Using a Green Screen in your classroom...

Have you ever thought of ways to use a green screen in your classroom? Well, if not, maybe you should! All you have to do is set up a green or blue background and have a camera or a phone/tablet with the Do Ink app.

Do Ink is $2.99 and with this app you can easily create green screen videos right from your iPad. The app lets you combine photos, videos,
or live images from your iPad's camera.
Video tutorial here

Using a green screen in your classroom opens you and your students up to endless possibilities. Envision all of the places around the world you could take you students when doing virtual field trips! Students get super excited over using the green screen and any grade level can learn to use it! Imagine how creative your students can be using a green screen and how much awesomeness a future presentation has the potential for when using this new tool. This really gets students to think hard and be creative along with collaborating and sharpening their communication skills while working along side their classmates to create a video.

Here is a pinterest board you can check out to get some more cool ideas to use with a green screen!

Student Response Systems (SRS) and Plickers

A Student Response System (SRS) is a wireless response system that allows the teacher to request information and the students respond by using a clicker or a hand-held response pad to send his or her information to a receiver.

So, how can a SRS help a teacher in the classroom? SRS's help get the students more involved. The student's answers are essentially anonymous to the other students, and only the teacher sees the responses, so students tend to be more motivated to participate and the more classroom participation, the more information the student is likely to attain from the lesson.

There are many different SRS tools and platforms out there to use in your classroom. A teacher should do research and experiment with different SRS tools to find what works best for him or her and the students. The most recent SRS tool I learned about it called Plickers.

Plickers is a simple tool that allows teachers to collect real-time formative assessment data in their classroom without the need for the students to have devices. It is fast and easy to use. There is no wait time for turning on devices and logging in to certain websites, the students just simply need their code card. It is also great for a teacher whose classroom is very limited in what form of technology they have access to on a daily basis. Teachers can use Plickers for a quick check of understanding to see if their students comprehending lesson material and mastering the skills they need to be.

   
 Using Plickers is a great way to get all of your students engaged, participating, and thinking critically. It is quick and easy to use as a pre or post test assessment.
Students can answer individually, or you can create teams and have the students collaborating and communicating with one another to complete the questions. Here is a great video tutorial to get you started with Plickers.






*Plickers is available on Andriod and iOS devices.
Click here for the iTunes download.
Click here for the Google play store download.

EDpuzzle and Blendspace

In my Twenty-first Century Teaching class, we are all working on different presentations with a wide variety of topics. The first presentation was on EDpuzzle and Blendspace. I had briefly heard about Blendspace before, but did not have much knowledge about it, and I had never heard of EDpuzzle.

EDpuzzle, in a nutshell, is a site that allows you to upload a video(any video you can access on the internet) and you can edit it in many different ways. You can crop parts of the video out, record your own audio over the video, and add questions anywhere throughout the video. EDpuzzle seems very user friendly from the demonstrations we were provided and can help make a presentation or a lesson more engaging and fun for students.

Blendspace is a platform where teachers and students can collect, annotate, and share their digital resources. It is a great tool for teachers to keep all their lessons plan in one place or for students to create presentations on. One of my favorite things that you can do with Blendspace is add quizzes for students to take. Once taken, the teacher and the student receive immediate feedback.

These are both great tools that can be used in a classroom. A teacher can use EDpuzzle to create videos and add questions to it and use that as a station activity and you can also keep up with all of your lesson plans in one convenient place so you can easily reference back to it at another time while using Blenspace. They are also many methods you can use with both of these platforms to differentiate for students.

Utilizing the 4 C's using Edpuzzle and Blendspace:

• Collaboration- Students would develop better collaboration skills when working together in a group to create a presentation using one of these platforms.
• Critical thinking- Students would have to think critically if watching a video and there be questions to answer at the end or throughout. They can also work at their own pace when using Blendspace which gives the student a better opportunity to learn at their own pace.
• Communication- Students would learn to communicate better through group activities or by presenting material in front of the class. Students also can comment and discuss their opinions on videos when using EDpuzzle.
• Creativity- Students would be able to be creative when creating their own videos or presentations.

Click here for a video tutorial on how to use EDpuzzle.
Click here for a video tutorial on how to use Blendspace. 

Using SMORE in your classroom...

Recently, in my Twenty-first century teaching class, we learned about SMORE. So, you may be wondering what exactly is SMORE or why is this girl learning about graham crackers and marshmallows in college? Well, SMORE is a platform that you can use to create newsletters and flyers. It is fast and easy and looks professional, too!When you go to the SMORE website, you are given the option to try it for free.  All you have to do is create an account. It provides you with a lot of templates, backgrounds, color schemes, and much more to help you personalize your newsletter.

There is also an option for educators that offers more features for $59 annually. If you just really become a SMORE fan-girl, then go for that package, but you can create a ton of awesome newsletters for free! Watch this quick video of someone demonstrating how to create a flyer. Here is also a link to a SMORE I created on using iPads in the classroom.

 Now for the super important part of this post- how can this be used in your classroom? There are many ways to use SMORE in the classroom, so I will just list some for you:

• Open house/First day of school news for the parents/families
• Create a weekly/monthly classroom newsletter (you can simply change out the information when needed for your students)
• Introduce a lesson or activity (Pictures, links, and videos can be embedded into your newsletter.)
• Students can create projects using SMORE and use it as a presentation tool (paperless! WOO HOO!) It is easy for students to pick up on how SMORE works and share their ideas with their classmates by
• describing a story they read
• talking about a certain character
• biographies/autobiographies 
• creating a newsletter to show at open house or in a student led conference (There will be a blog post about student led conferences later. Let me just warn you that they are awesome!)
• Keep parents and families in the loop on what is going on in the classroom. You can send your newsletter via email or post on a classroom blog and it can be viewed on computers, tablets, and smart phone easily! (You can also view analytic's and see if parents are staying involved in reading the newsletter or not.) 
• There are privacy settings on SMORE, so you can set them where only the class can view the newsletters, or share them for anyone to see the students' awesome work!

When using SMORE, you open up communication between you and your students, as well as getting their families involved in what is going on in the classroom. When students are creating their own newsletter, they are utilizing their creativity problem-solving skills. When working in groups or with partners to create flyers, students are critically thinking and collaborating to put all of their ideas together into one presentation.

There are many other ways that you can implement SMORE as valuable classroom tool, just get creative with it and the possibilities are endless! 

SMORE newsletter: iPads in the Classroom

Technology is ever-changing and is becoming more and more prevalent in classrooms and the way students are learning each day. This SMORE newsletter was created to help inform anyone about the positive impact iPad's can have on learning and provide some ideas on how to teach with iPad's in the classroom. 

-Click the link below-

SMORE newsletter

Digital Storytelling

      Earlier this week in my 21st Century Teaching class we learned about digital storytelling and discovered some neat tools to use in our classrooms one day. So, what exactly is digital storytelling? Digital storytelling is a way to incorporate a variety of multimedia tools such as audio narration, pictures, videos, and music to just tell a story! Sounds pretty fun and easy, right? Well, that is because it is! Our teacher, Mrs. Weather's, introduced to digital storytelling and many apps and the various ways that they could be used in the classroom. (I will share some of my favorites so far at the end of this post.) We watched a few videos demonstrating students using assorted apps and software to create their digital stories and it was awesome. The students were so creative and motivated to share their ideas. What I like most about the concept of digital storytelling is that it helps the students come out of their shell and reveal their thoughts. It also gives them a level of confidence to express their feelings and ideas(much like writing a blog post does for me) that they otherwise might not do by talking in front of a large group or just writing an essay. It also helps the students to examine their experiences in a greater depth and then they can convey their knowledge through other communicate outlets rather than just on pencil and paper. I am very excited about the direction classrooms are taking in leaning more towards technology and the benefits it will have on the students!

-Click on the images below for more information!-

My Story

Tellagami

Book Creator

Why I want to be an Educator

    When I was growing up I always enjoyed school and dreamed of being a teacher one day.  One of the reasons why I want to be a great teacher is because of all the wonderful teachers I had while growing up. All of my teachers in elementary school thoroughly inspired me to be a teacher in their own ways. Most were positive inspirations, but I fondly remember the despairing nine months I spent in a certain grade and I always promised I would not be that kind of teacher! The most important reason of why I want to be a teacher is because there are so many children in this world who need someone's love and compassion directed towards them and not only do I want to be that person for my future students, but I was that child growing up. Thanks to the love and guidance my teachers bestowed upon me, I was shaped into the person I am today and I am very thankful for them and I want to be that teacher for my future students.