Thing 21: Productivity Tools

Good to be back on Cool Tools! I am glad to be revisiting Productivity Tools. I have started using Google Drive and Google Classroom this year in my library.  The students have loved Google Classroom.  It is very user friendly and the students have been able to pick up on it very quickly.  I can link websites to assignments and it makes grading and editing the student's work very easy.  The students like sharing comments with me and others.  It also makes it easy for the students to complete work they miss because of band and/or special services they get pulled for.
 I have been learning Google Docs and sharing documents with a committee I am on, which reduces the amount of emails I have to process.  The feature I have liked most about Google Docs is the revision feature.  A student thought she had deleted all of her essay and we were able to see her minute by minute revisions and restore the whole thing.  You don't even have to remember to save anything - which is something younger students frequently forget.

I am using a new productivity tool this year that is not on the list - Planbook.com.  Last year my district switched to ABCD days for elementary school, which required me to change my plan book organization.  I  was using a manual plan book and I wanted to switch to something online.  I found Planbook and it has worked out great and it is only $12 per year ($1 per month!)  You can copy and paste lessons, which for libraries is great because we often teach the same lesson multiple times per week.  You can go back and easily modify lessons and it also has a search feature which I love.  Here is a link - planbook.com, check it out!

Thing 20: Tools for creating websites, pathfinders, portfolios and more

The last thing!!  I looked into many of the options and finally decided to try Weebly because it seemed the easiest.  I started a website on Dragonwings.  My 6th graders are currently reading this and we have had many lessons in the library related to the book.  Here is the start of my web page, http://52dragonwings.weebly.com/  obviously a work in progress :)
 I found Weebly user friendly for a novice such as myself.  The home page of Destiny is so quick and easy to use, but not very visually inviting.  I may consider Weebly or a similar project next year to link to my Destiny home page, especially to make it more kid friendly and inviting.


My plan is to expand the Dragonwings site to include links for all three 6th grader novels - The Lightning Thief, Bud Not Buddy, and Dragonwings.

Thing 19: Online Learning & DIY PD

Initially I had some difficulty finding a topic/link to connect with.  I found TechChicks the most useful for me. I listened to their podcast called Dry Binary Tacos - didn't understand the title until I listened to it - they are podcasting from a taco restaurant in Texas and the tacos are dry - haha.  I have to admit that I haven't listened to may podcasts over the years, but this was very useful. I'm going to put the older podcasts on my to do list.   I opened a second window so that I could visit the sites as they were discussing them.  I learned about great math sites that I am going to share with my teachers.  We use First-in-Math, but the kids are always looking for something else, and I have yet to find any math on the Cool Math site. The QR Sight word Bingo looked like a great game that I will share with my K-2 teachers.  There was also the quiz site Kahoots which I will be able to use in my lab with my library classes.  I can see having students do a short article with an online database and then taking a short quiz on Kahoots, or a quiz after a story, like AR.   Gives them accountability other than pen and paper. 

Thing 18: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship

I "googled" myself on Google and Bing.  There are quite a few doctors with my name and my husband's ex sister-in-law with the same name as me pops up more often than I do :)  My Facebook doesn't come up so I'm glad about that.

I read See Why This English Teacher Says Digital Citizenship Must Begin With Pen and Paper.  I thought it was a great idea.  Students always learn more effectively when it is hands on and face to face.  I had a KidsBlog last year with my 5th graders.  Kids posted comments and answered questions about books they were reading.  I did have a few post negative comments about other student's opinions.  Because I had to review everything before it was posted, trouble was avoided.  In the future if I have the blog again, I will use this idea.

I also read the article about Digital Passport. Although I didn't sign up for an account at this point, the idea of a training program before they go online is a great idea.   I had concerns about third graders having a GMail account though.  8 and 9 year olds are a little young to navigate their own email and the risks involved.  When they have an email it gives them the capability to sign-up for all kinds of things on the Internet.  Our building is considering replacing our Netbooks and laptops with Chromebooks next year.  I will mention this program.  This year, students with GMail accounts found my GMail account I made for this class and were trying to friend me.

Thing 17: Coding

I did the Hour of Code and was able to get the bird to the pig and the zombie to the sunflower :) 
I assisted in a summer tech camp last year and was introduced to MIT Scratch.  The other instructor and I introduced the simple commands, but after going through the Hour of Code I have a much better understanding of how it works.  This year my school has Club Fridays a few times a month and I run the tech camp and I am going to have the next camp session use this hour of code.  I thought animating their name would also be a fun project, but it requires you to login.  The club is 3-5 graders, so this will not work. 
The students can take what they learn in Hour of Code and apply it to Scratch.

Thing 16: You Pick!

I looked at a few of the topics on the Teacher's Guide to Technology and Learning.

Flipped classrooms was an intriguing title, I had never heard of it and had no idea what it was.  I think it is a great idea, especially for middle schoolers.  That age always has to be "doing" and not just sitting and listening.  Concerns I had reading would be what about kids who don't have access outside of school to watch the videos, and what about accountability - what if they don't watch before class.  Recording using the Smart Board is probably a great tool to use in Flipped classrooms.  I'm going to share this with my 5th and 6th grade teachers as I think the students may really enjoy it. 

Badges - a great idea.  They do motivate kids.  I watch students getting excited about earning points and badges using First-In-Math.  I might try it for a grade and encourage them to earn badges for different genre's of books read.  It might be especially helpful for 3-6 boys who tend to get focused on non-fiction and sports books.

LOC - We have a book of the month that all students in the school read.  This month it is Robert Burleigh's Home Run - about Babe Ruth.  I found many pics of Babe Ruth and will plan a lesson about introducing the LOC and using the site.  I was hoping to find a recording of his voice or  digitized film there - still looking.

Thing 15: App-palooza

iPads in the Classroom was a good article.  I liked that it showed both sides of the issue.  Traditional hands-on paper and pencil are still important.  I used the goo.gl site to create QR codes for BookFlix and TumbleBooks.  I can use these to send to my teachers to include in their weekly newsletters to parents.  It was very easy to create the QR code and copy and paste it to a word document or a blog post.  Feel free to use these. I so wish I could have some iPads in my library to use.  The kids loved when I used my Cool tools iPad to show them the 3d heart app during the Hoops for Heart campaign in February.  I had a number of kids tell me they downloaded it to their tablets at home. 


This is the BookFlix QR code

This is the Tumble Books QR code   - well I tried to add both QR codes, but the insert photo function will seems to only let me add one photo to this post.

Thing 14: Social Reading and Book Stuff

Catching up on this snowy March evening.  What a winter it has been!  I have used Overdrive in the past for audio books.  I have looked for the books the 6th graders are reading like Dragonwings and Bud Not Buddy for the students, but so far no luck.  I will share Overdrive with the older students as many have phones they can use it on, hopefully to encourage more reading.  At my school we have a number of families from Bosnia and I looked for books on the International Children's Digital  library.  The DaybyDay Family Literacy  is a wonderful idea.  I am going to share it with my kindergarten and preschool teachers to put in their weekly newsletter to parents.

Thing 13: Media Skills

I viewed the slide show on all the elementary projects. So many great ideas.  I used Audioboo last year - simple to use.  I'm working on inventors with 5th grade and the Trading Card app looks interesting.  I'm working on note taking with the 4th and 6th graders and that app looks very useful.  I really wish I had some iPads for my library!! I could use some of the ideas with my monthly group of students that come for tech club.  Students love to take and edit pictures.  I edited some personal photos using Pixlr. Its a fun app :). Used borders, speech bubbles, and some effects.  Lots of options, and I'm assuming there are even more in the paid app.  Had to use my pc to upload them here to the blog.  When I tried to insert them using the iPad, it didn't give me an option to choose the pictures from the iPad.