This week's teacher feature takes us over to Rolling Acres where fractions are becoming fun?!?!?! Ms. Nancy Cook and her wonderful third graders embarked on a journey to solve the problem of creating equivalent fractions. I shared with them Google Drawings and then asked the question how can we create fractions? The students began discovery learning by searching for ways to show not only fractions, but equivalent fractions! There is no way to "shade" fractions in Google Drawings currently, but the students discovered they could just place an X over the pieces they wanted "shaded." I loved seeing the students as the problem solvers and the looks on their faces when they found an answer! They really became the teachers. Great job Ms. Cook and third graders. Way to show us that students are problem solvers as well!
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This week's teacher feature takes us to Alloway Creek where Ms. Sandra Hartzell is using the tool Flippity with her students. Flippity easily turns a Google spreadsheet into a set of online flashcards. If that wasn't easy and cool enough, it also creates a Jeopardy game of sorts with the Google spreadsheet! Her students love practicing vocabulary using Flippity because it turns it into a game. Here is what Ms. Hartzell had to say, "My fourth grade Wilson phonics students were reviewing words with a beginning and medial schwa sound (compliment, /i/ sounds like /u/; vanilla, /a/ sounds like /u/). Flippity allows them to read a flashcard of a real word and then a similar sounding nonsense word on the the flip-side of the card. The word compliment morphs into a nonsense word like comshinent and vanilla, morphs into a word like vamidda. After that they used the Flippity Quiz Show to practice and review the meanings of those same words. We followed up with a quick Kahoot game to practice quickly recognizing the correct spellings of those same words. The kids were very engaged and loved all three activities." There are some other built in features like a random name picker, a badge tracker, a progress indicator, and a certificate quiz. The students enjoyed the competition that Flippity presented. Great job Ms. Hartzell and class!
This week's teacher feature takes us to Rolling Acres Elementary where the Kindergarten class is rocking it with Symbaloo! Justine Garman and her Kindergarten students were completing both math and literacy stations using Symbaloo as their homepage. What is Symbaloo, you ask? Symbaloo is a visual bookmarking tool that makes it simple and fun to organize the web. I refer to it as a "home base" of sorts because you can place all your favorite websites to visit in one spot for easy access. Kindergarten decided as a grade level to create a Symbaloo (led by their tech leader Mrs. Erin Hahn) so that their students could have a "home base" to visit many websites pertaining to their grade level and various subject levels. This makes it easier for students to visit different websites in a quick way. Ms. Garman's class could show me many different websites they could use to practice their math and literacy skills! I was so proud of how they could navigate their chromebooks like champs! Great job Ms. Garman and class!
This week's teacher feature comes from Maple Avenue Middle School. Those middle school teachers are tearing it up over there with their redesign going on. Check out the #MAMSredesign on Twitter to see some of the amazing learning opportunities happening! This week, we feature Kasey Smith and her classes taking on WeVideo. Students were tasked with creating a commercial for the "under-advertised item" using WeVideo. From still frames and text to actual video and voice overs, students were able to edit and create videos with background music and themes. I will let the students astonishing work speak for itself. Check out the products below! Great job Ms. Smith and students! Your class is an inspiration to #MAMSredesign!
This week's teacher feature comes from Rolling Acres Elementary. Araby Collins and her first graders are showing us what they are made of! In reading, they are doing a weekly journal that the kids can respond to at any time during the week. Araby shares the Google Doc to her students and then they log in during the appropriate time to respond. Not only can they work together on a shared document, but these students know how to use the comment feature in Google Docs to communicate back and forth with Ms. Collins! Below you can see a short video clip. Great job Ms. Collins! These first grade students are showing us that anyone at any age can use Google!
This week's teacher feature comes from Maple Avenue Middle School and Ms. Amy Trout. Her students are learning about Non-fiction Text Structures and Features while creating a Magazine using the Google Tool named Lucidpress. Amy actually introduced me to Lucidpress as I had never used it before this week. Here is the link to the Lucidpress website where you can get more information about how to use this site to create visually stunning magazines, newsletters, posters, and more! This site even lets you select if your project is meant to be printed or displayed online. Some of the other great features include that it allows students to login using their school Google account with one click, it is an education product that can be used with all ages of students, and it allows collaboration and comments between teachers and students with just one click!!! I highly recommend this tool for anyone looking to create something as it is easy to use AND has awesome FREE features. Great job Ms. Trout! Yet another awesome high school teacher decided to venture into the world of PowToon! Micaela Floess had her French classes using PowToon to create projects about their family. The students had to create slides describing their family members in French. They then needed to add animation, text, and voice-overs to enhance their presentations. Students got to practice not only writing, but speaking in French! This project is a great example of student creativity, communication, and critical thinking! Check out a sample student PowToon here. Great Job Mme Floess!
This week's teacher feature highlights Lindsey Kress and Amy Shermeyer from the high school science department. These ladies had their students use PowToon to create animated presentations about naming chemical formulas. Students even created presentations that had explosions! As if that was not enough, this activity was completely self-guided and student-driven. These students had no previous knowledge of naming compounds. This project gave them the freedom to take learning into their own hands. Great job ladies!
This week's teacher feature is bowing down to those who presented at the Tech Carousel. I have heard such great things about the presenters and all the ideas they shared with the district. I am happy to announce this was a huge success. I could feel the excitement from each and every one of you! Check out the pictures below. This week I had the pleasure of assisting Ms. Nancy Smith's 3rd graders in learning how to play some fun math games on the Chromebooks. Students had the choice to play a couple of games to practice their multiplication and division skills. We were Math Ninjas, Space Invaders, Race Car Drivers, and more! The students even figured out how to play against each other on the Chrome games. That really inspired some students to do their best. If you aren't sure how to find and download Chrome apps, check here as I posted a tutorial on how to do so. Chrome apps are a great way to incorporate technology into your classroom and you can use them on any device with a Google Chrome Browser.
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AuthorThis blog has been created by Mrs. Gabrielle Sipe, the K-12 tech integrator in the Littlestown Area School District, for the purpose of sharing tech tips with the school community. Archives
May 2016
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