Tune Into Technology: Using Tech with Reading

It's baaaaaaack!
Aylin, Amanda, and Kristin have decided to bring back their Tune into Technology linky party. I am oh so greatful beacuse I am in need of a little technology inspiration or pinspiration if you will. 

So...last year I blogged about how I use Fotobabble with my students to make book recommendations, you can read about that HERE.

I'm fortunate enough to have had an entire set of iPads in my classroom for the past two years. We've been able to learn and create a lot with these wonderful tools!  I work closely with a fellow third grade teacher and my District's Techonogy Director to collaborate new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  My Director is a big proponent of using technology because it offers something better for my students, not just for the sake of using technology. 

 

I was SO thankful when she introduced me to Doctopus.  Doctopus is an app that helps make sharing documents with your students easier through Google Drive. The initial set-up was a tad time consuming my first time around, but I was able to speed-up once I got the hang of things!

 

The first thing I needed to do was create a master roster of all of my students' names and school e-mail accounts. Once I had all of this info in, I can just make a copy of the roster for the individual assignments, like my Animal Report above.

 

 

This project was a graphic organzier for my students to use while researching for their animal reports.  Initially I wanted to create the organzier with boxes, but Google Drive wouldn't allow that. 

:( Hopefully they'll update that!

 

Instead I have lines separating the different topics.  My students had learned a few different ways to take notes, but at the end of the day I always have them choose what's easiest for them to read and decipher. 

 

 

My favorite part of using Doctopus is from a teacher management position.  Whether I'm at my teacher table or home I am just a click away from seeing any of my students' progress on the daily assignment. 

 

To keep students focused on the task and motivated I'd also occassionaly pull up someone's work on our Smart Board for the class to admire. The kids LOVED this and would busily continue working in the hopes that they'd be the next featured writer.

 

I also loved leaving my kiddies little comments about their work during the day or in the evening.  It was always something exciting...who doesn't like getting a little note?!?

 

The comment feature is also great for the workshop model in my classroom.  It's inveitable in my classroom that there is almost always a student hovering by my desk...or blankly staring at their notebook because they have a question while I'm doing a one-to-one writing conference with another student. 

 

My kiddies, like Nick above, love to send me their questions while they're working.  That way they don't have to 'hold it in' and have a fear of forgetting it. 

 

 

After comleting their research my kids expanded their writing into paragraphs on these fun flip charts.  They loved the compacted space and their teacher LOVED that they were full of great information!

 

If you're interested in a full tutorial, I found one HERE that seems to be great!

Be sure to check out all of the other great tech ideas every Tuesday in July at Learning to the Core and I Teach 1:1!

Tune into Technology: QR Code Scavenger Hunts

I can't believe this is the last week of iTeach1:1 and Learning to the Core's Tune into Technology link party! I really have been enjoying all of the amazing ideas out there this summer.

 (Speaking of summer....is it really August already?!?)

This week's theme is: QR Codes in the classroom.  I LOVE using QR codes! First of all, they are extremely easy to create for your classroom, they're free if you use a site like www.qrstuff.com, and they make you look super 'techie' with minimal effort. Yeah, buddy! Sign me up! 

I've used QR codes on my newsletter and on the cover of my parent handbook to link to our classroom website, as well as on my Scholastic book order letter, which linked to our Scholastic page for on-line orders.  However, my students' favorite way to use QR codes was during a scavenger hunt.  

Scavenger hunts were a favorite activity in my room to either introduce a new topic or review before a test.  I upped the fun factor by making our last one into a QR code scavenger hunt.  Students worked in partners.  One student was the 'photographer' who scanned the QR codes on the iPad using a free QR scanner app.  The second student was the 'secretary' who wrote the information discovered from the code onto a recording sheet on a clipboard.  Students switched jobs half way through the hunt, it ensure no whining about unfairness. ;)

This year I plan on incorporating more scavenger hunts into my school day and I thought I'd share them with you too! 

I've created three QR Code Scavenger Hunts so far.  Each of these products include a recording sheet, QR codes to be arrange around the room, and an answer key for the teacher.  

The scavenger hunt topics include Reading Genres, Figurative Language, and The Seven Continents (this happens to be my first S.S. unit this fall) 

You can check out these products at my TPT store by clicking on any of the images above.  Thanks again for reading and a HUGE thank you to the girls at iTeach1:1 and Learning to the Core for hosting this amazing party this summer!

Tune into Technology: Technology Management and Organization

I can't believe there is only one week left of iTeach1:1 and Learning to the Core's weekly linky party!  This week's theme is Technology Management and Organization, and let me tell you, I'm all for learning new organization tips!  

ORGANIZE: 

I'm sure you've seen the pins on Pinterest, like this one HERE. When the iPad cart was first brought to my room this year, I was eager to change the miscellaneous backgrounds into our classroom number system.  This was an easier system for my students to ensure that they had the correct iPad on their desks (instead of checking the label sticker on the back).  

**No need to panic for me; I don't actually have 30 students! Number 30 is for me to use, yay!!!**

Did you notice, on my home screen the "Class Website" button? Our district's Technology Coordinator showed me this easy trick and I became in LOVE with! In case I wasn't the last person to learn this trick, I figured I'd clue you in.  By hitting the arrow button at the top left of my screen a group of options appears.  Just click "Add to Home Screen" and VOILA! You've just added a button! 

By adding our class website as a button, my students were able to have much easier access to the site, and kept our lessons moving smoothly!

RULES: 

Clearly stating rules and expectations are of course important, that goes without saying.  In my room our set of rules were posted underneath a sign saying "iCare About My iPad".  I apologize for the lack of photos, hopefully I'll be able to add more once I get into my classroom.  

*Photo from: http://www.apple.com/education/labs/ 

HELPERS: 

At the end of each day, my students are dismissed as groups to return their iPads into the card, before retrieving their homework.  There is a specific walking path that the students follow, which limits areas from over crowing and students bumping into one another.   Two students each week have the job "Tech Team", these students are responsible for checking to make sure each iPad has been returned to the cart AND they are responsible for charging the iPads.  I then check the cart before buses are called and lock the iPads up for the night.  

These systems have worked well for me and I am eager to learn more tips.  Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the link party by clicking on the button above!

Classy Classroom Websites

I'm excited to link up with Aylin, Amanda and Kristin from Learning to the Core and iTeach 1:1 for another week of Tune into Technology.  I look forward to reading these posts allllll week, and have not been disappointed so far! My pin boards are filling up and those rusty wheels in my brain have been turning thinking about how to incorporate all of these fabulous ideas in my room this year!

This week's theme is classroom websites, which I can admit....mine needs help! My district supplies every teacher with their own website, which we can customize to fit our individual classroom needs.  Last year my website was mainly used as a communication tool with my classroom parents.  However, nearing the end of the year I began to implement more links & tools for my students. I'm hoping to continue this process and incorporate my website into our learning environment.

Here is what my sidebar looks like.  

On the welcome page I have important things going on for the week listed (assemblies, permission slip forms, tests & quizzes) as well as this little guy.....

I got this button from Scholastic, it takes parents right to our page for ordering new books! :)

Things to Know About Third Grade: Some important things to know about third grade are listed, my policy on water bottles, and our district's snack policy.  

Weekly Homework: My third graders and their parents are busy people! I like to give parents and students to opportunity to plan ahead (and use time management skills) by listing all of the homework for the week.  My students have a weekly reading log, which requires them to read 5 out of 7 days.  Knowing that they have math & science homework on Wednesday hopefully prevents some  "I Can't Finish My Homework" melt-downs.  

Third Grade Websites  and Hot Reads have website recommendations as well as book recommendations for my third graders.  I've read about Draggo on Learning to the Core and am VERY interested in using that to help organize my websites for students. 

Monthly Projects: Last year, a fabulous teammate and I came up with optional family fun projects each month.  Our idea was to promote talking about literature, creating something fun, and writing about the experience as a family.  The prize for completing these projects was to present it to the class AND have your picture with your project on the class website.  It was a BIG deal.  

iPad Goodies: Here is where I attempted to organize and show off my students' iPad creations near the end of the year.  We uploaded Keynote presentations, Google Drive documents, Fotobabbles, and iMovies.  Students loved being able to view these assignments again on their iPads and parents appreciated being able to view their child's work.  :)

Homework Helper: This is my biggest goal for my classroom website.  A few weeks ago I wrote about how I use Show Me during math.  After creating a short instructional video for my students, I then posted it under the Homework Helper.  Students & parents could view the video and help when the homework had them stumped.  I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I can keep up with the video tutorials!

I'm looking forward to learning about more ideas on how I can spruce up my classroom webpage.  Leave me a comment if you've got a great idea for me! 

(Comments are like virtual hugs & I love them!) 

Gaga for Google Drive App!

 

I am loving Tune into Technology on Thursdays with Amanda and Aylin at Learning to the Core and my neighbor (practically) Kristin at iTeach 1:1! This week's theme is iPads...which for some reason really had me stuck (weird since I had a whole classroom set of iPads in my room for 3 months!) Anyways, I decided to share with you how I used Google Drive during a novel study. 

 

 

Google Drive, or Google Docs as it was formerly known as, is used consistently amongst faculty and staff in my district through our e-mails.  When I was encouraged by my district's Tech. Director to use it in my classroom...I was well...stumped.  However, after some great ideas from her, the light bulb FINALLY switched on and I decided to use Google Drive to support some documents during a novel study.  To those of you who are not familiar, Google Drive allows you to create a document and share with an audience (your classroom) the settings. 

 

 

Since, this had been one of my first experiences using Google Drive with my class, I created two documents to use throughout the entire novel study.  The first was a Character Trait map, like I said I kept it simple and easy to read and manipulate for my students (and me).  When a new character was introduced in the story, we would stop to add them to our list.  The list of characters grew quickly, as well as their lists of traits the more we got to know these characters. 

 

 

The next document was a building vocabulary list.  For this, I had pre-made a list of vocabulary words for my students. Before reading each chapter we pulled up the vocabulary list and students used their dictionary app on their iPads to find the definition.  I loved how everyone was completely involved with the process, my students scrambled to find the definition, because they wanted to be the 'winner' who would type it into Google Drive!

 

 

As far as management of Google Drive, I would recommend designating a spot for each of your students to type out their thoughts, especially when working on a class document at the same time.  If not, you may have students typing over one another and that could cause all sorts of messes!  On another document I numbered lines and my students typed in their designated classroom # spot.  For these documents, we were have a classroom discussion while filling them out, so after a student shared an idea, they typed it into the document to be saved.  That way, everyone's idea is heard/seen without the panic of "Where did my sentence go???"

 

  Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the Tune into Technology link party for more great ideas!

P.S.- Can you guess what novel we were reading??? It was a BIG deal for my lower readers! :)

 



 

 

 

Integrating Technology into Math

 

I'm happy to link up again with Kristin at iTeach 1:1 and Aylin & Amanda at Learning to the Core for another week of Tune into Technology! For those of you that don't know, I'm thrilled to be able to have a 1:1 classroom this year with my district's iPads!  At the end of this past school year I had the opportunity to experiment with the iPads in my classroom and I'm really looking forward to all of the posts that link up to this PARTAY!

 

One of my favorite apps to use was ShowMe.  ShowMe became my best friend! I used this app throughout the day and with many different subjects, however it was used almost daily during math.  This app served as an interactive whiteboard for my students during my math lessons.   Students also created recordings of themselves solving math problems independently and then posted them for me to view at a later time.  I LOVE that the videos were there in my inbox waiting for me to grade at my convenience!

 

I also created videos with ShowMe on some sample problems from math.  My students were able to view them on their iPads while at school.  This gave my students another resource to use while waiting for me to get to their desk during independent work.  Independent problem solving!? I'll take it!! Here is a sample video of one I created on finding elapsed time on a number line:

 

These same videos I was able to upload onto my classroom website for viewing at home.  I call this section Homework Helper.  With the new Common Core standards I found that some of my parents were confused by some of the new vocabulary and strategies being used.  By watching the video it provided a review for students and a quick tutorial for those panicked parents! ;)

 

I could go on and on about ShowMe, it really was a great asset to my classroom and I think I was only just scratching at the surface of what it can really do!

 

Be sure to check out all of the other great ideas at the Tune into Technology party! 

 

Happy Birthday America!

Fotobabble Book Recommendations

I am thrilled to be linking up with Kristin at Teaching 1:1 for her new linky party series "Tuning into Technology!" This week the theme is integrating technology into reading, so I thought I'd share a fun activity my kiddos LOVED this past year....Fotobabble Book Recommendations!  During the past few months of school I was fortunate enough to have a classroom set of iPads (SOOOO excited to get them again next year)!!!  One of the fun apps we explored during this time was Fotobabble.  Fotobabble is free app that allows students to take a photo of an image and then record their voice as a narration.  As a fun alternative to "Writing About Reading" I had my students write their book recommendation and then create an audio recording of themselves.  Instead of compiling the book recommendations as a class book like I normally would, I posted the videos on my classroom website for viewing.  Students were ecstatic to listen to one another's book recommendations through their iPads as were parents who viewed from home.   Be sure to check out Kristin's linky party for other amazing ideas on incorporating technology into your reading block!

Click the video below to hear one of my former student's book recommendation. (I apologize for the background noise...we are always VERY busy in Room 2! hehe!)