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.

Thing 12 - Social Learning and Learning Management Systems

I checked out Schoology and Edmodo.  I downloaded the apps for both.  At this point I would use Edmodo with my students as it didn't ask for my email as a student and since I work in elementary this is important.  I found  Mightybell was easy to use and was able to put up a post.  I'm guessing that to use the teacher part for both Schoology and Edmodo you have to create a separate account, is this correct Polly?  As a librarian I can use them for book discussions.  I used Kidblog last year with my fifth graders and this year I may try Edmodo for something different.  Schoology looked like it had more options though, which is what the review videos that I watched indicated.  If I can get rid of the email requirement it might be the way to go.  The quiz function in Schoology was cool.

Thing 11 - Mapping and Geolocation Tools

Just finished watching the tutorial on the Google Earth Lit Trip, a very creative idea to tie together books, geography, and history.  As I was watching, it turned out to be a little more complicated than I thought (html code), but doable.  There is a lit trip for Bud Not Buddy that I'm going to share with my 6th grade teachers, as that is the next book in the CC module. Another book that I could use it for is Magic Tree House - Hour of the Olympics.  I read that to my second graders last year during that module and they loved it.  It will give them a real sense of distance between the US and Greece. Our school has a summer tech camp and one of the volunteers taught the students how to use the push pins on Google Earth and calculate the distance between the two points. Kids liked it.  It was for grades 3-5.
I also loved the tool to make a QR Quiz.  If I can get access to multiple iPads to use in my library, I would like to make one for my 3rd graders for when I teach call numbers and the Dewey Decimal System.