thor got his hammer” to “Can you solve the vampire hunter riddle?”. The goal of these videos is to spark the curiosity of learners. Each video offers students the opportunity to watch, think, dig deeper, and discuss.
14. Crash Course — Crash Course is a YouTube channel filled with educational videos for kids ages 12+ and adults. Videos offer content delivered by entertaining teachers combined with animated graphics. Each playlist contains a course focusing on a different content area. Topics include Engineering, Media Literacy, Psychology, World History and more.
15. Crash Course Kids — Made by the creators of Crash Course (I bet you had already figured that one out for yourself) Crash Course Kids combines the same engaging lecture-style content delivery with animated graphics that focus on grade school science. Topics include Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Geography, Engineering, and Astronomy.
This channel began with 5th-grade science but more videos have been added and all can be great additions to any science curriculum grades 3+.
16. Sci Show Kids — Another creation by the same producers that bring you the Crash Course series, Sci Show Kids is a compilation of informational science videos for students of any age. These videos are hosted by Jessi and her robot rat “Squeaks” and answer questions that inquiring young minds really want to know. Students can watch playlists of videos dedicated to science on the playground, getting to know your emotions, simple machines, experiments, and many more fun topics.
17. Pixar in a box — Pixar has partnered up with Khan Academy to bring your students Pixar in a Box. With video tutorials and interactive lessons, this course gives us a window into the jobs of Pixar animators. Topics include the art of storytelling, animation, rigging, color science and more. This course shows students that the subjects they learn in school — math, science, computer science, and humanities — are used every day to create the movies we love from Pixar.
18. Google Arts and Culture — Discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world. Explore cultural treasures in extraordinary detail, from hidden gems to masterpieces. See super high-resolution images of some of the best works of art in the world. Walk world-famous museums. Examine historical happenings in detail.
19. Dollar Street — It’s hard for most of us to imagine what it’s REALLY like for a family living on $30 a month but Dollar Street does a pretty fantastic job of showing us the reality of many families around the world. Homes are sorted on Dollar Street by monthly income one end showing the poorest, the other the richest and everything in between. Click on any picture to view images and learn more about families around the world.
Thanks to Jornea Erwin who shared Dollar Street with us in her 2018 DitchSummit presentation on Appsmashing.
20. Google Quick Draw! — Quick, Draw! tells you what to draw. Then, Google’s artificial intelligence tries to guess what you’re drawing. It’s a neat way to introduce students to artificial intelligence OR to look at how we convert words/ideas into images.
Click HERE for Wakelet of sites
Are you looking for a way to differentiate student creation and student choice? Sometimes we, and our students, get into a rut on the programs we use when there are so many different choices out there. Tom Spall has designed a template based on Fortnight that the students can use to choose how they want to present their products. He has also included rubrics!
I used menus all the time when I was a classroom educator. I used them for student differentiation, student voice, and choice, and to allow my students to be creative with multiple non-tech mediums. I didn't want the cookie cutter presentation from every single student. I wanted them to have a choice, and to be creative!
So, when I wanted my students to do a book report, they had around ten various ways to create a book report. Examples included:
Create a new book jacket for the book
Create your presentation on a cereal box, recreating the book cover as your cereal box cover.
Build a diorama from a pivotal scene in the book, and explain why this scene is so important to both the plot and the characters.
A shoebox full of clues from the story. Usually describing a character, plot point, or climax of events.
ETC.
Now, of course, "back in the day" (11 years ago when I first started teaching), I didn't have any technology in my classroom. So, the first couple menus I made for student creation didn't involve any technology.
What I realized then, is what I still know today: Students not only need, but they also want the ability to have both a voice and the freedom of choice when it comes to creating and presenting their content.
As an educator, it would be horrible if our administration told us we could only get feedback from students using one type of tool for the whole entire year.
Just like we ask our educators to be differential with their instruction, we should be asking our students to be differential with their creation and presentation!
To help with this... I created a Digital Menu Template for Student Creation! Feel free to use this template with any grade level, subject, project, unit, or content you teach.
Make a copy of the Google Slides Template "Digital Menu for Student Creation".
The template includes directions on how to use it.
Have your students go to slide 3 for the menu.
Every map location on the map is linked to another slide in the presentation. I also included a "back to map" button for easy navigation.
Upper right-hand corner is the link to the rubric. This is the assigned rubric for this specific project. This is the only link you will need to switch out prior to having your students complete the menu.
An additional Choice Board is HERE.
Thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip - Free Technology for Teachers (AWESOME resource! Check it out!). I met Richard several years ago and have been a faithful follower since. He has excellent tips and ideas. I highly suggest following his blog and getting the daily emails.
Boclips hosts more than two million educational videos from more than 100 vetted video producers. You'll probably recognize many of the names in the list of videos producers. Two of the producers that I noticed right away were Crash Course and TED-Ed.
In Boclips for Teachers you can search for videos according to keyword. When you find a video or videos that you like you can put them into a collection in your Boclips account. Boclips doesn't use the YouTube video player like many other educational video sites. That is significant because it means that if your school blocks YouTube you will still be able to access all of the content available through Boclips for Teachers.
Boclips for Teachers is still in beta. As part of that beta Boclips is asking teachers to complete short surveys in exchange for unlimited, lifetime access to the Boclips library.
Applications for Education
Boclips for Teachers could become a great alternative to displaying YouTube videos in your classroom. The vetting of video producers who contribute to Boclips is significant because it means that when you search in Boclips for Teachers you won't find "related" videos that aren't actually related to your search.
Tip is from Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook. If you haven't checked out Matt's blog, do yourself a favor and go there NOW!
A curation tool I’m excited about right now is Wakelet (wakelet.com). And yes, it’s free!
Wakelet lets you create a collection with text, links, images, PDF files, tweets and more.
Add as many of any type of item as you’d like — a collection of all links, a collection with text and images, a collection with all types of items, etc.
Teachers can create collections for students. Students can create collections. Teachers and students can add to collections collaboratively.
A collection can be added to Google Classroom (or another learning management system) to be used as a resource. Or it can be added for students to add to the collection as a class.
This collaboration feature opens up so many possibilities for learning — in the classroom with students, in professional development with teachers, and more!
Here are 10 ways to use this collaboration feature:
1. Collect images
A picture is worth a thousand words. A collaborative image collection can let students gather images from a current event, a biome they’re studying, a book they’re reading, or more.
2. Share student work in G Suite
With the link sharing capabilities of Wakelet, students can create amazing products in G Suite and then add links to them in a collaborative Wakelet. Examples of products students can create and later share in a Wakelet:
3. Collaborative storytelling
Using text blocks in Wakelet, students can co-create a story one bit at a time. One student starts the story, adding a text block. Then, another student adds the next piece. After they’re done, it’s fun to see what the class has created!
4. Class science lab report
Students take photos of a science lab (or any other learning event in any other class!). Then, they share their unique photos in a collaborative Wakelet collection. Use text blocks as subheadings to keep everything organized. Make it chronological so photos of different steps are grouped together.
5. Student-created class newsletter
This is an easy way to share what students are learning with parents or the school community. Plus, it’s very low-prep — even no-prep! Give students a contributor link to a Wakelet collection. In it, they describe something they’ve learned that week, using …
a text blog (describe in words)
a Google Drawing (describe in words, images, etc.)
a Flipgrid video (describe in video)
They add their contribution to the Wakelet collection. (Add a text block … Download a Google Drawing as an image to add to the collection … Grab the link to a Flipgrid video for the collection.) Share the Wakelet collection with parents, school community, etc. using a link from the Share button.
6. Gather social media posts
Students may not have access to Twitter and other social media during the day. But there are still ways to make social media work for you with a Wakelet collection!
Teachers can collect content-related tweets in a collection to display to class.
Schools and districts can collect tweets displaying school spirit, important events, etc. (Good public relations!)
Professional development facilitators can collect resources for the educators they serve in collections.
These collections can be shared via link — or embedded in a web page.
7. Create a professional development brainstorming area
Collaborative Wakelet collections can be a great place for gathering ideas during professional development. When educators are together, they can share …
Teaching ideas that have worked for them
Stories from the classroom
Tips or tricks that others can use
Questions for the presenter
Think of the resource they can all create collaboratively when they share great ideas in one place! Everyone in the presentation can bookmark that Wakelet collection are refer back to it when they need ideas.
8. A Wakelet of Wakelets
Students can create Wakelets to demonstrate understanding through text, images, links and more. When they’re done, they can put a link to that Wakelet collection on a collaborative Wakelet created by the teacher. Students can go to the collaborative Wakelet and click on classmates’ links to see the Wakelets they’ve created!
9. Create an annotated YouTube playlist
If students have access to YouTube, they can gather videos that further explain a topic in class — or that illustrate a point made during class. They add a link to the video in one item in the collection, then add a text block below it to describe whey that video makes the list (an annotation, kind of like an annotated bibliography).
This doesn’t have to be only videos! Students can link to anything — webpages, audio (like podcast episodes) and more — then add an annotation explaining why their entry should make the list. (FYI: explaining your thinking is level 3 on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge!)
10. Global class collaborations
Collaborators on a Wakelet collection don’t have to be in the room with your students. Partner with another class in another state or country! Find a class by connecting with other educators through social media, at teacher conferences, etc. Databases like the Skype in the Classroom website or Flipgrid’s GridPals are very helpful!
Once your class is connected with another class, create a Wakelet collection and share it with the teacher and students. Find an activity you can do collaboratively and get started!
Need a little help getting started? Looking for even MORE ways to use Wakelet in the classroom? Or perhaps you want to share Wakelet with your colleagues? Check out The Educator’s Guide to Wakelet. Written for educators, by educators, this 28 page FREE, printable eBook will help answer (almost) all of your questions and get you started using Wakelet right away.
1/24/2019
Class discussion is a wonderful tool, but with all the flu and illnesses, it's difficult when you have students absent. The following 3 programs will help you conduct discussions in your classroom even when students are absent. NowComment, Hypothes.is, and Genius will allow students to comment and collaborate through annotation on the web.
NOWCOMMENT: NowComment makes it easy to have rich, engaging discussions of online documents no matter how large (or small) your class or collaboration group.
NowComment is fast, powerful, and feature-rich: you can sort comments, skim summaries, create assignments, hide comments, reply privately, and much more. NowComment's most important feature is its powerful yet very easy-to-use interface that:
(1) visually identifies which parts of videos, images, and text documents people have commented on
(2) lets you find relevant comments with a single click
(3) helps you skim through comment summaries when there are lots of comments
(1)Select text to annotate.
(2) Add tags and post publicly or save privately.
(3) Reply to or share any annotation.
(4) Link to notes or whole pages.
(5) Annotate together in groups.
(6) Collaborate privately with others.
(7) Search your notes.
(8) Explore all public annotations and profiles.
GENIUS WEB ANNOTATOR: lets you add line-by-line annotations to any page on the Internet. Share annotated pages with everyone, no extension needed
Put genius.it/ in front of any URL to annotate and read other Genius annotations on any page on the Internet. You don’t need to download anything!
1/17/2019
The Answer Pad http://www.theanswerpad.com/ is a quick way to do formative assessments Interactive is like the old clicker systems but done on the Chromebook. One nice feature is the ability to so activities in steps Answer pad also has the ability to give and grade test like grade cam but without the camera. Think of it as the student portal with an easier set-up.
Here is a quick Google Presentation of answer pad tool.
More of a video person? Here is an overview video.
1/16/2019
Have you caught the FlipGrid Fever yet??
What is FlipGrid?
FlipGrid is a super simple tool (for both students and teachers) that allows students to show their thinking by posting video responses. Students can use FlipGrid at ANY age and in ANY content area!
What can I use FlipGrid to do?
Short answer: ANYTHING!
FlipGrid is especially great for any performance-based task! Now, instead of calling your students over one-by-one and having them complete the task, just give the instructions to all of your students at once (you can even record video directions for your students in FlipGrid if they aren't able to read written directions) and let them film their responses independently so that you can review them later. Save class time and still get the valuable information you need from these performance-driven tasks.
Think about being able to hear your students explain their process while completing a math problem, being able to provide a detailed description of something without having to write anything down, being able to record their performance for you and their peers to review later, and much much more!
Check out these free resources and pre-made topics (prompts) to get you started!
FlipGrid just released a newsletter with lots of new updates and resources. Click this link to learn more and see the pre-made topics: FlipGrid Resources.
1/3/2019
Today I presented at our county's EdCamp. Our topic was Engagement. I showed the audience several programs that they can easily use in their classrooms tomorrow. The key to excitement is engagement. Today's students are video watchers and gamers. To reach them, we have to meet them where they are. These programs will help you get to that point.
Here is my presentation. (www.tinyurl.com/cobble2019). Feel free to make a copy and share with others.
Some of the programs we discussed were:
11/20/2018
Brush Ninja is a fun way for students to learn about animation, to illustrate the concepts they have just learnt, or to add some colour to their presentations. Alternatively it can be a fun, free, way for teachers to present by using it as an animated whiteboard.
To illustrate concepts & knowledge. Reinforce the things students have learnt by getting them to create a slideshow with key information.
Show their working. Particularly useful for Mathematics, students can display their thought process and then tidy the animation up to show the final result.
Animated Ideas. Brush Ninja is a great way to jot down ideas for creative projects.
Presentations. Add some colour to presentations by creating simple animations of the topic being presented.
When my students have had free time on their hands, I have always loved to direct them somewhere online that is engaging or interesting as well as academic in some form. In my years as a high school Spanish teacher, I’ve been happy to direct them to places where they’d learn about other things than Spanish with that free time. Just as long as it was academic in nature.
(To be clear, that free time doesn’t have to be spent online. Although the suggestions I’ll make here are, great alternatives can include drawing, creating with Legos or Play Doh, or more!)
Here are some of my favorite spots to direct students that will encourage and inspire them. File them away for a rainy day, and if you need something stimulating for your students, pull them out!
10 Sites for students with free time on their hands by Matt Miller
11/12/2018
Both are FREE!
Dupli-Checker will allow you to check a document of up to 1000 words for duplication. Copy and paste the wording or upload the document.
WebPageFX Readable will check the reading level of a website or you can copy and paste the wording into the checker.
11/12/2018
PDFs - FREE Online PDF Editor
PDFEscape will allow you to:
* Insert - text, images, links, lines, rectangles, checkmarks, whiteout, freehand drawings, arrows, and circles
* Annotate - sticky notes, text, underline, ovals, highlight, strikeout, and rectangles
* Page - move, rotate, append (combine with another PDF), rotate right, crop, and delete
11/12/2018
Thanks to Jake Miller for the tip!
Looping YouTube Videos
Ever need to play a video during an Open House or another event where you want people to be able to see the video at various times throughout a time period? Just right-click on the video and click Loop!
11/9/2018
GimKit has been on my radar for awhile, but I finally had time to look into it. I LOVED it! If you are looking for a way to spice up your reviews, GimKit is for you. Gimkit is a game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win.
Students answer questions on their own device at their own pace. Throughout a Kit, each student will get exposure to the questions multiple times to ensure mastery.
Students earn in-game cash by answering questions correctly. But be careful, an incorrect answer will cost you! Students can reinvest their money by purchasing upgrades & powerups. With over 2.5 million combinations, students can make purchases that suit their strengths.
After every game, Gimkit generates a report detailing what your class needs help on. Individual reports allow you to help specific students.
Gimkit isn't only used in a live class setting. You can use Gimkit for homework assignments which are graded automatically.
KitCollab allows students to take charge of their own learning! Your class builds the Kit by each student contributing a question.
Import any of the existing 200 million Quizlet sets with only a few clicks. Or search and reuse Kits made by other Gimkit users.
GimKit - https://www.gimkit.com/
9/6/2018
As a teacher, I struggled with assigning Exit Tickets. I wanted to teach until the last possible moment. But, upon reflecting, I know how important Exit Tickets are in helping my students process the information and reflect upon their learning. The following links are wonderful examples of Daily Check-ins, Warm-ups, and Exit Tickets using Google Forms.
8/27/2018
PDFCandy (https://pdfcandy.com) offers you the ability to:
convert from several programs to PDF
convert to PDF
edit PDF
merge PDF
and many other options....
Easy to use and completely online.