Collaborative Tech/Buddy Project -Word Clouds

     Ashley Rockey and I wanted to try a tech project that our 1st and 4th graders could work on collaboratively.  We decided to have them create Word Clouds. We used the site http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm.  It is pretty simple to use.  Before doing this project together, I had my 4th graders practice using it first.  We were studying adverbs in our reading unit, so I had them make a list of adverbs and put them together in a Word Cloud.  It worked well to have them try it first before using it with their 1st grade buddy.  There are a couple of examples of their Adverb Word Clouds below.  We printed them in black in white (saving the color ink for our buddy project).
     We met with our buddies today.  Even though it was a bit cramped in the computer labs with around 45 kiddos, it went pretty well.  The kids all came into the lab with a list of words or phrases about Rousseau School.  We thought this would be a great Word Cloud to create since we are getting ready to celebrate Rousseau's 50th anniversary on Sunday.  They took turns typing the words and phrases and helped each other spell the words correctly.  The 4th graders knew how to use the ~ symbol to put words together. The students did a good job of collaborating on this fun project!  It would be great to work with our new buddies again!

Tech Project - Quizizz

     I tried Quizizz, and I really like it as an other option for formative assessment. My favorite thing is that there are many features such as taking away the time element and students being able to do it at their own pace.  The first Quizizz I made was for my math class.  I made a chapter test review.  I wanted to have kids each have a device so they could take it on their own, but due to testing I was unable to make this happen.  I did end up using my iPad to "run" the Quiz, and played the game on my computer.  Pairs of students had marker boards and were able to work the problems, discussing them with their partner.  It actually worked quite well!  I like that they were able to discuss the answers and show their work.  They enjoyed the interactivity of the quiz as well as the funny "Memes" after each question.  I used my Name Selector app to have one student come up and choose the correct answer for the class.
    This morning, I quickly made a  Quiz izz using our grammar lesson on Adverbs.  I had partners take the quiz at their own pace.  It was a great way to check their understanding.  They, too, really liked moving at their own pace and the fun "Memes" that popped up when they got the answer correct.

Collaborative Project - Socrative and Educreations

        I was blessed to have Carin and Carlie help me with a couple of projects in my math class this week!  I wanted to have my diff math students create math questions to get ready for the NESA test.  I paired them up and assigned them each a chapter or two from our math curriculum.  We started by having them write their questions on paper.  This was not an easy task for them.  They used the textbook or notes to write their questions.  We talked about writing a good question, especially multiple choice.  They had to write at least one of each of the three question types.  Having the worksheet set up just like it is in Socrative was helpful (see below).  I also had to read through the questions to check for accurate answers (and good questions).  Some kids had to make some corrections before they were ready to type.

     On that day that Carlie and Carin came, I worked with three groups at a time to type their questions.  I used all three of our teacher accounts. (It didn't seem to work to have multiple people using one Socrative account at the same time.   We then ended up with three different quizzes. Carlie and Carin each took 1 group at a time and worked with them to create a short video of one of their problems using Educreations.  We ended up with two different videos.  I am posting them on our 4th grade website. Tomorrow during class we will alternate between playing the Socrative games and watching the videos.  I plan to do student paced since that seemed to work best the last time.  The students are pretty excited to play the games that they created as well as watch their videos!  I'll have to post more after class tomorrow.

     All in all, I think this was a great project.  I know I wouldn't have been able to do this all by myself.  I think after using Socrative once, I could send individuals or pairs to work on this a bit more independently.  I'm not sure if they are ready to use Educreations on their own or not.  It is certainly a great way to check for understanding.  I know that Carin noticed a few kiddos that needed a bit of reteaching before they were ready to make their video.  Here are the links to the two Educreations Videos. 

Carin's group            Carlie's Group

     

Tech Integration - Socrative Decimal Review

     In preparation for having my students use Socrative to make 4th grade math review questions, I made a decimal review quiz.  I used the Teacher paced mode, and we went through the questions one at a time which worked fine, but took a while.  I did want to review the information and by seeing how the students did on each question as we went, I was able to immediately review missed questions and discuss misconceptions.
     One issue with Socrative was with short answer questions.  The computer was a bit picky as to what it would count correct (as you might imagine).    I didn't have a big problem with this as I could easily read their answers and let them know if they were right, but the students didn't like it if the computer counted their answer wrong. Another issue was that when you are in Teacher paced mode, it tells you when all students have answered, but it didn't always seem accurate.
      After playing once in Teacher paced mode, we played again where it was student paced, and I had the questions go in random order. They really liked this mode (self-paced). 
      I like all the options that Socrative offers.  I think the more I "play" with this site, the more I will figure out other great ways to use it when I have computers up and running with kiddos.

Thinking Skills and Creativity, ISTE Standards

     The article on Thinking Skills and Creativity emphasizes the importance of collaboration and the power of improvisation. It says that schools need to educate students for creativity. Schools need to provide students with "opportunities to engage in collaborative knowledge building activities through disciplined improvisations." Students will need to be taught how to "engage in effective collaborative discussion."    A sentence at the end of the article especially concerned me. It says  "In many large U.S. urban school districts, schools have taken an opposite tack - toward scripted curricula that are teacher-proofed, removing all possibility for improvisational action."  That seems to be the direction we are going.
      When evaluation the ISTE Standards, ISTE defines creativity as constructing knowledge and developing innovative products and processes using technology.  It includes applying existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, and processes as well as creating original works, using models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues and identifying trends and forecast possibilities. We can certainly facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by teaching them a variety of technology tools, apps,  and websites.  We can then provide them with opportunities to choose and use the tools that they have learned to create a project related to their curriculum (math, reading, writing, social studies, science, etc.).  The biggest factors that would help facilitate this learning would be having more time to do these projects as well as the technological devices available for students (we are headed in this direction!)
     One project that we had our students complete last quarter was related to writing and persuasive essays. The students used Kidspiration to create a graphic organizer which would summarize their persuasive essay and also would be used when giving their persuasive presentation. They also typed their final copy of the persuasive essay on Google docs and added relevant images.  I'll look at this project and relate it to the 6 standards.
     1. Creativity and Innovation- they created an original work, but it followed a model. A new product wasn't created nor were trends identified.
     2. Communication and Collaboration - this project was certainly used to communicate, but each student created their own, so it wasn't necessarily collaborative.  It was one form of media and only engaged with their classmates.
     3. Research and information fluency - Through the persuasive essay, they did do some research to find facts and statistics to support their reasons.
     4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making - The students did some critical thinking when choosing their persuasive essay topic where they identified an authentic problem. They did collect and analyze some data when looking for facts and examples to support their reasons.
      5. Digital Citizenship - Students did need to demonstrate digital citizenship when researching their topic and using technology to create their organizer as well as when typing their final copy. They added used the web to add images to their final copy.
     6. Technology operations and Concepts - Students needed to use Google docs to type their persuasive essay  using the research function to find images (came back to this on multiple occasions). They also used Kidspiration (Mac computers in library) to create their graphic organizer.  There is always much troubleshooting when using both the Dell computers in our cart and the Macs in the media center.  Printing is different on each device.

Screencast - Educreations

For my screencast, I used Educreations.  I chose to teach the grammar skill for the week, comparing adjectives using more and most.  It took me a few tries to get the recording right (there doesn't seem to be a undo or "back" button for recording), but overall, I was pleased with how it turned out.  It worked well to take a screen shot of the grammar worksheet from the Wonders book to use for a few slides.  I had the slides ready to go so that I could annotate them as I recorded the video. https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/u5w4-grammar-more-or-most/30115912/?s=5hs2Qs&ref=app

I had students watch the screencast during independent work time during guided reading groups.  I made a jump code (PCOV) to it as well as posting it on our 4th grade website.   I had them use headphones to watch and listen.  At the end, for formative assessment, I had them write a sentence that included a comparison statement.  I had them turn in the sentence that was written on a notecard, and  I was able to give them immediate feedback. I would definitely do something like that each time. The students seemed to enjoy watching the video, and 4 minutes was a good length of time.

All in all, it worked well!  I would consider trying it again.  I don't think I could assign it as homework like in the flipped classroom video because not all of my students have internet access at home, but it did work to use during independent work time.  I could see using this process to teach a math lesson, especially if a skill needs to be pretaught.

Graphic Organizers

I tried Popplet Lite. I really like this app. It was very easy to use. I'm sure my 4th graders would catch on quickly. It was easy to insert photos from the camera roll of the iPad. You can also draw sketches

 ( mine look pretty bleak, but you get the idea).it was easy to change colors, connect boxes, etc. 

 I tried two different types of organizers. One would be more of a topic brainstorm. I focused on the genre of personal narratives. It would be great if students had their own personal photos to use. You could also use photos from shared classroom experiences.  

The second organizer I made would be more of a story map. I arranged the boxes to show rising action, climax, etc. students could use words, sketches, or both to map out their story. I think it would work very well and would be motivating. It's easy to email as a PDF or JPEG. Popplets can also be saved to your camera roll. 

I wish this app had an audio recording feature like was mentioned in the article . I like the idea of students being able to tell their stories verbally and refer back to it. We do quite a bit of story "talk", but I've never experimented with recording and saving the story. We 

Since this is an app and not a website, it would work best if you had a class set of iPads. One of the other graphic organizers that I looked into was Lucidchart which is web-based. You set up an account which can be accessed from any device. 

Our 4th graders just finished creating graphic organizers for their persuasive essay presentations. We used a Mac application called Kidspiration. It works great!  Our media specialist helped our students work on these since we don't have a mobile Mac cart. It is not web-based, so kids do need to go back to their same computer to complete their work. The product prints very nicely and looks very professional!