Thing 20: Final Reflection

Well I am sad that this is the last entry for this session.  I tried to stay with the same track as I will hope the course will be offered again and I can move onto track 3.  I find the topics engaging and interesting.  I loved this session as I plowed through each topic and found a lot of new material that I could use.  Now to put it into practice.  Maybe we can have a session or discussion on what we have taken back to the library classroom and put to good use!  Would love to hear and see what others are actually doing with these materials!  I know I have ideas, but I don't always get a chance to put them into practice.

Over the summer my plan is to review all the topics I have done on this blog, including the first two sessions to see what I found engaging and see where I could use them with students.  and see if and when I have used the past materials.  Plan forward and see what I might like to try with different grade levels.  I actually used the ABCya Word Cloud maker with my fifth graders last week.  They had just finished a newspaper information project using Printing_Press from ReadWriteThink and I had a few finishing up, so I had the ones who were done look over their project and pick important words or phrases from their topic or look it up on the World Book database and create Word Clouds.  They had a great time, plus asked if they could use it for other projects as well.  Quick and easy with big results!  I also plan on using it myself with my son.  I want him to come up with words to describe his teachers, then we will make a word cloud and print it off to give to them.  He did a great job with the last one we did together on the topic he was learning about with his class.

I have also signed up for several webinars.  With 2 small kids at home and summer coming, I thought this might be a way for me to work in some PD without leaving home.  I checked into how it would work with getting create for my district as well.  Most have a certificate to print off to submit or if we take notes and submit those... either one will work.  I have already looked at two webinars this month and submitted them to the district for PD credit.  One was on one of our databases, FactCite, where I learned a bit about how they set it up and some quick highlights.  It was great.  I took notes and have been recommending it to my teachers this past week who are working on biographies and Civil War.  I used it with my scholars group and showed them the Topics in History and we looked at Civil War as well as generals in the biography section.  Great to put something small into practice as this!  I have a growing list of webinars that I plan on watching including TeachingBooks.net and several at WebEd.  I am excited for my summer learning and continual path.

Oh I love learning this way.  From my first online class during my Library Science degree to today, online is a comforting place where ideas and places are easily shared.  I have enjoyed each of the Cool Tools sessions and learn a great deal each time.  As I stated earlier, I hope this is opened again and I can do Track 3 as there are several topics I would have loved to jump on and may if I have a bit of extra time this summer.  So thank you foe being organized and introducing us to all sorts of topics that will excite and transform our teaching!

thing 19: social reading and book stuff

I am a huge user and lover of Overdrive.  For years I had tapes then cds of books I would listen to, but with Overdrive and the digital world... it is heaven and so much easier.  I talk Overdrive up with my students every year and encourage them to try it out.  Many do, but don't stick with it.  I will keep talking it up and showing the students and teachers where to find it and how wonderful the service is.  We have it for our district as well as the public library.  I tell them about both and use both myself.  I saw a comment on the blog about using NYC's overdrive.  Oh man I will have to wait until summer vacation to really look into this as I already have a library card for the library and was using it for other resources.  This news is worth the entire online class to me!

I have looked at several other resources on the class site and loved seeing the NY resource site with a book a day along with many activities to do with children.  I shared this with my faculty this week along with http://daily.tumblebooks.com/ which just recently started.  What a fantastic idea to get people on the site every day to see what is going to be shared!

I also spent some time looking and enjoying a few book trip with Sail the Boat.  What an interesting idea.  Wish I had a thought on how to use these ones with my students, but it does give me a few thoughts on what I could explore with parts of history and even local history.  The Civil War or the Revolutionary War would be interesting to come to life on the screen with a connection to the books they are reading in the classroom...

Oh my if I look any longer at http://libraryreads.org/ my reading list or TBR pile will reach the sky.  What a wonderful resource!  This will encourage my own reading and selections for book group, but what about a similar site for children's books?  Does it exist? I would love to know... 

Updated: I did find this site:  http://www.bookologymagazine.com/.  Not exactly what I was looking for, but interesting all the same.  Not quite an online bookclub but, http://www.windingoak.com/bookclub/chapterandverse.php gives out there selection of books each month.  Can join if you lived close enough.

thing 18: online learning & personal learning plan

Well I had a rare opportunity to sit with my colleagues today to work on and learn more about gifted and talented program.  We had a wonderful instructor and now to put what we learned into action.  Well really finding the time to put what we learned into action asap so I don't forget or lose the excitement.  Being with my colleagues is always an energizing experience as I feel they have such wonderful ideas and they inspire me to do better.  Looking at how I teach and what I teach with bits and pieces from their successes has helped me tremendously.  Using them to bounce ideas off of and collaborate and find out what they are doing is a priceless part of my own personal learning plan.  With them I don't feel like I am in my own boat 100% of the time without a way to travel.  They are a wonderful bunch of smart ladies!

My hopes for a PLP are to stretch myself and continue to learn and explore new ideas whether it be through an actual class or just watching a webinar online.  I recently saw part of one on teachingbooks and was really excited to go back to this site as they have updated and added more content.  I love the idea of webinars since I can do them from home and learn about a resource I already have or something totally new.  Plus get credit from the district for PD hours.  Even though summer time goes fast, my plan is to pick a few webinars to watch and use the info this next school year.  If I already have the resource, it makes new ideas and units easier with trying things out.  EdWeb is a great resource for other ideas too.  Just keep digging and there is always something to try out.  Trying at least one new project with each grade level is a goal each year.  If I continue to learn about the world, then I feel like I can inspire the kids to want to try new things too.

New thing year to my schedule is extra enrichment classes for both 3rd and 5h.  I have considered trying both genius hour and makerspace type activities.  Once next years schedule is hammered out I will investigate both of these topics further to see if they will work in the setting I have.  Then I get to experience and grow right along with the students.

I am always willing to listen to gain knowledge for myself and the list of resources you have provided are invaluable.  Online courses and podcasts.... I guess I should set a goal of trying one "new to me" resource a month... who knows maybe I could create a new habit and grow from one a month to one a week over the next school year. 

thing 17: random tools

Tried online video maker Popcorn Maker while it was fun and easy to use, it kept having errors, so I was never able to log in, create an account or save my library movie.  It was simple to use and cool that you can search in one box and get videos, audio clips plus pictures from the web to insert in your move.  I teach the kids movie maker at school and this would be something fun to show them too.  Not if there are continual errors however... plus you need an email account to login... no school accounts that I could see which would be helpful at the elementary level.

Tried in Modzilla and seemed to work without errors.


would be fun to see my fifth graders do a quick module project with their info on Jackie Robinson or another sports figure...

Went on to Twister the place to fake tweet.  Came up with a quick something there... Twist/Tweet from Jackie Robinson.  Would be interesting to see what the kids come up with and print them out, especially after a biography unit.  Pull out an important tidbit or two and put into simplest terms.


Next I went to try out ABCya! Animate.  The kids would certainly have fun with this.  Wonder if I could do a project with body systems and have the characters tell the info about the systems.. Interesting thought.  Here is just a short one I made just trying the program...

 

 

 

Then there is the fun ACME label maker...

 

 

 

 

thing 16: Mapping & Geolocation Tools

Just spent some time playing GeoGuessr. It is very addictive.  I could use this to help teach strategy with my scholars class at the end of the year.  What do you need to look at to try and guess where in the world you are?  How should you go about determining where you have landed?  The kids will really enjoy trying to discover when they have landed.

I have used Google Maps with my second grade classes when they studied communities. We read about how communities work and then use the map to find our school and see the different views.  This might be interesting for students to use when we study different countries as well.  Or when they work on different states.  A street view would be interesting and fun for them to try. 

I took a look at SepiaTown.   There is nothing on the map for Saratoga.  It might be an interesting project for the fourth grade when studying local history to take pictures of their trip and vote on a few to add to the map that enhance the history of our town.  We could also to a little research and see if there are pictures of long ago that would work as well.

When looking at HistoryPin, there are two pictures for Saratoga.  One has a current street view.  Amazing how much it has changed in the small little piece of our town/city.  The students would enjoy seeing these little gems when they look at local history.  They can also pick another place to look at to get familiar with the website.  Might be interesting to see past and present of places they study in class. There are several paintings that are loaded in and would be good discussion starters for the kids.

thing 15: digital tatoo & digital citizenship

Love the term given to this topic!  As with most I didn't think about it this way. 

Would love to add in this unit on digital citizenship and cyberbullying with my fourth and fifth graders.  I don't think they realize what they are doing online and these few lessons are real eye openers!  We talk a little about it, but more on how to use resources.  This would really open their eyes to what they are doing, saying and writing when online.

I liked the scope and sequence on this site.  Commonsense Media has a nice array of technology skills as well and ones dedicated to our topic.  There is also a neat online passport which is free which might be a fun way to teach the kids.  A fun thing to use as the school year closes when we aren't doing a lot of book check out and there is more time to discuss.

Loved this activity about blogging with pen and paper before going online!  Very cool what for the kids to see and physically understand how it all works!  This would be a great opener when introducing blogs and blogging.

Just sat in on a meeting where one of the topics was cyberbullying and digital citizenship.  I am really going to try to squeeze in a few lessons with the first curriculum mentioned in June before they go home for the summer and spend endless time online.  I hope it will be an eye-opener and they will think twice before posting anything.

thing 14: app-apalooza

I have know about Smart Apps for Kids for a while. Over the last year or so have obtained many free apps to try out and learned about many others.  we have a limited number of iPad at schools and I have used them for one project.  I would like to integrate them into my school day more.  I have big dreams of trying library centers and having learning apps for one center.  I think the kid would be engaged and want to use that center, but finding time in an already packed fixed schedule has proved to be more than challenging.  looking for apps to use with materials I already teach might prove to be most useful.

I loved the poetry suggestions here... including Poetry Creater app and Word Mover app both of which are free and a student could use like magnetic poetry.  Could be used in a center or if students finish a project.  With more iPads these would be great for the kids to try out and share.

A few examples I was able to try... Here is Word Creator and Word Salad...



I liked how easy the apps were to move and create.  Because they were free, there isn't a huge level of choices, but enough.  Word Salad lets you type in a list and create more of the word cloud images and I was able to quickly go from one to a new version by changing amount of words, colors and layout fairly quickly.  Example is a list of my son's favorite things.  Poetry Creator let me add more words to my word draw and adjust the amount of the word "the", plus still add in 10 words of my own choice for free.  More words and options were available for a small fee, but for now, this would work.  Would be fun to attach the Ipad to the smartboard to demonstrate and have the kids show their work to all.  I also downloaded a "refrigerator magnet" app, but the words kept getting stuck which was frustrating. 

And then I stumbled across a site that had citation apps!  Oh my how cool and a great thing for the Library in your pocket folder you could create on you Ipads or Ipods!  This one is totally free!  EasyBib has you scan the barcode and it creates the entry for you!  Amazing!

A great Site I hadn't really spent time on before is.. http://www.educatorstechnology.com.  There I found a wealth of resources including a current post on Using Ipads and apps in the classroom.  Lots of tutorials and more!  When I have a few free baby minutes I will have to go back and explore more!

Wish there was more time to devote to Ipads in the library.  I was able to do a project last Sept with having the fifth graders reread a favorite picture book, write a few lines about it, record with an app, then I made a QR code to link them and posted them on the books.  Then anyone could scan the code and hear the review.  Would love to hear or learn of some quick projects and applications for Ipads in the library.  or I could brainstorm and create all summer I guess...

updated: 3/22/15 -- just saw a neat website (or really a search engine) to look for apps called app crawler.  Lets you search by device, topic, age level, free or paid and more.

thing 13: school web presence

Well, I am more of a email kind of girl when I want to get resources in people's hands, so I thought I would try out smore.com.  And create a quick spring resource fun sheet to highlight what our library has.

https://www.smore.com/app/pages/preview/9svg2

Super easy to use.  If you had all your resources gathered at your finger tips, this is super quick.  I can see how it can be addicting to make new ones and keep great resources.  Good to Pin to the schools Pinterest board (which I have created, but haven't had a chance to use at school yet.)  Plus I like to idea that it is free and printable.  I can see kids having fun creating some great posters as final projects to go along with their learning.  I would even have them use the links as their bibliography which might be challenging, but fun.  Last year I had my fifth graders working with magazines and creating a newspaper -- one sheet print off-- of a topic from their magazine.  This tool might be a step up and make it super fancy.

I have to work a little harder getting my presence heard and in the for front... I am looking forward to the infographics thing to do this as well.

thing 12: media skills

Trying out the quote maker www.quozio.com... so fun and there are endless possibilities here...

Kids could choose there favorite quote from a book they read as a small child and create a printed display for back to school night or a board meeting, gather an important quote from a current book they are reading or even write a small poem and have it displayed in this new meaningful way.  Could even have them pin it to the library's Pinterest board as an extra fun display so all my classes could see everyone's work.

Also went and played with the free photo editor on http://www.photoshop.com/.  not a hug amount of bells and whistles, but for a quick tune on a photo or turning it black and white, it would due in a pinch.  Simple enough for students to use to tweak a photo for a project.  Could see them creating a slide show of photos on a theme or for a school tour.. a day in the life of a fourth grader, etc.

Here are two that I tweaked with colors, rotating, cropping and highlighting.
Enzo at 3 months:

and Brothers:

Pushing on to graphics and word clouds as I have used wordle and tagxedo but I want to try a simpler version for my younger students to create a list of words and use the cloud on http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm.  here the students can change a few things like colors, fonts, layouts etc. 

I had my five year old son give me words for the theme he is learning about at preschool which happens to be Arctic!

here is one example from abcya:

here is the same list from tagxedo:

 

First one is super manageable for younger students, but I do like that the other can be shaped.

Thing 11: hour of code

I write this with a sleeping baby on my shoulder... some how the last few months have gotten away from me and I am heading back to work in another week.  Yikes where did the time go.  With any luck at all I can get several posts and topics done and be "somewhat" caught up as I so have enjoyed the previous cool tools workshops.

I have spent the last two days delving into "The hour of code".  I know I missed the big kick off back in December, but wanted to look into this topic with new eyes... albeit sleepy eyes.  I was interested in the "My Robot Friend".  How fantastic is this!  No computers needed and it is a great thing to have kids working in groups and talking strategy.  I can see doing this with younger kids grades 2-3 as a whole group then breaking them down into smaller groups to write the "code" and switching directions with another group to see if they figured things out.  Could have them try it in front of the room so that everyone was focused on each one.  I could also see this as an intro class for my scholars and using it as a stepping stone into other forms of coding.

From there I did the hour of code at the Khan academy.  it is set up with a short video as explanation to writing java script.  Then you as the participant get to try what you learned.  I really liked how this was set up and could see my fifth graders really having fun with it as the product is instantaneous on the screen.  a little frustrating as hey don't show everything, but I am sure they have a video to explain more of the functions on the site.  Ending the hour with a create a creature from the functions learned...

Spin-off of "Project: Wild Animal"

Made using: Khan Academy Computer Science.

Not my finest project, but I will need some more practice if I teach this to my students. 
I was also remembering teaching my 5th graders about fifteen years ago how to write HTML code to create websites and how they loved it!  Very interesting how it all comes around again.  But my knowledge of HTML has helped me many times over the years including posting code in the blog!