Just Released: YouTube Kids App!

YouTube Kids app just released last week...this will be great for our younger students!

Thank you to EdTechnocation for this great review on the new YouTube Kids App!

EdTechnocation: YouTube Kids App Review!

Mrs. Yoder's 6th Grade Book Talks

Art for Kids Hub

It is February in Kansas and we are getting sick of indoor recess at the elementary school!  

A few months ago I showed you GoNoodle.  

Here is another option to keep those kiddos busy...

Art for Kids Hub.  A dad and his 3 kids (8, 4, and 2) draw, color, paint, cut, and glue 

in an interactive and fun way while teaching kids.  

Here are a couple popular examples of his videos:

Miss Wiebe's Colonial Williamsburg Pages Letters

Aurasma App: Augmented Reality

What is augmented reality?  

Augmented reality is... "a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view."

It is popping up all over, watch for it in magazines, on posters, signs, etc.  

Many companies are using it for advertising.

Use an app, such as Aurasma to see the computer-generated images.

Mrs. Yoder and I are using Aurasma in our Advanced Technology class at the middle school.  Our students are creating "auras".  You can link them to anything and this one is pretty neat of our student reading a book:

Here is a great article from ISTE on more ways to use augmented reality in your classroom:

Worksheets for the Digital Age

Mrs. Jost's 7th Grade Language Arts Skypes with Dean Dahlsten

7th graders in Mrs. Jost's class are reading the book "A Long Walk to Water".  

"Two young people in Sudan. One is Nya, who walks to fetch the water for her family twice a day, every day - to a pond that is two hours from their village. The other is Salva, who is walking away from his war-torn village to find safety, and to try to reunite with his family. His journey will take several years, across Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. Theirs are two very different journeys of survival that will intersect in a heartwarming and remarkable way."

Dean Dahlsten, a recent grad of Hesston High School and 

son of HHS Math teacher Mark Dahlsten traveled to Kenya for a water filtration project.

Dean Skyped in with our students to talk about his experience and answer questions.

Mr. Graverson's and Mr. Enns' Music Apps

Mr. Graverson and Mr. Enns use apps such as EverMusic to have students in their music classes record themselves singing or playing their instruments and then turn in the assignment through Google Drive! A quick and easy way to get student work...you could use it in many ways including self reflection, speeches, or podcasting.

Miss Wiebe's 5th Grade Adobe Voice

Miss Wiebe's 5th Graders created videos using the app 

Adobe Voice to tell their story about life as a slave.  

We love it because it is so easy to use!

It is great for elementary students as well because 

the pictures are from a bank of images in the app.

See Miss Wiebe's tutorial here or by scanning the QR code
(she placed it right on her assignment page...smart!):



Students had to complete the assignment sheet in order to be approved to use the app.
Here was their writing prompt:

You have to watch one of our 5th grader's creative videos here:

Mrs. Jaworsky's 6th Grade Flipped Math Classroom

Mrs. Jaworsky recently spent a week "flipping her classroom" in 6th grade Math.  Flipped classroom teaching "inverts traditional teaching outside the classroom and brings homework inside the class".  Knewton.com has a great info-graphic on what a flipped classroom is...see below.

So far, the feedback from students AND parents has been very positive.  The students don't feel frustrated at home trying to remember how to do the homework problems, instead they are able to receive the instruction at home and then come to class to do the problems where they are able to receive direct help from the teacher.  The teacher is able to see who is struggling and is able to work with small groups.

Here is what Mrs. Jaworsky had to say about her week with the flipped classroom:
"I recorded myself teaching the lesson using my document camera so the students could see "how" I solved the problems.  I posted the video on my teacher page on the school website.  Students' HW was to watch the video and complete a notes page (3 things I learned, 2 things I found interesting, and 1 question I still have).  I told them in the video to pause at various points and gave them a problem to try on their notes page.  We could then discuss these problems the following day.  

In class on the following day, I had the students share their learning and get their questions answered through various CL structures.  We then had the opportunity to practice working through some of the problems/examples in small groups since they already knew the process.

For those students who said they didn't have Internet at home, they had the option of watching the video during LS, before school, or over lunch.  Very few students came to class without watching the videos."

View some of her videos on her teacher webpage at ms.hesstonschools.org of how she teachers her students. I linked one of the videos below.  There are a lot of instructional videos already online you could use to support your instruction, however keep in mind students do say they prefer to watch their own teacher.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

February 13, 2015 School Improvement Tech Tools Training

Friday's School Improvement Day included my presentation of Tech Tools. Below are some of the things we discussed. Remember, all of my resources can be found at my livebinder: http://www.livebinders.com/edit/index/171229# or by going to livebinders.com and searching for Hansen. I added a new tab for the School Improvement day as well as put them in their perspective tab. Please let me know if you would like to incorporate any of the things we discussed!

RESOURCES:

1. Livebinders
2. NeoK12
3. WatchKnowLearn
4. Educade
5. Graphite
6. Khan Academy
7. gregtangmath.com (K-8) (Lacey’s father-in-law’s site): famous for kahooma
8. engageny.org
9. GeoBoard (Math): http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/web-apps/geoboard/
10. Graphing Stories (Math) http://www.graphingstories.com/
11. http://powermylearning.org/
12. Quick, easy online jeopardy game: http://www.jeopardy.rocks/

COLLABORATE:

1. Padlet http://padlet.com/
2. Popplet http://popplet.com/
3. TodaysMeet  www.todaysmeet.com
4. Lino http://en.linoit.com/
5. http://socrative.com/
6. Bubbl.us  https://bubbl.us/  

CREATE:

1. PinWords http://www.pinwords.com/  Add text to your images
2. PicMonkey http://www.picmonkey.com/ Photo Collages
3. YouTube Capture  
4. ThingLink (App & Website)
5. EduClipper (White Board App)
6. EduCreations (White Board App)
7. Prezi (App & Site)
8. Adobe Voice (movie)
9. Avatars:
1. Tellagami
2. Voki
10. BigHugeLabs
11. Animoto (movie)
12. Smore (interactive flyers)
13. Videolicious (App)
14. Book Creator (App)
15. Animoto
16. GoAnimate
17. Capzle
18. PowToons
19. StoryJumper
20. ShowMe
21. Popplet

SKYPE IN THE CLASSROOM:

1. Novascotia Paleontologist 1st Grade (Dinosaur Unit)
2. Kindergarten Marine Biologist
3. 1st Grade London Zoo
4. Civil Rights Movement...Paula Young Shelton
5. Holocaust Survivor 8th Grade LA Diary of Anne Frank
6. Weatherman
7. Mystery Skypes-Geography
8. Mystery Skype # Game-3rd
9. FairyTale Skype-3rd, collaborated and wrote a story across 5 states
10. World Read Aloud Day
11. Authors
12. Experts in the Field
13. Other classes

YOUTUBE:

1. YouTube Capture
2. ViewPure
3. SafeShare
4. Teacher Accounts

WORKFLOW/TOOLS:

1. QR Codes:
1. qrstuff.com
2. qrcreator
3. scavenger hunts
4. quick way to get websites to kids
5. answer check system
6. book trailers

Quizlet: Mr. Rewerts & Mrs. Simpson

We have talked about Quizlet before and I know many of you (such as Mrs. Simpson and Mr. Rewerts) are using it as an additional resource in your classrooms.  I have had recent conversations with parents/students about Quizlet and how much their child loves using it to study.  If you haven't checked it out yet, you should!  Students love it because it is like they are playing a game, including the competition aspect against their peers.  Students can use flash cards, questions, test, scatter, and races (all like games) to learn your content.  Content is easily and quickly created and uploaded to your class site so students can access it by searching.

Miss Wiebe's 5th grade Virtual Valentines

From Miss Wiebe: "...I recently came across a blog post about Virtual Valentine's (and I have been wanting to connect with schools across our nation and world in general) so I've been having my MTSS kids work on this project. Here is my blog post with most of the Virtual Valentine's my kids created.  

We gave them freedom to use whatever app/website they wanted to create with. 

These are going to be shared with schools around the world (the locations are still a mystery to my kids)."

Check out all of her virtual valentines here: http://5thgradelivin.blogspot.com/

Here is where we got the idea for the project:

...and here is a classroom where some of the Valentines are being sent!

You have to watch their virtual valentine to us!
http://youtu.be/EZdDgLvmC3U

Mrs. Worcester's K-8 Math Site: GregTangMath

Mrs. Worcester recently shared her father-in-law's wonderful math site gregtangmath.com.  The site includes his best known puzzle, Kakooma as well as his word problem generator.  Check out all his resources including games and books for K-8 math!

Here is what Greg said about the word problems:

Mrs. Becker's HS Human Body Systems Physiology Project

High School students in Mrs. Becker's Human Body Systems class created a storyline using "Story Board That" to create a storyline that put a person in a situation without air, water, and food.  Students had to demonstrate what the physiology of what the human body goes through without these necessities. 

Mrs. Becker's HS Human Body Systems Movement Analysis Project

Students in Mrs. Becker's HS Human Body Systems created a project explaining movement analysis.  Students created a video using iMovie or "Ubersense" (a coaches tool) to label actions the action (such as elbow flexion) while showing an example of the movement.

Mrs. Abrahams: 2nd Grade "Oldster" App

2nd grade students in Mrs. Abrahams' class used the "Oldster" app on an iPad to add an "old" image of themselves to their "When I'm 100" writing for the 100th day of school.  Students of course loved the app and it added quite the excitement to their writing piece.  Also, on a side note, if you read below, apparently the first thing my son Blake would like to do when he is 100 years old is jump rope!

3rd Grade Kansas Communities ThingLinks

3rd Grades used the ThingLink App to create interactive presentations about Kansas Communities.  After researching about their town, students took an image of their community using a Kansas Read card and linked interactive "hotspots" to the image, including text hotspots with facts about the community. Students produced a script discussing their community and recorded it using the video hotspot.

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/617365249502216194

Mr. Woodward, Mr. Richardson & Mrs. Robertson's 8th Grade Career Unit

8th Graders finished up their 6 week long Career Unit last week.  Students completed a Numbers Worksheet calculating their monthly budget expenses, a monthly budget pie graph including items such as discretionary expenses and taxes, and gave a presentation using a presentation tool of their choice such as Keynote, Prezi, or EMaze.  They opened up the career fair for their parents, other students, and other teachers.

Adapted Mind

Recently at our curriculum meetings, Darla shared an excellent math resource for your K-6 math classroom...adaptedmind.com.