Glogster EDU

To finish up our poetry unit we decided to create an online interactive poster through an app available at the Chrome Store.  The app is called Glogster EDU.  I had never made a "glog" before and I knew the kids would have fun trying it out. I love their slogan, "Creativity is Learning!" After learning about 8 different types of poems, the students logged into their Glogster EDU accounts and created a free, poetry multimedia poster with text, photos, videos, animations, graphics, audio and much more!  It was a unique way to publish their thoughtful writing.  When I practiced Glogster EDU at home it worked great.  I was able to manipulate text boxes, record myself reading my poetry,  and add photos found online with a Chromebook hooked up to my own wi-fi network.  Working with it at school, was a little more challenging.  For some reason we could not hear any sound that we tried recording.  It would have been super cute to have the students record their voices, but for some reason it would not work.  Even though we experienced this disappointment, all the kids were still very excited to make the online poster and many of them turned out spectacular.  I will use Glogster EDU again, for sure!  Click on the links below to see some great examples from my third grade class.

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

Student 5

Student 6

Student 7

Student 8

Student 9

Weebly Non-fiction Websites

Students experienced writing a non-fiction piece for this last quarter.  We used our Chromebooks to create non-fiction websites that gave the opportunity for students to write a factual piece that included an introduction, description chapter, sequence chapter, compare chapter and a conclusion.  The kids chose whatever topic they felt they were an expert on.  We used a very friendly, free website builder called Weebly.  The students caught on real fast and actually decided what tabs and information to include.  They enjoyed using the photos available through this website builder and uploading some found on the internet that related to their topic.  Some kids went over and beyond and learned how to insert html code to embed a video relating to their topic.  It was so nice to have the Chromebooks at our disposal all day, so the kids could grab a machine and get back to work on their website if they finished their work in other subjects.  The best part about this project was the pride these kids felt to create something that looked so professional and appealing.  They also were so excited about them, that many students went home and built more on other topics of their choice.  We plan on having a "Website Gallery Dessert Night" as the year comes to a close to show off all of our hard work.  Please click on the links below to check out what some of them have accomplished so far:

All About Snakes

Swimming

Fashion

Basketball

All About Dogs

Minecraft

Dogs

All About Dogs

Tekkit

Music

Volleyball

Soccer

Minecraft School

Typing Practice

After seeing one of the example writing questions for the Smarter Balanced Assessments and knowing about the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, I am convinced that students need to start practicing typing before third grade.  I have found that the last few years I have taught more lessons and provided more practice time for typing rather than writing cursive.  Cursive is great, students need to try it and learn how to read it. However, in my opinion typing is more important and is a skill all students will be using in the future no matter what career path they choose.  There are two typing programs I like that are free and fun.  One is Dance Mat Typing provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation.  It is very entertaining and the kids love it.  You need to pass levels of difficulty through practice.  Some of the accents the characters use can be a little hard to understand though.  The second is an app provided through Google Chrome's Elementary Education Pack called Typing Club.  After practicing, the app will rate you with 1-3 stars depending on how you perform.  It also tells you the words per minute you can type, your accuracy percentage and the time it took you to finish the task.  It also gives a lesson before practice begins and shows a picture of hands with the finger needed highlighted on the screen.  My students have become fast typers especially with the amount of exposure to technology this year.  I would like all Brighton students to have that same advantage.

Khan Academy

One of the apps available in Chrome's Elementary Education Pack is Khan Academy. This app has proven itself very useful as we have started our fraction unit. Khan Academy is a huge resource for all educators and students with a large amount of short, educational instructional videos found in one easy to access location. I have successfully used Khan Academy in the past. I would show a video during class if I could find the subject matter I was looking for. I was presently surprised when I had the students use their own Chromebook, log into their app, and watch the videos independently. They could pause and rewind to watch them at their own pace of understanding and then the app allowed them to practice the concept taught. The kids loved it because it was like a video game and they could receive a badge if they mastered the skill worked on. The videos that we watched were "Understanding Fractions". This section contained two videos and task performance questions relating to what was mentioned in the video. We will be using this app frequently for the remaining of the school year and I hope to make my students' parents aware of this resource to have for homework help at home.

Duolingo

I have been trying to implement my Chromebook cart as often as possible in all content areas. I decided to do some team teaching with Hornung's Spanish teacher to incorporate some E'spanol with technology. I quickly found a cute looking app called "Duolingo" and spent about 30 minutes downloading it onto each students' Chromebook. I ran out of time and did not look at this application as thoroughly as I should. Before class, I did try about two performance tasks the app provided me and decided it was acceptable. As the students logged on they seemed excited about learning some spanish with our new devices and thought the Duolingo Mascot (an owl named Duo) looked entertaining. The program works like a video game and the student keeps on progressing to the next level as the spanish concepts become increasingly difficult. Well, the kids did great on the first few tasks, but then it asked them to type the spanish word. This is way to complex for an elementary student to accomplish and we immediately discovered that the usage of this app may cause more stress than learning in our room. So, we abandoned the lesson. I'm glad we tried, though. This app is awesome and I suggest it for middle school and high school levels. It costs nothing and I think I may end up using it for myself. This is how technology is, sometimes you just have to jump in and try it. You have to take the risk to figure out what will and will not work in your educational setting. I feel blessed and lucky that I have had the opportunity to try out the Chromebooks!