Visual Learning Tools Adobe Spark is an engaging, creative and fun way to generate a presentation. The presentation I created was for my fourth-grade class and my objective was to get them to infer what four things you need to focus on to infer what your character’s traits are. Take a look and see what you think below: spark.adobe.com/video/uMyHxG4HgpigU I created this presentation to show the students what I wanted them to do in their own presentation using the current book they are reading. Students will be required to list the four types of ways to infer character traits and cite evidence from their current book to show understanding of the concept in Adobe Spark. Students will then use this, or another means of presentation like Haiku Deck, to work on a PBL project in their book clubs. Students will be using a PBL I found from PBL Works. They will be working to create a set of shared criteria for a highly effective genre of the book club’s choice. Then work as a team to create their own story that includes these elements. This project will cover many standards and include differentiation using creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. I will also teach about copyright and Creative Commons and make sure each group is citing resources they are using. They need to understand it is important to give ownership to people’s work and not claim it as their own. Jennifer Gonzalez of the Cult of Pedagogy, just came out with a great article on Teaching Students How to Legally Use Images Online. Check it out! Productivity Tools There are many tools for students and teachers alike to use to increase their productivity. I focused mainly on Microsoft office 365 because we are a Microsoft school. Please see the screencast below for my evaluation of these tools. https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cqnZb10j References: Adobespark, 2019. www.adobespark.com Gonzalez, Jennifer. (2019, February 24). Retrieved from www.cultofpedagogy.com Haiku Deck, 2019. https://www.haikudeck.com/ PBL Works, 2019. https://my.pblworks.org/
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I began using Twitter in 2012, I use it for two reasons. One, to follow other educators and get valuable ideas to increase my knowledge of subject matters that are of interest. The second reason, is to post the activities my class is doing. This keeps parents up-to-date and to build a network of community and collaboration. There are many ways to use Twitter, as stated before, I like to use it for getting professional development when I need it. There are so many amazing educators out there and being able to look at their feed or type in a hashtag for a particular area and find new strategies to implement a skill, is lifesaving. Being able to connect with other teachers makes solving problems easier and teaching manageable. Inspiring colleagues to follow are @JenRoberts1, @Cultofpedagogy, @WeAreTeachers, @tonyvincent. These are just a few of my favorites. Check them out!
In the article 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom, Samantha Miller discusses how to use Twitter in the classroom, saying it is a great way to connect classrooms from around the world. I never thought of using Twitter in this fashion, but it seems like a great way to get students from around the globe talking and collaborating. Podcasts I previewed several podcasts, including the ones mentioned above. I really like The Cult of Pedagogy podcast for all things "teacher." She is very knowledgeable with great ideas that sometimes we forget about! She speaks to strategies in the classroom, communication with parents, teacher language, tech tools etc.. Many great ideas and attainable, which is important. I looked for a new podcast for students and found Grammar Girl. I chose this because I teach Language Arts. I began listening and some of it would be useful for fourth graders, so I may use that for a few lessons. I also found a podcast on a word of the day by Webster's Dictionary, I really liked this because my students really need to expand their vocabulary. I just wish I could find one that focused on 4th grade. I may incorporate the vocabulary podcast into our writing and have the students use the new words they learned in writing their essay. These podcasts can be used in the classroom in many ways as stated before and definitely used for supporting students with different learning needs. The beauty of these podcasts is that students can listen to them again and again. This lets those students get the extra repetition they need. The podcast I created is for my writing class. I then posted it to their One Note account so they can refer to it when needed. I am going to try and keep up with weekly podcasts on writing and see if this may help some of them. They really were excited about it and want me to teach them how to create a podcast. Little did they know, I was going to do that anyway! I can really see how using and creating podcast engages the student in being a creative, collaborative and critical thinker, teaching them important communication skills. References: Bradbury, Jeffrey. (2018, July) Why We Should Podcast With Students? Learning through SAMR, Bloom's and the 4 C's. Miller, Samatha. (2017) 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom. |
Shelly WoodsLearn-a-holic, lover of books, dogs and travel. :) Welcome to my blog. Archives
April 2019
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