So my grade 6s are half way through completing their gothic apps. These will showcase the work they have done in both English and Humanities, and will include a glossary, a research piece and even an interactive map. I have been using AppShed to create the apps. It's a very simple and easy to use program and you can get a lot of support online, including through their Basic Course on YouTube.
Once again I have created some MoveNote presentations, to talk students/educators through adding maps and adding links to their app. Below the presentation there is a downward arrow - click this to download the presentation. Feel free to use it and to change it in anyway you want.
You can find the rest of my AppShed Resources on my TES Page. If you want any help, support or trips, or if you'd like to see the apps students have created, feel free to email or tweet me.
At the start of the year we were tasked with doing aPersonal Learning Projectwith a colleague. I partnered up with our wonderful art teacher, Sue Dance, to do a project using Google Forms to increase homework participation and quality. [You can read a rather lengthy post about our original plan here.]
This video talks about the research project. I find it so funny to watch, because our use of forms as evolved so much since we started!
Our project evolved in multiple ways. Sue now uses the forms for reflections for trips to art gallery and self and peer-assessment. I use it for assessment pieces and for students to turn in work. Along the way we have used it for students to model good practice to each other, to reflect on class debates, to discuss their participation and responsibilities for group work...and everything in between!
Here are some videos I made explaining some of the ways I used Google Forms:
Google Forms for Self-Assessment
Google Forms for Turning in Work
At the moment I am just using forms for turning in work, for assessments (with the rubric thrown right in the form) and also for small pieces of homework, like responses to videos. I am sure however this will evolve too! The forms did help us meet some of our original aims, but through this project we have found a whole load of other useful ways to use them. We have also found that certain types of forms suit certain types of tasks and students, so we are using them if and when we need them.
and lastly...a Stop Motion I made about Google Forms...where I tried to fit into one minute loads of different ways we use Google Forms - excuse the incredibly fast talking!
Please let me know other ways you are using Google Forms - and please highlight any new add-ons you have been using. You can leave a comment on this post, or send me a tweet.
An email I sent to my colleagues about MoveNote this morning:
MoveNote is a fantastic tool which allows you to present your Google Slides/Presentations - along with a little video! I created a video to send to Emily, in Australia, this morning, to keep her informed about what we are doing in technology class.
I've also created a video showing the game taboo I play often with the students. The video is aimed at other educators and explains the different variations of the game too. This is fantastic way of sharing your resources and lessons with other educators! This tool is fantastic and I will use it if I am ever absent to help with cover work. You can either create a full video to present to the students when you are away - or even a video to talk through the slides to whoever is taking your class! You could even use it to show off some of the lessons you have been doing with your students, to parents! This might be useful too for languages, as you can give extra help with pronunciation! Or you could use it to give feedback to students or presentations they have created!
For Librarians it would be great to provided training resources for students and staff, to introduce competitions and events, and to help students navigate different resources they use.
I've also made a quick MoveNote explaining how to play the game Taboo. I also talk about different versions you can create to support different students and different subjects. At the end of the year I am going to create a version for each grade which will allow them to reflect on everything they have learnt over the year in technology, funny things that have happened in class, school wide events, etc!
[If you want me to share them with you through Drive just send me a message missedutton@gmail.com or tweet me @missedutton They are in my drive and my school drive, but will have them organised into one place soon!]
Experimenting with MoveNote! I added this to my Google Drive through the Chrome Webstore. This allows you to present your notes along side your Google Slides, and then viewers can download the slides! I have seen this style of video a lot on YouTube and thought it would be quite tricky to do. I thought you would make your first video screen grab, then add in an extra video on iMovie - it all seemed like a bit of a chore to me! BUT this is really easy! I made a video to show how students added a map to their Apps in AppShed! You can download the slides from the link too!
[bad face! I am a bit poorly, so sound very nasal/grumpy-Sorry!]
MoveNote is super easy to use! Well happy. You just add it to Drive in the chrome
A bit sad that I can't put it on YouTube though - but I guess that is because it allows people to download a PDF of the slides I present.
I am now going to make a video for a student who is in Australia for three weeks - I'll knock up a quick slide to tell her about the work students have been doing and how she can join in from abroad.
A long list of educational videos! This list needs a little working on, as I need to include more subject areas and I need to add more descriptions. Please send me other great websites and YouTube channel.
I touched on this in my last video, but wanted to show exactly how I am using Google Forms for students to turn in work. I have just used this with a class and it has made my life os much easier. Not only do all students acknowledge that the work is their own, that they have used the MLA referencing style for all citations, have a space to write down any issues or concerns, but I have link to each of their pieces of work, (be it a Google Doc, Audio, Visual, etc). I can add any extra column to the form to tick of completed work. This has made my life so much easier already!
A couple of people from The Day came to visit us and wrote this fantastic blog post about the debate club at my school. In truth we use The Day a lot. We have the Thought of the Day sent out in our morning notes email, students write a opinion piece/response to an article in their English class once a week and we often use articles to support different lessons, especially PSE! I also try to use the articles when I am getting students to do research or if I am getting them to practice their referencing skills.
It’s 3:25pm and the end of the day at the Halcyon London International School, an innovative young school offering the International Baccalaureate in the heart of London. But rather than rushing off home, students are flocking excitedly to a breezy room at the top of the building for their debate class. There’s noise and grins all round as classmates arrive, with friendly rivalries exchanged and past triumphs recounted – ‘We’re gonna beat you this time, Scott!’ – but within minutes the chatter is replaced by a quiet, determined focus on the debate of the day: ‘This house would make food technology compulsory in both primary and secondary schools.’
So I am coming to the end of the staff personal learning projects. Myself and Ms. Dance have been doing a project using Google Forms. I'll post a round up of the things we learnt after we have presented to our colleagues. Just as we are coming to the end Google launch Add-Ons and I discover Flubaroo! Doh!
Flubaroo is a great tool which marks your Google Forms for you! Obviously this means you can't really have Google Forms where students give lengthy answers, so I would not use it for assessments, but it is great to check that they have watched a video properly or learnt the key facts from a unit. I am going to create a lot of information literacy, library and research skills forms, as well as some silly trivia forms. I am also going to definitely use it to help me flip the classroom, and probably place videos right in the form.
Flubaroo not only marks your forms for you, but it can tell you the average score, highlight students with a low score and it will even email all participants for you! AMAZING.
Google Docs has added a new feature called 'Add-Ons'
A very useful one for students, teachers and librarians is the Easy-Bib Add-on. Instead of jumping between tabs, you can now create your bibliography inside the document - it's super easy.
I've made a quick video to show you how to use it:
I know it will save me time and I hope it will save you time too!
We've started our robot unit with grade 9 students and I just showed them this video.
We discussed how the Open Source Movement fits in with the ethos of the school and the International Baccalaureate. Students also spent a bit of time researching to find the coolest products they could! Our favourite was the REAL LIFE FLAPPY BIRDS!
I wanted to share some of the ways I am using Google Forms to help students to turn in work and to self assess. Using Google Forms has helped students take more ownership over their work and has made them feel more accountable. Forms have saved me lots of time and have made my marking and teaching easier!
I am new to teaching technology. I have worked as a librarian in my last two schools, primary and secondary - both state schools, but I am now the Digital Librarian and Technology teacher, at an International School in the heart of London. Technology has helped me connect with educators across the globe, helping me to be supported and giving me constant inspiration! I posted a bit on here and Twitter about the Cardboard Challenge I am taking part in and have been sent a couple of cool things within a day!
Firstly the Inspiration Foundation are hopefully going to be connecting me with a school in America who are also doing the Cardboard Challenge. I am hoping students can share their ideas via a Skype call!
Secondly Ed Charlwood sent me a link to this Design Modelling site - It has some great ideas for using cardboard and is exactly the sort of resources I need.
If anyone knows of any other great technology / design and technology blogs, please send them my way!
Yesterday I passed the basics course to become a Google Educator. I then spent the afternoon/evening revising and took the Level 2 exam on Docs&Drive. The revision tools were really useful, but did repeat themselves a bit. Also some of the videos are a bit out of date, as Google is constantly updating its tools - even some of the terminology has changed.
Overall it was extremely helpful and I wanted to point out two particularly good videos.
Hate Grading Essays a Little Less with Google Forms
I have been doing a personal learning project with another teacher all about the use of Google Forms in our classrooms. We have used it to flip the classroom, give feedback on products, reflect on trips...and now I have just moved onto using it as tool for self assessment. Before this video I was putting screen grabs of the rubric into the form, then having text questions below. Now that I have watched this video, I will use the grid style! There are lots of little tricks and tips in this video and I can't wait to watch more. I have even signed up to Google Gooru's newsletter - so should be receiving lots of rad Google ideas via email from now on!
Google Slides
When I started playing this video I was a bit hesitant and thought it wouldn't be so good. The video is delivered with quite a flat voice, but there is still enthusiasm there. There have been a few things which have bothered me about Slides/Presentations and I really thought there was no way to animate objects on a page. I only discovered the transitions between pages recently and thought you could only do this through setting a time when you publish! I also knew about the different places you could search for images (Google, Life and Stock Images], but haven't played about with it much since. After watching this video I feel inspired and will be making some awesome presentations, with picture backgrounds, found from life, mad transitions between screens and animated objects. Be warned - I might go a bit over the top!
I have four more courses to complete before I am a Google Educator. I'll post some of the other great videos I discover during the lessons.
P.S. I spent the whole afternoon studying and only realised as I went to take the test, that it would cost me money. Although it is only $15...its really $75, as you have to take five tests. I am currently paying off university fees for both my degree and masters, my laptop fees, saving up to move house...and also living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, so was a little disappointed by this. I was quite shocked that there was a fee, as Google is all about the free sharing of information. I also believe that there shouldn't be barriers to education. I know that a lot of people won't be able to afford it, even when pay day rolls around - especially teaching assistants and librarians. I hope that Google reconsider this fee and scrap it! The fee is mentioned in the summary for the certification, but should be a little more visible
This term Grade 8 are taking part in our own Cardboard Challenge. Inspired by the film Caine's Arcade, students will design and make their own arcade games and they will organise, promote and run an event. Students will create posters linked to recycling, asking students and staff to donate any cardboard packaging. Our room will be decorated, with cardboard decorations too! Students will also look at the business element of the arcade - how many tickets should people be able to win? What prizes should be on offer? How much should games cost to play?
Today we watched the following two videos:
After students put themselves in small groups and started discussing ideas. They were buzzing with excitement and students worked through the break sketching out ideas and discussing the practical issues of their games. In the next lesson students will be working on a presentation to show off their initial ideas. Their homework will be to create a poster advertising their unit, the videos and asking for cardboard donations! I will get them to also write notes to go out in a school wide email and a parent newsletter and they will also plan a film screening! Students will aim to raise money for the Imagination Foundation, so will also make promotional material for this.
This unit is very exciting and pretty much runs itself! I am excited to see what they will produce and will show off their creations here!
If anyone else is running a Cardboard Challenge, let me know, as we would like to partner with some other schools- possibly through Skype?
I use Google tools every day - especially the calendar, Gmail, Docs and Drive... However I have been a bit slow with getting on board with Google+. I am aiming to start using it more often as I think it is a great way to share ideas with others - something which has changed my life completely through Twitter! I know that Google+ has the potential to improve my teaching practice greatly, so I need to pull my finger out and get on it.
I actually have three Google accounts, my personal one, work one and a professional one, but have decided to stick to using just my profressional one. You can add me here.
If anyone has any tips for using Google+ please send them my way!
I was asked by our lovely Science teacher to help her grade 7s with creating bibliographies for an essay they were writing. The particular push they needed was to understand how to cite images properly. We use the MLA Referencing style, which means we can use EasyBib for FREE! I have an EasyBib tutorial video on YouTube, which sits in the students Library iTunesU course and has been sent out in school newsletters several times. We also use Britannica Schools and Britannica Image Quest - these give you the reference right in the article or next to the image! Easy Peasy!
I created a short presentation to try to explain some of the reasons we need to reference in a positive way. Far too often these sort of lessons tend to warn students off plagiarism and make students afraid to use other people's work, so I tried to move away from this, even showing them how to reference your own work!
Here are some screen grabs from the presentation. There is a link to the presentation on TES here. I can also make the Google Doc available to you if you want.
Hopefully this explains itself. There are a few sections which were meant to start a class dicussion, such as "how do I know if a source is reliable." At the end I created a bibliography, showing all the images I used. I refered to this bibliography several times in the presentation. I am also creating a bibliography for every presentation I deliver, to any grade, so I can lead by example!
Here's what we did:
Period 2 - Students had a Literay Inspired Breakfast! Parents came along too! Period 3 - We had a readathon, with students reading books, magazines, newspapers and e-books, in our lovely bean bags Period 4 - The whole school watched a live stream of an event with the fantastic Robert Muchamore
Students all got so involved and really enjoyed the day - as did parents and staff!
Student also recieved a goodie bag containing Garfield Bookmarks, 'Books are Magic' pencils and their WBD vouchers!
Some food prepared by our students:
The room:
and Robert Muchamore!
Did you know if you buy his WBD book in a WH Smith you will get a free plectrum!!!
I am so excited to introduce our grade 8 and 9 students to the Google Science Fair 2014!
I have made a quick Google presentation, which other people are free to use. The website itself is really straight forward and easy to use, so students will have no time navigating it. I just wanted to make a linear presentation as it is easier to show a big group of students.
Feel free to use and enjoy!
Also on TES!
The site has no many similarities to the MYP/IB curriculum, linking up to different subject criteria, key concepts and the IB Areas of Interaction/Global Context - it can even be used as part of their Community and Service! LOVE IT!
I have uploaded a very simple coding lesson. this could be used as a stand alone lesson or you could expand it to make it run over a few different lessons. I actually used a similar lesson for cover when I was off sick, but changed it, so that anyone can use it.
It is available on TES as a PowerPoint or a PDF. ENJOY!
If you have any difficulties with this, please let me know, I am always happy to help!
This lesson should be self explanatory and students should understand the sites straight away.
Also all websites used can be used on the iPad or on a computer.
I put an extension where students could use Light-Bot - Light-Bot is an app, not a website, so only available for iPad users.
